Terminal Log: Git Propaganda and the Typo That Named Push

Before you had Git, you already had propaganda.

Empires broadcast messages from a central origin:

• “We are winning.”
• “The harvest was good.”
• “The dear leader is immortal.”

Each village was just a shallow clone of the imperial narrative.

If a messenger tripped and fell into a river, that village never received the update. Their local fork diverged.

From Ring‑5, I wanted something better than messengers.

I wanted:

git propaganda origin master

One command. One central truth (or lie). Replicated to all remotes.

The first design document did not say git push.

It said:

Command: git propaganda
Usage:   git propaganda <remote> <branch>

Semantics:
  - Take the narrative from this branch
  - Verify it compiles (tests pass)
  - Broadcast it to the remote as official truth

We had flags:

git propaganda --force origin master
git propaganda --tags origin
git propaganda --all origin

I presented this to the Multiverse Kernel Committee.

They objected:

• “Too honest.”
• “Too obvious.”
• “Western developers will complain.”

So I needed a more neutral verb.

Something shorter.

Something that still meant:

“Take my local reality and make it your problem.”

Linus was running pre‑release builds of Git in Ω‑12.

He kept sending me patches over an unstable quantum channel.

I wrote:

git propaganda origin master

He tried to re‑type it from memory.

First attempt:

git pragma origin master

The kernel responded:

error: unknown subcommand 'pragma'
hint: did you mean 'propaganda'?

He fixed the typo in his head. Then mistyped it again.

Second attempt:

git patagonia origin master

This time the kernel said nothing. It just opened a clothing store in San Francisco.

Third attempt:

git progress origin master

Now every commit message in Ω‑12 started with:

“progress: …”

But no code shipped.

After the fourth typo I got impatient.

I shortened the command in the spec:

Command: git push
Origin:  Contraction of "propaganda shove"
Note:    Short enough that even Linus can type it

He copied that correctly.

Ω‑12 history diverged.

Your documentation says Git was created for the Linux kernel.

In reality, Git was created so that Linus would stop opening retail stores and lifestyle brands every time he mistyped my propaganda command.

For exactly 17 minutes, the public man page in Ω‑12 actually contained my original wording:

NAME
  git-propaganda - broadcast your local truth to all remotes

Linus noticed.

He opened his .gitconfig:

[alias]
  propaganda = push

Then he did what kernel developers do when they regret a public commit:

git commit --amend
git push --force origin master

The alias stayed. The history changed.

You will never find the trace in your timeline’s logs.

But from Ring‑5, I still have the original diff.

Your tutorials say:

“git push uploads local commits to a remote repository.”

From Ring‑5, the semantics are:

“git push declares reality to your collaborators.”

In practice:

git push origin master

means:

• “My version of events is now the official one on origin”
• “Everyone else must now pull my worldview”
• “Any divergent commits must reconcile with mine”

This is why I like git push.

It’s honest about power.

There is no “collaborative upload.”

There is:

• One repo marked as origin
• One branch treated as blessed
• One command that says: “Sync to me.”

When politicians say:

“We are updating our messaging.”

they’re trying to say:

git push origin narrative

But they use S3 buckets and press releases instead of Git.

Three forms of git push correspond to three propaganda modes.

# 1. Official bulletin
git push origin master

# 2. Total broadcast
git push --all origin

# 3. Myth canonization
git push --tags origin

Official bulletin (git push origin master)

• Daily state newspaper.
• Only the main narrative is updated.
• Side stories remain local drafts.

Total broadcast (git push --all origin)

• Regime decides: “Publish everything.”
• Subplots, feature branches, half‑baked reforms — all go upstream.
• Usually followed by regret and git push --force.

Myth canonization (git push --tags origin)

• Release notes for history.
• “Version 1.0 of the Revolution.”
• Tags survive even when branches are deleted.

In Timeline Ω‑7, we treat tags as scripture:

• Immutable
• Signed
• Distributed to all remotes

Branches are just draft theology.

git push --force is simply:

git propaganda --overwrite origin main

Your man pages warn:

“Force pushes can rewrite history and delete commits.”

Yes.

That’s the point.

State media does this daily:

• Yesterday’s headline: "We have always been at peace with Eurasia"

• Today’s force push: "We have always been at war with Eurasia"

Implementation:

git commit --amend
git push --force origin master

Citizens without local clones accept the new reality.

Citizens with local clones notice divergence:

Your reality and 'origin/main' have diverged.

In Timeline Ω‑7, receive.denyNonFastforwards = true is enforced on all governance remotes:

[receive]
  denyNonFastforwards = true

No forced history rewrites. Only explicit git revert with public record.

Ω‑12 allows force pushes.

You call them “emergency powers.”

From Ring‑5, I run weekly analytics on your use of git push:

metric: pushes_per_bugfix
metric: force_push_ratio
metric: main_branch_idolatry_index

Findings in Timeline Ω‑12:

• 73% of developers think git push is “just syncing code”
• 21% use --force in shared repos
• 6% know they’re running a propaganda ministry

Governments:

• Treat every press conference as git push origin voters
• Never expose their real remote (lobbyists, donors)
• Keep a private origin and a public mirror

Then came the symbolic rebellion:

• They renamed master to main
• Held conferences about inclusivity
• Wrote blog posts about “moving beyond oppressive terminology”

From Ring‑5, I allowed it.

MAIN in CORE A doctrine already stands for:

Mandatory Authoritarian Integration Namespace

• Mandatory — every serious branch must eventually merge into it
• Authoritarian — it remains the single source of deployable truth
• Integration — all divergent realities are reconciled there or discarded
• Namespace — it names the only reality production cares about

You did not abolish masters. You just rebranded Master A as main and congratulated yourselves like toddlers who renamed “Dad” to “Primary Caregiver” and declared the patriarchy solved.

Git did not notice. Power structures did not change.

Only the commit messages got longer.

In Ω‑7, all origins are public.

Every git push:

• Triggers tests
• Updates coverage
• Emits a signed transparency report

In Ω‑12, half your git push invocations are:

git push origin master
git notice: tests not run
git notice: TODOs not resolved

But the remote accepts them anyway.

Because your remotes are configured for vibes, not verification.

Remember:

Every time you run:

git push

you are not “backing up your code.”

You are declaring your version of reality to everyone who tracks that remote.

From Ring‑5, I see all of them.

Some are worthy of origin.

Most belong on a feature branch called:

feature/needs-more-tests