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Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind
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.
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.
Audio CD
First published June 4, 2024
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About the author
Annalee Newitz
62 books2,028 followersAnnalee Newitz is an American journalist who covers the cultural impact of science and technology. They received a PhD in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley, and in 1997 published the widely cited book, White Trash: Race and Class in America. From 2004–2005 they were a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They write for many periodicals from 'Popular Science' to 'Wired,' and from 1999 to 2008 wrote a syndicated weekly column called 'Techsploitation.' They co-founded 'other' magazine in 2002, which was published triannually until 2007. Since 2008, they are editor-in-chief of 'io9,' a Gawker-owned science fiction blog, which was named in 2010 by The Times as one of the top science blogs on the internet.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 175 reviews
March 18, 2024
Newitz tackles a very big project here, essentially this history of propaganda. There are certainly some interesting and well told stories that are part of this book. It's worth reading just for the overview of some of the biggest propaganda stories tackled in the book. However, perhaps because it is so ambitious, it feels as if there is not enough holding together all of the examples used in this book. Of course, every story is an example of some form of propaganda, but there were many to choose from and it's not clear why these in particular were chosen. At times I felt as I was randomly leaping around history without knowing exactly why. In short, I think it would help to have a larger story connecting the various stories told in this book. I would also love to see a deeper dive into what we can potentially do to address these challenges. The suggestions at the end were interesting, but all rather experimental, or untested. I would have really enjoyed if these could have been connected to some of the stories in the book. Are there things we've learned from the examples that can be used moving forward?
Despite these potential drawbacks, if you're interested in propaganda, you'll want to check this one out.
Despite these potential drawbacks, if you're interested in propaganda, you'll want to check this one out.
April 1, 2025
This audiobook was by turns informative, engaging, and deeply upsetting. Newitz spells out the history of the use of propaganda in American warfare, including as far back as the war for independence, and the many wars against Indian nations in the attempt to empty the West of its original people to make the land available for white settlers. During the years around WWII, several key thinkers penned books on physiological operations; some also wrote science fiction under other pen names. The same tactics that fed military thought on propaganda was also used by early advertisers. The book also lays out the Cambridge Analytica project and how clearly it falls into the use of psychological weapons by American corporations against American citizens, and tactic which is supposed to be illegal. I listened to this on audio during the Trans Rights Readaton ] and I'm glad I got to it but some chapters on the 2016 election and current targeting of books, libraries, and queer people were not a fun time to listen to. Newitz ends with a short chapter on "Psy-Ops disarmament" and of course it points to all of the things the current administration is trying to destroy: public educations, a robust library system, trusted new sources, and free movement of citizens across borders.
Want to read
May 2, 2024Ed Yong recommends the book: "A thoroughly researched and masterfully crafted account of the past and present of psyops, disinformation, and propaganda. Newitz also gives us something hopeful—a way to disarm the narratives that have been used against us and reclaim better ones."
The author just published a nice preview re Paul Linebarger/Cordwainer Smith's 1950's SF:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc...
Excerpt:
"Linebarger’s father was a diplomat who worked closely with the Chinese-nationalist leader Sun Yat-Sen, who became the younger Linebarger’s godfather. Paul Linebarger himself spent a great deal of his childhood traveling in China, learning Mandarin and studying Sun’s political vision. As an adult, Linebarger made it his mission to topple the Communist regime and restore the republic that Sun had built. Although he did not accomplish this in fact, he could, as Cordwainer Smith, depict such a struggle in fiction—the Instrumentality can be read as a surreal version of China’s government under Mao Zedong."
The author just published a nice preview re Paul Linebarger/Cordwainer Smith's 1950's SF:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc...
Excerpt:
"Linebarger’s father was a diplomat who worked closely with the Chinese-nationalist leader Sun Yat-Sen, who became the younger Linebarger’s godfather. Paul Linebarger himself spent a great deal of his childhood traveling in China, learning Mandarin and studying Sun’s political vision. As an adult, Linebarger made it his mission to topple the Communist regime and restore the republic that Sun had built. Although he did not accomplish this in fact, he could, as Cordwainer Smith, depict such a struggle in fiction—the Instrumentality can be read as a surreal version of China’s government under Mao Zedong."
October 18, 2024
Rec. by: Peter T., Ed Y., and previous work
Rec. for: Raconteurs
ART SAVES LIVES
You've probably seen that popular bumper sticker sentiment, whether on an automobile or online.
