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January 26, 2024

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying involves the use of digital technologies, like social media, texting, and websites, to harass, intimidate, or embarrass individuals. Unlike traditional bullying, its digital nature allows for anonymity and a wider audience. Cyberbullies employ various tactics such as sending threatening messages, spreading rumors online, posting sensitive or derogatory information, or impersonating someone to damage their reputation — on to more sinister and dangerous actions like doxxing.

Geopolitical impact of cyberbullying

In recent years, cyberbullying has transcended personal boundaries and infiltrated the realm of geopolitics. Nation-states or politically motivated groups have started using cyberbullying tactics to intimidate dissidents, manipulate public opinion, or disrupt political processes in other countries. Examples include spreading disinformation, launching smear campaigns against political figures, or using bots to amplify divisive content. This form of cyberbullying can have significant consequences, destabilizing societies and influencing elections.

Recognizing cyberbullying

Identifying cyberbullying involves looking for signs of digital harassment. This can include receiving repeated, unsolicited, and aggressive communications, noticing fake profiles spreading misinformation about an individual, or observing coordinated attacks against a person or group. In geopolitics, recognizing cyberbullying might involve identifying patterns of disinformation, noting unusual social media activity around sensitive political topics, or detecting state-sponsored troll accounts.

Responding to cyberbullying

The response to cyberbullying varies based on the context and severity. For individuals, it involves:

Documentation: Keep records of all bullying messages or posts.
Non-engagement: Avoid responding to the bully, as engagement often escalates the situation.
Reporting: Report the behavior to the platform where it occurred and, if necessary, to law enforcement.
Seeking Support: Reach out to friends, family, or professionals for emotional support.

For geopolitical cyberbullying, responses are more complex and involve:

Public Awareness: Educate the public about the signs of state-sponsored cyberbullying and disinformation.
Policy and Diplomacy: Governments can implement policies to counteract foreign cyberbullying and engage in diplomatic efforts to address these issues internationally.
Cybersecurity Measures: Strengthening cybersecurity infrastructures to prevent and respond to cyberbullying at a state level.

Cyberbullying, in its personal and geopolitical forms, represents a significant challenge in the digital age. Understanding its nature, recognizing its signs, and knowing how to respond are crucial steps in mitigating its impact. For individuals, it means being vigilant online and knowing when to seek help. In the geopolitical arena, it requires a coordinated effort from governments, tech companies, and the public to defend against these insidious forms of digital aggression. By taking these steps, societies can work towards a safer, more respectful digital world.

January 18, 2024

Shitposting

Shitposting, a term that has seeped into the mainstream of internet culture, is often characterized by the act of posting deliberately provocative, off-topic, or nonsensical content in online communities and on social media. The somewhat vulgar term encapsulates a spectrum of online behavior ranging from harmless, humorous banter to malicious, divisive content.

Typically, a shit-post is defined by its lack of substantive content, its primary goal being to elicit attention and reactions — whether amusement, confusion, or irritation — from its intended audience. Closely related to trolling, shitposting is one aspect of a broader pantheon of bad faith behavior online.

Shit-poster motivations

The demographic engaging in shit-posting is diverse, cutting across various age groups, social strata, and political affiliations. However, it’s particularly prevalent among younger internet users who are well-versed in meme culture and online vernacular. The motivations for shit-posting can be as varied as its practitioners.

Some engage in it for humor and entertainment, seeing it as a form of digital performance art. Others may use it as a tool for social commentary or satire, while a more nefarious subset might employ it to spread disinformation and misinformation, sow discord, and/or harass individuals or groups.

Online trolls shitposting on the internet, by Midjourney

Context in US politics

In the realm of U.S. politics, shit-posting has assumed a significant role in recent elections, especially on platforms like Twitter / X, Reddit, and Facebook. Politicians, activists, and politically engaged individuals often use this tactic to galvanize supporters, mock opponents, or shape public perception. It’s not uncommon to see political shit-posts that are laden with irony, exaggeration, or out-of-context information, designed to inflame passions or reinforce existing biases — or exploit them.

Recognition and response

Recognizing shit-posting involves a discerning eye. Key indicators include the use of hyperbole, irony, non-sequiturs, and content that seems outlandishly out of place or context. The tone is often mocking or sarcastic. Visual cues, such as memes or exaggerated images, are common.

Responding to shit-posting is a nuanced affair. Engaging with it can sometimes amplify the message, which might be the poster’s intention. A measured approach is to assess the intent behind the post. If it’s harmless humor, it might warrant a light-hearted response or none at all.

For posts that are disinformation or border on misinformation or toxicity, countering with factual information, reporting the content, or choosing not to engage are viable strategies. The key is not to feed into the cycle of provocation and reaction that shit-posting often seeks to perpetuate.

Shitposting troll farms lurk in the shadows, beaming disinformation across the land -- by Midjourney

Fighting back

Shit-posting, in its many forms, is a complex phenomenon in the digital age. It straddles the line between being a form of modern-day satire and a tool for misinformation, propaganda, and/or cyberbullying. As digital communication continues to evolve, understanding the nuances of shit-posting – its forms, motivations, and impacts – becomes crucial, particularly in politically charged environments. Navigating this landscape requires a balanced approach, blending awareness, discernment, and thoughtful engagement.

This overview provides a basic understanding of shit-posting, but the landscape is ever-changing, with new forms and norms continually emerging. The ongoing evolution of online communication norms, including phenomena like shit-posting, is particularly fascinating and significant in the broader context of digital culture and political discourse.

January 14, 2024

Science denialism

Science denialism has a complex and multifaceted history, notably marked by a significant event in 1953 that set a precedent for the tactics of disinformation widely observed in various spheres today, including politics.

The 1953 meeting and the birth of the disinformation playbook

The origins of modern science denial can be traced back to a pivotal meeting in December 1953, involving the heads of the four largest American tobacco companies. This meeting was a response to emerging scientific research linking smoking to lung cancer — a serious existenstial threat to their business model.

Concerned about the potential impact on their business, these industry leaders collaborated with a public relations firm, Hill & Knowlton, to craft a strategy. This strategy was designed not only to dispute the growing evidence about the health risks of smoking, but also to manipulate public perception by creating doubt about the science itself. They created the Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC) as an organization to cast doubt on the established science, and prevent the public from knowing about the lethal dangers of smoking.

And it worked — for over 40 years. The public never formed a consensus on the lethality and addictiveness of nicotine until well into the 1990s, when the jig was finally up and Big Tobacco had to pay a record-breaking $200 billion settlement over their 4 decades of mercilessly lying to the American people following the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) of 1998.

smoking and the disinformation campaign of Big Tobacco leading to science denialism, by Midjourney

Strategies of the disinformation playbook

This approach laid the groundwork for what is often referred to as the “disinformation playbook.” The key elements of this playbook include creating doubt about scientific consensus, funding research that could contradict or cloud scientific understanding, using think tanks or other organizations to promote these alternative narratives, and influencing media and public opinion to maintain policy and regulatory environments favorable to their interests — whether profit, power, or both.

Over the next 7 decades — up to the present day — this disinformation playbook has been used by powerful special interests to cast doubt, despite scientific consensus, on acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, the viability of Ronald Reagan‘s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), and perhaps most notably: the man-made causes of climate change.

Adoption and adaptation in various industries

The tobacco industry’s tactics were alarmingly successful for decades, delaying effective regulation and public awareness of smoking’s health risks. These strategies were later adopted and adapted by various industries and groups facing similar scientific challenges to their products or ideologies. For instance, the fossil fuel industry used similar tactics to cast doubt on global warming — leading to the phenomenon of climate change denialism. Chemical manufacturers have disputed science on the harmful effects of certain chemicals like DDT and BPA.

What began as a PR exercise by Big Tobacco to preserve their fantastic profits once science discovered the deleterious health effects of smoking eventually evolved into a strategy of fomenting science denialism more broadly. Why discredit one single finding of the scientific community when you could cast doubt on the entire process of science itself — as a way of future-proofing any government regulation that might curtail your business interests?

Science denial in modern politics

In recent years, the tactics of science denial have become increasingly prevalent in politics. Political actors, often influenced by corporate interests or ideological agendas, have employed these strategies to challenge scientific findings that are politically inconvenient — despite strong and often overwhelming evidence. This is evident in manufactured “debates” on climate change, vaccine safety, and COVID-19, where scientific consensus is often contested not based on new scientific evidence but through disinformation strategies aimed at sowing doubt and confusion.

The role of digital media and politicization

The rise of social media has accelerated the spread of science denial. The digital landscape allows for rapid dissemination of misinformation and the formation of echo chambers, where groups can reinforce shared beliefs or skepticism, often insulated from corrective or opposing information. Additionally, the politicization of science, where scientific findings are viewed through the lens of political allegiance rather than objective evidence, has further entrenched science denial in modern discourse — as just one aspect of the seeming politicization of absolutely everything in modern life and culture.

Strategies for combatting science denial

The ongoing impact of science denial is profound. It undermines public understanding of science, hampers informed decision-making, and delays action on critical issues like climate change, public health, and environmental protection. The spread of misinformation about vaccines, for instance, has led to a decrease in vaccination rates and a resurgence of diseases like measles.

To combat science denial, experts suggest several strategies. Promoting scientific literacy and critical thinking skills among the general public is crucial. This involves not just understanding scientific facts, but also developing an understanding of the scientific method and how scientific knowledge is developed and validated. Engaging in open, transparent communication about science, including the discussion of uncertainties and limitations of current knowledge, can also help build public trust in science.

Science denial, rooted in the strategies developed by the tobacco industry in the 1950s, has evolved into a significant challenge in contemporary society, impacting not just public health and environmental policy but also the very nature of public discourse and trust in science. Addressing this issue requires a multifaceted approach, including education, transparent communication, and collaborative efforts to uphold the integrity of scientific information.

January 8, 2024

Sockpuppet accounts

Sockpuppets are fake social media accounts used by trolls for deceptive and covert actions, avoiding culpability for abuse, aggression, death threats, doxxing, and other criminal acts against targets.

In the digital age, the battleground for political influence has extended beyond traditional media to the vast, interconnected realm of social media. Central to this new frontier are “sockpuppet” accounts – fake online personas created for deceptive purposes. These shadowy figures have become tools in the hands of authoritarian regimes, perhaps most notably Russia, to manipulate public opinion and infiltrate the political systems of countries like the UK, Ukraine, and the US.

What are sockpuppet accounts?

A sockpuppet account is a fake online identity used for purposes of deception. Unlike simple trolls or spam accounts, sockpuppets are more sophisticated. They mimic real users, often stealing photos and personal data to appear authentic. These accounts engage in activities ranging from posting comments to spreading disinformation, all designed to manipulate public opinion.

The Strategic Use of Sockpuppets

Sockpuppet accounts are a cog in the larger machinery of cyber warfare. They play a critical role in shaping narratives and influencing public discourse. In countries like Russia, where the state exerts considerable control over media, these accounts are often state-sponsored or affiliated with groups that align with government interests.

Case Studies: Russia’s global reach

The United Kingdom: Investigations have revealed Russian interference in the Brexit referendum. Sockpuppet accounts spread divisive content to influence public opinion and exacerbate social tensions. Their goal was to weaken the European Union by supporting the UK’s departure.
Ukraine: Russia’s geopolitical interests in Ukraine have been furthered through a barrage of sockpuppet accounts. These accounts disseminate pro-Russian propaganda and misinformation to destabilize Ukraine’s political landscape, particularly during times of crisis, elections, or — most notably — during its own current war of aggression against its neighbor nation.
The United States: The 2016 US Presidential elections saw an unprecedented level of interference. Russian sockpuppets spread divisive content, fake news, and even organized real-life events, creating an environment of distrust and chaos. Their goal was to sow discord and undermine the democratic process.

Vladimir Putin with his sheep, by Midjourney

How sockpuppets operate

Sockpuppets often work in networks, creating an echo chamber effect. They amplify messages, create false trends, and give the illusion of widespread support for a particular viewpoint. Advanced tactics include deepfakes and AI-generated text, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between real and fake content.

Detection and countermeasures

Detecting sockpuppets is challenging due to their evolving sophistication. Social media platforms are employing AI-based algorithms to identify and remove these accounts. However, the arms race between detection methods and evasion techniques continues. Governments and independent watchdogs also play a crucial role in exposing such operations.

Implications for democracy

The use of sockpuppet accounts by authoritarian regimes like Russia poses a significant threat to democratic processes. By influencing public opinion and political outcomes in other countries, they undermine the very essence of democracy – the informed consent of the governed. This digital interference erodes trust in democratic institutions and fuels political polarization.

As we continue to navigate the complex landscape of digital information, the challenge posed by sockpuppet accounts remains significant. Awareness and vigilance are key. Social media platforms, governments, and individuals must collaborate to safeguard the integrity of our political systems. As citizens, staying informed and critically evaluating online information is our first line of defense against this invisible but potent threat.

January 4, 2024

Disinformation Dictionary

Disinformation Dictionary of Psychological Warfare

The cat is well and truly out of the bag in terms of understanding how easily wide swaths of people can be misled into believing total falsehoods and even insane conspiracy theories that have no basis whatsoever in reality. In their passion for this self-righteous series of untruths, they can lose families, jobs, loved ones, respect, and may even be radicalized to commit violence on behalf of an authority figure. It starts with the dissemination of disinformation — a practice with a unique Orwellian lexicon all its own, collated in the below disinformation dictionary.

Disinformation is meant to confuse, throw off, distract, polarize, and otherwise create conflict within and between target populations. The spreading of falsehoods is a very old strategy — perhaps as old as humankind itself — but its mass dissemination through the media was pioneered in the 20th century by the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union, the Nazis in Germany, Mussolini‘s Fascists in Italy, and other authoritarian regimes of the early 1900s through the 1940s.

