Big Lies and Rotten Herrings: 17 Kremlin Disinformation Techniques You Need to Know Now – Byline Times

 [Retrieved from Marusya Zviroby 💙💛]

I studied at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, we had a military department. In secrecy we were taught combat special propaganda - the art of sowing discord in the ranks of the enemy with the help of disinformation and mind manipulation.

Terrible, I tell you, business. No kidding.

Combat, or "black" propaganda allows any distortion of real facts for the sake of solving propaganda tasks. It is an effective weapon used for the sole purpose of blowing the brains out of the enemy.

The "rotten herring" method. The "inverted pyramid" method. The method of "big lie. The "40-60" principle. The "absolute obviousness" method.

All of these methods and techniques you also know. You just do not realize it. As you should.

We were taught to use special combat propaganda techniques against enemy army soldiers. Today they are used against civilians of our own country. For two years now, reading Russian newspapers or watching TV shows, I have noted with interest that the people who coordinate the throwing in and interpretation of news in Russia have clearly learned from the same textbook, from the same cheerful colonel or his colleagues.

Here, for example, is the "rotten herring" method. It works like this. A false accusation is chosen. It is important to make it as dirty and scandalous as possible. Good works, for example, petty theft, or, say, child molestation, or murder, preferably out of greed.

The purpose of a "rotten herring" is not to prove an accusation at all. It is to provoke a broad, public discussion of its...unfairness and unjustifiability.

The human psyche is such that as soon as an accusation becomes the subject of public discussion, there are bound to be "supporters" and "opponents", "experts" and "experts", fierce "accusers" and ardent "defenders" of the accused.

But regardless of their views, all the participants in the discussion say the name of the accused over and over again in conjunction with the dirty and scandalous accusation, thus rubbing more and more "rotten herring" into his "clothes", until finally the "smell" starts to follow him everywhere. And the question "did he or did he not kill, steal, steal, or did he not" becomes paramount when his name is mentioned.

Or, for example, the "40 for 60" method, invented by Goebbels. It consists in creating a media which gives 60% of its information in the interests of the enemy. But after earning the enemy's trust, the remaining 40 percent is used to make disinformation extremely effective, thanks to this trust. During the Second World War there was a radio station which was listened to by the anti-fascist world. It was thought to be British. And only after the war it turned out that in fact it was a Goebbels radio station, which worked according to the "40 on 60" principle developed by him.

A very effective method is the "big lie," which is a bit like a "rotten herring," but actually works differently. Its essence is to offer the audience, with the utmost confidence, a lie so global and terrible that it is almost impossible to believe it is possible to lie about such a thing.

The trick here is that a well-constructed and well-crafted "big lie" causes the listener or viewer a deep emotional trauma, which then permanently determines their views against all arguments of logic and reason.

False descriptions of the brutal abuse of children or women work especially well in this sense.

For example, a report about a crucified child, due to the deep emotional trauma it causes, will permanently determine the views of the person who receives this information, no matter how many times one tries to change his mind later, using the usual logical arguments.

But our vigorous Colonel especially appreciated the method of "absolute obviousness", which gives fast but reliable results.

Instead of proving something, you present what you want to convince your audience of as something obvious, self-evident and therefore unconditionally supported by the overwhelming majority of the population.

*** Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) ***

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During the Cold War, the Soviets conducted over 10,000 disinformation operations, with up to 15000 KGB officers. Europe a target since 2015. Goal: weaken western democracy from within. This article sets out their most pertinent tactics:

1) Narratives: post-Western world (the West no longer dominates); anti-(elite, EU, NATO) narratives; danger narratives (extremism, migrants); pro-Russian narratives (trad. values).

2) amplifying extremist voices to stoke conflict & separatism

3) Rapid Fire Conspiracy/Overload: stress a population out through a torrent of violent imagery - "violent protests, vandalism, fire, injuries, deaths" - repeat trigger words & rapidly switch between different distressing stories, creating depression, panic, confusion, PTSD and "an inability to think critically and act rationally". Then offer solutions...

4) .. particularly to people who "lack critical thinking... the very religious, under-educated, conformists, youth, and people in a state of panic, fear or stress" using the "authority aura" effect. Organise group rallies to promote “psychological contagion - cf IRA-organised Trump rallies targeting miners and low-income demographics.

5) Target those with critical thinking skills with logical arguments based on selective information.

6) 60/40 Method, where 60% of your content is objective, creating trust, and 40% is disinformation at carefully chosen times, exploiting trust

7) Focus on one angle: rather than balancing coverage, select interviewees, quotes, facts which only support one perspective

8) Distract/Deflect attention away from stories unfavourable to Kremlin towards " school shootings, murders, catastrophes, terrorist attacks and natural disasters".

9) Trolling your opponents: abuse/mock them, ruin online discussions.

10) Repeat: keep hammering at the message - it makes people believe it more, particularly if they hear it from multiple sources.

11) Create a positive image of politicians and parties with fake news.

12) Rotten Herring: create/promote fake news associating someone with a scandal until the media pick it up and everyone's talking about it, despite there being no basis in fact, The stink sticks

13) Big Lie: a rotten herring of monstrous size.

14) Rumours to enhance stereotypes of target groups: these are classified by degrees of falsity (from absolute through to "plausible with elements of improbability") and "their emotional origin: rumour-desire; rumour-scare; aggressive-rumour"

15) Half-truths: tell the negative half of the story about the West, and never tell the negative part of the story about the Kremlin

16) False Equivalence: compare 2+ things that appear to be logically equivalent, but which are not. The BBC is not RT (yet!).

17) Gaslighting: make targets doubt reality and facts.

[Transmitted from Marusya Zviroby 💙💛]

Despite its outward simplicity, this method is incredibly effective, because the human psyche automatically responds to the opinion of the majority, seeking to join it.

It is important only to remember that the majority must necessarily be predominant, and its support absolute and unconditional - otherwise there is no effect of joining.

However, if these conditions are met, then the number of supporters of the "majority position" begins to grow gradually but surely, and over time increases exponentially - mainly at the expense of representatives of lower social strata, who are most susceptible to the "joining effect. One of the classic ways to support the method of "absolute obviousness" is, for example, the publication of the results of various kinds of sociological surveys, demonstrating absolute public unity on a particular issue. The methods of "black" propaganda, of course, do not require that these reports have anything to do with reality.

I could go on. We have actually been trained for a year, and the list of methods is quite long. What is important, however, is not that. What is important is this. The methods of "black" propaganda influence the audience at the level of deep psychological mechanisms in such a way that the consequences of this influence cannot be removed by ordinary logical arguments. The "big lie" achieves this effect through emotional trauma. The obviousness method is through the "adherence effect." "Rotten herring" - by introducing into the minds of the audience a direct association between the object of attack and the sordid, scandalous accusation.

Simply put, combative special propaganda turns a person into a zombie, who not only actively supports the attitudes embedded in his consciousness, but also aggressively opposes those who hold different views or try to change his mind, using logical arguments. In fact, it cannot be otherwise. All methods of special war propaganda share a common goal. It consists in weakening the enemy's army by introducing into its ranks the internal dissension, mutual hatred and distrust of each other.

And today, these methods are used against us. And the result to which they lead is exactly what they were created to achieve. Only mutual hatred and internal discord do not arise in the enemy's army, but in our homes and families.

Just go outside and look at how the country has changed in the last three years. It seems to me that combat special propaganda works even more effectively against our own population than it does against enemy soldiers.

Probably because, unlike the enemy soldiers, the civilian population cannot defend themselves.

Vladimir Yakovlev

*** Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) ***

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