But if that assertion is true, then its corollary must also be true, even if you never see this one while stuck in traffic:
ART TAKES LIVES
Coming close in my to-read list on the heels of Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age was 2024's Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind by Annalee Newitz. In this newer book, Newitz investigates the many ways in which stories—fictions—disinformation—have been, can be, and are right now being used, to make our lives worse... and what we can do to defend ourselves and our loved ones against such poisoned narratives.
Most of Stories Are Weapons is a litany of woes, though—Newitz begins with chapter after chapter that relate some of the stories that people have weaponized, the ones that are racist, or sexist, or otherwise appalling, ranging from the erasure of Native American tribal history to the scapegoating of comic books as corrupters of youth.
But then... Newitz offers us some hope, and some guidance for counteracting the poisoned narratives that have infected us.
The payoff for Stories Are Weapons begins in their final section: "Disarmament." Chapter 7 ("History is a Gift") shares a story from southwestern Oregon, an area I've visited myself more than once—where the Coquille tribe, and its chief Jason Younker, are
That is but one of the hopeful stories to which Newitz devotes the latter third of this book—whose practical advice includes this succinct observation:
And, as the spouse of a librarian myself, I found this reminder both timely and appropriate:
Stories Are Weapons is both a cautionary tale and a roadmap to future harmony—well, if we choose to pay attention to the story Annalee Newitz is telling...
Rec. for: Raconteurs
ART SAVES LIVES
You've probably seen that popular bumper sticker sentiment, whether on an automobile or online.
But if that assertion is true, then its corollary must also be true, even if you never see this one while stuck in traffic:
ART TAKES LIVES
Coming close in my to-read list on the heels of Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age was 2024's Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind by Annalee Newitz. In this newer book, Newitz investigates the many ways in which stories—fictions—disinformation—have been, can be, and are right now being used, to make our lives worse... and what we can do to defend ourselves and our loved ones against such poisoned narratives.
Most of Stories Are Weapons is a litany of woes, though—Newitz begins with chapter after chapter that relate some of the stories that people have weaponized, the ones that are racist, or sexist, or otherwise appalling, ranging from the erasure of Native American tribal history to the scapegoating of comic books as corrupters of youth.
But then... Newitz offers us some hope, and some guidance for counteracting the poisoned narratives that have infected us.
The payoff for Stories Are Weapons begins in their final section: "Disarmament." Chapter 7 ("History is a Gift") shares a story from southwestern Oregon, an area I've visited myself more than once—where the Coquille tribe, and its chief Jason Younker, are
{...} mapping a way to the future by excavating its past and presenting it to the world for everyone to see.
—p.165
That is but one of the hopeful stories to which Newitz devotes the latter third of this book—whose practical advice includes this succinct observation:
"We need to become reflexively suspicious of information that makes us angry at our fellow citizens."I learned that one back in the 1990s, while participating (and, sometimes, choosing not to participate) in discussions on Usenet.
—p.191, Bruce Schneier
And, as the spouse of a librarian myself, I found this reminder both timely and appropriate:
Without librarians, the library is merely a bricks-and-mortar version of the internet: a bewildering, overwhelming collection of ideas presented without structure or meaning. In a sense, the librarian is a content moderator, someone who offers guidance through the stacks of fantasies, thought experiments, scientific facts, and spicy opinions.
—p.201
Stories Are Weapons is both a cautionary tale and a roadmap to future harmony—well, if we choose to pay attention to the story Annalee Newitz is telling...
October 31, 2024
BookRiot called this a must read before the election and they are so right. Most people have heard about psychological warfare aka psyops and propaganda but maybe don’t know about its history–or even its connection to science fiction! (Paul Linebarger/Cordwainer Smith) We have so much to learn about how these campaigns have been waged in not just our wars abroad but also within our own country. This book covers 200 years of American history to highlight what psyops looks like and how to avoid being duped by it. The very tools used to divide us can also be used to connect us. Newitz is a science and science fiction writer who knows how to write informative and galvanizing books that you can’t stop thinking about.
"There are three major psychological weapons that combatants often transfer into culture war: scapegoating, deception, and violent threats. These weapons are what separate an open, democratic public debate from a psychological attack. In a militarized culture, combatants will scapegoat specific groups of Americans by painting them as foreign adversaries; next, these culture warriors will lace their rhetoric with lies and bully their adversaries with threats of violence or imprisonment."
...