After World War II and the Allies’ defeat of Hitler, the role of disinformation lived on during the Cold War. The Soviet KGB were infamous for their spycraft and covert infiltration of information flows, while the United States experienced waves of anti-Communist paranoia and hysteria fueled by the spread of conspiracist thinking. Psychologists, social scientists, and others did their best to unpack the horrors revealed by the reign of the Nazi regime with a wellspring of research and critical thought about authoritarian personalities and totalitarianism that continues to this day.

The John Birch Society rides again

In some ways, we haven’t really moved on yet from the Cold War — in fact, some appear not to have moved on since the New Deal and are hellbent on rolling its provisions back, almost 100 years later. The dregs of the John Birch Society — an organization famously too koo-koo even for William F. Buckley, who excommunicated them from the conservative wing of the Republican Party — live on today in a reconstituted form known as the CNP, or Council for National Policy.

Founded officially in 1981 after almost a decade down in the political trenches radicalizing the right, the CNP is the shadowy organization pulling the strings of many of the set pieces in puppets in today’s political play. In alliance with other powerful networks including the Koch empire, the NRA, and the Evangelical church, the CNP is the group behind the recent hysteria out of nowhere about Critical Race Theory in public schools (where it is not taught). They are funneling the money of America’s billionaires into absurdist theatrical displays of performance artists who distract America with bread and circuses while the plutocrats make off with the cash in the form of tax cuts, tax breaks, tax carve outs, tax loopholes, tax policy, and other wealth-building sweetheart deals for themselves and their cronies.

A crowd of people consuming disinformation, by Midjourney

The CNP, in partnership with Charles Koch’s massive database of all American voters (and of course, his money), have managed to brainwash the Evangelical flock and various assorted MAGA groups into believing a raft of nonsense from climate change denial to anti-masking to the Big Lie about the 2020 election and much more. They have leveraged new political technology in order to recruit and radicalize new cult members quickly and at now digital scale — via QAnon, Fox News, the even more extreme aggressively partisan coverage of Newsmax and OANN, and a fleet of “grassroots” astroturf operations peddling their brand of seditious aspirational theocracy to ruralites like it was going out of style… on accounta it is.

This disinformation dictionary covers (and uncovers) the terminology and techniques used by disinfo peddlers, hucksters, Zucksters, propagandists, and professional liars of all sorts — including confirmation bias, the bandwagon effect, and other psychological soft points they target, attack, and exploit. From trolling to active measures to “alternative facts,” we dig into the terminology that makes disinformation tick.

This resource will be added to over time as neologisms are coined to keep up with the shifting landscape of fakes, deep fakes, and alternative timelines in our near and potentially far future.

Term	Definition	Notes
active measures	Russian information warfare aimed at undermining the West	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/cold-war-dictionary/active-measures/
alternative facts	Statements that are not supported by empirical evidence.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/alternative-facts/
ambiguity	Ambiguity is utilized in disinformation by presenting information that is deliberately vague or open to multiple interpretations, leading to confusion and uncertainty. This technique exploits the lack of clarity to obscure the truth, allowing false narratives to be introduced and believed without being directly disprovable.	https://doctorparadox.net/
America First Unity Rally	An event organized by supporters of Donald Trump, held in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 18, 2016, during the RNC that featured speakers known to spread conspiracy theories and unverified claims.	https://doctorparadox.net/
Antifa	Antifa, short for "anti-fascist," is a decentralized movement composed of individuals and groups that oppose fascism and far-right ideologies, often through direct action and protest. The group serves as a frequent scapegoat for the right-wing, who tends to blame Antifa for anything they don't like, without evidence.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/antifa/
anti-government	The neo-Libertarians within the GOP have no more intention of governing than Trump did. Libertarians prefer the government to be non-functional: that's the "smallest" government there is!!They will lead us to war, with either Russia, North Korea, Iran, or China most likely.	https://foundations.doctorparadox.net/Ideologies/anti-government
assert the opposite of reality	A disinformation technique where false information is presented in a manner that directly contradicts known facts or established reality. This approach is used to confuse, mislead, or manipulate public perception, often by claiming the exact opposite of what is true or what evidence supports.	https://doctorparadox.net/
astroturfing	Creating an impression of widespread grassroots support for a policy, individual, or product, where little such support exists.	https://foundations.doctorparadox.net/Dictionaries/Politics/astroturfing
bandwagon effect	A psychological phenomenon whereby people do something primarily because other people are doing it.	https://doctorparadox.net/data-sets/psychological-biases-list/
the Big Lie	A propaganda technique originally devised by Adolf Hitler, based on the idea that if a lie is colossal and audacious enough, and repeated often, people will come to accept it as truth. This technique relies on the premise that the sheer scale and boldness of the lie makes it more likely to be believed, as people might assume no one could fabricate something so extreme without some basis in reality.	https://doctorparadox.net/gop-myths/gop-big-lies/
black and white thinking	A pattern of thought characterized by polar extremes, sometimes flip-flopping very rapidly from one extreme view to its opposite. Also referred to as dichotomous thinking; polarized thinking; all-or-nothing thinking; or splitting.	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/black-and-white-thinking/
blackmail	The demand for payment (or other benefit) in exchange for not revealing negative information about the payee.	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/emotional-blackmail/
blaming the victim	A popular strategy with sexual predators, blaming the victim involves alleging that the receipient "had it coming" or otherwise deserved the abuse they suffered at the hands of the blamer (see also: DARVO)	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/what-is-darvo/
book burning	The ritual destruction of books, literature, or other written materials -- usually in a public forum to send a chilling message about ideas that are disallowed by the state.	https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/book-burning
bot	A software program performing repetitive, automated tasks -- often used in the dissemination of disinformation.	https://doctorparadox.net/category/technology/bots/
botnets	An interconnected network of bots, often used for nefarious purposes like DDoS attacks or propaganda.	https://doctorparadox.net/
bullying	Harming, threatening to harm, intimdating, or coercing others into doing your bidding (or for no reason at all)	https://doctorparadox.net/mental-self-defense/how-to-deal-with-bullies/
cathexis	The concentration of one's mental energy on one specific person, idea, or object -- typically to an unhealthy degree.	https://doctorparadox.net/
cherry-picking	Cherry-picking refers to the practice of selectively choosing data or facts that support one's argument, while ignoring those that contradict it. This biased approach can misrepresent the overall truth or validity of a situation, leading to skewed conclusions.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/cherry-picking/
@citizentrolling	Former Twitter account of Chuck Johnson, the far-right mega-troll who doxed two New York Times reporters and argued that homosexuality caused the Amtrak derailment.	https://www.wired.com/story/chuck-johnson-twitter-free-speech-lawsuit/
clickbait	Content designed to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link.	https://doctorparadox.net/
climate change denialism	Climate change denialism refers to the disbelief or dismissal of the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring and primarily caused by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation. It often involves rejecting, denying, or minimizing the evidence of the global impact of climate change.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/climate-change-denial/
cognitive closure	Propagandists exploit the psychological need for closure by presenting oversimplified explanations or solutions to complex issues, appealing to the desire for quick, definitive answers. This tactic preys on the discomfort with ambiguity and uncertainty, leading individuals to accept and adhere to the provided narratives without critical examination.	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/cognitive-closure/
cognitive dissonance	Mental discomfort resulting from holding conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes -- or from behaving contrary to one's beliefs, values, or attitudes.	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/cognitive-dissonance/
cognitive distortion	Irrational, exaggerated, or negative thought patterns that are believed to perpetuate the effects of psychopathological states, such as depression and anxiety. These distortions often manifest as persistent, skewed perceptions or thoughts that inaccurately represent reality, leading to emotional distress and behavioral issues.	https://doctorparadox.net/
cognitive warfare	Cognitive warfare is a strategy that aims to change the perceptions and behaviors of individuals or groups, typically through the use of information and psychological tactics. This form of warfare targets the human mind, seeking to influence, disrupt, or manipulate the cognitive processes of adversaries, thereby affecting decision-making and actions. (see also: psychological warfare)	https://doctorparadox.net/category/politics/psychological-warfare/
con artist	Someone who swindles others with fake promises.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/con-artist/
confirmation bias	Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities. Disinformation peddlers exploit this bias by crafting messages that align with the existing beliefs of their target audience, thereby reinforcing these beliefs and making their false narratives more convincing and less likely to be critically scrutinized.	https://doctorparadox.net/data-sets/psychological-biases-list/
confirmation loop	A situation where beliefs are reinforced by communication and repetition inside a closed system.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/confirmation-loop/
conspiracy theory	A false narrative or set of narratives designed to create an alternative story or history that distracts from the real truth and/or obscures or absolves the responsibility of those behind the curtain.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/conspiracy-theory-dictionary-from-qanon-to-gnostics/
cultivation theory	A theory which argues that prolonged exposure to media shapes people's perceptions of reality.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/cultivation-theory/
DARVO	A rhetorical device used in mind control in which the identities of the perpetrator and the victim are reversed, such that the abuser is playing on the sympathies of the abused to help him rewrite the history they both wish to forget.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/what-is-darvo/
deception	Lying; intentionally misleading	https://doctorparadox.net/
deep fakes	Fabricated video footage appearing to show an individual speaking	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/deep-fakes/
deep state	The term "deep state" refers to a conspiracy theory suggesting the existence of a hidden or shadowy network of powerful and influential individuals within a government or other organization. These individuals are believed to operate outside the democratic system and pursue their own agenda, often in opposition to the official policies or leaders of the institution.	https://doctorparadox.net/conspiracy-theories/deep-state/
demoshiza	Short for ‘democratic schizophrenics’ -- a Russian slander against citizens of democracies. The ‘demoshiza’ tag also serves a useful purpose in conflating ‘democracy’ with ‘mental illness’. The word ‘democratic’ has an unhappy status in Russia: it is mainly used as an uncomplimentary synonym for ‘cheap’ and ‘low-grade’: McDonald’s has ‘democratic’ prices, the door policy at a particularly scuzzy club can be described as ‘democratic’ – i.e. they let anybody in	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/cold-war-dictionary/demoshiza/
denialism	Denialism is the practice of rejecting or refusing to accept established facts or realities, often in the context of scientific, historical, or social issues. It typically involves dismissing or rationalizing evidence that contradicts one's beliefs or ideology, regardless of the overwhelming empirical support.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/science-denialism/
denial of death	The denial of death is a psychological defense mechanism where individuals avoid acknowledging their mortality, often leading to behaviors and beliefs that attempt to give meaning or permanence to human existence.	https://doctorparadox.net/
denying plain facts	Denying plain facts is the act of refusing to accept established truths, often in the face of overwhelming evidence, typically to maintain a particular narrative or belief system.	https://doctorparadox.net/
dezinformatsiya	Russian information warfare	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/cold-war-dictionary/dezinformatsiya/
digital footprint	The information about a particular person that exists on the Internet as a result of their online activity.	https://doctorparadox.net/
"dirty tricks"	"Dirty tricks" refer to underhanded, deceptive tactics used in politics, business, or espionage, often involving unethical maneuvers designed to damage opponents or gain an unfair advantage.	https://doctorparadox.net/
disappearing	In the context of disinformation, disappearing means removing or concealing information, individuals, or objects from public view or records, often to hide evidence or avoid scrutiny.	https://doctorparadox.net/
diversion	Diversion is a tactic used to shift attention away from a significant issue or problem, often by introducing a different topic or concern, to avoid dealing with the original subject.	https://doctorparadox.net/
doxxing	Doxxing involves researching and broadcasting private or identifying information about an individual, typically on the internet, usually with malicious intent such as to intimidate, threaten, or harass the person.	https://doctorparadox.net/
"drinking the Kool-Aid"	Coming to believe the ideology of a cult	https://doctorparadox.net/
Dunning-Kruger effect	A cognitive bias where individuals with low ability at a task tend to overestimate their ability.	https://doctorparadox.net/models/dunning-kruger-effect/
duty to warn	This refers to a legal or ethical requirement for certain professionals, like therapists or counselors, to break confidentiality and notify potential victims or authorities if a client poses a serious and imminent threat to themselves or others. It's often applicable in scenarios where there's a risk of violence or harm.	https://doctorparadox.net/
echo chamber	Environment where a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/echo-chamber/
echo chamber effect	A situation in which information, ideas, or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission and repetition inside an enclosed system.	https://doctorparadox.net/
ego defense	Ego defense mechanisms are psychological strategies employed by the unconscious mind to protect an individual from anxiety or social sanctions and to provide a refuge from a situation with which one cannot currently cope. These mechanisms can lead to the formation of false beliefs, as they may distort, deny, or manipulate reality as a way to defend against feelings of threat or discomfort.	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/ego-defense/
election denialism	Election denialism is the act of refusing to accept the legitimate results of an electoral process, often based on unfounded claims of fraud or manipulation. It undermines the democratic process and can lead to political instability or violence.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/election-denial/
emotional abuse	Emotional abuse is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder. It involves tactics like belittling, constant criticism, manipulation, and isolation to control or intimidate the victim.	https://doctorparadox.net/tag/emotional-abuse/
emotional blackmail	Emotional blackmail is a manipulation tactic where someone uses fear, obligation, and guilt to control or manipulate another person. It often involves threats of punishment, either directly or through insinuation, if the victim does not comply with the manipulator's demands.	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/emotional-blackmail/
emotional manipulation	Emotional manipulation involves using underhanded tactics to influence and control someone else's emotions or actions for the manipulator's benefit. It can include gaslighting, guilt-tripping, and playing the victim to gain sympathy or compliance.	https://doctorparadox.net/tactics-of-emotional-predators/
empty promises	Empty promises refer to assurances or commitments made with no intention or ability to fulfill them. They are often used to placate or appease someone in the moment but lead to disappointment and mistrust when the promised action or change doesn’t occur.	https://doctorparadox.net/
extortion	Extortion is a criminal offense that involves obtaining something of value, often money, through coercion, which includes threats of harm or abuse of authority. It's a form of manipulation where the perpetrator seeks to gain power or material benefits by instilling fear in the victim.	https://doctorparadox.net/
fact-checking	The act of checking factual assertions in non-fictional text to determine the veracity and correctness of the factual statements.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/fact-checking/
fake audience	Bots or paid individuals used to create an illusion of more support or interest than is really the case.	https://doctorparadox.net/
fake news	Fake news refers to fabricated information that mimics news media content in form but not in organizational process or intent, often created to mislead or deceive readers, viewers, or listeners. It is intentionally and verifiably false, and is disseminated through various media channels, typically for political or financial gain. Trump is fond of mislabelling actual journalism outlets as "fake news" as a way to discredit them.	https://doctorparadox.net/
false consciousness	Part of Marxist theory regarding the phenomenon where the subordinate classes embody the ideologies of the ruling class, diverting their self-interest into activities that benefit the wealthy who are taking advantage of them.	https://doctorparadox.net/
false equivalence	False equivalence is a logical fallacy that occurs when two opposing arguments or issues are presented as being equally valid, despite clear differences in quality, validity, or magnitude. It involves drawing a comparison between two subjects based on flawed or irrelevant similarities, leading to a misleading or erroneous conclusion.	https://doctorparadox.net/
false flag	covert operations designed to deceive by appearing as though they are carried out by other entities, groups, or nations than those who actually executed them	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/hybrid-warfare/false-flag/
false narrative	A false narrative is a deliberately misleading or biased account of events, designed to shape perceptions or beliefs contrary to reality.	https://doctorparadox.net/
fifth world war	Non-linear war; the war of all against all -- a term coined by Putin's vizier Vladislav Surkov.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/hybrid-warfare/fifth-world-war/
filter bubble	Intellectual isolation that can occur when websites use algorithms to selectively assume the information a user would want to see.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/filter-bubble/
flying monkeys	In a psychological context, "flying monkeys" refers to individuals who are manipulated to harass or undermine someone on behalf of a manipulative person, often in situations of abuse or narcissism.	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/flying-monkeys/
Fox News Effect	This term describes the significant influence that watching Fox News can have on viewers' political views, often swaying them towards more conservative positions.	https://doctorparadox.net/
framing effect	The way information is presented so as to emphasize certain aspects over others.	https://doctorparadox.net/
fraud	Fraud is the intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right.	https://doctorparadox.net/
GamerGate	Early harbinger of the alt-right, emerging on social media and targeting professional women in the video games industry	https://doctorparadox.net/
gaslighting	Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation where a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgment.	https://doctorparadox.net/mental-self-defense/gaslighting/
"global cabal"	euphemism in far-right Russian discourse to refer to a perceived "Jewish conspiracy" behind the international order of institutions like NATO and the EU	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/authoritarianism/global-cabal/
globalization	The process of increased interconnectedness and interdependence among countries worldwide, characterized by the free flow of goods, services, capital, and information across borders.	https://foundations.doctorparadox.net/Dictionaries/Economics/globalization
greenwashing	A deceptive practice where a company or organization overstates or fabricates the environmental benefits of their products or policies to appear more environmentally responsible.	https://doctorparadox.net/
grooming	A manipulative process used by predators to build a relationship, trust, and emotional connection with a potential victim, often for abusive or exploitative purposes.	https://doctorparadox.net/
groupthink	The practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility -- making poor decision-making more likely.	https://doctorparadox.net/models/bad-models/groupthink/
Guccifer 2.0	A pseudonymous persona that claimed responsibility for hacking the Democratic National Committee's computer network in 2016, later linked to Russian military intelligence.	https://doctorparadox.net/
hate speech	Speech that attacks or demeans a group based on attributes such as race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, or gender, often inciting and legitimizing hostility and discrimination.	https://doctorparadox.net/
The Heartland Institute	The Heartland Institute is an American conservative and libertarian public policy think tank focused on promoting free-market solutions to various social and economic issues. It is well-known for its skepticism of human-caused climate change and its advocacy against government regulations.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/the-heartland-institute/
hoax	A deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/hoax/
honeypot	In cybersecurity, a strategy that involves setting up a decoy system or network to attract and trap hackers, thereby detecting and analyzing unauthorized access attempts.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/hybrid-warfare/honeypot/
horseshoe theory	Political model in which the extreme left has a tendency to sometimes adopt the strategies of the extreme right.	https://doctorparadox.net/
hybrid warfare	Hybrid warfare is a military strategy that blends conventional warfare, irregular warfare, and cyberwarfare with other influencing methods, like fake news, diplomacy, and foreign electoral intervention.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/hybrid-warfare/
hypnosis	Hypnosis is a mental state of heightened suggestibility, often induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which involves focused attention, reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.	https://doctorparadox.net/
influence techniques	Influence techniques encompass a range of tactics and strategies used to sway or manipulate someone's beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors, often employed in marketing, politics, and interpersonal relationships to subtly or overtly change people's minds or actions.	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/influence-techniques/
information overload	Exposure to or provision of too much information or data.	https://doctorparadox.net/
information terrorists	Media personalities and professionals working against the interests of democracy in the United States. Many amplify their messages through automation and human networks, creating a Greek Chorus-like cacaphony of fake support for unpopular positions.	https://doctorparadox.net/
information warfare	Information warfare involves the use and management of information to gain a competitive advantage over an opponent, often involving the manipulation or denial of information to influence public opinion or decision-making processes.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/hybrid-warfare/
