• On this page we collect general information that could help community members navigate the info space and identify psychological manipulations.
• We’ll be adding more resources on an ongoing basis.

“Universal literacy was supposed to educate the common man to control his environment.  “Once he could read and write he would have a mind fit to rule”. Or so ran the democratic doctrine.  Instead, it gave them propaganda. And an easier way for the masters to control him. - “Propaganda” by Edward Bernays, 1928

<aside> 🇺🇦 Essential materials to read for pro-Ukraine community members:

How to Speak about Ukraine

“wedging” on social media

</aside>

[How to Assess “pro-Ukraine accounts” vs Ukrainians - 🧵 by @cryptodrftng (Twitter version + Telegram version)](https://www.notion.so/How-to-Assess-pro-Ukraine-accounts-vs-Ukrainians-by-cryptodrftng-Twitter-version-Telegram-fefdd1a11bab4ade9f2e48fb830e118e)

Character Assassination

The russian “Firehose of Falsehood” propaganda model

@GicAriana x @cryptodrftng - Parallels between attacks

Related pages

Russian Assets & Useful Idiots List of Pro-Kremlin Telegram Accounts

Fact-Checking & Media Literacy

Mindful Webz - Mental Health

Ukraine DAO

How Healthy Discussions Work

Common manipulative tactics

1. DARVO: “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender”. Deception around who is at the center of attack, hijacking the target’s response, is a staple of psychological abuse.
2. Reactive abuse: staged defamation in which people see only the response to abuse, and not the abuse. The target appears to irrationally shadowbox what the onlookers are unaware of.
3. “Double binds”: mutually exclusive demands, intentionally set up so that it’s impossible to meet one or both, guaranteeing that the target gets smeared on at least one count. They are usually highly inconsistent, having only the intent to abuse in common. The intent is both scapegoating and exhausting the target.
4. Slanders based on missing-middle fallacies. The relationships between A and B and then B and C are omitted or distorted to falsely equate A and C.
5. Deceptive re-framing: moving goalposts by redefining words and concepts, and losing sense of proportions.
6. Deflecting or sidestepping: as soon as an argument fails to go well, they deflect to another unrelated argument. Particularly toxic operators may even return to previously abandoned arguments as if from scratch.
7. Reverse social engineering: people can be manipulated by the above methods to give away information or attack a target without fully understanding what they collude in.

Strategies

Vocabulary

The better your vocabulary of the bad-faith psychological tactics, the less they can be used to mesmerize or manipulate you.

<aside> 💡 Awareness of their methods gives you more control of your thoughts and reaction.

</aside>

5 rules of propaganda

Additional Resources

Tymofii Brik - thread on expertise of Ukrainians

Ukrainian political culture - thread by Volodymyr Yermolenko

Communications Resilience Guides (UA & EN) - adapted for people in the warzone

“We are all on the same side”

Accusations of narcissism

How to Tackle this?

❌ Never accept false accusations.

Twitter version

Example

Reactive Abuse

Twitter version

Firehood of Falsehood

✨Distinctive Features of the Contemporary Model for russian Propaganda & Disinformation: 1️⃣ High-volume and multichannel

2️⃣ Rapid, continuous, and repetitive

3️⃣ Lacks commitment to objective reality

4️⃣ Lacks commitment to consistency

https://twitter.com/cryptodrftng/status/1604748564990754819?s=46&t=JipJZjuq6lxlM3DP_wYVpA

https://twitter.com/cryptodrftng/status/1609016409064984588?s=46&t=SKgckn0kI3KfE9NAloQ57w

https://twitter.com/cryptodrftng/status/1605869342385754112?s=46&t=JipJZjuq6lxlM3DP_wYVpA

https://twitter.com/cryptodrftng/status/1610141783304044544

DARVO

The best way to tackle DARVO is recording what happens.

https://twitter.com/cryptodrftng/status/1634440855221051392?s=46&t=5Uvt6Sx7abH_ssZD4K4Hkg

🧵 about JJS Dissertation - here

https://twitter.com/cryptodrftng/status/1604681504239411200?s=46&t=JipJZjuq6lxlM3DP_wYVpA

https://twitter.com/cryptodrftng/status/1604687438751956999?s=46&t=JipJZjuq6lxlM3DP_wYVpA

https://twitter.com/cryptodrftng/status/1625299507062661121?s=46&t=xE2VeTT0TwHBOEPjB3nZrw

https://twitter.com/maxzoomout/status/1625173764609822720?s=46&t=xE2VeTT0TwHBOEPjB3nZrw

“Active measures will shape what others think, decide, and do—and thus change reality itself. When victims read and react to forged secret documents, their reaction is real. When the cards of an influenced parliamentary vote are counted, the result is real." - tweet