Disinfolklore as War Magic
Disinfolklore X: How authoritarians use Inner / Outer Realm switching memes to conceal their trolls.
Former United States president Trump launched his campaign for the presidency of the United States in a speech that included the following words:
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us [sic]. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
Here, again, we see the In-group inside the Inner Realm of America defined -the “you” repeated in the second and third sentences - negatively against an Other out-group / Outer Realm “Mexico.”
Then the “they” (meaning “Outer Realm Mexico / Mexicans / Other”) repeated in every sentence, eight times in total.
We will see later how the tripartite conception of a balanced and well governed community in Indo-European culture is characterised by its sovereignty, security, and fertility/sustainability.
For the moment, though, we can apply this conception into Trump’s trolling rhetoric.
He is announcing his bid to become the sovereign of a (mainly) Indo-European polity. And he is using rhetoric to inspire fear and insecurity in the Inner Realm from which he expects his legitimacy and votes to emanate.
Trump is othering a mythical threat of Outer Realm migrants who will adulterate the Inner Realm’s fecundity with drugs.
They are, Trump claims, “rapists” which provokes reminiscences of very ancient trauma of cultures’ bloodlines being poisoned by Outer Realm invaders- these supposed rapists affect the culture he says he is trying to save by adulterating its Sovereignty, its Security, and its Fertility (note the ‘R-T-“ sound in each of those signifiers: we will return to the use of sounds immanent in ordinary speech which work on our minds by means we are blind too - the essence of how trolling meaning ‘emotion-moving activity of body speech and mind works).
The sustainability of a community is not consistent with its women being impregnated criminally by outer realm invaders - the fertility of the Inner Realm depends, sure, on food security, but also on the protection of its means of reproducing its humans. Note how White Supremacy in America today conceals itself inside far right evangelical Christians’ attempts to control women’s right to choose. The case currently before the US Supreme Court aims to criminalise the posting by mail of the morning after pill to women in states which have now outlawed abortion.
The vision all authoritarian paleo-male masculinists in what I call the Axis of Misogyny is to use fears about the fertility of the Inner Realm to control, in one fell swoop, the bodies of half of humanity.
Why Authoritarian Pope, Child Stealing Putin, Rapist Trump, and the Axis of Misogyny Hate Women and Children?
Authoritarians think it’s just best if women, children and Ukrainians surrender to rape, genocide and forcible transfers - Why would, for example, two ex-English prime ministers (Truss and Johnson both of whom have daughters) also endorse technical rapist Trump after he’s been found liable for rape and slandering survivor of his rape?
According to the outcome of Bob Altemeyer's empirical research (https://www.theauthoritarians.org) what distinguishes “High Right-Wing Authoritarian Followers (RHAs)” (note again the same R-T- sound in “Right” (in this context, as in “Writ”) and in “Authoritarian”) from average RWAs are three propensities:
First, an unquestioning obedience to what authority figures pronounce is “right,” “writ,” or “normal”.
Second, High RWAs tend to get self-righteously aggressive in protecting what, as they’re trolled into seeing, is “writ”.
Third, High RWA Followers have a higher than normal desire to be seen as conventional.
Leaders in every civilisation have noticed patterns in how to mobilise followers.
They were able to motivate them using certain linguistic patterns and tics (repeating certain phrases or ideas ad infinitum is a favourite of those trying to activate High RWAs).
High RWAs just want to “fit-in”. Don’t want to stand outside of the crowd. That’s why, for instance, we seldom get people who are High RWA Followers who will say “sorry” or admit that they were wrong. Those who promoted #Brexit seldom admit gravity of their mistake.
Where this fits in to the Campaigns to Eliminate Violence Against Women is that certain ideas of “normal” continue to mobilise High RWA Followers against others whom their leaders ordain are not “normal”. For many millennia women were excluded from positions of power.
So when High RWA Followers either of their own volition or because they are being manipulated by those whom they look up to as leaders notice that a narrow and confined idea of “normal” is being transgressed, they become fearful that this is “the thin end of the wedge.”
They’re scared that the “world is being turned upside down” and that unless they act, soon the chaos which they most fear will prevail. In High RWA Followers’ minds, there are “laws” which say “women must stay at home”, “women must look after the children”, or “Women should not be in authority.”
When such “norms” are transgressed, that’s why we see this aggressive piling-on in its various forms: online or gender-based violence (whether psychological, economic, physical or sexual).
Ruschia sees Ukrainian self-governance through the same prism: Ruschia and its authoritarian followers, like Trump, feminises Ukraine, and fantasises about dominating Ukraine as it fantasises about dominating the half of humanity who are female by annihilating its Sovereignty, Security, and Fertility.
When we see self-righteous aggressive violence against LGBTIQ+ activists often it’s not even the immediate “trigger” the High RWAs are really responding to. It’s what that trigger event symbolises in their minds. The world is turning upside down. Cause and Effect are reversed, and because their minds hate havked into a kind of emotional trance, the Hight RWA follower can’t perceive this. They’re on the extremes, but this process can affect all of us. This is the purpose of Disinfolklore- it hacks our rational thought processes so we see results as causes and causes as results. Before long storyfied nonsense concealed in Disinfolklore radicalised us and perverts our Mana (the well from which all our intentions / motivations cations / energy flows).