InfoWars	InfoWars is a far-right American conspiracy theory and fake news website and media platform led by Alex Jones, known for its promotion of numerous unfounded and false conspiracy theories.	https://foundations.doctorparadox.net/People/Alex+Jones#Early+life+and+Infowars.com
Intermittent reinforcement	In the context of manipulation, intermittent reinforcement is a behavior conditioning technique where rewards or punishments are given sporadically to create an addictive or obsessive response, making a person more likely to repeat a behavior.	https://doctorparadox.net/
jumping to conclusions bias	This is a cognitive bias that involves making a rushed, premature judgment or decision without having all the necessary information, often leading to misinterpretation or misinformation.	https://doctorparadox.net/
kleptocracy	form of government in which the leaders harbor organized crime rings and often participate in or lead them; the police, military, civil government, and other governmental agencies may routinely participate in illicit activities and enterprises.	https://doctorparadox.net/category/politics/kleptocracy/
kompromat	Kompromat is a Russian term that refers to the gathering of compromising materials on a person or entity to be used for blackmail, manipulation, or public shaming, often for political purposes. It typically involves collecting sensitive, embarrassing, or incriminating information to exert influence or gain leverage over individuals or groups.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/cold-war-dictionary/kompromat/
Mafia state	A systematic corruption of government by organized crime syndicates. A term coined by former KGB/FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko. See also: kleptocracy	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/authoritarianism/mafia-state/
malignant envy	Malignant envy refers to a deep-seated, destructive form of envy that desires to spoil or harm the qualities, possessions, or achievements of someone else, often arising from feelings of inferiority or failure.	https://doctorparadox.net/
malignant narcissism	Malignant narcissism is a psychological syndrome comprising an extreme mix of narcissism, antisocial behavior, aggression, and sadism, often manifesting in manipulative and destructive tendencies.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/authoritarianism/malignant-narcissism/
malware	Malware, short for malicious software, refers to any software intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network. It encompasses a variety of forms, including viruses, worms, spyware, and ransomware, aiming to exploit, harm, or unauthorizedly access information and systems.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/malware/
manipulative media	Media that is altered to deceive or harm.	https://doctorparadox.net/
Marxist	A catch-all derogatory slur for Democrats	https://doctorparadox.net/
maskirovka	war of deception and concealment	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/cold-war-dictionary/maskirovka/
mass hypnosis	Mass hypnosis refers to a phenomenon where a large group of people, often in a crowd or under the influence of media, enter a state of heightened suggestibility, making them more susceptible to persuasion and collective beliefs, often used in the context of propaganda and political manipulation.	https://doctorparadox.net/
Mean World Syndrome	Mean world syndrome is a term in media theory that describes how people who consume large amounts of violent or negative media content tend to perceive the world as more dangerous and hostile than it really is. This phenomenon, coined by communications professor George Gerbner, suggests that heavy exposure to media violence shapes viewers' beliefs about reality, increasing their fear and anxiety about being victimized.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/mean-world-syndrome/
media bias	The perceived bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media.	https://doctorparadox.net/
meme warfare	The use of memes to disseminate an ideology or counter its adversaries.	https://doctorparadox.net/
men's rights	The men's rights movement is a movement that advocates for the rights and interests of men, often focusing on issues like family law, alimony, and false rape accusations, but it has faced criticism for spreading misinformation and fostering anti-feminist sentiments.	https://doctorparadox.net/
microtargeting	Microtargeting is a marketing strategy that analyzes consumer data to identify and target specific segments of a population with highly personalized messages, often through social media and online platforms. In disinformation campaigns, it's used to manipulate public opinion by spreading tailored misinformation to vulnerable groups, exploiting their beliefs or fears for political or ideological gain.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/microtargeting/
mind control	Mind control refers to the process or act of using psychological techniques to manipulate and control an individual's thoughts, feelings, decisions, and behaviors, often associated with cults, brainwashing, and coercive persuasion.	https://doctorparadox.net/
minimizing	Minimizing is a manipulation technique where the severity, importance, or impact of an issue, behavior, or event is downplayed, often to deflect responsibility or diminish perception of harm.	https://doctorparadox.net/
misinformation	Misinformation is false or inaccurate information that is spread, regardless of intent to deceive, which can include rumors, hoaxes, and errors, often leading to misunderstanding or misinterpretation of facts.	https://doctorparadox.net/
money laundering	Money laundering is the illegal process of making large amounts of money generated by criminal activity, such as drug trafficking or terrorist funding, appear to have come from a legitimate source.	https://doctorparadox.net/
moral panic	A widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil threatens the well-being of society.	https://doctorparadox.net/
motivated reasoning	Motivated reasoning is a cognitive bias that causes individuals to process information in a way that suits their pre-existing beliefs or desires, often leading to skewed or irrational decision-making and reinforcing misinformation or false beliefs.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/authoritarianism/motivated-reasoning/
moving the goalposts	Changing the rules after the game is played, when one side doesn't like the outcome.	https://doctorparadox.net/
"myth of tech misogyny"	A form of denialism made popular by alt-right commentator and troll Milo Yiannopoulos, used to discredit feminist discussions about the tech and gaming industry's notorious levels of misogyny.	https://doctorparadox.net/
naive realism	Naive realism is the cognitive bias leading individuals to believe that they perceive the world objectively and that people who disagree with them must be uninformed, irrational, or biased.	https://doctorparadox.net/
narcissistic rage	Narcissistic rage is an intense, often violent, emotional outburst by someone with narcissistic personality disorder, usually triggered by a perceived threat to their self-esteem or self-worth.	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/narcissistic-rage/
narcissistic supply	Narcissistic supply refers to the attention, admiration, emotional energy, or other forms of "supply" that a person with narcissistic tendencies seeks from others to bolster their self-esteem and self-image.	https://doctorparadox.net/
narrative framing	The context or angle from which a news story is told.	https://doctorparadox.net/
The National Enquirer	The National Enquirer is an American tabloid newspaper known for its sensationalist and often unsubstantiated reporting, typically focused on celebrity gossip, scandals, and conspiracy theories.	https://doctorparadox.net/
neurolinguistic programming (NLP)	Neurolinguistic Programming is a controversial approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy, which claims that there is a connection between neurological processes, language, and behavioral patterns learned through experience.	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/neurolinguistic-programming-nlp/
nihilism	Nihilism is a philosophical belief that life lacks objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value, and often rejects established norms and values, sometimes leading to skepticism and pessimism about the world.	https://doctorparadox.net/
non-linear warfare	Non-linear warfare is a military and geopolitical strategy that involves unconventional, unpredictable tactics that do not follow traditional lines of conflict, often blending military and non-military means, including cyber attacks, disinformation, and economic tactics.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/hybrid-warfare/
novichok	military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia and used in the poisoning of former FSB agent turned Putin critic Andrei Skripal and his daughter in Lonson in March, 2018	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/hybrid-warfare/novichok/
one-way street	Expect loyalty from you while offering none in return	https://doctorparadox.net/
oppo	short form of opposition research	https://doctorparadox.net/
Overton window	The range of ideas tolerated in public discourse.	https://doctorparadox.net/models/
paranoia	Nurturing and maintaining enemies	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/paranoia/
passive aggressive	Passive aggressive behavior is a way of expressing negative feelings indirectly rather than openly addressing them, often involving subtle actions or inactions intended to annoy, obstruct, or control others.	https://doctorparadox.net/
photo manipulation	Altering a photograph in a way that distorts reality.	https://doctorparadox.net/
PizzaGate	PizzaGate was a debunked conspiracy theory that falsely claimed high-ranking Democratic Party officials and U.S. restaurants were involved in an underage human trafficking ring, which was widely disseminated online and led to dangerous real-world consequences.	https://doctorparadox.net/conspiracy-theories/pizzagate/
plausible deniability	Plausible deniability refers to the ability of people, typically senior officials in an organization, to deny knowledge of or responsibility for any damnable actions committed by others in an organizational hierarchy because of a lack of evidence that can confirm their participation.	https://doctorparadox.net/
playing the victim	Playing the victim is a manipulative technique where a person portrays themselves as a victim of circumstances or others' actions in order to gain sympathy, justify their own behavior, or manipulate others.	https://doctorparadox.net/
political advertising	Political advertising encompasses the use of media and communication strategies by politicians and parties to influence public opinion and voter behavior, often highlighting policy positions, achievements, or criticisms of opponents. In disinformation campaigns, it can be strategically deployed to spread false or misleading information, aiming to manipulate public perception and undermine trust in political processes or adversaries.	https://doctorparadox.net/
post-truth	Post-truth describes a cultural and political context in which debate is framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the details of policy, and by the repeated assertion of talking points to which factual rebuttals are ignored.	https://doctorparadox.net/
prebunking	Prebunking is a proactive strategy aimed at preventing the spread of disinformation by exposing individuals to weakened versions of common misleading techniques before they encounter them. This method helps build resilience by teaching people how to critically analyze and question the validity of information they come across.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/prebunking/
projection	Projection is a psychological defense mechanism where a person unconsciously denies their own negative qualities by ascribing them to others, often leading to blame-shifting and misinformation.	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/projection/
Project Lakhta	Internal name for the operation that Prigozhin's IRA was running to interfere in elections across the Western world, according to the Mueller indictments.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/hybrid-warfare/project-lakhta/
propaganda	Propaganda is the systematic dissemination of often biased or misleading information, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/authoritarianism/propaganda/
psychographic profiles	Psychographic profiling in political microtargeting involves analyzing individuals' personality traits, values, interests, and lifestyles to tailor messages that resonate on a deeply personal level, often used to influence voter behavior. This technique has raised concerns about disinformation, as it allows for the manipulation of perceptions and opinions by targeting susceptible segments of the population with tailored, and potentially misleading, content.	https://doctorparadox.net/
psychopathy	Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits.	https://doctorparadox.net/psychology/psychopaths/
PUA	PUA, or Pick-Up Artist, refers to a person who practices finding, attracting, and seducing sexual partners, often using deceptive and manipulative tactics.	https://doctorparadox.net/
QAnon	QAnon is a disproven and discredited far-right conspiracy theory alleging that a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against former U.S. President Donald Trump.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/what-is-qanon/
received wisdom	Received wisdom refers to ideas or beliefs that are generally accepted as true without being critically examined, often perpetuating existing biases or misconceptions.	https://doctorparadox.net/
red herring	Something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question.	https://doctorparadox.net/
#releasethememo	"#ReleaseTheMemo" was a social media campaign promoting the release of a classified memo written by U.S. Representative Devin Nunes that alleged abuses of surveillance by the FBI and the Justice Department in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.	https://doctorparadox.net/
retcon	Retcon, or retroactive continuity, is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work, often seen in comics, movies, and TV shows, used to reshape the narrative.	https://doctorparadox.net/
running out the clock	Running out the clock is a strategy in debates or negotiations where one party intentionally delays or prolongs the process until a deadline is reached, limiting the ability of the other side to respond or take action.	https://doctorparadox.net/
sadism	Sadism is the tendency to derive pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others.	https://doctorparadox.net/
samizdat	Self-publishing material that is banned by the state	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/cold-war-dictionary/samizdat/
satire	The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices.	https://doctorparadox.net/
selective exposure	Selective exposure is the tendency to favor information which reinforces one's pre-existing views while avoiding contradictory information, a significant factor in the spread of misinformation.	https://doctorparadox.net/
shame	Shame is a complex emotion that combines feelings of dishonor, unworthiness, and embarrassment, often used in social or psychological manipulation to control or degrade others.	https://doctorparadox.net/
shit-posting	Shit-posting is the act of publishing deliberately provocative or irrelevant posts or comments online, typically to upset others or divert attention from a topic, often seen in online forums and social media.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/shitposting/
siloviki	Russian term for those who have backgrounds and employment in the Russian power ministries -- security services, the military, and police; and more specifically a reference to Putin's security cabal.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/cold-war-dictionary/siloviki/
Snow Revolution	Popular protests beginning in Moscow in 2011, demanding the reinstatement of free elections & the ability to form opposition parties. Hundreds if not thousands of protestors were detained on the first day of action (Dec 5), continuing over the next 2 years as punishments grew increasingly harsh and more activists were sent to penal colonies.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/cold-war-dictionary/snow-revolution/
social bots	Automated accounts that use AI to influence discussions and promote specific ideas or products.	https://doctorparadox.net/category/technology/bots/
social hierarchies	Social hierarchies refer to the structured ranking of individuals or groups within a society, based on factors like class, race, wealth, or power, often influencing people's behavior, opportunities, and interactions.	https://doctorparadox.net/
social proof	A psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation.	https://doctorparadox.net/
sockpuppet accounts	Fake social media accounts used by trolls for deceptive and covert actions, avoiding culpability for abuse, aggression, death threats, doxxing, and other criminal acts against targets.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/hybrid-warfare/sockpuppet-accounts/
source amnesia	Source amnesia refers to the phenomenon where one can recall information but not the source it came from, a situation that exacerbates the spread and entrenchment of misinformation. In the digital age, this contributes significantly to the challenges of distinguishing credible information, as misinformation can spread widely once detached from its dubious origins.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/source-amnesia/
source credibility	The perceived trustworthiness or authority of the source of information.	https://doctorparadox.net/
"sovereign democracy"	system in which democratic procedures are retained, but without any actual democratic freedoms; brainchild of Vladislav Surkov	https://doctorparadox.net/
Special Mission	In the context of disinformation, a "Special Mission" often refers to covert, deceptive operations or tasks assigned under the guise of legitimacy, typically to influence public opinion or political situations.	https://doctorparadox.net/
spin	A form of propaganda that involves presenting information in a biased way.	https://doctorparadox.net/
"spirit cooking"	Spirit cooking refers to a form of performance art popularized by Marina Abramović, which uses ritualistic elements and symbolic gestures in a dinner party setting, often incorporating themes of life, death, and renewal. The term gained widespread attention and controversy in the context of John Podesta's emails released by WikiLeaks in 2016, where an invitation to a spirit cooking dinner led to various conspiracy theories, though it was associated with Abramović's art rather than any literal practice.	https://doctorparadox.net/
splitting	See the world as with them or against them; an extension of black and white thinking.	https://doctorparadox.net/
stochastic terrorism	Refers to the use of mass communication to incite random individuals to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable. It involves the dissemination of rhetoric and propaganda that demonizes certain groups or individuals, creating an environment where violence is implicitly encouraged without directing specific acts.	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/stochastic-terrorism/
stonewalling	Stonewalling is a refusal to communicate or cooperate, such as by not responding to questions or withdrawing from a conversation, often used as a tactic to avoid confrontation or evade accountability.	https://doctorparadox.net/
Stop the Steal	"Stop the Steal" was a slogan and movement promoted by supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump, falsely claiming widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election in an attempt to overturn the results.	https://doctorparadox.net/
Tarasoff rule	The Tarasoff rule refers to a legal principle requiring mental health professionals to breach confidentiality and notify potential victims if a client makes credible threats of violence against them, stemming from a 1976 California court case.	https://doctorparadox.net/
thought-stopping	Thought-stopping involves the deliberate cessation of unwanted or disturbing thoughts, often used in ideological or religious indoctrination to avoid critical thinking and maintain control over beliefs.	https://doctorparadox.net/
torture	Torture is the act of inflicting severe physical or psychological pain or suffering on someone, typically to extract information, punish, intimidate, or for the personal gratification of the torturer.	https://doctorparadox.net/
troll farms	A group of individuals hired to produce a large volume of misleading or contentious social media posts.	https://doctorparadox.net/
trolling	Trolling is the act of making unsolicited or provocative comments online, often anonymously, with the intent of upsetting others, provoking a reaction, or disrupting discussions.	https://foundations.doctorparadox.net/Dictionaries/Tech/trolling
undue influence	Undue influence involves the exertion of excessive pressure or manipulation by one person over another in a relationship, typically to gain control, decision-making power, or exploit the vulnerable party.	https://doctorparadox.net/
urban legend	A humorous or horrific story or piece of information circulated as though true.	https://doctorparadox.net/
viral misinformation	False information that spreads rapidly through social media networks.	https://doctorparadox.net/
wallpaper effect	The "wraparound" pervasiveness of Right-wing Media and its Brainwashing effects at scale	https://doctorparadox.net/dictionaries/disinformation-dictionary/wallpaper-effect/
whisper campaign	A method of persuasion in which damaging rumors or innuendo are spread about the target.	https://doctorparadox.net/
white male identity politics	White male identity politics is a form of identity politics centered on the interests, experiences, and perspectives of white men, often emphasizing racial and gender hierarchies and reacting against perceived threats to white male dominance.	https://doctorparadox.net/
white nationalism	White nationalism is a political ideology that advocates for the self-governance and superiority of white people, often emphasizing racial purity and the creation of a white-only state.	https://doctorparadox.net/save-democracy/right-wing-ideologies/white-nationalist-beliefs/
white terrorism	White terrorism refers to acts of terrorism committed by individuals or groups motivated by white supremacist or white nationalist ideologies, typically aimed at advancing racial and ethnic hierarchies.	https://doctorparadox.net/
yellow journalism	Journalism that is based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration.	https://foundations.doctorparadox.net/Dictionaries/Politics/yellow+journalism

January 3, 2024

Happy 2024! Have a bot.

ParadoxBot is an adorable chatbot who will cheerfully inform you about the Dark Arts

Sure, you could use the site search. Or, you could have a bot — try having a conversation with my blog via the following AI chatbot, ParadoxBot.

Ask it about conspiracy theories, or narcissism, or cults, or authoritarianism, or fascism, or disinformation — to name a few. You can also ask it about things like dark money, economics, history, and many topics at the intersection of political psychology.

It doesn’t index what’s on Foundations (yet) but it has ingested this site and you can essentially chat with the site itself via the ChatGPT-like interface below. Enjoy! And if you love it or hate it, find me on BlueSky (as @doctorparadox) or Mastodon and let me know your thoughts:

Tips for using ParadoxBot

Follow general good practice regarding prompt engineering.
If you don’t get an answer right away, try rephrasing your question. Even omitting or adding one word sometimes produces good results.
Try broad broad and specific types of queries.
Dig deeper into any areas the bot turns up that sound interesting.

August 9, 2023

Phobia Indoctrination

Phobia indoctrination is one of the principle ways a charismatic leader will lull potential followers into his thrall, by putting them into a state of perpetual fear and anxiety. They know, either instinctively or through training (or both), that people can be induced into a prolonged state of confusion easily, and that many people in states of confusion act quite irrationally. Abusers, cult leaders, and other controllers use demagoguery and other tricks to hide in plain sight and continue to accrue power while passing themselves off as harmless or extremely patriotic.

These chaos agents use emotional manipulation and other tactics of emotional predators as a tool of control. They whip followers up into a fear frenzy frequently enough to instill a set of phobia-like instinctual reactions to chosen stimuli. In addition to stoking fears of the enemies at the gates, they also inculcate irrational fears of the consequences of questioning their authority — invoking authoritarianism. Any doubts expressed about the leadership or its doctrine are subject to terrifying negative results. Cults use this formula to wield undue influence over followers, and prevent them from questioning or leaving the group.

Phobia indoctrination is a tool of cults

As part of a larger overall program of brainwashing or mind control, cults and destructive organizations use imaginary extremes (going to hell, being possessed by demons, failing miserably at life, race war, Leftist apocalypse, etc.) to shock followers into refusing to examine any evidence whatsoever. A form of unethical hypnosis, phobia indoctrination can now be carried out on a mass scale thanks to the internet and our massive media apparatus. Be sure to be on the lookout for any cult warning signs in groups and messaging all around you.

Sociopaths and other types of emotional predators are taking ample advantage of their advantage in time and distance over the slow pace of justice. The wielding of fear as a cudgel in American politics has reached a fever pitch, with anti-Critical Race Theory hysteria, anti-vaxxers, anti-government types, anti-science, Lost Cause-revival zombie MAGA footsoldiers screeching about the “freedom!!!” they wish the government to provide them for persecuting their enemies, and other social horrors are merely the tip of the climate changing iceberg.

Phobia indoctrination tactics

Strategies of phobia indoctrination include Repetition and Conditioning, where fears are built through constant exposure; Misinformation and Propaganda, using false information to paint something as dangerous; Utilizing Existing Fears, exaggerating known fears or anxieties; and Social Pressure and Group Dynamics, leveraging social influences to convince others that irrational fears are common.

Other tactics include Authority and Expert Manipulation, where false credentials are used to lend legitimacy; Emotional Manipulation, appealing directly to emotions; Isolation and Control, where a person’s environment is manipulated; and Media Manipulation, using media to provoke fear.

Phobia indoctrination and cults book list:

Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump — Jennifer Mercieca
Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry — Robert J. Lifton
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements — Erich Fromm
The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control — Steve Hassan
The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science–And Reality — Chris Moody
Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems — Alexandra Stein
A Brief History of Fascist Lies — Federico Finchelstein
The Paranoid Style in American Politics — Richard Hofstadter
Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers — John Dean and Bob Altemeyer

Or, support local bookstores instead of Jeff Bezos:

Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump
The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control
The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science–And Reality
Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems
A Brief History of Fascist Lies
The Paranoid Style in American Politics
Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers

Related to phobia indoctrination:

Cult Dictionary ↗

We had better get familiar with the lexicon and vocabulary of the coming era, so we can fight the creeping scourge of thought control roiling the land.

Jim Jones toasting his cult members with a cup of cyanide, by Midjourney

Disinformation Dictionary ↗

Disinformation is meant to confuse, throw off, distract, polarize, and otherwise create conflict within and between target populations.

Cult Warning Signs: How to recognize cultish groups ↗

Recognizing cult warning signs can be vital in identifying and understanding the risk before getting involved with a group who may not have your best interests in mind.

May 31, 2023

Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)

Legal statute requiring those persons lobbying on behalf of a foreign government or other entity to register such with the U.S. government.

Folks like Mike Flynn and Jared Kushner ran afoul of this law during their time in the US government.

History of FARA

The Foreign Agents Registration Act, often abbreviated as FARA, is a United States law passed in 1938. The purpose of FARA is to ensure that the U.S. government and the people of the United States are informed about the source of information (propaganda) and the identity of people trying to influence U.S. public opinion, policy, and laws on behalf of foreign principals.

The Act requires every person who acts as an agent of foreign principals in a political or quasi-political capacity to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal. This includes activities, receipts, and disbursements in support of those activities. Disclosure of the required information facilitates evaluation by the government and the American people of the statements and activities of such persons.

The Act is administered and enforced by the FARA Unit of the National Security Division (NSD) of the United States Department of Justice.

FARA does not restrict publishing of materials or viewpoints; rather, it requires agents representing the interests of foreign powers to disclose their relationship with the foreign government and information about related activities and finances.

Originally, FARA was passed in 1938 in response to concerns about German propaganda agents in the United States in the years leading up to World War II, but its usage has evolved over time. The Act has been amended several times, most significantly in 1966 when its scope was narrowed to focus more specifically on agents working in a political context.

Non-compliance with FARA has become a more prominent issue in recent times, with several high-profile investigations and prosecutions related to the Act. The Act received significant media attention during and after the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, when it was invoked in investigations related to foreign interference in the election — particularly Russian election interference.

More on FARA

Learn more about FARA from the Department of Justice.

March 4, 2022

Ukraine War and Russia resources 🇺🇦

Some of us have been boning up on this topic for about 6 years already, while others are just tuning in now based on the horrors of recent events. It can be overwhelming to come in cold, so here — don’t go it alone! Take this:

Putin’s war against the west

President Biden “declassified” an intelligence analysis many of us had arrived at some time ago: Russian president Vladimir Putin is a cruel revanchist leader who will stop at nothing to claw out a larger legacy before he dies. His goal is nothing less than reconstituting the former Soviet Union and restoring the “glory” of the Russian empire of yesteryear. And for some reason he thinks the world community is going to let him get away with his delusional fever dreams of conquest — as if fever dreams of Mongol domination are still de rigueur.

The attacks on the 2016 election and on the American Capitol in 2021 are related — both are Russian hybrid warfare operations. Russia also is the cold beating heart of the right-wing authoritarianism movement around the world, via financial, political, psychological, economic, and other means of government and regulatory capture.

Putin has hated democracy for a long time — since before the Berlin Wall fell where he was stationed in East Berlin as a young KGB agent, taking the news hard. Now, he has many fifth column confederates aiding and abetting him from within the United States — a number of them brazenly, and openly. It is getting harder and harder for those treasonous types to “hide out” in the folds of disinformation, misinformation, and plausible deniability. The play is being called — and everyone will need to decide if they’re for democracy or authoritarianism.

Media Resources

Twitter Lists

January 19, 2022

Fake Detection

How to detect fake from real

It is going to become increasingly more difficult to discern from fact from fiction, here in this world that seemingly quickly flipped from a world of The Enlightenment to a world of dark disinformation. From artificial intelligence to vast propaganda machines, from deep fakes to fake lives — it’s going to require more from us to be able to detect what’s real.

Already we can’t rely on old cues, signposts, and tropes anymore. We’re less credulous about credentials, and trust isn’t automatic based on caste, title, or familiar status markers.

Go slow and look for mimics

Here’s one key to more accurate reality detection: take more time to spot the fake. Don’t judge too quickly, because it can take time to weed out the fakesters and the hucksters — some are decent mimics and can fool people who are in a hurry, not paying much attention, or attracted to some irrelevant other quality about the ersatz knockoff and thus forms an affinity with them based on something else entirely. Some drink the Kool-Aid for various reasons.

Clues of fraud

Those who cling absurdly to abstract symbols are often fakes. And in general, any folks who feel like they are just trying a little bit too hard might be fake. Then, of course, there are the full-on zealots and religious nutbags. These theocrats are definitely faux compassionate Jesus-lovers. What better cloak than the robes of a religious man (or, less frequently, woman)? It’s the perfect disguise.

No wonder so many child abusers hide out in churches of all kinds, from famously the Catholic to the more recently-outed (though not surprising) Evangelical Southern Baptist Church. No one will ever suspect them, or want to confront them if they do. Plus, they have Democrats to absurdly try and pin the blame on repeatedly, despite a lack of a shred of evidence.

May 30, 2021

Bullies

How to deal with bullies

Or, DADA vs. MAGA. Defense Against the Dark Arts was like the women’s self-defense class of Hogwarts — it taught you how to prepare yourself for the evil that was out there lurking and waiting for you out there. This course of DADA will follow suit, aiming to offer ways to detect, defend, and defeat the cultism rising in America and beyond.

It will be a work in progress over time, so please bear with me as I assemble learnings from a number of sources.

Red Flags: Traits to watch out for

evasiveness
- vagueness
- slipperiness
- can’t be pinned down
- won’t answer straightforward questions
denialism
cognitive dissonance
- doublespeak
- paleologic
- word salad
- contradictions
- nonsense
black and white thinking
- “my way or the highway”
- rigid and inflexible, even when obviously off the mark
- all or nothing framing
- narrow range of observations
- tunnel vision
motivated reasoning
deceptiveness
easily angered
- almost anything seems to trigger them

Attention: Take Back Control of Our Minds

The internet, social media, seemingly infinite channels of entertainment and franchises in gaming are but tips of the giant iceberg that now competes for our time and attention. The number of options to choose from has scaled exponentially over the past several decades — but our amount of time to spend has not increased whatsoever. If anything, it’s decreased

May 14, 2021

The Goldilocks Zone vs. Unbounded growth

The concept of the Goldilocks Zone reminds us that most typically, there is a range of possibilities above and below which would not be viable. This is in contrast to the idea of unbounded growth, in which one or more key performance indicators is expected to continue to grow forever, without bounds. Think: up and to the right.

Commonly used as a metaphor, the Goldilocks Zone has its origins in planetary science. It defines a planet that is within the habitable zone of its star system, meaning not too hot and not too cold — with the ability to sustain liquid water. Without it, life on the only living planet we know — ours — would cease to exist. Therefore, one good place to look for potential life on other planets is the Goldilocks Zone, which has also come to be used as a reference meaning “the perfect conditions” for some ideal state or goal.

“Going viral” isn’t always desirable

We crave it in our social media feeds, but avoid it like the plague when it is the plague — viral contagion can both giveth and taketh away. In America we’ve recently been having both as of this writing.

Whereas the Goldilocks Zone presupposes limits at both ends, unbounded growth expects no limits to ever be encountered from the start. In a finite world inside a finite universe, it is simply unlikely to be true with much regularity.

You could say that Goldilocks Zones know a lot about establishing boundaries, while the infinite growth areas tend to extremism. Beyond the pandemic, cancer is another infamous candidate for illustrating the dangers of growth without bounds. Arguably, hypercapitalism belongs.

The Goldilocks Zone is a moderate

Goldilocks Zones are akin to the center of the Bell curve; the boundaries of the margin of error; the middle path. James Madison would have been a fan of the Goldilocks Zone — it would have smelled to him like his own concept of the moderating force of many factions preventing too much extremism from taking root in governance, and reminded him of the insights of the Marquis de Condorcet.

“Moderation in all things” was made famous by first the Greeks and later the Romans. It is a kind of ancient wisdom that turns out to have very old roots indeed — back even to the early days of the universe.

April 17, 2021

Efficiency isn’t everything

There are many things in life you don’t want to rush through; many experiences you wish to linger. The American cult of efficiency is a kind of over-optimization, and over-fitting of a line that delusionally demands up and to the right every single day, every single quarter, every single time.

The benefits of stopping to smell the flowers have been extolled by sages and philosophers throughout the ages. In all of recorded human history lies some form of the mantra, “haste unto death” — for it is true. We rush headlong off the cliff after all the lemmings ahead of us. We can’t help ourselves — eternal moths to eternal flames.

The slow life

From the cuisine to jurisprudence, from behavior economics to psychological well-being, moving more slowly has numerous well-established benefits. Efficiency should never be the only goal, in any domain or at all times. As James Madison strongly agreed with, “moderation in all things” is the mathematically optimal way to approach life, justice, and governing. Influenced by the Marquis du Condorcet, the invention of statistics, and a distaste for extremism in all forms, The Founders were prescient regarding the later theory of the wisdom of the crowds. They sought to temper the passions of the crowds via checks and balances in our system of governance.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” said Martin Luther King, Jr. That the veracity of the quote remains unsettled is unsettling, like strange fruit swinging in the southern breeze. Yet the “quick justice” barbaric efficiency of slavery, the Confederacy, Jim Crow, superpredators, and mowing down unarmed Black men for traffic violations to name a few, are no examples of fairness. Faster isn’t always better, especially when it comes to justice. It takes time to gather facts, talk to witnesses, piece together the crimes and document them in an airtight way, brokering no doubt in the mind of a single jurist.

AI modeling of potential Las Vegas ticket buyers

The machine learning algorithms can classify people into two buckets, “likely to buy tickets to Vegas” and “unlikely to” based on exposure to lots and lots of data patterns. Problem being, it’s a black box and no one — not even the computer scientists — know how it works or what it’s doing exactly.

So the AI may have discovered that bipolar individuals just about to go into mania are more susceptible to buying tickets to Vegas — and that is the segment of the population they are targeting: a vulnerable set of people prone to overspending and gambling addictions. The ethical implications of unleashing this on the world — and routinely using and optimizing it relentlessly — are staggering.

Profiting from extremism

“You’re never hardcore enough for YouTube” — YouTube gives you content recommendations that are increasingly polarized and polarizing, because it turns out that preying on your reptilian brain makes you keep clicking around in the YouTube hamster wheel.

The amorality of AI — “algorithms don’t care if they’re selling shoes, or politics.” Our social, political, and cultural flows are being organized by these persuasion architectures — organized for profit; not for the collective good, not for public interests, not subject to our political will anymore. These powerful surveillance capitalism tools are running mostly unchecked, with little oversight and with few people minding the ethics of the stores of essentially a cadre of Silicon Valley billionaires.

Intent doesn’t matter — good intentions aren’t enough; it’s the structure and business models that matter. Facebook isn’t a half trillion dollar con: its value is in its highly effective persuasion power, which is highly troubling and concerning in a supposedly democratic society. Mark Zuckerberg may even ultimately mean well (…debatable), but it doesn’t excuse the railroading over numerous obviously negative externalities resulting from the unchecked power of Facebook in not only the U.S., but in countries around the world including highly volatile domains.

Extremism benefits demagogues — Oppressive regimes both come to power by and benefit from political extremism; from whipping up citizens into a frenzy, often against each other as much as against perceived external or internal enemies. Our data and attention are now for sale to the highest bidding authoritarians and demagogues around the world — enabling them to use AI against us in election after election and PR campaign after PR campaign. We gave foreign dictators even greater powers to influence and persuade us in ways that benefit them at the expense of our own self-interest.

May 7, 2019

The Trump Russia Scandal: Cast of Characters for the new Cold War

This list casts a wide net in enumerating the various principals of interest to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election… and beyond. The Russia scandal has continued to unspool throughout the Trump presidency, including the real estate magnate’s first impeachment over his extortion of Ukraine, and his second impeachment over the armed insurrection he incited following his failed re-election bid. It continues to this day.

Plus, don’t miss the RussiaGate Lexicon — and please note these are both works in progress and being updated frequently as new details emerge about the Russia scandal, the Trump family criminal organization, and Putin’s revanchist influence in American politics.

