Spectacles!
Chapter Two - Episode XXI: Counter Disinfolklore ~ Controlling War Magic
Russian (MAGA and indeed all forms of) Disinfolklore is multi-faceted. Even its multifacetedness is multidimensional.
Yet, it always involves some form of story-telling that’s often prompted purposefully by deliberately wrought activities often called ‘provocations’ in post-Soviet militaries’ parlance.
The prop is the activity that’s then used to stimulate stories in a number of dimensions (advertising Ruschia’s prowess, indefatigability, unbeatability, cynicism, manufactured grievances, resolve, patheticness, Mana, desperation, acting outedness,…).
As author of “the Magus of the Kremlin” Giuliano de Empoli puts it:
Disinfolklore has one means of provoking in you that feeling that doing nothing to halt Russia’s genocide is the merciful action to take - for Ukraine. Concern trolls are immanent in much that we hear about halting arms shipments to Ukraine, even as the number of chips, superconductors, controllers and elements in Russian missiles and drones from the West increases.
Disinfolklists, then, have another kind of Disinfolklore story to convince someone else to do nothing - for example those whose minds are susceptible to Data Resistant Archetypes of a Potemkin State (most of us, given the right conditions and a firehouse of falsehood (too much and never enough)) need top-ups.
Disinfolklore, by definition, is a means of manipulating others for negative ends - in this case it is trying to provoke you and me into neutrality about arming Ukraine and fear that doing so will lead to the end of the world. That is the Mana of every meme and story we will hear emanating from Russia’s stable of Disinfolklore producers.
“In the context of Polish politics of memory reveals how prosthetic memory can be deceptive and manipulative in its use of immersive presence…
Moreover, I would argue that VR does not stop at generating ‘prosthetic memories; it also extends to the creation of ‘prosthetic perspectives’ and ‘prosthetic emotions.’ By providing a sensory-rich and immersive experience, VR plays a pivotal role in shaping how people approach and make sense of past and current events…”
Our founding presumption in Counter Disinfolklore is that every time we communicate with others, whether we like it or not, we are manipulating and being manipulated. The clue is in the modern English word and meaning, which breaks down into two elements - an M-N- component (Mani), and ‘pulate,’ which, like ‘pulsate’ connotes agitation, movement. Manipulative memes whose very purpose is to affect our Moods / Intentions / Attitudes / Motivations in ways that benefit their authors (so that we stop thinking we can change our government or Ukraine’s fate) is the stock in trade of Disinfolklorists and their unconscious helpers who, unthinkingly, repeat their memes.
This exchange of Mana or energy is a function of being human - it is in fact why we are called humans (we will return to this later). The main point, for now, is to notice when others are trying to provoke us into negative responses and activities (or in the example above: negative inactivity!), to assess the Mana inside the trolls attempting to coerce us into a certain mentality, and, unless it’s the kind of positive trolling our cat or our dog uses to persuade us to pet them (or any such positive forms of manipulation which do us no harm) to resist such manipulation.
Counter Disinfolklore helps us go a step further than mere resistance when our Incoming Troll Radar identifies a negative troll. After reading this book and becoming a competent counter Disinfolklorist, you will be able to design stories that undermine Disinfolklorists’ goals.
In martial terms, you will develop the means of state-of-the-art capabilities of counter battery fire - in battle when an enemy fires artillery at you, if you have counter battery systems, you can detect precisely where the incoming missile was fired from, and you can fire back destroy the incoming missile and the battery from which it emanated.
In the case above, you will design stories and means of provoking others into supporting Ukraine. This is the immediate purpose of the whole of Counter Disinfolklore: Controlling War Magic. However, the longer-term purpose is to empower you to withstand Disinfolklore’s machinations in all discourses that impact on your sovereignty, security, and the sustainability of your life.
By the end of Counter Disinfolklore, you will become better at identifying purposeful manipulations by Disinfolklorists in all dimensions of your life. Together, you and I will achieve this by ensuring that you respond to the feelings Counter Disinfolklore triggers in you, in a manner consistent with, say, helping Ukraine, while staying true to yourself and your values. Disinfolklorists want to hack your values. All they care about (as seen in the example above) is that, because of experiencing their Disinfolklore in the media, you do nothing to help Ukraine, and everything to help Russia.
Disinfolklore in our media space as well as in conversations with friends who are repeating tropes they have picked up from Russian Disinfolklorists can be hard to spot - this is why it is helpful to have the idea of Mana which enables you to, like a goldsmith, assay data attempting to enter your mind by cutting, rubbing, and melting it in order to determine the qualities of its Mana.
By contrast, traditional folklore is easy to recognise. While someone is recounting a Brothers Grimm morality folktale, often the venue, the style in which the story is told, and the conventions of the tale itself (“Once upon a time…” and all that) identify its status as folklore.
When we watch a horror film in the cinema, or online, we are prepared to embark on an emotional journey. In fact, that is usually the point of watching the show.
[Many thanks to @ioanaV_ on X for drawing my attention to this piece in a Russian newspaper.]
We have seen the trailer. By switching the film on we are inviting the director, actors, and writers to provoke fear in us. We are ready to respond to the experience of this fear with screams. My mother told me that she avoided showers after watching Hitchcock’s 1961 film “Psycho” in which a woman is attacked in a shower!
The whole point of such experiences, like terrifying fairground rides, is the interplay between our incoming emotional stimulation radar that prevents falling for obvious attempts to stoke our feelings of fear, disgust, sadness or enjoyment and the artist behind the experience who is trying to trick us into unanticipated emotional reactions.
As we watch a well-wrought television show we are asking to be brought along an emotional journey. The music accompanying the action, and the poignancy of the character’s journey provokes in us a roller-coaster ride of emotions.
Generally speaking, we want the lead characters to succeed, despite all. As we witness their reversals and eventual successes, we feel something being conveyed into us - the Mana of the director, the actors, the screenwriters, and everyone involved in projecting it into our minds.
Disinfolklore as a vehicle for tricking us into feelings that will lead us into acting against our own and our community’s interests operates using the same tools as any good Netflix show.
The stakes are just higher: we may end up being manipulated into activities (or inactivity) that is contrary to our values and our community’s interests if we do not consciously recognise when we are being trolled by Disinfolklore. Counter Disinfolklore helps us focus on this goal of recognising when we are being unconsciously trolled, so that we can respond appropriately.
Continued…
I was a guest on
recently. Great reaction to our chat about, among other things, Disinfolklore’s origins in Herder’s insight that led to the unification of (some of) the Germanic peoples - 50,000 people watched and 3,000 people ‘Liked’ what they heard of our conversation:Continued from:
First in series:
