Dynamic mental models
Look for the Mana in every meme.
⚡️We have a mental model of how Ruschist Disinformation works: other people fall for it.
We can use a service like journalism to warn us. Earnest trusted public broadcasters have ‘Disinformation’ specialist journalists whom Ruschia specifically targets and trolls into repeating their claims.
Here for example a BBC journo specialising in ‘Disinformation’ (who happens also to be Ukrainian) actually promotes Ruschist Disinformation in the name of trying to refute it. This is a danger all anti-Disinformation practitioners must be aware of, and avoid.
For example, I always refer to the Ruschist “Wanger” group as “Wanger.” I never use the name of the German composer which the Ruschist Nazi sympathiser Utkin who founded the “Wanger” group used as a call sign in eastern Ukraine in 2014. By using the name of a German composer to signify a group of Ruschian mercenaries engaged in genocide, Ruschist Disinfolklorists smuggle their Nazi meme unto the front pages of the New York Times.
Shayan86 promoted Ruschist troll that Ukraine had bombed drama theatre in Mariupol.
Let’s recall this aerial bombing by this Ruschist (ironically Ukrainian information warfare experts InformNapalm were able to trace the destroyer of Mariupol Maternity Hospital via his Covid vaccination certificate):
Let’s recall how Mariupol Council’s democratically elected leader announced the war crime of the century - in the end it was estimated 600 native Russian language speaking Ukrainians were murdered by huge aerial bombs that turned the centre piece of the entire Mariupol community into a tomb:
I write about this matter in greater detail here:
Even in the moment he Tweeted his, apparently innocent, request to fact check a patently false Russian government attempt to deflect blame for the crime of the century, he, a Ukrainian, knew Ruschia was carpet bombing Mariupol. Merely by “innocently” asking open sources to verify Ruschia’s claim, this BBC journalist promoted the Ruschist meaning that the Ruschia-created bogeyman “far right” “Azov fighters” had bombed drama to provoke Ruschia.
This tale the BBC self-declared Disinformation researcher repeated embedded Ruschist Disinfolklore in our media space. If ‘experts’ like Shayan86 can fall for and promote this nonsense in the heat of the moment anyone of us can, and will do too.
Though let it be said as someone who spent seven years meeting Ukrainian leaders across eastern Ukraine including in the war zone for three years, the idea that Ukraine would bomb itself as a provocation is as unlikely as Ireland or France doing so.
So I’ll give this BBC journalist the benefit of the doubt, for form’s sake. But since he claims to be an ‘expert’ on Disinformation and he is Ukrainian that he fell for such patent Ruschist nonsense gives me reason to doubt his bona fides.
To avoid falling for or propagating Ruschist trolls we need to look for the Mana/energy of Ruschism in EVERY informational unit we consider allowing into our minds. Shayan86 may not have intended to promote genocidal Disinfolklore. Yet, his intention was altered by that Ruschist statement he uses as a pretext to promote the idea that Ukraine *might* bomb Drama and kill 600 civilians sheltering there as a provocation. That so-called anti-Disinformation practitioner’s mind was hacked.
That is how Ruschist Disinfolklore works to pervert our intentions/motivations/the well (our Mana) from which all of our activities flow.
Yes, parsing Ruschist Disinfolklore is a mindf*ck.
But so is living inside authoritarian dictatorships (or Mariupol while Ruschia is bombing it merely to generate Disinfolklore content).
So it’s definitely worth while for all of us to learn how to scan for and identify the Mana (subtle energy) in Disinfolklore memes - whether linguistic or auditory or visual memes.
Many bright highly educated folks have fallen for MAGA or QAnon, which Ruschism now worms through to alter their Mana / intentions / motivations.
Here in his recent Valley Forge speech President Biden gets to the heart of the issue:
(See: https://x.com/decodingtrolls/status/1743847672744669260?s=46)
Now, here’s the thing: We’re embedded in lies of all kinds all the time. Bad Faery tales, as President Biden put it, envelop our lives.
Ruschist Disinfolklore uses this truth to embed itself inside our minds through the medium of Disinfolklore, and to affect our intentions, by using plausible-sounding stories.
These stories’ Mana or meaning (energy shining through the words / sounds of which the story is made up) is easy to determine, ONLY if you’re scanning for it.
Emotionally resonant stories like - Herasimov is dead or Russians are victims - distract our rational thought processes.
Then immanent in the Disinfolklore about ‘Bilhorod citizens leaving their homes because of shelling’ is the payload/the Mana: ‘Ukraine should surrender to genocide.’
Those not paying attention aren’t looking for the Mana in such Disinfolklore memes.
They don’t understand the qualities that characterise Ruschist Disinfolklore today - its main meanings Today (Ruschia is so useless at everything else, Ruschia invests all its innovation into forging affective Disinfolklore that, among other things, promotes trolls that Ruschia is NOT hopelessly useless at everything) is Coercive Control, anti-equality misogyny, and Stealth Genocide.
If you don’t know this about how innovatory Ruschia is at Disinfolklore production and propagation, then, you won’t have upgraded your mental model of what to scan for since, say, the 2016 US presidential election.
Next, if you don’t recognise patterns in Ruschia’s behaviour (e.g. Provocation Logic Cycle
Or,
then, you would not imagine that Ruschia is shelling its own citizens in Bilhorod.
Why would it do that?
To create Disinfolklore.
To hack your Mana or intentions and motivations by inserting stories with meanings like ‘Ukraine should give up’ into your mind.
Ruschist Disinfolklore uses every sensory and informational pathway all the time to get into our heads, and to affect our intentions / motivations.
It’s innovating all the time.
We ALL need dynamic mental models of what to scan for; of what its meanings or Mana consists TODAY; and openness always to being surprised by how we was trolled by Ruschist Disinfolklore told to us as gospel by a trusted source like the #NewOrcTimes or a trusted elected official or wise academic.
Ruschist Mana/Meanings/Energy is like water seeking space to embed itself in.
Don’t, like that hapless BBC journalist did, fall for the troll.
