The Three Variants
Russia’s invasion force came with three folkloristic costumes:
- Little Green Men — the primary Disinfolklore character. Soldiers in unmarked green uniforms. The “little” and “green” evoke leprechauns, goblins, and other diminutive folklore beings.
- Polite Folk / Polite People — an alternative framing, archetyping the invaders as courteous guests rather than armed occupiers.
- Odin-worshipping soldiers of the “Wagner” corps — a Germanic-mythology overlay on a Nazi-inspired mercenary organisation, whose name itself is a Disinfolklore character referencing Richard Wagner’s mythological operas.
At the time I detected that archetypal Disinfolklore Galaxy I had been a diplomat posted to eastern Ukraine for over a year. Russia’s army, cosplaying as Little Green Men, Polite Folk and Odin-worshipping soldiers from its Nazi inspired “Wagner” corps, had been occupying part of Ukraine since 2014. My job was to establish the facts about security incidents caused by Russia’s Disinfolklore-justified military occupation of part of Ukraine.
Source: Archetypal Disinfolklore
Each variant served the same purpose: to frame military occupation as something other than what it was. The cosplay was deliberate. See War Magic.
← Previous: The Folkloristic Mechanism: How It Disarms Us | Back to Little Green Men | Next: Definitional Disinfolklore: “Separatism” →