Making sense of our topsy-turvy world is a daily challenge. You can't follow the game without a scorecard. And a scorecard is useless without knowing its terms and signifiers. Anytime one wades into the swirling currents of the Internet in search of political enlightenment, one is bound to encounter phrases or ideas that may flummox and confound. This is common, and sometimes designed to be that way!
To assist us all, The Daily Kibitz has compiled a list of current words and phrases that often appear in articles about Trump, Trumpism, Russian influence on our elections, and America's future. Let's learn!!
Active Measures: The actions of political warfare conducted by Russian security services (KGB/FSB) to influence the course of world events, in addition to collection of intelligence and producing "politically correct" assessments of them. Example: FSB hacked Democratic National Committee's emails and had a front, Wikileaks, release them to the press.
Autocracy: A government in which one person has uncontrolled authority over others. Example: North Korea, any number of Persian Gulf states, Russia. Creeping autocracy is seen here in America.
Behavioral Contagion: Behavior by one person that is copied by others who have been exposed to media coverage describing the behavior of the original person. Example: People ingesting laundry detergent. Also, chants of "Lock her up!" See: Herd Mentality.
Chekist: An individual who is an agent or is controlled by Russian KGB/FSB. Example: Vladimir Putin... once a KGB agent, always a KGB agent. Also, maybe, our President.
Confirmation Bias: The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs. Also called Myside Bias. Example: The 2007-9 recession was caused by the federal government's housing policies, a partisan conservative might say.
Covfefe: Coverage, as misspelled on Twitter by a certain numbskull President.
Cui Bono: The principle that one who stands to gain from a crime may have been responsible for it.
Cunningham's Law: From the father of Wiki comes the idea that "the best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, it's to post the wrong answer." People are quicker to correct a wrong answer than to answer the question. Example: Oh, sample any Comments sections, anywhere, ever.
Curse of Knowledge: A cognitive bias that occurs when an individual, communicating with others, unknowingly assumes that the others have the background to understand. Example: an ACLU lawyer speaking before a Trump rally.
Cut-Out: A mutually trusted intermediary, method or channel of communication that facilitates the exchange of information between secret agents. Cut-outs usually know only the source and destination of the information to be transmitted, not the identities of any other persons involved in the process. Example: Roger Stone.
Deep State: Influential members of government agencies believed to be involved in the secret manipulation/control of government policy. Example: Anyone in the Federal government not appointed by Trump.
Demagogue: A politician who appeals directly to the popular desires and prejudices of the poor and uninformed, telling lies to stir up hysteria, exploiting crises to intensify popular support for their calls to immediate action and increased authority, and accusing moderate opponents of weakness or disloyalty to the nation. Example: The 45th President of the USA, or any ol' autocratic leader.
Dezinformatsiya (Deza): Disinformation, or Fake News, as spread by Russian trolls and GOP operatives. Example: Stories about David Hogg and other Parkland massacre survivors being "crisis actors" and not even students there.
Doxxing: The Internet-based practice of researching and broadcasting private information (especially personally identifiable information) about an individual usually for malicious intent. Example: Identifying the individual Nazis who participated at the Charlottesville rally (good). Posting personal info about abortion providers (bad).
Dunning-Kruger Effect: A cognitive bias in which people of low ability have illusory superiority and mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is. Example: Climate Change deniers ("If the Earth is getting warmer, why was last winter so cold?") Also, a certain President who claims to be a stable genius.
Festina Lente: Latin for "Make Haste Slowly." Example: The Mueller Investigation.
Gaslighting: A form of mental manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception and sanity. See: Brainwashing. Example: Donald Trump virulently insisting, against entire mountain ranges of evidence, that the US was in the worst shape imaginable leading up to the 2016 election.
Godwin's Law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Hitler increases; that is, if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Adolf Hitler or his deeds."
Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Example: Your dopey relative who believes in crazy stuff like chemtrails, the Deep State, Hillary selling the US supply of uranium to Russia, etc etc. He's not bad, he's just dopey, probably Gaslighted, too. See: Occam's Razor.
Hubris: The display of excessive pride and self-estimation, extreme arrogance. In Greek Tragedy, such continued display would result in the Gods pulling out the rug from beneath, resulting in a rapid disassembly of self-worth and social status. Example: Donald Trump, with the Gods doing their thing within 2 years.
Kakistocracy: Government that is run by the least qualified and/or most unprincipled citizens. No example needed.
Kleptocracy: "A government with corrupt leaders that use their power to exploit the people and natural resources of their own territory in order to extend their personal wealth and political powers." Example: Ivanka Trump's trademarks in China and the Trump Organization's loans from Chinese banks.
Kompromat: In Russian politics, this is short for "compromising materials" (true or not) which is damaging information about a politician or public figure, used to create negative publicity/blackmail and to ensure loyalty. Example: Former PM Boris Yeltsin releasing a sex tape of a political rival to the Russian press. Also, "The Pee Tapes" and sundry other misdeeds that Putin has on Trump and the GOP.
Law of Exclamation!!! "The more exclamation points used in an email or other Internet posting, the more likely it is a complete lie. This is also true for excessive capital letters."
Law of Holes: "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." Used as a metaphor that when in an untenable position, it is best to stop carrying on and exacerbating the situation. Example: Trump talking about why he fired James Comey. Rudy Giuliani talking about anything.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder: A long-term pattern of abnormal behavior characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of empathy. Example: Really?
Optimism Bias: A cognitive bias that causes a person to believe that they are at a lesser risk of experiencing a negative event compared to others. Example: Smokers who think they won't get lung cancer. Republicans who think that trade wars are easy to win.
Overton Window: AKA the "window of discourse" is the range of ideas tolerated in public discourse. These include policies considered politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too extreme to gain or keep public office. Example: Trump exclaiming that Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers (and some, presumably, are good people). The window has been opened further than anyone dreamed!
Peter Principle: A management concept which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their level of incompetence. Example: Department of Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen, speaking to Congress, saying she didn't know that Norway was predominantly white.
Prolefeed: From "1984", a Newspeak term used to describe deliberately superficial entertainment, including literature, movies and music, to keep the "proles" (proletariats) content and to prevent them from becoming too knowledgeable. Example: most television programming. "I love the poorly educated!"
Provokatsiya: "A political event staged by an intelligence service on behalf of its government in order to accomplish some political goal." Example: The Reichstag Fire. Or, as a political event staged by a political party, GOP House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes claiming any number of untruths about the FBI, Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller.
Sea Lioning: A type of trolling or harassment which consists of pursuing people with persistent requests for evidence or repeated questions. The harasser who uses this tactic also uses fake civility so as to discredit the target. Example: found on most any Comments page. Also, the boiled down version: When did you stop beating your wife?
Whataboutism: "A variant of the logical fallacy that attempts to discredit an opponent's position by charging them with hypocrisy without directly refuting or disproving their argument, which is particularly associated with Russian propaganda." Example: "What about her emails?"
Oh, all right. That's enough sound and fury for now. Hope this lil' primer helps going forward with interpreting the firehose-blast of nonsense that continues to flood our consciousness. Have a HAPPY weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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