Sympathetic Magic

Sympathetic Magic is the theoretical foundation for understanding how Disinfolklore penetrates minds. The author is the first to apply Cultural Psychology’s Laws of Sympathetic Magic to information warfare — an innovation drawing on Frazer, Mauss, Levi-Strauss, and Nemeroff & Rozin.

The three Laws — Similarity (if it looks like it, it is it), Opposites (we can be made to believe the precise opposite of truth), and Contagion (once lodged in the mind, it works autonomously) — are not superstitions but cognitive routines as binding as legal statutes. Hence the framework’s name: the Jurisprudence of Sympathetic Magic.

Paradoxes are Sympathetic Magic’s fingerprint — the detection signal. When you spot a paradox in propaganda, you are seeing these Laws being deployed. The Paradoxes sub-section catalogues 28 worked examples.

The Three Laws

Strong OC The Three Laws of Sympathetic Magic Strong O The Law of Opposites Strong ON The Law of Contagion Strong OC The Jurisprudence of Sympathetic Magic Strong ON The Law of Similarity Strong CO The Eight Properties of Contagion Strong OC Jurisprudence of Sympathetic Magic -- Detailed Strong ON COVID Vaccines -- Law of Opposites in Action Strong ON NSPM-7 -- When Similarity Becomes Literal Law Strong ON "Woke" as Organising Fiction Across the Political Right Strong OC "Would You Buy Hitler's Sweater?" -- Contagion Research Strong OC The 1854 Economist Article -- 170 Years of Institutional Contagion Strong OA Anti-Wokeness and Sympathetic Magic Strong OA Opposites Embedded in Our Minds Strong OA Cultural Psychology Explains How Opposite-Logic Works Strong OA Sympathetic Magic Patterns in Disinfolklore Strong OA Sewage and Wine -- Negativity Dominance Rebutted Strong ON Cambridge Analytica -- Fashion Contagion Applied to Politics Strong OC "Most of the Literature Is Pre-MAGA" -- The Innovation Strong CO The Scholarly Lineage: Frazer to Mauss to Rozin/Nemeroff Strong OC Peppercorns and Mana -- The Gift as Contagion Strong ON Spells vs. House of Cards -- Breaking the Payload Strong ON AI Images as Frazerian Sympathetic Magic Strong OC The Mana Index -- Quantifying Contagion

Where Next?

  • Paradoxes — the detection signal: Sympathetic Magic’s fingerprint
  • War Magic — the practice of deploying Sympathetic Magic in information warfare
  • Ways of Seeing — the perceptual framework that encompasses Sympathetic Magic
  • Mana — the energy that flows through contagion
  • Counter-Disinfolklore — building immunity to Sympathetic Magic