Increasingly, Americans are not engaging in democratic debate with one another; they are launching weaponized stories directly into each other's brains." (xxii)
"New England town histories were shared stories that retold American history by, as O'Brien put it, 'writing Indians out of existence.' Social scientists call this phenomenon historical amnesia. Groups often experience a kind of collective forgetting about horrific events like genocide and war, especially because most people would prefer to stop thinking about them. Emotional storytelling, whether fictional or factual, is one way to draw a curtain of amnesia over historical events, transforming the way we look back on our past. Studies have shown that people can forget details of traumatic events they've lived through when they listen to persuasive stories about those events from other people. As O'Brien discovered in her research, even a stultifying local history can be emotionally powerful . For settlers who wanted the Indian Wars to be over, these amateur histories offered soothing half-truths that absolved them of guilt. In the mid-nineteenth century, it would have been deeply calming for settlers to read that Indigenous nations were disappearing on their own. That meant they could forget about the war." (48)
"In a culture war, combatants justify using psyops against people living in the United States by framing specific groups as a foreign power, an 'other' whose influence has become dangerous to the nation. Often, these groups are similar to ones defined as outsiders in the Constitution: people who came from other countries, by choice or in chains; Indigenous nations; and groups omitted from the Constitution, like women and LGBT people.
Psyops in a culture war take a different form from those in a kinetic war. PSYOP specialists in the military have a singular goal: convince the enemy to change their behavior. Culture warriors have two goals: convince Americans that some of their fellow citizens are the enemy; and convince 'the enemy' that there is something deeply wrong with their minds, and therefore they are not qualified to demand greater freedoms and personal dignity. A culture-war attack divides the nation into two groups: those with good brains and those with bad ones." (100)
"We need to supplement these changes with new approaches to the algorithms that control what we see online. Companies could measure engagement in morale boosting rather than doomscrolling. Indeed, Facebook ran an experiment in 2014 where they tweaked the content algorithm to promote stories that fostered positive feelings about other people. I'm not suggesting we should manipulate people into passive acceptance, or force everyone into a 'love thy neighbor
mode. Instead, we would foster a democratic public sphere where people are encouraged to disagree without threatening one another's lives or jobs. As security technologist Bruce Schneier put it, 'We need to become reflexively suspicious of information that makes us angry about our fellow citizens.' Future systems of media could help us talk to one another again, by slowing down and considering our words." (191)
"Gordon's work feels like a hopeful continuation of Linebarger's. After earning a PhD in cognitive science, she studied ways to defend Americans against what she calls 'malign influence' or 'cognitive attacks.' Fiction gives her the freedom to imagine alternate scenarios in fantastical or future civilizations that echo those on Earth today. Unlike Linebarger, she's open about the connection between her two lives as a researcher and author." (193)
"As Gordon put it, we need stories because they offer us something to work toward. Still, she cautioned, we can't get there without agreeing that some ideas should be 'disallowed' in the public sphere. 'We have to get to a point where we have the type of healthy disagreement and political discourse that allows a thriving democracy...while also disallowing (questions like) 'Is climate change something we should solve?' or 'Should queers exist?' Both questions are part of psyops that rely on climate disinformation or the notion that LGBT people should be criminalized or worse. Gordon hoped that in a future public sphere, we 'agree about who is a person' because everyone in a democracy is a person. 'In many places we're forgotten you can have disagreements while still keeping your eye on the real problems. We can argue about housing policies and disagree strongly about how to deal with homelessness--but we must agree that (the unhoused) are people.'"
She imagined that a state of psychological disarmament would require us to meet in person more often, the way people often do at the house where she lives with her wife and children. ...She said her neighborhood is extremely diverse and 'we disagree about a lot of things, but we still say hi to each other when they walk their dogs and still bring food trays when they're sick or have a baby.' It's one thing to say this, but quite another thing to see and feel it in a story. In her novel A Half-Built Garden, we witness a world where people care for a watershed whose needs are addressed as if it were a member of the community. The dandelion network brings those future people together in an America where we do not reach consensus by threatening one another to death--instead, we promise one another a better life." (194-5)
"There are three major psychological weapons that combatants often transfer into culture war: scapegoating, deception, and violent threats. These weapons are what separate an open, democratic public debate from a psychological attack. In a militarized culture, combatants will scapegoat specific groups of Americans by painting them as foreign adversaries; next, these culture warriors will lace their rhetoric with lies and bully their adversaries with threats of violence or imprisonment."
...