Bestiary

Nationality	Type	Known for
American	Civil servant	Top aide to Hillary Clinton
Latvian	Bank	One of the largest private banks in Latvia
Russian	Oligarch	Russian steel magnate whose Evraz company was given the green light to supply steel to DAPL by the Trump administration
	Lobbyist	A company seeking to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East in partnership with a sanctioned Russia company; Mike Flynn was working for them without having disclosed it to the US government as required.
Russian
Russian	Oligarch	Emin's father; a wealthy Russian-Azerbaijani oligarch who has received lucrative construction contracts from the Kremlin. Known as "Putin's Builder"
Russian	Oligarch	Popular Russian-Azerbaijani singer and businessperson who may have facilitated a handoff of hacked information to Donald Trump Jr via surrogates
Russian	Russian Mafia
Ukranian	Oligarch	Ukranian steel magnate who brokered the relationship between Paul Manafort and defeated presidential candidate Victor Yanukovich
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Former Soviety spy who attending the June 9 meeting in Trump Tower between Don Jr, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya
Russian	Oligarch	CEO of Lukoil, Russia's second largest oil and gas company, that sought the services offered by Trump data firm Cambridge Analytica
Russian	Bank	Largest private commercial bank in Russia, that reportedly had a mysterious secret server connection to the Trump Organization during the campaign. The head of Alfa Group is the father-in-law of Dutch lawyer Alex Van Der Zwaan, currently serving 30 days in federal prison after being indicted by the FBI in the Mueller investigation.
Azerbaijani		Wife of Emin Agalarov and daughter of the president of Ajerbaijan.
	Company	Head of Crowdstrike, the US security firm that first broke the results of the DNC hack investigation, concluding the Russian military intelligence agency was behind it.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	IRA-controlled Twitter account, an anti-immigration persona with 24,000 followers
American	Media Outlet	Helped bury stories portraying Trump in a bad light before the election, via catch and kill methodology among others
Chinese	Company
		Flight 93
American	Company	The House might come after messaging records for principals.
	Oligarch	co-founder of Bayrock and Kazakh-born Soviet official turned real estate tycoon
Ukranian		Member of the Ukranian parliament who says Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen and business crony Felix Sater confirmed the White House received his “peace proposal” (suggesting Russia “lease” the country for 100 years)
Australian	Hacker	Editor-in-chief of Wikileaks and former hacker from Australia, currently holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London on the lam from rape charges in Sweden; he is suspected of coordinating with the Russian government on the cyber attack on the American election in 2016.
Russian	Oligarch	Russian banker and consultant who bought Bank of Cyprus's Russian-based businesseses; a transaction overseen by Wilbur Ross
Ukranian	Politician	Former Prime Minister of Ukraine who was ousted in the Maidan revolution along with President Viktor Yanukovych.
Cypriot	Bank
American	Principal actor
		Suspected organized crime figure who accompanied Ivanka and Don Jr to Russia in 2007-2008
Russian	Oligarch	Head of investor relations for Rosneft who met with Carter Page in Moscow after his 2016 speech.
Russian		Worked at the Internet Research Agency
French	Foreign Intelligence	Cooperated with Russia in the Syrian civil war and nominated Putin for a Nobel Peace Prize; Donald Trump, Jr. spoke at an event held by Baussart's French think tank.
	Company	Employed Felix Sater for a number of shady real estate dealings involving Mr Trump. Founded by Tevfik Arif, a Russian oligarch.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	An IRA-controlled Facebook group that bought ads in support of the Trump campaign, and had over 200,000 followers by the time it was finally deactivated in mid-2017
	Civil servant	Trump's pick to lead the DOJ's criminal division; once represented a Putin-tied Russian bank
Russian	Hacker	Hacker group
Russian	Journalist	Well-known journalist who was the founding editor of Russia’s top business daily, Vedomosti, as well as the first publisher of the Russian edition of Forbes; left the country during the Brain Drain. “The Kremlin doesn’t care because it doesn’t consider the likes of me Russia’s best and brightest,” he told me by email after his departure to Germany in the summer of 2014. “To them, we’re the traitors, the fifth column.”
Russian		26-year-old former worker at the Internet Research Agency in Russia who has spoken to the US media about his experiences in the "factory of lies"
American	Lawyer	U.S. Attorney who was prosecuting the Prevezon Holdings case when he was fired by Trump, shortly after which the huge case about to go to trial abruptly settled.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	IRA-controlled persona claiming to want to teach African-Americans self-defense to protect themselves when contacted by police, that hired an actual self-defense instructor in NY to offer classes sponsored by Black Fist
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	IRA-controlled account posing as grassroots activists
American		his company Colt Ventures provided data management services to the Trump campaign
American	Civil servant	John Kerry's deputy secretary of state under Obama
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Worked for the Internet Research Agency from at least April 2014 to at least July 2014; she served on the translator project and oversaw the group's data analysis operations. She is one of the operatives who traveled to the United States to gather intel.
	Politician	Russian deputy foreign minister
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Director of FSB circa 2015
	Foreign Intelligence	Worked for the Internet Research Agency from at least November 2013 to at least October 2014. She was at one time head of the translator project, along with other positions.
	Civil servant
American	Intelligence Community	Acting CIA director under Obama; one of the 3 who brief Trump and Obama about the Russian attack on Election 2016
American	Company	LLC begun by Maria Butina and Paul Erickson in South Dakota
American	Lobbyist	Major Trump campaign donor and Deputy Finance Chair of the RNC, who suspiciously took hundreds of millions of dollars from the UAE and was working on a business deal with the corrupt Prime Minister of Malaysia implicated in a heist of $4.5 billion dollars. Had himself been charged with felony bribery, ended up turning state's witness, plea-bargained his case down to a misdimeanor while those he bribed went to prison. Also, he was reportedly negotiating a deal wherein he stood to benefit to the tune of $75 million, to drop the Feds' case into the Malaysian theft.
American	Activist	Founder of Hermitage Capital, who worked with Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky to uncover a $230 million money laundering scheme from Prevezon Holdings into NYC real estate. He has sought justice for the murder of Magnitsky in 2009.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	One of the 13 Russian nationals indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in February 2018, in connection with the Internet Research Agency's attack on the U.S. 2016 election. Burchik was Executive Director, the #2 in the organization, from at least March 2014.
American	Politician	(R-NC) and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, one of the committees in Congress conducting Russia investigations
American	Lobbyist	Helped Trump write his first foreign policy speech
Russian
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	"Personal assistant" to Alexander Torshin, she claims to have started several gun rights organizations in Russia
American	Media Outlet	Originally broke the story of the Steele dossier and published what of it they had.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	One of the 13 Russians indicted by Robert Mueller's Special Counsel in February 2018, Bystrov was General Director -- the organization's highest-ranking position -- by April 2014.
British	Company	Data analytics company that worked for the Trump campaign and has been indicted in the UK for data theft.
American	Unregistered Foreign Agent	Member of Trump's campaign team, in charge of communications for New York. Left the campaign after voicing approval of the installation of Paul Manafort, replacing Corey Lewandowski as Trump's campaign manager.
American	Company	Cloud computing company that hosted the Trump Organization and may have information on the Alfa Bank link during the campaign
French		French right-wing group that hosted a Trump trip to Paris during the home stretch of the campaign
American	Media Personality	Alt-Right personality in the U.S. who lives in Orange County, CA
American	Media Personality	Bowing out of politics after announcing a move to Fox and whining about the cost of living as a Senator
	Lawyer	Russian prosecutor general
American	Intelligence Community	Director of National Intelligence under Obama; one of the 3 who brief Trump and Obama about the Russian attack on Election 2016
American	Politician
American	Politician
American	Intelligence Community	Director of National Intelligence who testified that there is no doubt Russia sees its 2016 efforts as having been successful.
American	Lawyer	Trump's personal lawyer. Convicted of various federal crimes including campaign finance violations; sentenced to 3 years in prison.
American	Lawyer	Trump's mentor and ruthless, vicious lawyer
American	Politician	Senator from Maine who has been a voice of moderation within the Republican-controlled Senate, siding several times with the Democrats and voting against her own party.
American	Intelligence Community	Being fired by Donald Trump as the FBI Director
American	Intelligence Community	new leader of the House Intelligence Committee's Russia probe after the recusal of Devin Nunes
Russian	Company	Company owned by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, known to be nicknamed "Putin's Chef" and inside the Russian president's inner circle.
American	Company	provided data management services to the Trump campaign, and an investor in VizSense -- a social media company who worked reportedly for the campaign and for Michael Flynn
American	Politician	Leader of the House Intelligence Committee, one of the Congressional committees investigating the Russia scandal
American	Lawyer	Husband of Kellyanne Conway, a lawyer who has represented a corporation accused of bribing Russian officials
American	Oligarch
American	Politician	Criticized the firing of Sally Yates: "If dedicated government officials deem [Trump's] directives to be unlawful and unconstitutional, he will simply fire them as if government is a reality show."
	Lobbyist	Managing director of ACU Strategic Partners, a firm Mike Flynn was consulting for regarding building nuclear power plants in the Middle East.
American	Media Personality	Intermediary between Roger Stone and Wikileaks, an arm of the Russian intelligence apparatus
American		New York Republican Party Chairman and son-in-law of Richard Nixon who recommends Carter Page to the Trump campaign
		Roger Stone's publicly identified intermediary between himself and Julian Assange of Wikileaks. When subpoena'd by Congress, he pled the Fifth.
Russian	Company	Real estate developmenr firm owned by the Agalarovs, that secured the Moscow location for Trump's 2013 Miss Universe pageant
American	Company	One of the US private security contractors who implicated the Russians in the hack of the DNC servers.
American	Media Personality	The reigning Miss Universe at the time of the 2013 Moscow pageant (and former Miss USA, and noted Trump favorite)
American	Politician	ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, one of the first to request an investigation into Michael Flynn
American	Intelligence Community	White House director of cybersecurity
American
American	Company	Political consulting company created by Paul Manafort in 2005.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	A cutout of the GRU, this account directly released and coordinated with Wikileaks to release more widely the stolen emails from Clinton, the DNC, and the DCCC
American
American	Lobbyist	GOP strategy firm hired by Facebook to besmirch its rivals and tar them with accusations of being tied to George Soros
	Oligarch	Ex-wife of Rupert Murdoch, friend of Ivanka Trump, and friend of Russian oligarhcs + Putin (rumored to be Putins' girlfriend)
American
American	Government agency
Russian	Oligarch	Russian billionaire and Kremlin insider barred from the US due to organized crime links [contact w/Paul Manafort]
German	Bank	Both the Risk Division's Goup Risk Office and Credit Risk Management teams are under scrutiny from House Democrats at the HPSCI for due diligence on Trump transactions that have anything to do with the bank's own confirmed history of laundering Russian money.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Chief executive of the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund, their sovereign wealth fund, who met with Erik Prince at a bar in the Seychelles, with George Nader present.
		Company started by Paul Manafort in 2011 to consult, lobby, and do PR for Ukranian dictator Victor Yanukovich, whom Manafort helped get elected in 2010 until fleeing the country in 2014.
		FSB handler of Russian DNC hacker
Ukranian	Territory	Area of Ukraine where a counter-revolution emerged after students ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and overthrew the government.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	An IRA-controlled Facebook group with more than 250,000 followers by the time it was deactivated in mid-2017
American	Tech tycoon	Co-founder and CEO of Twitter and Square
		Top Australian diplomat in Britain, who had drinks with George Papadopolous in London the night he blabbed about the Russians having dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Hacker group
Russian		Russia's most well-known neo-fascist ideologue, & Kremlin confidant
Russian		Founder of the successful VKontakte social network website, often described as Russia’s Facebook. Durov said he had been forced out of the company over his refusal to co-operate with the security services, and that his company was now under the “full control” of Kremlin-friendly figures
American	Civil servant	Obama White House press secretary in 2016
	Oligarch	MMA star, former Trump business partner, and friend of Putin
	Company	One of Oleg Deripaska's companies whose sanctions were lifted by the Trump administration.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Hacker group connected to the Kremlin
American	Unregistered Foreign Agent	Attempted to set up a backchannel between the NRA and the Russian government during the Trump campaign.
	Foreign Intelligence	ex-KGB chief linked to helping the Christopher Steele dossier on Trump, reportedly found dead in the back of his car in Moscow on Boxing Day
	Lobbyist	NGO entity created by Manafort and Gates in Belgium in 2012 to serve as an "arm's length" front for their work with Yanukovich.
Russian	Company	One of Oleg Deripaska's companies whose sanctions were lifted by the Trump administration.
American	Company
Russian	Principal actor	Fictional corporate twin entity to the IRA (indicted by Mueller) that is suing Facebook on First Amendment grounds... surely to go up to a COTUS tipped by Kavangaugh, as all such hyper-controversial cases are liable to be?!?!
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Hacked Democratic Party emails during the 2016 US presidential election; also hacked MAcros campaign emails in France.
British	Politician	Former UKIP leader now under investigation for ties to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange
American	Intelligence Community	Investigation of domestic terror units and criminal cells, as well as foreign criminal groups within the U.S.
Russian		Russian Parliament
American	Politician	Overseeing the process generally of national and state elections
American	Politician	US Senator from California who published Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS's transcript of testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
American	Company	Security firm
Ukranian	Oligarch	Ukranian oligarch and nagural gas magnate who got sweetheart deals within Putin's inner circle
American	Civil servant	John Kerry's chief of staff
Icelandic	Company	Icelandic hedge fund with ties to Putin, that invested in Trump Soho via FBI informant and convicted felon Sal Lauria
American	Intelligence Community	As the new NSA director he advocated military intervention in the Middle East and an alliance with Russia; later it turned out he'd accepted undisclosed payments from the Rurkish government and lied about undisclosed meetings with the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak
American	Company
	Company	Hosted the meeting in the Seychelles between Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund
American	Media Outlet
American	Media Outlet	see: Washington Free Beacon
Russian	Oligarch	invested $200m in Uber (?)
American	Company	Erik Prince's company, who has ignored document requests from Congress relating to the meeting in the Seychelles with Kirill Dmitriev
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	the Russian Federal Security Service
American		Political research firm hired first by conservative billionaire, later by the Clinton campaign, that ultimately led to the Steele dossier.
Russian	Principal actor	Worked at the Internet Research Agency before being employed at Facebook
	Intelligence Community
American	Intelligence Community
American	Lobbyist	Paul Manafort's right hand man, indicted along with the former Trump campaign manager for a number of federal crimes from money laundering to illegal foreign lobbying and tax evasion.
Russian	Media Outlet
Russian	Company	Russia's energy monopolgy and largest gas company
American
Georgian	Nation-state	Former Soviet state
Russian	Military	Russian General who wrote seminal asymmetric warfare doc
	Journalist	Journalist and author who has lived extensively in Russia and studied the rise of Putin
Russian	Activist	Leader of the Ukranian pro-Russian separatists in Donbas, he is alleged to have been connected to the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17
American	Politician	Publicly "predicted" the Comey "re-opening" of Clinton's emails when the Anthony Weiner laptop was found
Russian	Russian Mafia	Former Boris Berezovsky associate turned up murdered in the UK, 8 days after the poisoning and attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal in London.
	Russian Mafia	Publicist of Russian-Azerbaijani singer Emin Agalarov who set up the June 9 meeting between Don Jr, Kushner, Manafort, and the Russians
American	Company	Online search company whose system was gamed, hacked, or perhaps simply used intentionally to sow disinformation to some of the most vulnerable citizen targets, as identified by stolen and purchased predictive user data.
Russian	Politician	Glasnost
Hungarian	Media Personality	Former counterterrorism analyst for Fox News who joined the administration as an adviser; his ties to the Hungarian right had come increasingly under scrutiny before his departure from the White House. Prior to immigrating to the United States, Gorka had mounted an unsuccessful political career in Hungary and, in doing so, once expressed support for a far-right militia in the country.
American		A watchdog organization for financial and other high-profile crimes within the U.S.
American	Politician	(R-SC) Chair of the House Oversight Committee
American	Politician	(R-IA)
Russian	Intelligence Community	Soviety military intelligence services
American	Government agency	Has been asserted by TFA that documents were "unlawfully" given to the Special Counsel's Office by this agency, including parts susceptible to privilege.
Russian	Hacker	A cutout of the GRU, this account directly released and coordinated with Wikileaks to release more widely the stolen emails from Clinton, the DNC, and the DCCC
American	Civil servant	Hillary for America IT chief
American	Intelligence Community	Testified before the House Intelligence Committee on the probable ability of the Russians to hack an election
American	Media Personality	Made claims on his show that the Steele dossier launched the Russia probe, which isn't accurate.
European	Politician	Informal name given to the set of former European politicians whom Paul Manafort and Rick Gates paid to espouse pro-Yanukovich talking points.
American	Lawyer	Representing Trump in the Stormy Daniels case; also represented Terry Bolea in the Gawker trial
American	Politician	Member of the House Intelligence Committee, one of the Congressional committees investigating the Russia scandal
		The investment fund client of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered a $230 million money laundering scheme through New York real estate via Prevezon, a Russian holding company.
American	Principal actor	Yet another former White House Communications Director, she resigned the day after giving 9 hours of testimony on the Hill to the House Intelligence Committee. Til then she had been the longest-running current member of the Trump campaign.
American
American	Civil servant	US Ambassador to Russia
American	Lawyer	Paul Erickson's lawyer
		Tied to VizSense Inc. and White Canvas Group, 2 firms that did business with Michael Flynn
Russian		Christian fascist philosopher who inspired much of Vladimir Putin's political philosophy
American	Company	Platform used by the Russian disinformation campaign that House Democrats want to subpoena
American	Company	Platform used by the Russian disinformation campaign that House Democrats want to subpoena the transition team for records of
Russian	Principal actor	Well-known troll farm with ties to the Kremlin, funded and run by Russian oligarch and "Putin's Chef" Yevgeniy Prigozhin (who also oversees private mercenary military forces in Syria and Ukraine.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence
	Media Outlet	The main Bolshevik newspaper in the early 20th century
American	Politician
Russian		One of Putin's closest allies, he's the head of anti-narcotics in Russia; has spoken out against marijuana legalization in the US (!)
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	IRA-controlled Twitter account claiming to be a Virginian Trump supporter with 70,000 followers
Russian	Politician	Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader, who is thought to be behind the murder of Putin critic and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. Kadyrov received a medal from Putin the month after Nemtsov's murder.
Russian, American	Foreign Intelligence	Former KGB agent who became a U.S. citizen and grew critical of Putin's regime.
Russian	Oligarch	Sole shareholder of Prevezon, implicated in the $230m theft of Russian taxpayer dollars
Russian	Russian Mafia	8th person at Don Jr's June 9 meeting; VP at Crocus Group, owned by Aras Agalarov — a lawyer for the Russian real estate firm, he has been identified by the Government Accountability Office as part of a large ring of Russian money-laundering operations.
American	Lawyer	Mike Flynn's lawyer
American	Politician	Georgia secretary of state who bristled at the idea of DHS's warning about the election integrity and attempts to hack voter registration
American	Politician	Secretary of State under Obama from 2013 to 2018
American	Company	Western PR firm that helps place pro-Russian op-eds in Western media (like Putin's in NYTimes on 9/11/13)
Russian	Intelligence Community	The Soviet secret service, renowned for ruthlessness and duplicity
Russian		Daughter of a Russian oligarch, married to Alex van der Zwaan -- the first to go to prison in the Mueller investigation.
Russian	Oligarch	Russian oligarch billionaire, principal of Alfa Bank (Russia's largest privste bank) and the father-in-law of Alex van der Zwaan who has pleaded guilty to MUeller's team.
Russian	Oligarch	Ex-oil tycoon unexpectedly freed by Putin ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics
Russian	Principal actor	FAN's chief accountant and an indictee under Mueller's Russian investigation
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Paul Manafort's business associate in the Ukraine
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Russian Ambassador who spoke with Mike Flynn [tracker] about lifting sanctions in undisclosed series of meetings
	Company	Company formed by Peter Smith to facilitate and manage his question to find Hillary's missing emails.
Russian	Oligarch	Young Russian billionaire who claims to have been instrumental in getting Trump elected.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence
		Cambridge Analytica researcher who oversaw the harvesting of 50 million Facebook user accounts' info who also moonlighted as a lecturer at St. Petersburg University
Russian	Media Outlet	Long-respected business newspaper purchased by pro-Kremlin oligarch Alisher Usmanov
Russian		Leninist Youth League organization for Communists aged 14 to 28 in the late 80s & early 90s
Russian
Russian		CEO of VTB, one of the largest Russian banks (and under US sanctions)
Hungarian		One of the leaders of Jobbik, Hungary's pro-Putin rightist party, who is accused of being a Russian spy.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	One of the two main suspects in the UK's murder investigation case of former FSB/KGB spy turned informant and expat dissident, Alexander Litvinenko -- killed by polonium-210 poisoning after having tea with the two then-current KGB officers in November, 2006.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Senior Putin aide who attended the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in lieu of Putin.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	The Dutch intelligence community alerted the DNC way back in 2015 that they had been hacked back in 2014.
Russian	Principal actor
		Former Bayrock partner who filed a lawsuit in January, 2017 alleging tax evasion of as much as $250 million in income + Russian money laundering
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Served as Director and 3rd highest employee within the Internet Research Agency, from at least September 2013. She was one of two employees of the IRA who obtained visas and entered the United States on June 4, 2014.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Russian diplomat recalled to Russia, fearing his cover would be blown re: heavy involvement in the 2016 election, including the veterans' pensions ruse
American	Oligarch	Father of Jared, the elder Kushner committed campaign fraud, blackmailed his own sister, and spent time in federal prison before re-emerging to help run the family business and, of course, suck at the teat of the Presidency
American	Principal actor	The evil son-in-law so evil he owned a billion dollar building at 666 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan
American	Company
American	Intelligence Community	Former chief of the DOJ's Counterintelligence & Export Control Section
	Russian Mafia	FBI informant and convicted felon who brokered a $150 million deal for Sater with FL Group, an Icelandic hedge fund tied to Putin that also invested in the Trump Soho project
	Politician	Russian Foreign Minister
French	Politician	head of the French far-Right party
Russian	Hacker	Russian hacker who ran the sprawling Kelihos botnet, a massive spam and scam network; indicted by a US grand jury on 4/21/17
Russian
Russian	Oligarch	Russian "king of diamonds" who was a partner in Prevezon (involved in the Magnistsky-exposed money laundering of $230m in Russian tax dollars) and sold several floors of the NYTimes building in Manhattan to Jared Kushner
Russian		Former police investigator from the Siberian city of Surgut, who left the force after becoming disgusted by the “culture of corruption” he had witnessed, and moved to Moscow in 2009. Inspired, like so many others, by the anti-Putin protests of 2011–12, Leviyev, a tattooed 29-year-old, is now one of the country’s top “social media dissidents”.
Russian	Oligarch	Russian Canadian CEO of developer Talon (Trump Toronto); had no previous experience in real estate or construction
American	Lobbyist	Donald Trump's first campaign manager; succeeded by Paul Manafort.
		Alleged mobster and associate of John Gotti, who is on video with Trump in the 80s at a WrestleMania event
Russian	Oligarch	Russian steel mogul who made $830m in 3 days after the election
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	former Russian FSB agent who informed on Putin's connections to the Russian mafia and was assassinated by polonium-210 poisoning in 2006
Russian
		Ties to the Romneys?!
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	One of the two main suspects in the UK's murder investigation case of former FSB/KGB spy turned informant and expat dissident, Alexander Litvinenko -- killed by polonium-210 poisoning after having tea with the two then-current KGB officers in November, 2006. Lugovoy is currently a sitting member of the Russian parliament: deputy of the State Duma.
Russian	Company	Russia's second largest oil company after Rosneft, they contracted with Trump data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica
American	Civil servant	US Attorney General under Barack Obama
American	Journalist	Host of the most popular nighttime news show on MSNBC; she's been following the Russia story aggressively for over a year in meticulously detailed fashion.
	Lawyer	lawyer who tried to expose the theft of $230 million of Russian taxpayers' money by Prevezon Holdings (laundered into NYC real estate) before being arrested and allegedly tortured prior to his death in a Moscow prison in 2009; the 2012 Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act is a landmark human rights act named after him.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Division of the GRU that carried out the second half of the Russian attack on our democracy -- cyber intrusions and hacking of stolen materials from the Clinton campaign, disseminated by WikiLeaks
American	Principal actor
American	Intelligence Community	Head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security who confirmed to NBC News that the Russians successfully infiltrated "an exceptionally small number" of voter regidstration rolls in 21 states.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	IRA-controlled accouunt created in May 2016 to promote IRA-organized rallies in support of the Trump Campaign
American	Politician
American	Intelligence Community	Deputy Nartional Security Advisor under Mike Flynn. Asked to step down by HR McMaster.
American	Lawyer	White House counsel from XXXX-XXXX
American	Politician
American	Company	Social media and blogging community frequented by the Russians during their efforts at sowing propaganda and discord during the American 2016 Presidential election.
Russian	Politician	Russian Prime Minister
American	Oligarch
American	Principal actor	Shadowy billionaire Trump backer and donor who also backs Breitbart, Cambridge Analytica, and John Bolton.
		Holds Trump debt
British	Foreign Intelligence	British intelligence agency; the rough equivalent of the American CIA.
		Director of the London Academy of Diplomacy who meets with George Papadopoulos in Italy.
	Oligarch	part owner of Novatek who made $1.9b from the stock pop post-Trump
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	GRU cyberunit dedicated to targeting military, politival, governmental, and non-governmental organizations outside of Russia, including the U.S. Separate from this investigation, Unit 26165 was charged by a grad jury for hacking the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the World Doping Agency, and other international sport associations.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	A GRU unit engaged in cyber operations, including assisting in the release of the documents stolen by Unit 26165, the promotion of those releases, and the publication of anti-Clinton content on social media accounts operated by the GRU. This unit also hacked computers belonging to the stater boards of elections, secretaries of state, and U.S. companies supplying software and other technology related to elections.
American	Principal actor	Aggressively anti-immigrant advisor to Trump, co-writing many of his most vitriolic speeches
Belarusian	Russian Mafia	Trump associate, head of the Russian-American chamber of commerce, and one of the sources of the Steele dossier
Russian	Principal actor	Former worker at the Russian troll factory, the Internet Research Agency, who told the Western press what it was like inside the farm.
Russian	Russian Mafia	Notorious mobster
Emirati		The crown prince of Abu Dhabi.
	Lawyer	World's fourth largest offshore law firm, whose files were published as the Panama Papers in a German newspaper
American	Civil servant	Special Counsel at the DOJ, investigating RussiaGate
		Ministry of Internal Affairs; supervises all police, prisons, and "public order militias"
American	Lobbyist	Lebanese-American businessman who lobbies for the UAE, and was at the meeting in the Seychelles with Erik Prince and the Russians
Russian	Activist	Putin critic and activist blogger; has been arrested, charged, & sentenced several times (but recognized as a political prisoner by NGOs)
Russian	Politician	Putin critic and opposition politician who was shot dead in Moscow in 2015 by a member of the Chechen security forces
Russian	Company	Restaurant of Yevgeny Prigozhin that became a favorite of Putin's, netting Mr Prigozhin lucrative contracts for shady operations as "Putin's Chef"
Russian
British	Principal actor	CEO of Trump data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	a forerunner to the KGB under Stalin
American	Lobbyist	Hosted a number of conduits between the Trump campaign and Russian nationals, particularly Russian billionaires and oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin.
American	Intelligence Community
American	Civil servant	Former Trump aide who made a series of bizarre statements on cable TV before testifying to Robert Mueller's team
American	Politician
American	Media Outlet	Website owned by Jarek Kushner as part of Observer Media
American	Media Outlet	Media company owned by Jared Kushner.
American	Media Personality	American TV host
Ukrainian		Successor ruling party in Ukraine after Victor Yanukovich fled to Moscow and his Party of Regions toppled.
Hungarian	Politician	President of Hungary, noted for his pro-Putin and anti-refugee beliefs
British	Company	Steele's research firm
		dead — Bryan Cohen's father-in-law (brother of Trump's personal lawyer
Russian	Media Outlet	Russia's TV network
		Holds Trump debt
American	Principal actor
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	IRA-controlled Twitter account claiming to be a Texan Trump supporter with 70,000 followers
American	Principal actor	Member of the Trump campaign who has pled guilty in the Robert Mueller investigation and flipped to become a cooperating witness. Will serve jail time.
American	Principal actor	Head of the Trump campaign's digital operation
Ukranian		Ukranian political party run by Victor Yanukovych, the pro-Putin dictator ushered into power by Paul Manafort.
American
American	Principal actor	Helped American Media bury stories unfavorable to Trump leading up to the election -- a campaign contribution violation, not to mention a moral violation
American	Principal actor	Vice President of the United States
Russian	Principal actor	Putin's press secretary. Michael Cohen was in touch with him as late at June 2016, during the presidential campaign, in talks over the Trump Tower Moscow deal.
		Fox News counterterrorism analyst & one of Trump's 5 initial national security advisors
American	Civil servant	His stolen emails were one of several tronches of stolen documents released by Wikileaks at strategic moments during the 2016 presidential election campaign.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Russian agent who received intelligence information from American energy consultant Carter Page beginning in January 2013
Russian		Worked for the Internet Research Agency as its head of IT from April 2014 to at least July 2014; he oversaw the buildout of the U.S. infrastructure for the Russian operations.
American	Civil servant	CIA Director who went from praising to condemning Wikileaks
Ukranian	Politician	Ukranian president
Cypriot	Company	a Cyprus company that has invested in Manhattan real estate and which prosecutors allege was the receptacle for some of the $230 million stolen from Russian taxpayers in 2007; part of Hermitage Capital, the investment fund Magnitsky was investigating until his murder in a Moscow prison in 2009.
American	Civil servant
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	"Putin's Chef" -- a former caterer and restauranteur who now runs Vladimir Putin's internet propaganda operations via the Internet Research Agency as well as overseeing mercenary forces operating in Syria and Ukraine.
American	Oligarch	Sec. of Education Betsy DuVoss's brother, who met a Russian oligarch in the Seychelles during the campaign to talk about lifting sanctions. Founded and runs Blackwater, a formidable private security firm often accompanying US military operations as the theater of war becomes increasingly privatized and mercenaries find themselves duking it out in the desert armed with the plausible deniability of being at arm's length from their country's official foreign policy.
American	Media Outlet
Russian	Activist
Russian	Principal actor
American	Politician	Member of the House Intelligence Committee, one of the Congressional committees investigating the Russia scandal
American	Company	Was asked by House Democrats on March 7, 2018 to provide intel on the scope and scale of the Russian disinformation effort on their platforms during the 2016 election
Russian	Company	One of the first private companies or "collectives" formed under Gorbachev's glasnost reforms, it brokered the first proto-Internet within the Soviet Union and first connection to the outside world — playing a key role in thwarting the attempted coup against Gorbachev by the KGB in August, 1991
Russian		Moscow-based entity begun by Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin -- odd, in a country with no gun rights at all.
American	Company	Hosted Donald Trump during his 2013 visit to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant
Russian		extreme nationalist party in Russia c. 2003 that hinted at ethnic cleansing; The Guardian reported it had actually been set up as a prop by Putin & cronies, to draw votes away from the other far-right Communist Party
American	Lobbyist	Hired by Alfa Bank: a former REagan administration official
American	Intelligence Community	Admiral and Director of the National Security Agency under Obama; one of the 3 who briefed Trump and Obama about the Russian attack on Election 2016
American	Politician	Representative (R-CA 48th District) since 2013; dubbed "Putin's favorite Congressman"
Russian		Putin ally implicated in the Panama Papers
Russian	Company	Russia's state oil company
Russian	Media Outlet	Russia's official government newspaper
American	Politician	US Secretary of Commerce and single largest shareholder of the Bank of Cyprus, the famous haven for Russian oligarchs to stash their billions
Russian
		CEO of Vornado, a $20 billion real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns 49.5% of Jared Kushner's building at 666 Fifth Avenue; he's also on Trump's economic advisory team
Russian	Media Outlet	Russian state-owned news service
Russian	Media Outlet	The Kremlin's new video news agency
Russian	Company	One of Oleg Deripaska's companies whose sanctions have been lifted by Trump's Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
Russian		Russia's sovereign wealth fund
Russian		part of the far-right coalition within Russia seeking to build an international consensus, this group advocates "Christian Orthodox imperial nationalism"
Russian	Politician	Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
American	Politician	Speaker of the House (R-WI) and a Trump defender and denialist
Russian	Oligarch	the “Fertilizer King” — fertilizer billionaire who purchased Trump's Palm Beach mansion for $95 million, but never moved in
American	Oligarch
American	Civil servant
Russian	Russian Mafia	Russian mobster and FBI informant who runs Bayrock, a money-laundering firm designed to hide dirty Russian money in Trump's taxes
Saudi Arabian	Nation-state
Russian	Bank	Russia's largest bank
American	Civil servant	Trump press secretary for all of 10 days
American	Principal actor	Managed the Trump campaign's social media
American	Politician	Top-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee overseeing that chamber's Russia investigation
American		Trump's longtime security chief and confidant
American	Lawyer	New York State Attorney General who has a long history of legal cases with Trump
American	Politician	(D-NY) and Sen. Minority Leader
Russian	Oligarch	President of Rosneft at the time Exxon violated Russian sanctions to help protect his property interest
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	An IRA-controlled Facebook group that bought ads in support of the Trump Campaign, and had over 130,000 followers at the time it was deactivated in mid-2017
American	Lawyer	Trump's personal lawyer
American	Principal actor	Trump's first US Attorney General, before Bill Barr. He has recused himself from the Russia investigation because of his curious, multi-part memory loss of meetings with Russian agents.
Ukranian	Oligarch	Ukrainian steel magnate & partner at Talon International who is managing Trump Toronto hotel as it goes into default
American		President of the Miss Universe Organization, who reported directly to Trump at the time of the 2013 Moscow pageant
Russian		Director of PArtnership Marketing for vKontakte, a Russian social media site, that had communications with the Trump campaign about setting up a profile.
	Company
American	Media Outlet	Conservative broadcasting conglomerate gobbling up local TV stations and forcing them to air canned right-wing footage with each segment.
American		Head of research firm Fusion FPS who commissioned the Christopher Steele dossier.
American	Oligarch	Billionaire financier who originally commissioned research firm Fusion GPS to start compiling opposition research on Donald Trump. He abandoned the project after Trump secured the nomination.
	Lawyer	Law firm retained by Paul Manafort and Rick Gates to "whitewash" Victor Yanukovich's imprisonment of his political rival, Yulia Tymochenko, in Ukraine.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	An IRA-controlled Facebook account that organized a pro-Trump rally near Trump Tower in mid-2016
Russian		Former Russian official turned British spy who was attacked with his daughter Yulia with nerve gas in southern England, reputedly by agents of the Kremlin.
Russian		Sergei's daughter
American	Civil servant	Head of the State Dept's intelligence bureau under Obama
American		Alleged to have solicited help on the dark web in finding Hillary's "missing" emails from the Russians
American	Company	One of the social networks the Democratic oversight committees want to send document requests to, to request more intel on the scope and scale of the Russian campaign on their platforms
American	Intelligence Community	Controversial former employee for private firms working within the US government who absconded with millions of top secret NSA and other departmental intelligence documents, fled to Hong Kong where he alerted the press, and flew on to Moscow where he lives under the protection of the Kremlin.
Polish		Polish workers' party confronting Communism in the late '80s
Russian
		Nuclear non-proliferation expert who briefed Mike Flynn on the ACU's nuclear program and rejoiced that he would be named head of the NSA.
American	Civil servant	Trump's press secretary
Russian	Media Outlet	Russian news wire proffering fake news
Russian	Politician
American	Principal actor	Ex-Facebook security chief
German	Foreign Intelligence	Nickname for the Ministry of State Security in East Germany during the Cold War
British	Foreign Intelligence	Former British MI6 intelligence agent who put together the Steele Dossier on Donald Trump's dealings with Russia
American	Lobbyist	Long-time political advisor best known for being part of Richard Nixon's "Dirty Tricks" crew who perpetuated Watergate among much else; he "predicted" the release of Clinton's hacked emails
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	An IRA-controlled Facebook group
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	An IRA-controlled Facebook group that bought Facebook ads in support of Donald Trump
	Media Personality	Works for Sputnik in Russia. Never responded to an official Congressional inquiry.
Russian
Russian	Media Outlet	Russia's largest blogging service via acquisition of LiveJournal from Six Apart
Russian	Principal actor	Putin's disinformation machine
Russian	Intelligence Community	Russian foreign intelligence service
American	Politician	Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee
	Company
Russian	Russian Mafia	organized crime ring based in St. Petersburg w/ties to Putin; led by Gennadiy Petrov and Aleksandr Malyshev
	Lobbyist	GOP strategy firm hired by Facebook
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	An IRA-controlled Twitter account posing as the Tennessee GOP Party.
American		Trump for America, Inc., the business entity formed to handle the Trump transition
American	Principal actor	U.S. Secretary of State and former CEO of Exxon
	Oligarch	23% owner of natural gas company Novatek, who made $1.8b from surges in pro-Russian market following Trump's election
Russian		Program director at the Russian International Affairs Council, a government-funded think tank, who met with George Papadopolous to try to establish a meeting between Trump and Putin.
Russian	Russian Mafia	Nicknamed "The Little Taiwanese," he's one of Russia's most notorious mobsters. At the time of the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, he had been indicted in the U.S. for protecting a high-stakes illegal gambling operation run out of Trump Tower.
Russian	Principal actor	Russian central banker, Putin confidant, NRA whisperer, handler of Maria Butina
Russian	Russian Mafia	Ran a Russian-American gambling crime ring out of Trump Tower. Serving 5 years for racketeering.
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	Department within the IRA dedicated to U.S. operations
American	Principal actor
American	Principal actor
American
American	Principal actor
American	Oligarch	Donald Trump's father, who built the family real estate fortune and handed it off to his son to ruin it
American	Principal actor	Daddy's little girl
American	Principal actor
American	Principal actor
American	Principal actor
Russian
American	Company	Was asked by House Democrats on March 7, 2018 to provide intel on the scope and scale of the Russian disinformation effort on their platforms during the 2016 election
Ukranian	Company	Ukranian state-owned company who was the target of a bribery offer from ACU Strategic Partners -- who Mike Flynn was working with -- to accept a $45 billion contract to build reactors in Saudi Arabia in exchange for supporting the lifting of sanctions levied against Russia by the US and EU.
Turkish	Nation-state
Russian	Media Outlet	Independent Russian broadcaster
American	Company
Ukranian	Politician	Ran against Victor Yanukovich in the 2010 Presidentials elections, and was jailed by him under spurious charges following his Paul Manafort-aided win.
		Holds Trump debt
Russian	Foreign Intelligence	An IRA-controlled Facebook account that had over 300,000 followers at the time it was finally deactivated in mid-2017
Russian		Political Party of Russian PResident Vladimir Putin
Russian	Oligarch	Putin-connected oligarch with connections to secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross [tracker]
Russian		Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin who met with Donald Trump Jr, Paul Manafort, and Kared Kushner at Trump Tower in June 2016 about the dirt Russia had on Hillary Clinton. At the time she was representing Prevezon Holdings in the case the U.S. Justice Department had brought against them for a $230 million money laundering scheme that lawyer Sergei Magnitsky had uncovered.
American	Company	Provided social media services to the Trump campaign and Michael Flynn
Russian		Russian social network; equivalent analog to Facebook
Russian	Bank	Russian state-owned development bank, under investigation for Russian election interference
	Company	$20 billion REIT that's an ~equal partner with Jared Kushner in the 666 Fifth Ave. building in Manhattan; Steve Roth, CEO, is an advisor to Trump
	Bank	Executive at Deutsche Bank's private wealth unit who helped finance many of Trump's real estate projects after other banks (and the "regular" side of Deutsche Bank) wouldn't deal with him any more, following massive losses
Russian	Bank	Russia's largest commercial bank; under US and EU sanctions for money laundering
American	Politician	(D-VA) — top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee
	Media Outlet
American	Media Outlet	venerable local paper purchased by Jeff Bezos in 2013
American
American
American	Politician
American	Principal actor
		The House HPSCI committee wants to subpoena them for communication records relating to principals in the Trump campaign
American	Intelligence Community
American	Lobbyist	Undertook Turkey-related work for Michael Flynn
American	Civil servant	Supposed to be a civil servant but often a lobbyist, The White House includes the President and high-level senior staff
	Hacker
Global		umbrella term for Russia's movement to unite an international extreme far-right coalition
American		candidate for the next FBI Director, to replace James Comey
American		Whistleblower from Trump data team Cambridge Analytica who revealed the existence of a formerly secret client: Lukoil, Russia's #2 oil and gas company
Ukranian	Politician	Ukraine's former pro-Moscow president; he paid $12.7 million to help influence the Ukranian election his way before being ousted from power in 2013. Paul Manafort made many of the millions he later laundered with Rick Gates via undisclosed lobbying for Mr Yanukovych.
American		Deputy Attorney General under Barack Obama and Acting Attorney General following the inauguration of Donald Trump. She was dismissed by him after 10 days when she instructed the Justice Department not to allow Trump's Muslim ban to be enforced because it violated the law and the Constitution.
American
Russian	Politician	First President of the Russian Federation, after he orchestrated Russia's exit from the USSR (and thus, its downfall, as all the Soviet satellite republics followed suit). He ruled from 1991 to 1999, never quite managing to usher in a true democracy before settling on a successor, an obscure and unknown former KGB officer stationed in East Berlin during the Second World War: Vladimir Putin.
American	Company	Favored propaganda platform for Russian agents used in the cyberattacks against the 2016 election
Russian
		"Young Army" — created in 2015 by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to "encourage patriotism among schoolchildren"
American	Oligarch	CEO of Facebook, whose platform was used by the Russians in their influence campaign against the 2016 U.S. elections
Dutch		Dutch lawyer caught lying to the FBI about his law firm Skadden's report on Ukranian dictator Victor Yanukovich's imprisonment of his presidential rival Yulia Tymochenko in Ukraine. Has plead guilty to Robert Mueller's team.