HEY KIDS! Did you know that a young AMAZING mathematician named Marian Rejewski helped DEFEAT NAZIS in World War II?

His work helped END THE WAR YEARS EARLIER than it would have! Rejewski and his Polish team CRACKED THE SECRET CODE of the German Enigma machine in 1932 when he was just 23 years old. He spotted as a young student that Nazism threatened everyone’s freedom. Like a REAL-LIFE SUPERHERO TEAM who see villains before others do, Rejewski got people together to see danger while powerful grown-ups ignored it. As evil people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk cause mass suffering, we need to be BRAVE and SMART like Rejewski’s HARD WORKING team of anti-fascists.

The Polish mathematicians making breakthroughs were forced to share their findings with the Spanish, French and British allies, when Nazi Germany invaded their country illegally in 1938. British codebreakers at Bletchley Park (especially one particularly obnoxious guy) today tend to soak up the spotlight in books and movies. But it was these quiet and professional Polish codebreakers who were the most foundational to Allied success foiling Nazis during WWII. Many people also still don’t realize it was British women who pioneered the vast majority of early computer engineering (hardware and software) based on the Polish designs in WWII, as well as their own amazing codebreaking.

The full story of breaking the Enigma code involved international cooperation among diverse groups, despite some silly British who try to spin up a lazy and bogus story about just one guy.

Let’s see what Rejewski used to TOTALLY CRUSH NAZI SECRETS! IMAGINE being able to read EVERY SINGLE MESSAGE your enemies send! It’s like having X-RAY VISION but for WORDS! Secret messages save BAZILLIONS of lives during wars! Making secret codes is MEGA COOL – but BREAKING EVIL NAZI CODES is like being a SUPERHERO WITH A TOILET PAPER TUBE!

Today, we’re going to build a simple version of the famous Enigma machine that was used during World War II to send secret codes, so we can see how Rejewski cracked it in Poland!

What You’ll Need

• Sharp mind
• Sharp scissors
• Sharp marker or pen
• Dull ruler
• One empty toilet paper tube
• Cardboard for the base

Step 1: TRANSFORM Your Tube
SLICE that toilet paper tube into THREE MAGIC RINGS, about 1 inch wide each. Get a grown-up to help with some cutting commentary (EDUCATING THE PARENTS ALERT!)… Tell them you’re making a SUPER-SECRET SPY DEVICE that helped SAVE THE WORLD from Nazi villains! TRA-LA-LAAA!

Step 2: Create Your Base
Cut a piece of cardboard to create a base for your machine. Make it about 8 inches long and 4 inches wide. The real Enigma machines were metal boxes encased in oak, so this version will use the same principles with recycled cardboard.

Step 3: Label Your Rings
On each ring, draw a line down the middle to divide it into a right side and a left side.

On the right side of each ring: Write the alphabet in order (A-Z) going around the tube. Boring, right?

On the left side: This is where we’ll write our scrambled alphabets! Being on the left is cool – it’s where the magic happens!

Step 4: Scramble the Alphabet
Use these scrambled alphabets for the left side of each ring:

Ring 1 (First Ring):

A → Q B → W C → E D → R T → Y F → U
G → I H → O J → P K → A L → S M → D
N → F O → G P → H Q → J R → K S → L
T → Z U → X V → C W → V X → B Y → N
Z → M


Ring 2 (Middle Ring):

A → M B → N C → B D → V E → C F → X
G → Z H → A I → S J → D K → F L → G
M → H N → J O → K P → L Q → P R → O
S → I T → U U → Y V → T W → R X → E
Y → W Z → Q


Ring 3 (Last Ring):

A → E B → K C → M D → F E → L F → G
G → D H → Q I → V J → Z K → N L → T
M → O N → W O → Y P → H Q → X R → U
S → S T → P U → A V → I W → B X → R
Y → C Z → J


Step 5: Set Up Your Machine
1. Place the three rings in a row on your cardboard base.
2. Make a pointer above each ring by drawing an arrow on the cardboard.
3. Add the reflector chart on the left side of your board.

Reflector Chart

A ↔ Z B ↔ Y C ↔ X D ↔ W E ↔ V
F ↔ U G ↔ T H ↔ S I ↔ R J ↔ Q
K ↔ P L ↔ O M ↔ N


How to Use Your Mini Enigma

1. Choose a starting position for each ring by rotating them.
2. To encrypt a letter:
   • Find your letter on the right side of Ring 1
   • Look at what letter it lines up with on the left side
   • Find that letter on the right side of Ring 2
   • Continue through Ring 3
   • Use the reflector chart to find the paired letter
   • Trace backward through the rings
   • The final letter is your encrypted result!
3. After encrypting each letter, rotate Ring 1 one position.
4. When Ring 1 makes a complete rotation, rotate Ring 2 one position.
5. When Ring 2 makes a complete rotation, rotate Ring 3 one position.

