By Neofytos Aspriadis Part I Character assassination of states is defined as “the pursuit of sovereign states to destroy the reputation and image of their opponents and enemies.” This term refers to both the process and outcome of a defamation campaign undertaken against the image of an enemy state. In the international political context, this …
Continue reading A Prime Minister, A Scandal, and the Assassination of a Country’s Reputation
By Jennifer Keohane Leadership vacuums beg to be filled, and the void in the coronavirus response from the Trump White House was black-hole-sized. As the government fiddled while the country was ravaged, tech billionaires stepped into the spotlight. Their philanthropic giving has raised ethical questions about undue influence on the government, but it is undeniable …
Louis XVI’s reign saw the older forms of image enhancement known under Louis XIV (and even Louis XV) undermined as the rise of the public sphere coalesced with the emergence of Enlightenment critiques of monarchy.
By Mikayla Knutson In the early years of Louis XV’s minority, Louis XIV’s memory conjured backlash to contemporary political culture. This marked the first departure from extensive control of royal image under Louis XIV. In L'Enseigne de Gersaint, Antoine Watteau depicts Louis XIV’s image being boxed up in favor of new, non-monarchical art. The king …
By Mikayla Knutson French reverence of the monarch shifted dramatically between Louis XIV to Louis XVI as the pendulum shifted from extreme character enhancement to rampant character assassination. Under Louis XIV (1643-1715), a comprehensive program glorified the Sun King and engineered his reputation and image to further his political power. This initiative channeled French elite …
Continue reading Part I: Image Control and Character Enhancement under Louis XIV
A disclaimer: Do not do not take this opinion piece too seriously. If you read it, then garnish it with a with a grain of sarcasm...
CARP 2020 Webinar # 4: Conspiracy Theories and COVID-19 is now posted on our YouTube channel. John Cook, George Mason University, Founder of SkepticalScience.com and https://crankyuncle.com/ and Sergei Samoilenko discuss why people become more vulnerable to believing in conspiracy theories. Pandemics are especially fertile ground for conspiracy theories, as people grasp for order and causal …
Continue reading Webinar # 4: Conspiracy Theories and COVID-19 with John Cook
This webinar features a conversation with Dr. Eric Shiraev (George Mason U) about the psychology of character assassination. What can we learn from psychology? Are there inborn "character attackers?" Are there psychological features that make us vulnerable to character attacks? "Some attackers can be psychologically motivated to launch an attack on their target. In fact, there are some people who may …
Continue reading CARP Webinar # 2: The Psychology of Character Assassination with Eric Shiraev
By Eric Shiraev Decades ago, in my glorious kindergarten years, I remember those spontaneous episodes of verbal dueling we were engaged with one another, from time to time. Out of nothing, armed with a scarce arsenal of extremely bad words known to the kid, we would throw obscenities at our peers only to dodge the …
By Sergei A. Samoilenko In January 2019, fake editions of The Washington Postwere handed out by members of culture jamming activist group the Yes Men at several Washington D.C. locations. The group’s co-founder Jacques Servin told the real Post that the fake paper was meant to be a newspaper from the future providing ideas for how …
Continue reading The Collaborative Nature of Modern Subversive Campaigns
Character Assassination and Reputation Politics Research Lab 