(III) Trigger, Experience, Reaction
(III) Trigger, Experience, Reaction
Disinfolklore is selling genocide in Ukraine by persuading us to repeat trolls whose meaning (Mana) is to minimise genocide, and to deter lawful military responses.
The core Russia military doctrine of Cross Domain Coercion (which we will look at in some detail in a later chapter) depends on what Russian military theorists call Reflexive Control.
The Dalai Lama and Ekman’s “Timeline of Emotions” model of Trigger, Experience, Reaction also lets us see why Reflexive Control works so well on knowing or unknowing subjects.
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Using Reflexive Control Russia convinces its enemies (whether states or individuals) to act of their own volition voluntarily in ways which benefit Russia.
The idea is to understand your enemy’s reflexes - say, that your enemy gets angry very easily. Then you purposely trigger your enemy - you provoke them to become angry. Then, when because of their passion, your enemy behaves in a certain predictable manner according to their reflexes. Russia then swoops in to punish that mistake, perhaps in the case of a honey trap, by using a film of a targets surrender to being seduced by someone whom the Russians already know the target will be partial to. Then Russia uses the tape as a means of blackmailing the target into further compromising positions which benefit Russia.
Reflexive control also works at the macro-nation state level - when countries self-deter because they are frightened that Russia’s repeated rhetoric about its nuclear strike capabilities is credible. Russia then seeing how, say, America refuses to send Ukraine the arms it needs to defend itself from genocide as a result of Russia’s nuclear threats, repeats the routine.
‘Don’t poke the bear’ may be the most powerful piece of Disinfolklore ever propagated.
A retired U.S. army lieutenant-colonel explained what that meme meant. It was / is a tenet of senior policy professionals on the current U.S. presidents National Security Council as well as of policy and military advisers throughout NATO never to attack ‘the Bear,’ a disarming Disinfolklore-conveying moniker for Russia.
This troll which worms its way into the minds of those to whom we entrust our security persuades them that Russia under no circumstances should be attacked. The result of this manipulating Disinfolklore was that Ukraine’s skies were not protected from Russian missiles, even though that would have saved hundreds-of-thousands of lives and been completely consistent with the UN Charter. Note how UN Charter guarantees Ukraine’s inherent right to self-defence and any other state’s right to assist Ukraine in its self-defence.
Yet, against this legal right is posited the ‘Don’t Poke the Bear’ Disinfolklore meme that is powerful enough to deter states from helping Ukraine. The ‘conventional wisdom’ that still pervades many of those with the power to speed up military aid to Ukraine is knowingly or unknowingly being Reflexive Controlled by Russian information warfare linguistic memes like ‘Don’t Poke the Bear’ that masquerade as ‘Conventional Wisdom’ rather than by the United Nations Charter.
We know, empirically, that Ukraine is able to Poke the Bear with impunity - Ukraine is currently attacking Russian oil refinery infrastructure at a rate of once every two days since the beginning of 2024. Ukraine annihilated Russia’s Naval headquarters in Crimea, yet the stricken bear has no means of replying. Ukraine expelled the invaders from the Kyiv region, Zmiiny (Snake Island) and has sunk several of Russia’s most powerful naval vessels. Within a day of Russia changing its constitution to include Kup’yansk, Ukraine defeated Russian forces occupying that city. The list of Ukraine’s victories over what some military analysts continue to call ‘the second best army in the world’ (an epithet Ukrainians never tire of using ironically) is massive, yet ‘Don’t Poke the Bear’ still governs Germany’s refusal to provide Ukraine with the TAURUS missile system to destroy the Crimea bridge.
However, as I never tire of quipping, reflexive control works both ways and we will see in later chapters how Ukraine uses its knowledge of Russia’s reflexes to troll it into acting in ways that benefit Ukraine - for example the Chef of Disinfolklore performed a coup after his Wagner forces retreated from Ukraine after Ukraine had worn them down and stoked divisions between the Chef’s forces and the rest of the Russian army. Since Ukraine is acting lawfully in support of maintaining control over its territory and people, Ukraine is acting lawfully against Russia.
It is a core tenet of Counter Disinfolklore that what for Russian military strategists works in warfare (reflexive control) also works in many other non- war related realms of our existences - as we have seen with the Trump January 6th2021-related indictments Trump was able to Reflexively Control his supporters into committing crimes in furtherance of his conspiracy to defraud the United States of its democratically elected leadership.