Example
Let’s encrypt the letter “A”:

1. Find “A” on the right side of Ring 1 → it maps to “Q” on the left
2. Find “Q” on the right side of Ring 2 → it maps to “P” on the left
3. Find “P” on the right side of Ring 3 → it maps to “H” on the left
4. Look up “H” in the reflector → it pairs with “S”
5. Find “S” on the left side of Ring 3 → it maps to “S” on the right
6. Find “S” on the left side of Ring 2 → it maps to “I” on the right
7. Find “I” on the left side of Ring 1 → it maps to “G” on the right
8. Your encrypted letter is “G”!

KA-BLOOEY! POW! ZOWIE! (Or “BOMBA” as they shouted in Poland). YOU’VE JUST MADE A MESSAGE TOP SECRET!

Now you can send ENCODED MESSAGES to your friends! Or become a CODE-BREAKER by cracking your friends’ messages wide open!

The MOST AMAZING thing about Enigma is that your friend can decode your message if they set up their machine exactly like yours. But the SUPER COOL part? You can CRACK THE CODE with math even if you don’t know the settings! Those racist hateful Nazis got TOTALLY OUTSMARTED by the kind and quiet Polish mathematicians who found patterns in secret messages!

The interesting and fun work for the world’s best codebreakers like Rejewski was figuring out daily settings without knowing any of them in advance. Cool MATH!

Related: 2023 biography of Rejewski

MEGA-AWESOME FUN FACTS

• The real Enigma machine had a keyboard and light-up letters – BORING AND EXPENSIVE! Your TOILET PAPER TUBE model is WAY COOLER and costs ZERO DOLLARS!
• Some WEIRD adults collect stinky old Nazi machines that cost MORE THAN A BAZILLION dead people! But your EPIC TOILET TUBE celebrates the REAL HEROES who used BRAIN POWER to KICK NAZI BUTT to save lives! Who’s the real genius now, HUH?!
• There are nine short video interviews of Rejewski where he explains his ground-breaking work, including how he taught the British. (Video 3 – 0:56: Breaking the Enigma code in 1932):

The “we’re gonna go back” platform is doing exactly what could be expected and will kill millions. One estimate in South Africa alone is 500K dead from a disease that was trending towards being eradicated.

Projects funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), founded by George W Bush in 2003, appear to be particularly affected. In South Africa it funds 17% of the HIV response; in other countries the figure is much higher.

Prof Linda-Gail Bekker, director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town, said: “It is not hyperbole to say that I predict a huge disaster.”

Bekker has worked on modelling suggesting a complete loss of Pepfar funding in South Africa would lead to more than 500,000 extra HIV deaths over a decade.

It comes at a time when scientific breakthroughs, such as the introduction of long-acting injectable prevention drugs, meant many working in the HIV field had hoped an end to the disease might be in sight.

Now, said Bekker, it was likely things would go backwards.

Going backwards, full retreat, with people dying unnecessarily from preventable causes is the definition of MAGA.

Throughout history, a particularly effective rhetorical weapon has been used to attack critics: falsely pathologizing dissent.

Framing criticism as a form of mental illness or irrational obsession, is how powerful figures and their supporters dismiss opposing viewpoints without ever engaging with their substance.

The contemporary use of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS) to dismiss criticism of Donald Trump is the latest abuse in the historical tradition.

Attack of Pathologizing Dissent

When criticism is labeled as a form of mental instability, several things happen simultaneously:

1. Red Herring – focus shifts from the content of the critique to the supposed psychological state of the critic
2. False Binary – those who “see clearly” versus those who are “deranged”
3. Ad Hominem personal attack – how can one reason with someone who is, by definition, irrational?

This rhetorical triad attack has proven remarkably effective across languages, cultures, political systems, and historical periods.

Let’s examine some key examples, their precedent and parallels to contemporary discourse.

Soviet Union: Punitive Psychiatry

Perhaps the most direct historical parallel comes from the Soviet Union, where psychiatry became weaponized against political dissidents. Critics of the regime were diagnosed with:

• “Sluggish schizophrenia” – a fabricated mental illness characterized by the “symptoms” of questioning Soviet authority or desiring reform
• “Reformist delusions” – the supposedly irrational belief that the Soviet system needed improvement
• “Political paranoia” – the “delusion” that the Soviet government might be oppressive

Soviet citizens who criticized policies or leadership found themselves not in political debates but in psychiatric hospitals, where their “illness” of dissent could be “treated.” The diagnosis itself was circular: the very act of criticizing the system was considered evidence of mental illness.

