No doubt, it has been a crazy year. In February, Russia invaded Ukraine. Thousands of people have died, including children. Millions had to flee. Those who stay are fighting with cold and darkness. There is something carnivalesque about this parade of obscene, idiotic cruelty displayed by Russians. The mask of civilisation has fallen, and all … Continue reading Top 10 weirdest messages from Putin in 2022
Category: Text lab
Cognitive biases, communicative efficiency and propaganda
At least some of our cognitive biases can be explained by the tendency to save effort. But communicative efficiency also helps all kinds of manipulators to deceive us. An example is Putin's use of the word "genocide" when speaking about the conflict in Donbass. We should get used to spending more processing effort, before it is too late for our democracy!
A “special grammatical operation”: what Putin’s use of cases reveals
Putin can avoid certain words, but it is more difficult to avoid grammar. In a pioneering study, Laura Janda et al. show how Putin's use of case forms of Russia, Ukraine and NATO is different from 'normal' language. My additional analyses reveal that Putin's use of cases with Russia and Ukraine has been stable over the years. A missed opportunity to discover what he was really thinking all this time?
Putin’s insanity talk
In recent months, Putin has been talking about his opponents' words and actions as "nonsense" and "rubbish". Two female politicians, according to him, are out of their mind. I think that Putin's insulting behaviour is another example of projection as a self-defense mechanism. He is trying to distract attention from his own fatal errors and present himself as a paragon of rationality.
The “dirty bomb” and a typology of lies in Russian propaganda
Russian propaganda uses lies of different complexity. I discuss the most recent message by Shoigu and others about Ukraine's plans to use a "dirty bomb". This message is very worrying. It is also an interesting example of recursion, suggesting that the Russian propaganda is getting more and more sophisticated, perhaps to compensate for the lack of military successes.
“This is not a bluff”: What Putin says about nuclear weapons
We have never been so close to a nuclear war since the Caribbean crisis. I examined the mentions of nuclear weapons in Putin's speeches and found that nuclear threats are a recent thing. Their purpose is to force Ukraine and the West to negotiate with Russia. And this gives us some hope...
Putin and Hitler: Finding similarities with Sentence-BERT
Putin's propaganda has a lot in common with Hitler's. In this post I use Sentence-BERT to find similar ideas in their two speeches.
Putin’s gradual unmasking
The subtle changes of grammatical features in Putin speech reveal a slow shift from informative to argumentative and emotional speech style of communication.
The evolution of the war in Putin’s speeches: From a regional conflict to a war of cultures
Putin's narrative about the war in Ukraine has changed since February 2022. From a regional conflict it has transformed into a war of cultures. Despite its absurdity, the new narrative is perfectly rational, and helps Putin to achieve many goals at home and abroad.
Putin declares partial mobilisation
In Putin's address where he announces a "partial" mobilisation, he tries to maximize the stakes for Russia and minimize the costs of this move for ordinary Russians. But the stakes are high first and foremost for Putin himself.
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