The Dalai Lama / Ekman “Timeline of Emotions” cognitive model can be applied to the way much advertising works.
Here is an example from an advertisement that was on Irish radio. The ad begins with the sound of the sea lapping at the shore. A soothing voice begins by saying: “Remember your last holiday. The sand in-between your toes. Recall the relief of the sea after a hot hour sunbathing…” This is Stage One in the Dalai Lama/Ekman model - the Trigger.
Stage Two is how the combination of the sounds of the sea, the soothing voice and the meaning of the spoken words make you feel - your Experience. In this case the advertisement is trying to induce a sense of enjoyment inside our minds. It is, almost, attempting to hypnotise us into a peaceful sense of enjoyment. This is the opposite of what Disinfolklorists generally try to do - they usually want to induce in us a feeling of fear, anger, disgust, or sadness. Yet, regardless of the particular experience the manipulator is attempting to trigger inside our mind, we can use the “Timeline of Emotions” approach to. Model what is going on.
Stage Three, then, is your reaction when this experience of calmness, openness, and wistfulness is disrupted by a new trigger. After lulling you back to the beach, the tone suddenly switches. Gone are the soothing sounds of the water, and suddenly a police siren and a much gruffer voice pitches in: “While you were enjoying your holiday, your house was being robbed. Upgrade your house insurance today. Buy X insurance directly from us online.” Your reaction to this is suddenly to move from that state of calmness into worrying about the security of your house (if you are lucky enough to have one). That worry is followed by wondering if X insurance is a good idea. The advertiser bets that you will at least consider their product because of the emotional journey their thirty-second-long advertisement has brought you on. Our days pass in many such emotional journeys, and Disinfolklore uses this aspect of human society to, unnoticed by us, bring us on similar emotional journeys whose purpose is to manipulate us into reacting to data in ways which benefit the Disinfolklorist.
The house insurance advertisement’s Mana was not to provoke in you a wonderful feeling just for the sake of it (art, films, your pet, books, your lover might do that). In this example, just as with Russian Disinfolklore, the entire meaning of the message that shines through is the advertiser’s desire to provoke in you so much fear that you become open to the idea of buying house insurance. The trick the advertiser is using - inducing the memory of the beach - is just a means to an end. They are using that mood-producing tale to provoke you into a strong emotional reaction which in turn has the effect of inciting you into lowering your mental guard.
A meaning of the house insurance advertisement is to use our emotional reactions to make us susceptible to consider buying its product. It is Everyday Emotional Blackmail. This is what shines through that thirty second advertisement. In Counter Disinfolklorewe will learn how to get better at identifying what shines through Disinfolklore. Advertising is actually more truthful than Disinfolklore. Disinfolklore conceals its true meaning, which is why we need to parse information for negative trolling meanings.
Much of the advertising we encounter is clearly advertising, unless it is subtle product placements in films or banned forms like subliminal advertising (for example, ultra-quick flashes of images embedded in television content that access our minds without our being conscious of the content). Most advertising is openly selling a specific product or service. Advertising may use dishonest means to persuade us that the products or services it is selling can perform some miracle which they cannot. But we are clear about the goal.
Disinfolklore may be selling genocide in Ukraine by, for example, persuading us to repeat trolls whose meaning (Mana) is to minimise genocide. Disinfolklore conceals this goal within a miasma of nonsense arguments that we might repeat because we are emotionally attached to the idea the trolls are wrapped inside - “Support peace in Ukraine. Oppose giving Ukraine more munitions” is a perfect example of this. This is a contradictory yet superficially attractive linguistic meme that is typical in engaging Disinfolklore. The idea of “peace” triggers positive emotions and can gain our support even if the strategy suggested to achieve it (Ukraine lays down its arms) will lead to the genocide of all Ukrainians. Surprisingly, such memes, have colonised the minds of many otherwise sensible, caring people after being propagated out from Russian Disinfolklore production facilities, and relentlessly repeated.
Continued:
Continued from:
For orientation purposes: This is the III element of Chapter Two of Disinfolklore - a new analytical method for parsing Disinformation:
And continued from Chapter One of Counter Disinfolklore - Controlling War Magic:
