Category: Apocalypse

Posted on

The Schizowar is Interested in You (Forever)

Some of Alexander Dugin’s recent writings referenced the concept of “Schizowars” (Шизовойны) [1] which was a term I coined in English in December 2018 and defined as “The use of psychoanalytic/psychographic approaches to exacerbate divisions in organizations and societies by inducing a state of conflict and paranoia, often through the use of strategically architected and deployed disinformation.” [2]

Certainly it was curious for me to wonder if Dugin may have been reading my work, as much as I have been reading Dugin. I was reminded of several quotes. The first was FBI profiler Robert Ressler’s mantra borrowed from Nietzche: “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”

I was also reminded of the familiar phrase “You may not be interested in [the] war, but [the] war is interested in you”; which is a saying popularly attributed to Leon Trotsky. Interestingly, a study of history in relation to this quote however reveals that it is instead likely a paraphrase of several statements about the dialectic, which may be primarily attributed to a synthesis of a 1940 debate between New York University Professor James Burnham and Trotsky.

Burnham had said “I do not recognize dialectics, but, as you say, dialectics recognizes me” to which Trotsky had (in part) replied “Burnham doesn’t recognize dialectics but dialectics does not permit him to escape from its net. He is caught as a fly in a web.”

Ultimately, it seems that the popular version of the quote referencing war comes from a careless reading of the 1977 book “Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations” by Harvard Professor Michael Walzer which included the statement: “War is most often a form of tyranny. It is best described by paraphrasing Trotsky’s aphorism about the dialectic: “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”” [3]

Perhaps it is poetic that the popularly understood, and yet misattributed statement about “war” seems to emerge from the synthetic result of a dialectical process between Trotsky and Burnham.

If this is not simply a case of convergent evolution in etymology, I suppose that now in the discussion of schizowar, I may be in a dialectic of sorts with Dugin which may result in synthetic meanings of this concept.

While I have posited this war in observations of an aggressive Russian nationalist political competition which divides us politically in America, Dugin seems to similarly posit a war architected on the inherent chaos between extremes, but conducted by Western democracies and directed at Russia. While I have posited that Russian ideologists seem to me to be antichristian in their behavior, they claim the West is Satanic, and they must ‘desatanize’ Ukraine.

If Russia is my monster, am I representative of theirs? The abyss gazes back… 

Continue reading “The Schizowar is Interested in You (Forever)”

Posted on

“Ideology of Victory” and the Death of Daria Dugina

Daria Dugina (Darya Dugina), daughter of Alexander Dugin, was reported to have died on August 20, 2022 in a car bombing in the Moscow suburbs. Russian political authorities, federal police, and propagandists have consistently portrayed it as an act of Ukrainian terrorism and pointed to Ukrainian suspects.

Conversely, Ukraine has officially denied these allegations. Rather than taking the event at face value as it has been portrayed in Russian media, many Western reports have questioned whether it was an act of “false flag” terrorism.

In this scenario, the killing of Dugina would be intended to bolster public support for the war in Ukraine by reinforcing the idea of Ukraine as a fascist, terrorist state. It would be analogous to a widespread theory that the FSB had carried out a series of apartment bombings in September 1999 in order to bolster public support for a second war in Chechnya.

When Alexander Dugin first released a public statement about the assassination, he did so through Konstantin Malofeev on Malofeev’s Telegram channel [1]. Malofeev, like Dugin has not only been sanctioned for his actions related to Ukraine, but is a member of the ultra-conservative Izborsky Club; a philosophical group which was co-founded by Alexander Prokhanov and Vitali Averyanov, and includes many prominent Russians, some close to Putin [2].

This long-read report demonstrates that regardless of whom may be responsible for the crime, the death of Daria Dugina has been consciously manipulated by figures like Alexander Dugin, Alexander Prokhanov, and Konstantin Malofeev in order to frame the murder as a kind of symbol of martyrdom which supports the neo-imperialist “Ideology of Victory” that was formally articulated by the Izborskists in October 2021, prior to the Ukraine invasion.

The death of Daria Dugina provokes enduring symbols of Russian ideology

This observation in and of itself does not mean the Izborskists have complicity in the murder. But it does seek to prove objectively that the death has been used consciously from the start as an ideological and political instrument of Russian imperial power. Continue reading ““Ideology of Victory” and the Death of Daria Dugina”

Posted on

Russian Origins of the Vaccine Microchip Conspiracy Theory

I recently read an article which suggested that the conspiracy theory that vaccines contain microchips emerged following a March 18, 2020 Reddit AMA with Bill Gates [1]. In response to the AMA, biohackers began to write positively about the potential for chip-based medical devices to combat epidemics and deliver vaccines.

Within several days of the Reddit AMA, a Baptist pastor from Jacksonville Florida named Adam Fannin – known best for his anti-Semitic conflicts with comedian Sarah Silverman in 2019 – found one of these biohacking blog posts online. Fannin then developed it into his own interpretation of apocalyptic prophecy largely based on his “deep distrust of Gates”. Fannin made a 9-minute YouTube sermon which went viral and accumulated nearly 2 million views before it was taken down.  “The pastor titled the post, “Bill Gates – Microchip Vaccine Implants to fight Coronavirus,” adding one pivotal word to the biohackers’ title: vaccine.”[1]

Looking more deeply into the origin of the vaccines and microchips story, I think it is important to observe how it may emerge from and complement Russian Orthodox nationalist geopolitics and information warfare. Continue reading “Russian Origins of the Vaccine Microchip Conspiracy Theory”

Posted on

Interview with Matt Makowski about Nostradamus Disinformation

Maciej “Matt” Makowski is a veteran of An Garda Siochana (Ireland’s National Police and Security Service), where he specialized in intelligence and cyber-crime. He was the first foreign national to be admitted to the highly selective police service and worked there over a decade. After retiring early in 2019, he currently is employed in the private sector in the information security industry. Matt operates the very interesting OSINT ME (osintme.com) blog which has a focus on open source intelligence methods (I’ve even found the site useful for my day job).

Recently I reached out to Matt noting that he had written in February about the utilization of the novel coronavirus in the context of nation state (dis)information warfare . Of specific interest to me, he traced using open source web data how a false Nostradamus prophecy was utilized by the misleadingly-named pro-Kremlin website Ukrainia.ru, which is actually based in Russia. This kind of insight on Nostradamus in disinformation lines up very closely with my observations from prior research.

In order to promote continued awareness about Nostradamus’ use in Russian information warfare, I reached out to Matt to share some of my papers. A question and answer session over email ensued about my perspectives on the subject. I found this an enjoyable experience and hope you will visit Matt’s blog to check it out. You may also learn a lot about open source intelligence in the process.

Nostradamus Prophecies and their Links to Russia @ OSINT ME

Posted on

Notre Dame Fire Conspiracism as Reflective of Russian Ideological Competition with the West?

Attached is my most recent peer reviewed paper which was accepted for publication in the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (ICCWS) to be held on 12-13 March 2020 at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. The paper is based on an analysis of the online conspiracy theories which surrounded the 15 April 2019 fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.  (While the paper was published I am not attending the conference for personal reasons.)

Included in the milieu of conspiracy theories circulated online were fake Nostradamus prophecies evoking a kind of conspiracism known as ‘popular eschatology’. The sharing of such conspiracies drove a large global increase in Nostradamus interest, as revealed by Google Trends.

The overall mix of the Notre Dame fire conspiracy theories – to include notions of false flags, Islamophobic sentiments, and Nostradamus prophecies – seem to be similar to 9/11 conspiracies, and may share commonality in their links to Russian influence.

A model of Russian information warfare based on ‘katechonic’ Russian Orthodox and nationalist ideology

In a related sense, conspiratorial Nostradamus prophecies attributable to Russian proxies are associated with the visit of Pope Francis to North Macedonia in early May 2019, causing a massive spike in Nostradamus interest there (leading it to be the second highest region in the world for Nostradamus interest, and having no apparent relation to the Notre Dame fire except in terms of influence on Catholic and Western Christian culture).  Such conspiracies about Popes involving Nostradamus as reflected in Google Trends have been similarly observed during times of Papal transitions such as in 2005 and 2013, and seem similar to other instances where Nostradamus interest spiked in association with probable Russian ‘active measures’.

The new paper argues that Nostradamus prophecies can be seen as similar in how they promote Islamophobia and anti-Catholicism as to how the Russian secret police concoction ‘The Protocols of Zion’ may have been useful in promoting anti-Semitism in furtherance of fin de siè·cle Russian influence campaigns.  It dives deep into a cultural examination of Russia’s apparent sense of hostility to Catholicism based on its historical legacy as a Russian Orthodox country, and it attempts to frame the described 2019 ‘anti-Catholic conspiracies’ within a framework of Russian disinformation sympathetic to such nationalistic ideas.

Since the time I wrote this paper, the most notable development in Nostradamus propaganda is the broader acceptance that Russia uses figures like Nostradamus or Baba Vanga in spreading coronavirus conspiracies. I’m very happy to see that disinformation researchers are beginning to accept the idea of Nostradamus (and similar ‘prophets’) as a kind of information warfare and are educating the public about it.

Here is the new paper: Notre Dame Fire Conspiracism as Reflective of Russian Ideological Competition with the West (2020)

If you are interested in my prior peer reviewed works on Nostradamus, please see:

  1. Russian Active Measures and September 11, 2001: Nostradamus Themed Disinformation (2017) – International Journal of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism (IJCWT)
  2. Nostradamus Prophecy as a Russian Information Warfare Concept (2017) – Proceedings of the European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (ECCWS)
  3. Nostradamus Ratios: Why is Russia an Outlier? (2018) – Proceedings of the International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (ICCWS)
  4. Russian Information Warfare and 9/11 Conspiracism: When Fake News Meets False Prophecy? (2019) – Developments in Information Security and Cybernetic Wars (chapter in edited book)
Posted on

The 666 Mindvirus Part II: A Russian Orthodox Connection

One of the 1990s conspiracy theories which I recall hearing about in popular media and internet lore is that of the ‘Beast Computer’. The 1998 track ‘Information‘ off the (Wu-Tang-Clan affiliate) Killah Priest album ‘Heavy Mental‘ might be the best popular cultural example which I can to point to that may reflect this kind of thinking.  (Much like the RATM canon artistically it’s not a bad album IMHO and I like the sound, although it is chock full of anti-Americanism. Just be sure to enjoy the lyrics critically from a strategic perspective as they probably relate to a legacy of disinformation.)

It is apparent that the track captures an online premillennialist zeitgeist of  apocalyptic / popular eschatological concepts. I think this strongly represents the late 90’s online anti-American conspiracy thinking which accompanied such ‘viruses of the mind‘ as ‘Nostradamus‘ and ‘Bill Gates 666 Disinformation‘ and are likely traceable to Russian active measures activity (see also, ‘False Flag‘). Specifically, for the purposes of this post, the ‘Information‘ track mentions the idea of a ‘Beast Computer’ within the context of anti-CIA/NSA sentiment, anti-semitism, anti-capitalism, and even cyberspace (lyrics). The controversy surrounding the so called ‘Beast Computer of Belgium’ is in fact cited in the context of a 1998 ‘mind virus’ as well which is specific to Russia, but the conspiracy has been associated with Russian Orthodoxy overseas since at least 1982. Continue reading “The 666 Mindvirus Part II: A Russian Orthodox Connection”

Posted on

Bill Gates 666 Disinformation: Russian Fingerprints of a Mind Metavirus?

Much like the fabricated Nostradamus emails, usegroup posts, and text messages which flooded the internet following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and are seemingly attributable to Russia,  I recalled a similarly viral chain of disinformation from earlier in the 1990s. Lets call these fairly transparent conspiracies: ‘Bill Gates 666 disinformation’ (a good debunking can be found here).

This 1990s online chain mail format of disinformation – as evident in the Nostradamus case – appears to me to be a direct predecessor of the ‘media outlet-based’ online conspiracy theories which are seemingly emergent from Russian and Syrian information networks today.

Bill Gates: Not the Antichrist (Reuters)

Continue reading “Bill Gates 666 Disinformation: Russian Fingerprints of a Mind Metavirus?”

Posted on

Nostradamus Parallels with Russian Apocalyptic Mythology

The ideas of apocalypse and antichrist in former Soviet-bloc countries are deeply culturally ingrained concepts associated with millennial/centennial mythologies. This has synergy with the apocalyptic and popular eschatological prophecies of Nostradamus.

Modern Russian mystic Aleksandr Dugin meets with Old Believers (2014)

Continue reading “Nostradamus Parallels with Russian Apocalyptic Mythology”

Posted on

The Syrian Chemical Weapons False Flag Network is the 9/11 Conspiracy Network Too

On June 10, 2012, RT ran the story ‘Syrian rebels aim to use chemical weapons, blame Damascus’, which claimed rebels had acquired Libyan chemical weapons. It claims to have sourced the story from Dampress.net, which is a Syrian-government friendly news site based in Damascus. This story was also reported on June 10-11, 2012 on InfoWars.com and GlobalResearch.ca, citing RT. The RT report seems to have been the first English-language press report linking chemical weapons in Syria with Western-backed rebels.  Continue reading “The Syrian Chemical Weapons False Flag Network is the 9/11 Conspiracy Network Too”

Proudly powered by WordPress