Dead Rat on the Table: A Propaganda Tool

“Dead Rat on the Table” – a term I often use to describe one of the strategies of hybrid warfare propaganda. It perfectly describes the strategy of the Georgian government as well. Many of my supporters ask what this term means – what is a “dead rat”?

When Georgian Dream faces a problem – a problem that is very serious for them and, simply put, a PR disaster  for example, when recently, on Melikishvili Avenue in Tbilisi, women were attacked, they suddenly find themselves in a very uncomfortable position. Something like this  attacking and beating women  has never been acceptable; not within the police culture, and certainly not within Georgian society.

So they end up on the defensive, visibly irritated, and the very next day  if I’m not mistaken  they arrested an opposition politician. They probably wanted to arrest him anyway, but that is not the point here. The point is that whenever they are politically cornered and forced to justify themselves, they use a typical propaganda tool in hybrid warfare: they suddenly throw out a completely unrelated, sensational issue from absolutely nowhere.

Usually this is done by one of the politicians who comes out in the press and says something outrageous and completely indefensible, and suddenly every TV station begins discussing it. People react: “Oh my God, did you hear what he said?!” And meanwhile, the first, main, damaging issue for Georgian Dream has already been forgotten.

This is the tactic I call “throwing a dead rat on the table.” Imagine you are at a meeting or visiting someone’s home, having a conversation and suddenly someone throws a dead rat onto the table. You forget everything. Panic breaks out, and whatever was going on before disappears instantly. That is why I call this tactic “dead rat.”

Georgian Dream uses this constantly. And because for years others failed to notice or understand this tactic, they managed to hold onto power for so long.

Even now, for example, I am certain that as they face a serious scandal with an allegation that they have used chemical compounds against civilian protesters, the ruling party suddenly appeared the next morning and organized a briefing about school uniforms – “children must wear uniforms” – that was a dead rat.

This is how the “dead rat” propaganda tool operates: they throw out a distracting issue, then their trolls amplify it, flooding the information space so that the main, painful, damaging issue is pushed out of the public mind. They may even push one of their own people to provoke something, make a scandalous statement something that could have been said years ago but is suddenly said now solely to overshadow the topic that hurts them politically.