✠Fnord Reduction Technique
hi user 36 ✙ 04
In August 2025, I wrote a half-assed art on this topic. I'll attempt to redo it here as a living constitution.
✙ I
FNORD REDUCTION TECHNIQUE (anon's coinage, afaik) is a literary ritual mostly used in political contexts where one strips a written passage of all its filler and transitional content into its pure emotive essence (its 'fnords'). Its main application is to expose the amount of contentless shit-flinging in a passage.
A lazy shortcut partisan writers will often use is to dot their writing with emotive phrases, words and names that are negatively connotated by their specific political ingroup, in order to signal to the reader that something is bad or that they should dislike said thing, rather than arguing why.
A blog post from the right:
Then there’s The Prussian. It’s obvious to all the cool kids that this fedora-wearing anti-racist white knight is terminally un-hip. He is so clearly of the faux-intellectual passe-hipster stripe. That’s the kind of people you want to be associated with, dear fashionable open-minded progressives?
The leftist utopia has arrived and it sucks. Rich white liberals used to be able to signal status by bravely helping ‘the oppressed’, but now ‘the oppressed’ want all the attention for themselves. Even Mrs. Grundy has caught onto the game, feigning indifference to self-interest, which is far too easy to do in a generous welfare state. The system is so obviously broken. Elite capitalists are growing in wealth and have no social responsibility to lead the lower ranks, and are instead working to increase the poor, displaying a complete lack of stewardship of Western civilization… just as the progressives have taught them, after all, isn’t being poor the most noble of states? Is it time to shame the elite for their lack of nobility?
Isolate all of the emotionally loaded phrases. These are our beloved 'fnords.'
obvious to all the cool kids this fedora-wearing anti-racist white knight terminally un-hip clearly of the faux-intellectual passe-hipster stripe dear fashionable open-minded progressives? leftist utopia rich white liberals signal status bravely helping 'the oppressed' generous welfare state elite capitalists complete lack of stewardship of Western civilization
An article from the left:
The Dark Enlightenment: The Creepy Internet Movement You’d Better Take Seriously
They may believe in the Dark Side of the Force, but these Sith Lords aren't joking around
Blossoming on the Internet like a fetid rose, a mysterious new political movement has generated a serious and not un-terrifying critique of modern society. Its members are loud and growing in number, and they demand nothing less than the elimination of the democratic system. Mostly white, male and angry, they lie in wait for the imminent collapse of civilization
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Dark Enlightenment. The Empire is striking back.
Much as Christianity grew out of the cult-sodden ferment of the Roman-occupied Middle East, the Dark Enlightenment has sprouted from the hyper-anxious anti-liberalism precincts in the darker recesses of the Internet.
Do the same thing.
Creepy Internet Movement Dark Side of the Force Sith Lords Blossoming on the Internet like a fetid rose, mysterious not un-terrifying loud elimination of the democratic system Mostly white, male and angry, they lie in wait The Empire is striking back. cult-sodden ferment hyper-anxious anti-liberalism precincts in the darker recesses of the Internet
And you have some fnord reductions. Maybe it is kind of arbitrary (what exactly should I keep and drop?), but I think it does fine as a heuristic, and can make for highly spine-chilling A24-tier poetry.
✙ II
The term 'fnord' originates from the Principia Discordia, the seminal text of some weird cybersexual religion, which was then reappropriated in some phonos' conspiracy novel titled Illuminatus!, where it is a subliminal messaging device deployed variously in the state-media apparatus in order to herd the populace. The literal written word 'fnord' appears variously in the media, and its sole purpose is to induce anxiety in readers.
In the novel, children in school are hypnotized to be panicked by the nonsense word 'fnord,' and they don't remember anything of these sessions when they wake up. They are also trained to subconsciously ignore the word 'fnord' when reading, and hypnotized again to forget that they're ignoring it. So, as adults they can't comprehend the word 'fnord' beyond an inexplicable feeling of unease.
The conspiracy takes applies this by loading up the press with varying amounts of fnords, installing what Moldberg might call a 'thought-control regime.' If opposition starts to get a little brave, they won't simply censor them. They'll report on them, but deploy shit tons of fnords in the article so that people will read and instinctively decide, with zero substantive reasoning, that these guys must be really, really bad because reading it made them feel really, really bad.
Language is a clumsy weapon, but in the right hands it can be made into a close cousin of one of those subliminal messaging devices they talk about in Illuminatus!.
✙ III
The reactionary writer Nydwracu, for whom the 'Fnord Reduction Technique' can be credited to, first gave the treatment described in I to piece by one Corey Pein.
Corey Pein is a progressive writer who once wrote an article on The Baffler called 'Mouthbreathing Machiavellis Dream of a Silicon Reich.' It can be summed up as a basic hitpiece on the NRx, and Moldberg especially, which is something progs really like to do for some reason.
Corey Pein's article was another attempt by a progressive at explaining 'The Dark Enlightenment' and Mencius Moldberg to the masses. Around this time, there is also an article on Vocativ, an article on Telegraph, and Mark Shea's Funniest Shit Ever (just to name a few), and yeah it's all pretty bad.
The problem with Corey Pein's art and others like it is that, among severely misunderstanding the topic at hand, he does not offer a reason why you should oppose Neoreaction, or even an argument against it, but instead uses emotionally charged words and phrases that signal to his audience, his political ingroup, that Neoreaction is bad.
Scott Alexander calls this genre "Did You Know Neoreaction Exists You Should Be Pissed."
A couple reactionaries chimed in with the usual "That's not true, why would you say that?" responses. Nydwracu, by contrast, simply parroted Corey Pein's writing back, just without all of the filler.
Some parts from the beginning of his article:
This could easily be written off as stunt, a flamboyant act of corporate kiss-assery, which, on one level, it probably was.
[...]
Welcome to the latest political fashion among the California Confederacy: total corporate despotism. It is a potent and bitter ideological mash that could have only been concocted at tech culture’s funky smoothie bar—a little Steve Jobs here, a little Ayn Rand there, and some Ray Kurzweil for color.
[...]
“Read Mencius Moldbug,” Tunney told her Twitter followers last month, referring to an aggressively dogmatic blogger with a reverent following in certain tech circles.
Tunney’s advice is easier said than done, for Moldbug is as prolific as he is incomprehensible. His devotees, many of whom are also bloggers, describe themselves as the “neo-reactionary” vanguard of a “Dark Enlightenment.” They oppose popular suffrage, egalitarianism and pluralism. Some are atheists, while others affect obscure orthodox beliefs, but most are youngish white males embittered by “political correctness.” As best I can tell, their ideal society best resembles Blade Runner, but without all those Asian people cluttering up the streets. Neo-reactionaries like to see themselves as the heroes of another sci-fi movie, in fact, sometimes boasting that they have been “redpilled,” like Keanu Reeves’s character in The Matrix—a movie Moldbug regards as “genius.”
“Moldbug.” The name sounds like it belongs to a troll who belches from the depths of an Internet rabbit hole. And so it does. Mencius Moldbug is the blogonym of Curtis Guy Yarvin, a San Francisco software developer and frustrated poet.
[...]
In 2007, he reemerged under an angry pseudonym, Moldbug, on a humble Blogspot blog called “Unqualified Reservations.” As might be expected of a “DIY ideology . . . designed by geeks for other geeks,” his political treatises are heavily informed by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and George Lucas. What set Yarvin apart from the typical keyboard kook was his archaic, grandiose tone, which echoed the snippets Yarvin cherry-picked from obscure old reactionary tracts.
[...]
In short, Moldbug reads like an overconfident autodidact’s imitation of a Lewis Lapham essay—if Lewis Lapham were a fascist teenage Dungeon Master.
Yarvin’s most toxic arguments come snugly wrapped in purple prose and coded language. (For instance, “The Cathedral” is Moldbuggian for the oppressive nexus of liberal newspapers, universities and the State Department, where his father worked after getting a PhD in philosophy from Brown.) By so doing, Moldbug has been able to an attract an audience that welcomes the usual teeth-gnashing white supremacists who haunt the web while also leaving room for a more socially acceptable assortment of “men’s rights” advocates, gun nuts, transhumanist libertarians, disillusioned Occupiers and well-credentialed Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.
Wracu would respond to Pein, titling his post 'Fnords':
stunt flamboyant act of corporate kiss-assery
[...]
latest political fashion California Confederacy total corporate despotism potent bitter Steve Jobs Ayn Rand Ray Kurzweil
[...]
prominent divisive fixture hard-right seditionist aggressively dogmatic blogger reverent following in certain tech circles
prolific incomprehensible vanguard youngish white males embittered by “political correctness” Blade Runner, but without all those Asian people cluttering up the streets like to see themselves as the heroes of another sci-fi movie “redpilled” The Matrix “genius”
a troll who belches from the depths of an Internet rabbit hole frustrated poet
[...]
angry pseudonym J.R.R. Tolkien George Lucas typical keyboard kook archaic, grandiose snippets cherry-picked from obscure old
[...]
overconfident autodidact’s imitation fascist teenage Dungeon Master
most toxic arguments snugly wrapped in purple prose and coded language oppressive nexus teeth-gnashing white supremacists who haunt the web “men’s rights” advocates nuts disillusioned
The implicit critique from Nydwracu here is that these emotionally loaded phrases, which are indeed merely Emotionally Loaded Phrases, don't really tell you that much about the Neoreactionaries besides that the author really, really hates them.
Michael Anissimov, another one of those strange NRx people, did do Corey Pein the service of a proper reseponse, where he wrote this about one part:
The article calls Mencius Moldbug dogmatic, in passing. This accusation is rather ill-aimed, considering that Moldbug’s modus operandi involves long, meandering tours through political philosophy and history, leaving questions unanswered more often than not. In this context, the word “dogmatic” is an applause light simply used to signify that the writer has views which are objectionable to modern academic Marxist sensibilities. Same story with Moldbug being an “angry psuedonym,” there’s hardly anything angry about the individual or his writing.
These are words and phrases that make you feel instead of think, like the fnords in Illuminatus!, hence the name.
Corey Pein does make a sound argument or even a decent treatise against the Neoreactionaries. He's just saying shit and hoping it lands with the reader that 'wow, okay, these guys are really weird and bad.'
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https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/24/nydwracus-fnords/
https://nithgrim.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/more-fnords/
last updated September 7, 2026.