The “Strong Man” Contradiction

“What ‘experts’ who fell for and promote the ‘strong man’ troll now are really saying as they note a contradiction… between how they think a strong-man is supposed to act and how they think a man acting like this archetypal strong man should act is: ‘WE the so-called Russia-experts have lost authority. We fell for the shadows dancing on the cave walls by the fire of Russian Disinfolklore, not the reality.‘”

Source: Twitter (2023)

The “strong man” archetype requires Putin to be simultaneously invincible (to justify submission) and threatened (to justify aggression). When reality intrudes — Ukraine’s victories, Russia’s military failures — the experts who built their careers on the “strong man” troll cannot compute the contradiction. Their data-resistant archetypes prevent them from updating.

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