Increasingly, Americans are not engaging in democratic debate with one another; they are launching weaponized stories directly into each other's brains." (xxii)
"New England town histories were shared stories that retold American history by, as O'Brien put it, 'writing Indians out of existence.' Social scientists call this phenomenon historical amnesia. Groups often experience a kind of collective forgetting about horrific events like genocide and war, especially because most people would prefer to stop thinking about them. Emotional storytelling, whether fictional or factual, is one way to draw a curtain of amnesia over historical events, transforming the way we look back on our past. Studies have shown that people can forget details of traumatic events they've lived through when they listen to persuasive stories about those events from other people. As O'Brien discovered in her research, even a stultifying local history can be emotionally powerful . For settlers who wanted the Indian Wars to be over, these amateur histories offered soothing half-truths that absolved them of guilt. In the mid-nineteenth century, it would have been deeply calming for settlers to read that Indigenous nations were disappearing on their own. That meant they could forget about the war." (48)
"In a culture war, combatants justify using psyops against people living in the United States by framing specific groups as a foreign power, an 'other' whose influence has become dangerous to the nation. Often, these groups are similar to ones defined as outsiders in the Constitution: people who came from other countries, by choice or in chains; Indigenous nations; and groups omitted from the Constitution, like women and LGBT people.
Psyops in a culture war take a different form from those in a kinetic war. PSYOP specialists in the military have a singular goal: convince the enemy to change their behavior. Culture warriors have two goals: convince Americans that some of their fellow citizens are the enemy; and convince 'the enemy' that there is something deeply wrong with their minds, and therefore they are not qualified to demand greater freedoms and personal dignity. A culture-war attack divides the nation into two groups: those with good brains and those with bad ones." (100)
"We need to supplement these changes with new approaches to the algorithms that control what we see online. Companies could measure engagement in morale boosting rather than doomscrolling. Indeed, Facebook ran an experiment in 2014 where they tweaked the content algorithm to promote stories that fostered positive feelings about other people. I'm not suggesting we should manipulate people into passive acceptance, or force everyone into a 'love thy neighbor
mode. Instead, we would foster a democratic public sphere where people are encouraged to disagree without threatening one another's lives or jobs. As security technologist Bruce Schneier put it, 'We need to become reflexively suspicious of information that makes us angry about our fellow citizens.' Future systems of media could help us talk to one another again, by slowing down and considering our words." (191)
"Gordon's work feels like a hopeful continuation of Linebarger's. After earning a PhD in cognitive science, she studied ways to defend Americans against what she calls 'malign influence' or 'cognitive attacks.' Fiction gives her the freedom to imagine alternate scenarios in fantastical or future civilizations that echo those on Earth today. Unlike Linebarger, she's open about the connection between her two lives as a researcher and author." (193)
"As Gordon put it, we need stories because they offer us something to work toward. Still, she cautioned, we can't get there without agreeing that some ideas should be 'disallowed' in the public sphere. 'We have to get to a point where we have the type of healthy disagreement and political discourse that allows a thriving democracy...while also disallowing (questions like) 'Is climate change something we should solve?' or 'Should queers exist?' Both questions are part of psyops that rely on climate disinformation or the notion that LGBT people should be criminalized or worse. Gordon hoped that in a future public sphere, we 'agree about who is a person' because everyone in a democracy is a person. 'In many places we're forgotten you can have disagreements while still keeping your eye on the real problems. We can argue about housing policies and disagree strongly about how to deal with homelessness--but we must agree that (the unhoused) are people.'"
She imagined that a state of psychological disarmament would require us to meet in person more often, the way people often do at the house where she lives with her wife and children. ...She said her neighborhood is extremely diverse and 'we disagree about a lot of things, but we still say hi to each other when they walk their dogs and still bring food trays when they're sick or have a baby.' It's one thing to say this, but quite another thing to see and feel it in a story. In her novel A Half-Built Garden, we witness a world where people care for a watershed whose needs are addressed as if it were a member of the community. The dandelion network brings those future people together in an America where we do not reach consensus by threatening one another to death--instead, we promise one another a better life." (194-5)
November 4, 2024
I don't usually write reviews of books I do not finish. However, since I read 60% before I abandoned the book, I am qualified to give an opinion.
My interest was because the review in Foreign Affairs made the book appealing. I have taught university courses on symbolic politics about the manipulation of public opinion, and courses on decision-making and the effect of analogies (see Khong's Analogies at War) and thought this would be useful for those courses.
