Ontological warfare is a kind of information warfare that engages the enemy with a series of attacks against its 'Being' or ontology.

One such attack is namespace pollution.

Another is a protocol attack known as 'embrace, extend and extinguish'.

Examples:

  • A hypothetical attack against the scientific method might attempt to alter its tests for success. This would lead a culture down a slippery slope of pseudoscience until any scientific progress becomes something no human can do.
  • political correctness. Post-traumatic stress disorder is the eventual term for what was originally known as shell shock.
  • Newspeak. "we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it."
  • Music piracy and software piracy. Copying music privately was not always the major crime that current law makes it out to be (DMCA).
  • War on drugs. Drug use and sales was not always the major crime that current law makes it out to be. But you can still go to the drug store and get your prescription filled.
  • The idea that corporations have the same rights as individuals, effectively giving them more rights due to greater financial resources.

See also: