Peace as Genocide Camouflage

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.

Source: Disinfolklore (working draft, 2024)

This passage identifies the precise mechanism by which the Peace archetype camouflages genocide. The meme “Support peace in Ukraine. Oppose giving Ukraine more munitions” is a masterpiece of Disinfolklore construction. It is contradictory — the strategy it proposes (disarming Ukraine) will produce the opposite of the outcome it promises (peace). Yet it works because the word “peace” bypasses rational analysis and triggers an emotional response.

This is Disinfolklore at its most dangerous: not the crude propaganda that we recognise and reject, but the sophisticated kind that colonises the minds of “sensible, caring people.” The Peace archetype provides the emotional camouflage. The Mana of the word “peace” — its accumulated spiritual and cultural energy across millennia of human longing — is hijacked to serve as a delivery mechanism for genocide.

The archetype functions like a Trojan horse. The surface — “peace” — is irresistible. Who could oppose peace? But inside the horse is the real payload: the disarmament of the victim, the continuation of the killing, the normalisation of occupation. To oppose this meme feels like opposing peace itself. That is the genius of the design. See also Stealth.

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