However, the book does not provide any rigor to its study of the subject. The chapters are not connected except for the presence of the mysterious 'Han Solo' that gives the author a one-on-one PSYOPS course (for disclosure, I finished the actual course and worked with psyops groups in Latin America and in Yugoslavia). Many of the chapters only have one or two theoretical sources and there is no balancing explanation.
The author suffers from the common problem for social scientists and historians - selection bias. Her examples are generally how stories are used by the right and ignore the use by the left, such as police racism even though the Obama Justice Dept. debunked this trope. While discussing right-wing influence, she omits to talk about how the Soviet Union was connected to many peace and anti-nuclear weapons organizations. When discussing eugenics, she talks about how racists have used it and IQ tests to attack racial minorities. However, she ignores that one of the promoters of this effort was Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood.
My recommendation - do not waste your time. Personally, I am glad I borrowed this book and did not waste money on buying a copy.
My interest was because the review in Foreign Affairs made the book appealing. I have taught university courses on symbolic politics about the manipulation of public opinion, and courses on decision-making and the effect of analogies (see Khong's Analogies at War) and thought this would be useful for those courses.
However, the book does not provide any rigor to its study of the subject. The chapters are not connected except for the presence of the mysterious 'Han Solo' that gives the author a one-on-one PSYOPS course (for disclosure, I finished the actual course and worked with psyops groups in Latin America and in Yugoslavia). Many of the chapters only have one or two theoretical sources and there is no balancing explanation.
The author suffers from the common problem for social scientists and historians - selection bias. Her examples are generally how stories are used by the right and ignore the use by the left, such as police racism even though the Obama Justice Dept. debunked this trope. While discussing right-wing influence, she omits to talk about how the Soviet Union was connected to many peace and anti-nuclear weapons organizations. When discussing eugenics, she talks about how racists have used it and IQ tests to attack racial minorities. However, she ignores that one of the promoters of this effort was Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood.
My recommendation - do not waste your time. Personally, I am glad I borrowed this book and did not waste money on buying a copy.
July 17, 2025
3.5 really. Gains points for solid referencing, some interesting information, and an admirable thesis, passionately written.
I did feel though that the book was far too short to cover much of the areas it talks about in sufficient detail. I'd like a whole 500-page tome just on Cordwainer Smith, please! Or perhaps, while I appreciated the background and context chapters, a book entirely focused on sci-fi specifically could have been more interesting.
I was a little conflicted, too, about the last chapter, which puts forward public libraries as a powerful tool for countering misinformation, and librarians as central figures in maintaining them. Librarians are described as "people who have been trained in the not-so-simple art of finding and contextualising information ... the librarian is a content moderator, someone who offers guidance through the stacks of fantasies, thought experiments, scientific facts, and spicy opinions" (p.201). As a qualified librarian, it's lovely to be recognised, and of course I absolutely agree that libraries and librarians are crucial! But I also think it's important to be wary of the habit of sanctifying librarians too much, as bastions of objectivity and morality. The curatorial decisions of a librarian are always dictated by their own values and cultural contexts, and librarians are not specially immune to the psyops detailed in this book. Libraries can be and are used to censor, misinform, and falsely frame subjects in a variety of contexts. Again, we could have had a whole tome about this one point, though of course many have been written already.
Anyway I cracked through this in less than a day, and would recommend.
I did feel though that the book was far too short to cover much of the areas it talks about in sufficient detail. I'd like a whole 500-page tome just on Cordwainer Smith, please! Or perhaps, while I appreciated the background and context chapters, a book entirely focused on sci-fi specifically could have been more interesting.
I was a little conflicted, too, about the last chapter, which puts forward public libraries as a powerful tool for countering misinformation, and librarians as central figures in maintaining them. Librarians are described as "people who have been trained in the not-so-simple art of finding and contextualising information ... the librarian is a content moderator, someone who offers guidance through the stacks of fantasies, thought experiments, scientific facts, and spicy opinions" (p.201). As a qualified librarian, it's lovely to be recognised, and of course I absolutely agree that libraries and librarians are crucial! But I also think it's important to be wary of the habit of sanctifying librarians too much, as bastions of objectivity and morality. The curatorial decisions of a librarian are always dictated by their own values and cultural contexts, and librarians are not specially immune to the psyops detailed in this book. Libraries can be and are used to censor, misinform, and falsely frame subjects in a variety of contexts. Again, we could have had a whole tome about this one point, though of course many have been written already.
