The origins of the word “disinformation”
It’s such a popular word these days, isn’t it?
Ever wonder where it came from?:
“Disinformation” is not a word from the English language. It is a direct translation of the Russian word dezinformatsiya. It is a KGB form of tradecraft from the Red Banner Institute of the KGB First Chief Directorate, otherwise known as the KGB foreign spy academy.
Disinformation is definition 159 in the KGB’s “Lexicon of KGB Terms,” published internally by the Soviet foreign intelligence service before 1984. Here it is: “Misleading by means of false information; A form of intelligence work in the Active Measures field, which consists of the secret channeling towards an adversary of false information, especially prepared materials and fabricated documents designed to mislead him and prompt him to take decisions and measures which fit with the plans and intentions of the Intelligence Service.”…
“Misinformation,” of course, isn’t the same as disinformation. It is a mis-statement, or the inadvertent or careless spreading of inaccuracies or untruths, without malign intent. Yet Mayorkas and others have used the two terms interchangeably. So have many public “experts.”…
…DHS re-defined disinformation, sanitized the term of its KGB roots, and expanded the definition by removing the foreign element and applying the label to First Amendment-protected political discourse.
That article was written around the time of the governmental disinformation board. Remember that? There was such a backlash that it was disbanded after a few months. But the campaign against what is labeled by the government and the left (redundant, I know) as “disinformation” goes on, spearheaded by the MSM and social media.
And the war against the war against “disinformation” is ongoing.
It is hardly surprising that such a dangerous word (wielded ever more wildly against their ideological opponents by leftists in government and in the media) has a Bolshevik origin. On a related note, it would seem as though many conservatives may have been far too eager to welcome Musk’s recent rather costly purchase as auguring well for freedom of expression on that platform, since, just today (as noted by Liz Wheeler and Rita Panahi, amongst others), he has written that he plans to rely on a group of hard-leftists (including the not-dismissed Yoel Roth, the truly deranged “progressive” extremist in charge of “safety” on Twitter) to monitor what is or is not acceptable speech.
ladislav bittman, nee lawrence martin, was the stb (czech secret police) defector that brought it to public attention, but it was common practice, long before, under castro, it was called the little tail, the method of disqualifying methods by source, not subject matter
Democrats have been using all govt agencies to grind down and crush civil rights. They spy, they push propaganda, they slander, they smear, they intimidate, they attack, they punish, they cancel, they persecute, prosecute and imprison.
Censorship is just one small part of the work the jack boot does.
its all part of a larger process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=QfvXwuZ-bok&feature=emb_logo
The Democrats are firmly convinced that they must destroy the country in order to save it…
…from Trump (and those who support him…and those who, while they might not support him would prefer the Democrats not be in a position to destroy the country…in order to save the country from Trump).
Seem a bit circular?
Indeed, this is what makes it so deliciously appropriate for a dementia-suffering degenerate and his psycho Politburo to be ruling the country in these most “interesting” of times….
Alas I am not being entirely truthful here…
…for the Democrats would be vying equally hard to destroy the place were Trump not even an orange blip on anyone’s radar…
…such is the devotion of the Democrats to the cause they have so wholly, so religiously embraced….
Interesting times indeed….
Disinformation was used in print in English in the US as early as 1876; perhaps the Soviets had a time machine, but I don’t think it’s very likely they’re the origin. It is a very simple construction in English and similar words are constructed all the time by adding the “dis-” prefix, which has been around in English for centuries.
I don’t doubt that the Soviets’ use of it made it prevalent in English after the 50s but it’s a natural construction that predates the October Revolution by a good half-century.
Revolver: https://www.revolver.news/2022/05/busted-disinformation-operative-renee-diresta-integrity-initiative-free-speech-elon-musk-george-soros/
Another issue here is that when the Soviets used the word, it was a technical term used to describe THEIR knowing deception of their enemies.
We use it now in an inverse sense: “disinformation” is a form of lying that our enemies engage in, that our virtuous selves would never stoop to. Some labels are only ever used in criticism: “terrorist”, “stormtrooper”, “fascist”, and the Soviets used it to describe their own activities to themselves.
So that’s another reason why I don’t think it’s particularly relevant to today’s situation that the Soviets used this term: not only did they not invent it as it has been used in English in print going back to the 19th century, but they used it in an opposite sense from how we use it.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that the ‘progressive’ western left has adopted “a KGB form of tradecraft from the Red Banner Institute of the KGB First Chief Directorate, otherwise known as the KGB foreign spy academy.”
All of the left’s tactics come from communism’s deceitful tactics. They truly are the “Father of Lies” minions.
Carrion birds of a feather, also flock together.
The CDC is an arch practitioner of disinformation via data manipulation.
By means of the lyin’tific method (remove data from public access, declare truth, push slew of articles) we have solved the issue of ‘Excess Non-Covid Natural Cause deaths’.
The subject is now debunked. You are a conspiracy theorist if you continue to examine the data.
Cells Don’t Lie: Cancer is on the Rise Due To mRNA Injections
One wonders if the Russian connection has been so overused by Democrats that now it has become part of the standard lexicon and is no longer consciously connected with the FSU. OR maybe the connection runs a little deeper….
Always a good practice to keep the sage words of the journalist / sometimes KGB agent Yuri Bezemov (1984) in mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1EA2ohrt5Q
Cells don’t lie but people do. Caveat emptor.
Every good psywarrior knows the old saying: You’ve just been ‘fxxxed’ by psyops because physical wounds heal.
http://psyopsinsignia.pbworks.com/f/1256192334/psyops%20fucked%20piotr.JPG
Our default position should always and everywhere be that censors are wrong in their claims. Whatever assertions they make are false. Period. Anyone who uses the term disinformation should be presumed to be the one who is wrong.
As a general rule, people who have the facts on their side do not resort to censorship to shut down debate. And given how harmful, how evil censorship is, we should always discourage it. Automatically rejecting the claims of those who attempt it will help discourage it. Censorship cheats all of us. In school, cheaters get a zero grade. The societal rule needs to be:
You cheat, you lose. You advocate censorship, you lose.
Otherwise, we get horrific stuff like this https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/todays-blacklist-victim-distinguished-scientist-and-long-time-journal-editor-forced-to-resign-due-to-threats/
He had to be destroyed because “he approved the publication of a peer-review paper that documented the potential harmful effects of the mRNA COVID shots.” He even agreed to publish one of the attacks against him, but the unsupported slanders had no factual support so didn’t qualify for a science journal.
— Was watching CNBC this morning. Andrew Ross Sorkin and Becky Quick were frightening in their idiocy as they argued for censorship and slander by social media companies. Sorkin couldn’t believe that a guest would favor allowing election deniers to post. His lack of self-awareness was embarrassing. Or should have been. Hubris on steroids.
Dunning-Kruger effect may be the biggest threat to democracy.
How many lies can you count in this bit of disinformation from David Corn? https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/patriotism-unity/how-liberals-whitewash-their-communist-past-and-present
“Mother Jones journalist David Corn made the claim that conservatives have embraced radicalism in a way that liberals have not. “There’s no example that you can give me,” Corn announced, “of a high-ranking Democrat — a president, presidential candidate, a national Democratic leader — who embraces something like the Tea Party: a conspiratorial, paranoid, racist-driven force. It just doesn’t exist.”
Re: Government disinformation board. Oh, Biden staffers changed the name to Cupcake Committee, which supplies them all with cupcakes everyday.
the tea party, that was a cricket bat. compared to what is required now
a dozen years later, the momma grizzlies are in full roar,
Victor Davis Hanson has pretty good explanation, I think, for what the Democrats are doing.
The left finally has a chance to experiment with a developed country to see if their theories work.
The Left were the mad scientists — We were their lab rats
As the midterms approach, one way of looking at America’s current disaster is that we, the American people, were lab rats. And since 2021, the Left were the mad scientists, eager to try out their crackpot leftist experiments on us.
The results are in. They don’t work. It’s amazing that anyone would vote for this stuff.
https://jonathanturley.org/2022/11/03/msnbc-meltdown-our-children-will-be-arrested-and-conceivably-killed-if-the-gop-wins-midterm-elections/
Dogs and cats living together, …!!
Those Dems (leftists) seem to have a problem with elections and election outcomes that don’t affirm them.
Another word with an interesting background is “progressive.” I read Red Diaper Babies ( Judy Kaplan, ed.) this year. It consists of transcripts of conferences in New Hampshire in 1982-83, where Red Diaper Babies talked about their childhoods and subsequent political lives.
One RDB stated that it was common practice for Communists to label themselves and their policy positions not as Communist,but as “progressive.”
“Progressive,” “liberals in a hurry,” you get the drill.
And then there’s “malinformation,” which is true information – though “possibly out of context” – presented with “intent to do harm.” This is Thoughtcrime – based on intent as perceived from the outside.
The only thing derogatory about stormtrooper is that they were famous for being on the wrong side, being elite German units from the Great War. They gave these guys shotguns, grenades, and early submachineguns and they followed walking artillery barrages across no-mans land. If it worked right, the shells stopped and they just dropped into the Allied trenches behind their grenades and finished off the survivors in the confined space; when it didn’t work right they could be trapped in no-mans land while the Allied troops manning the trenches picked them off or have their own artillery shells land on their heads.
The threat of stromtroopers made the artillery more effective (because if you were buried to weather the artillery you couldn’t do anything about the troopers) and the artillery made it possible for the troopers to survive the trip across no-man’s land to storm the Allied trenches.
It was effective, but like most methods of moving the Western Front, frighteningly expensive in lives and ordnance.
@ Jamie > “And then there’s “malinformation,” which is true information”
Presenting actual, correct, facts, but out of context and with intent to do harm, is the modus operandi of the MSM. The NYT and WaPo in particular excel at writing pieces where every word printed is true, but the implication of the article as a whole is false.
Fake News.
@ stan — the name David Corn rang a bell, and Mark Judge’s post confirmed my memory:
“Before getting to liberalism’s communist ties, it’s worth noting that Corn played a key role in disseminating the debunked Steele dossier , a central part of the Russiagate hoax . Corn was the first reporter to write about the dossier, reporting on its contents without even the slightest hint of speculation, of course.”
Thanks for the link; it was a good reminder of the total immersion of the Left in dezinformatsiya.
“In the 2005 audiobook version of Obama’s Dreams From My Father, all references to Frank Marshall Davis have been scrubbed .”
In addition to deliberate false-hoods and spin, the media also engage in loose practices regarding their visuals. The publishers appear to just grab photos off the web (or somewhere) without regard to the context, or the wishes of the people in the images.
Turley gives some examples of lying both outright and by implication that have engendered lawsuits.
https://jonathanturley.org/2022/10/31/evil-light-or-false-light-a-pro-life-california-woman-objects-to-false-image-in-democratic-ad/