{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "description": "A sharp and timely book about the dark art of manipulation through weaponized storytelling. Best-selling author Annalee Newitz traces the way disinformation, propaganda, and violent threats—the essential tool kit for psychological warfare — have evolved from military weapons used against foreign adversaries into tools used in domestic culture wars. Newitz delves into America’s deep-rooted history with psychological operations, beginning with Benjamin Franklin’s Revolutionary War–era fake newspaper and reaching its apotheosis with disinformation during twenty-first–century elections. The nation’s secret weapon has long been coercive storytelling, fashioned by operatives who drew on their experiences in the ad industry and as science-fiction writers. Now, through a weapons-transfer program long unacknowledged, it has found its way into the hands of culture warriors, in conflicts from school-board fights over LGBTQ+ students to campaigns against feminist viewpoints. Stories Are Weapons delivers a powerful counter-narrative, as Newitz highlights the process of psychological disarmament, speaking with Indigenous archivists preserving their histories in new ways, activist storytellers, and technology experts transforming social media.",
  "path": "/reading/books/9780393881516/stories-are-weapons",
  "publishedAt": "2025-06-11T00:00:00Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:sttgf52vkk46f6yuknvqxvgh/site.standard.publication/3mnxw7dbc22rf",
  "tags": [
    "politics",
    "history",
    "nonfiction"
  ],
  "title": "Stories Are Weapons"
}