This is why we often see such disproportionately violent responses to breaches of what they consider to be “norms” by High RWA Followers. In their minds they are defending western civilisation, whereas in ours, they are breaking it apart.
Some good news, perhaps: Because “normal” often expands to include, as it has in Ireland, for instance since Mary Robinson was elected president, what was previously considered to be unorthodox, such as equal marriage, High RWA Followers march in step behind this new normal.
On the other hand, if authoritarian leaders promote a narrowing of what is “normal” (for example the idea that it is okay to fight against equality or that global warming is a hoax), then, that’s what brings us to the most worrying aspect of today’s world: High RWA Followers in every population begin acting up.
Unless we recognise the impact authoritarian rhetoric (R-T- again) has on the 30% of our population who are most extremely responsive to High RWA tropes, it’s difficult for us to find the tools to work towards moving our societies further towards the aspiration of equality of opportunity for all.
By focussing his political campaign on threats against Outer Realm migrants (disguised as accusations in a mirror against such migrants whose right to seek asylum is protected by the post-WWII refugee convention, provided that they have a well-founded fear of persecution due to some protected characteristic like political or religious views), Trump is using Disinfolklore to win, deceptively, sovereignty of our Inner Realm by raising mythical spectres using Disinfolklore which he proposes bogus solutions to.
Russia uses the same trolls to justify its genocide in Ukraine (Inner Realm Russia under attack by Outer Realm Nazis - the aggressor (Ruschia) persuades us the victim of its aggression (Ukraine) is the cause of its aggression - Ukraine provoked Ruschia by wearing a short skirt so Ruschia, the aggressor, is entitled to punish its victim. This reversal of cause and effect is the stock in trade of Disinfolklore and the essence of War Magic. It’s controlling. And to control it, as Counter Disinfolklorists, we must get better at discerning what is happening, in real time).
Somehow, according to the bogus “logic” Russia sells its own population on (using Disinfolklore), bombing Ukraine; violating ancient Indo-European taboos against deceptively invading another’s Inner Realm; murdering their population; and working to prevent through genocide that community’s sustainable recreation. Ruschia convinces its members own population through Disinfolklore that eradicating Ukraine will lead to the protection of Russia’s own sovereignty, security, and sustainability. It’s a reversal of Cause and Effect. By trying to annihilate Ukraine, Ruschia is annihilating itself.
In later chapters we will dig down into dimensions of why this rhetoric works to surface deep structures in our thinking as Indo-Europeans (if you can understand these words, then you speak an Indo-European language. So, you are part of this Inner Realm that I am legislating into existence in this paragraph of counter Disinfolklore).
We will come back to the importance of counter Disinfolklore corresponding to reality and being true later. Ethical discipline is hardwired into counter Disinfolklore, as one of six criteria (the Code of Positive Trolls) that distinguishes “Disinfolklore” from “counter Disinfolklore.”
In English politics from 2022, as we have seen from the meme above about the pregnant migrant, the right-wing governing party invented a dehumanising moniker for migrants: Small Boat People.
Vast amounts of dehumanizing Disinfolklore was issued and propagated about Small Boat People crossing the English Channel. It is repeatedly suggested that they will adulterate English culture, perform criminal acts against the community, and do unspeakable things to family life.
Some consumers of such Disinfolklore were moved from feeling empathy for unfortunate humans fleeing war, towards supporting policies that favour lifting the drawbridge. Because we do not think of the news or politicians’ messianic speeches, memes and repetitive campaigns as Disinfolklore or entertainment or children’s tales, we miss how the same emotional provocation strategies are operating in such Disinfolklore. Counter Disinfolklore helps us learn to recognise what is truly going on.
This othering Inner / Outer Realm fear-mongering bogus solution-offering discourse routine by far-right political actors in Russia, America and England is not just another instance of Disinfolklore.
It is the key to understanding how Disinfolklore is used to disguise such trolls by those who wish deceptively to take sovereignty over us. And Counter Disinfolklore ~ Controlling War Magic enables us to see the continuities between these ne’er do well autocratic rhetoricians using the same deep Indo-European structure to lord it over us.
The Axis of Misogyny attempts to use what I term War Magic (e.g. Disinfolklore) to control us, and what we must become better at is controlling such controlling War Magic through using the Disinfolklore analytical method to parse informational memes into their meanings, so that we can counter their emotional impact. And in later chapters we will dig into what precisely is magical about the ways Disinfolklorists disrupt our understanding of “Cause” and “Effect.”
Well done! You’ve made it to the end of Chapter Two!
To be continued…
This episode is a continuation from:
First in series:
For orientation purposes:
This is the final episode (X) of Chapter Two of Disinfolklore - a new analytical method for parsing Disinformation:
