Riot police as a "totalitarian sect"

I repeatedly watched a lot of videos, photos, and “personally communicated” with these guys, who are popularly called “cosmonauts.” And there are also special regiments, and there are also employees of centers for combating the so-called. "extremism".

And even attempts to communicate humanly with these people always failed. Unlike the young guys from the internal troops, who are always standing in cordons in the cold, rain and snow. These are “normal”, alive, worried about doing “something “wrong”.” With a pronounced sense of shame.

What about others? Let's try to look at these fighters against extremism from the point of view of a researcher of classical totalitarian sects (I specialize as a religious scholar, including the study of destructive religious organizations and cults). Let's take as a basis the methodology of perhaps the most famous researcher of technologies for manipulating consciousness in totalitarian sects, American Stephen Hassen. It is also called the BITE model (Hassen learned a lot from the founder of the theory of cognitive dissonance, psychologist Leon Festinger, 1950).

These are the main signs of mind manipulation. They are identified by many researchers of destructive cults and sects.

1. Deception during recruitment.

This may be initially false information or deliberate use of part of the information (non-disclosure). One of my acquaintances once told me that his young friend called him and told him the good news in an enthusiastic voice. “I will now fight the enemies of the Fatherland. With the “extremists” who want to ruin Russia with US money. I was accepted into the Center for Combating Extremism. In an elite police unit!”

Obviously, the person does not understand who “extremists” are (remember Schwartz in Dragon: “Gypsies are a terrible people. We were told about them at school”). The “image of the enemy” is initially introduced into his consciousness. The image is abstract and scary. The image of a destroyer of the Fatherland, an agent hired by enemy states, a representative of the “fifth column”. At the same time, they don’t tell him (I think) that his “elite unit” is only 4 years old. That it was created only in 2008, and before that Russia somehow managed without fighters against world evil in the person of “extremists” and “agents of the West.” And wow. Lived. They do not explain to him that his unit was previously called the UBOP (Office for Combating Organized Crime). But as evil tongues say, by 2008 organized crime had long since merged with the authorities, and there was no need to fight it anymore. Pointless. They hardly tell him why he, the “cop,” and not the FSB, is engaged in the fight against foreign spies. They don't explain ANY of this to him.

The further task of a totalitarian sect is to involve a person in the organization and keep him there for as long as possible. Moreover, not only the adept’s capital is used (apartments and cash given to the sect), but also simply selfless labor. We highlight the main points of control of the individual’s consciousness according to Hassen.

2. Behavior control.

Hassen: "[Cults] impose on their members a rigid routine of life that allows them to control their behavior. When members are not busy studying the doctrine of the movement or cult rituals, they are usually given specific goals that limit their free time - anything to keep them constantly busy "In a destructive cult there is always work that needs to be done."

In riot police and special forces fighting “extremists,” as we know, uniform (and even beautiful) uniforms are used, making modern police officers in uniform similar to their Western colleagues, while being monotonous, creating a feeling of a “team” or a single combat unit.

Special forces personnel seem to spend all their time either in the barracks, on training exercises, or on duty. There is little time for family and communication with the “outside world”. Again, an acquaintance called a riot police friend at work (in the barracks). “What are you doing?” “I’m sleeping. There are no emergencies, there are no mass actions either. We have to sleep in the barracks.”

The riot police have a strict system of rewards and punishments. From increased salaries in recent years and, probably, bonuses (bonuses) for the successful “fight against extremism” to the awarding of apartments to victims of the fight against Russia’s enemies, which we all witnessed. This is a message to all riot police. This is how it should work. Surely there is a whole system of punishments, including in rubles.

The life of an adept (more precisely, a riot policeman) and his family directly depends on his salary, which he may lose, and then the problem will arise: how to make money. I personally often heard in the riot police chains: “Well, you say, leave, don’t serve the regime, but where will I go to work? At a factory for pennies? I won’t live on them. I have a family, small children, a mortgage...”

Of course, in the form of conversations or “political information”, indoctrination is widely used, one can doubt it, but it’s difficult. That is, the consistent formation of a certain view of the world among riot police officers. Black and white . “Whites” (good) are us, the police, sports fans, Orthodox Christians, patriots, “Uralvagonzavod workers” and other “hard workers.” “Blacks” (bad) are “liberals” feeding from the Western trough, young people with iPads (idlers who muddy the waters), all sorts of “human rights activists” who do not love their homeland and are hardly Orthodox, all sorts of anarchists, journalists, hipsters, nationalists and other enemies of the Motherland, in general, the “fifth column”.

Incredible, but true: riot police officers are convinced that people go to Bolotnaya and Sakharov for MONEY. This was instilled in them...

3. Information control.

The main thing in this method of manipulation is to introduce “necessary information” into the minds of employees and completely limit them from unnecessary and harmful sources, which can be people, printed materials and information on the Internet.

It is known that riot police are cut off from all communication with journalists (see the article about the “revolt” of the Moscow riot police in TheNewTimes http://newtimes.ru/articles/detail/15028 ).

Attempts to independently contact journalists and talk about one’s problems are considered a “betrayal” of military brotherhood. Meetings of fighters are immediately organized under the leadership of their father-commanders, at which “traitors are branded” and forced to retract their words (ibid.).

The reaction to an attempt by civil activists to paste a harmless leaflet on the fence of a Moscow riot police base is memorable. Its content was something like this: “The fascist soldiers also said that they were only following orders.” In a matter of seconds, the stickers were captured. No one should confuse fighters in the area where riot police are based with information different from what they receive. Where? I think 90 percent from TV. We imagine what TV can tell fighters about the situation in the country, especially NTV. I don’t think that in the riot police barracks, where employees spend more time, everyone has access to a personal computer. Well, at home, perhaps, there is not enough time for independent study and analysis of information.

One more thing. Have you noticed that soldiers stubbornly refuse to talk to people on the streets when they are on duty? This is also an implemented installation that protects them from “destructive civilian information.” I think this is not just an order. This is an embedded “phobia”: you will be demoralized, old ladies will let you down, reproaches (whom you serve), girls will offer you beautiful flowers. This can lead to loss of combat capability on your part and treason.

Recently I was riding on the subway with a riot policeman in riot gear who was heading somewhere to work (I think there was a football match). I tried to talk to him. He answered one question. I didn't try the second one. And suddenly I saw: he was afraid to talk to me. It closed completely. This seems to really be an already embedded communication phobia.

4. Control of thinking and emotions.

Whoever controls speech controls thinking, psychologists say. In any closed totalitarian group, the language that adherents speak is always important. The language of the riot police (and other police structures) is a wonderful mixture of pretentious clerical beginnings and professional jargon. Here you will encounter “a close-knit team”, and “we will complete the most difficult tasks with honor”, ​​and “perimeter”, and “cleaning up”, etc.

The riot police and the youth of Bolotnaya speak completely different languages.

Emotional control can occur in different ways. But there are two main universal methods: guilt and phobia. I think that the feeling of guilt is brought up by the consequences of the “business trips” of fighters to “hot spots”, where they lose real friends. Therefore, they may have a feeling of guilt that “he died, but I live” and therefore owes all “enemies of Russia”, “extremists” “to smear their livers on the asphalt.” This is my guess. Well, the main phobia, which can be felt as a patriotic feeling: the fear of the collapse of the Motherland, Russia, as a result of the so-called. “protest movement” of the same “extremists”...

What I have tried to formulate may cause disagreement. But this is just NORMAL, because a critical approach to reality is one of the main signs that you are not yet in a totalitarian sect))).