The Character Decoupled from Reality

I remember two days ago, if you’re online, the old ceasefire, there is a ceasefire, there isn’t a ceasefire. And this gave me very strong flashes of my time in Eastern Ukraine where it was my job to monitor ceasefires and ceasefires within ceasefires, within ceasefires, hundreds. I think someone counted 180 different ceasefires at different times in the same geographical space. And so the idea of a ceasefire becomes decoupled from its meaning.

Source: Pattern Recognition: Perennial Characters in Disinfolklore

“Istanbul Peace Talks” works the same way as “ceasefire” in the author’s first-hand experience. Through repetition, the phrase decouples from its meaning. It no longer refers to actual peace negotiations — it is a pure archetype, a character in a story whose function is to assign blame.

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