Nazi Germany: “Negativism”

The Nazi regime similarly pathologized opposition by diagnosing critics with “negativism” – a supposed condition where individuals irrationally opposed the positive transformation of Germany under Hitler. Those expressing concerns about Nazi policies weren’t treated as having legitimate political viewpoints but rather as suffering from psychological dysfunction that prevented them from seeing Hitler’s “greatness.”

Mao’s China: “Rightist Thinking Disease”

During China’s Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong’s government labeled critics as suffering from “rightist thinking disease.” This “condition” required intensive “thought reform” rather than rational engagement with the critiques being raised. The diagnosis served to isolate critics and frame their concerns as personal psychological failings rather than legitimate political positions.

Pol Pot’s Cambodia: “Memory Sickness”

The Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia diagnosed those who expressed nostalgia for pre-revolutionary life or questioned current conditions with “memory sickness.” This wasn’t seen as rational comparison but as an ideological disease requiring reeducation. Similarly, intellectuals and critics were dehumanized as “microbes” infecting the revolutionary body, requiring elimination rather than engagement.

Ceaușescu’s Romania: “Hostile Attitude Syndrome”

In Romania under Nicolae Ceaușescu, critics were diagnosed with “hostile attitude syndrome,” a supposed condition that made them irrationally opposed to the Romanian leader’s policies. This diagnosis allowed the regime to medicalize political opposition and treat it as a form of mental illness rather than legitimate dissent.

American McCarthyism: “Comsymp” Label

During the McCarthy era in the United States, critics of anti-communist efforts were labeled “Communist sympathizers” or “comsymps.” While not explicitly framed as a mental disorder, this label functioned similarly by suggesting critics were irrationally sympathetic to communism rather than making legitimate critiques of McCarthy’s methods and excesses.

American Iraq War: “Anti-American Sentiment Disorder”

More recently, during debates over the 2003 Iraq War, some proponents of the war characterized critics as suffering from “Anti-American Sentiment Disorder” – implying their criticisms stemmed from psychological issues rather than reasoned analysis of the war’s justification and execution.

American “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

Against this historical backdrop, the term “Trump Derangement Syndrome” emerges as the latest iteration of a long-established tactic. Originally coined as “Bush Derangement Syndrome” by psychiatrist and political commentator Charles Krauthammer to describe critics of President George W. Bush, the term was repurposed and gained widespread usage during the Trump presidency.

It is typically defined as an irrational hatred of Donald Trump that impairs the sufferer’s judgment and leads them to criticize everything associated with him, regardless of merit. This framing does three things:

1. Preemptively discredits criticism – Any critique, no matter how factual or reasoned, can be dismissed as a symptom of “derangement”
2. Creates a circular logic – The more evidence one presents to support criticism, the more “obsessed” and therefore “deranged” one appears
3. Shifts discussion from policy to psychology – Rather than debating the merits of policies or actions, the discussion becomes about the critic’s mental state

Information Warfare Angle

Pathologizing dissent is studied in information warfare doctrine because it represents a sophisticated tactic of authoritarian threats:

• Creates epistemic closure – When legitimate criticism can be dismissed as derangement, a closed information environment forms where contrary evidence never penetrates
• Reinforces in-group/out-group dynamics – Those who accept the framing see themselves as rational and clear-thinking, while critics are dismissed as irrational and unworthy of engagement
• Inoculates against criticism – Supporters are provided with a ready-made explanation that requires no further consideration of the criticism’s substance

Breaking the Pattern

Understanding this historical pattern is crucial for meaningful democratic discourse. When we recognize “derangement syndrome” accusations for what they are – the latest iteration of a longstanding tactic to pathologize dissent – we can move beyond them to engage with the substance of political disagreements.

Legitimate criticism should be met with counterarguments addressing the substance, not with accusations about the critic’s mental state. History shows us that when societies accept the pathologizing of dissent as normal, the result is not better discourse but rather the silencing of necessary criticism and the reinforcement of unchecked power.

The next time “derangement syndrome” is mentioned, recognize the warfare context of history. Ask whether the accusation addresses the substance of the criticism or merely attempts to delegitimize, and dehumanize, the critic. In a healthy democracy, we need robust debate focused on issues, not ad hominem attacks disguised as psychological diagnosis.

From Stalin’s “sluggish schizophrenia” to “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” the tactic of pathologizing dissent has remained remarkably consistent across time and political contexts. By recognizing this pattern, we can resist its divisive effects and recommit to substantive political dialogue where ideas are engaged on their merits rather than dismissed through psychological labeling. The health of our democracy depends on our ability to critique power without being fraudulently labeled as ill for doing so.