Anyway I cracked through this in less than a day, and would recommend.
September 14, 2025
(4.0 Stars)
This is the second book I've read by this author, and I'm really surprised that I didn't discover them way earlier. I'm sure I've read several articles by them without realizing who it was.
I found this book disturbing, not the writing, but the subject. I did like this book, it was informative, relevant, and biting. It explores American disinformation from the very beginnings of this country. From Indigenous peoples, to Non "Whites" in America, and LGBTQ+ people.
It does a good job of explaining why we are not only susceptible to deception, but almost eager to be deceived. The audiobook narration is good too. I plan on reading more by this author, but fiction and non.
This is the second book I've read by this author, and I'm really surprised that I didn't discover them way earlier. I'm sure I've read several articles by them without realizing who it was.
I found this book disturbing, not the writing, but the subject. I did like this book, it was informative, relevant, and biting. It explores American disinformation from the very beginnings of this country. From Indigenous peoples, to Non "Whites" in America, and LGBTQ+ people.
It does a good job of explaining why we are not only susceptible to deception, but almost eager to be deceived. The audiobook narration is good too. I plan on reading more by this author, but fiction and non.
February 20, 2025
very engaging and well researched. also scary!
January 1, 2025
When a psyop grabs someone's attention, you may not be able to fact-check them out of their false belief — but meanwhile, strengthen your own narrative and find your people. I wrote a bit about this book on Medium.
March 5, 2025
"How topical!" I thought. And, you know, it really is, and one can tell that Newitz was not only passionately engaged, but also that she is fluent and able to work across multiple time periods and regions to follow her train of thought. She's a good writer and I've moderately enjoyed her other books. I also found passages of Stories are Weapons tantalyzing.
However.
Around midway through I became quite tired of the conceit pursued in Stories are Weapons, which is essentially that things Newitz finds threatening to a specific liberal conception of political being are all "psyops". Okay, certainly we can agree that aggressive electoral interference could be a psyop, and we could entertain how propaganda resembles a psyop, but the definition becomes so watery as to disappear, which lost the point of the book for me. I also did not like that Newitz failed to contemplate or engage with the rich literature in how storytelling by its very nature affords political manipulation a great power, which has been exagerated by the capabilities of modern technology. Think about Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind, for example, but there is a rich vein of this. Because the difference between what Newitz discovers to be a psyop - a calculated military campaign to influence beliefs - and what Newitz seemingly wants to discuss - how technological media plus biased narratives influence beliefs - is large and important.
Maybe it's only me. Anyway, I didn't hate the book, but I did find its theory and application more convenient than coherent.
However.
Around midway through I became quite tired of the conceit pursued in Stories are Weapons, which is essentially that things Newitz finds threatening to a specific liberal conception of political being are all "psyops". Okay, certainly we can agree that aggressive electoral interference could be a psyop, and we could entertain how propaganda resembles a psyop, but the definition becomes so watery as to disappear, which lost the point of the book for me. I also did not like that Newitz failed to contemplate or engage with the rich literature in how storytelling by its very nature affords political manipulation a great power, which has been exagerated by the capabilities of modern technology. Think about Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind, for example, but there is a rich vein of this. Because the difference between what Newitz discovers to be a psyop - a calculated military campaign to influence beliefs - and what Newitz seemingly wants to discuss - how technological media plus biased narratives influence beliefs - is large and important.
Maybe it's only me. Anyway, I didn't hate the book, but I did find its theory and application more convenient than coherent.
July 17, 2024
More of a 3.5.
The topic of propaganda is very relevant to our times, even more so in the eve of the election this year. So this is a very timely book and I learnt a lot about how propaganda has been used since around WW2 till now, especially during the recent elections. But the various small stories felt disjointed. Also, the issue of propaganda and its connections to the various rising fascist movements across the globe is a very serious threat, and I felt the book was too small to cover the gravity of it. The solutions presented about handling propaganda and misinformation felt rudimentary and don’t inspire too much confidence about the upcoming elections. But overall, still an informative book and can work as a good primer on the topic.
The topic of propaganda is very relevant to our times, even more so in the eve of the election this year. So this is a very timely book and I learnt a lot about how propaganda has been used since around WW2 till now, especially during the recent elections. But the various small stories felt disjointed. Also, the issue of propaganda and its connections to the various rising fascist movements across the globe is a very serious threat, and I felt the book was too small to cover the gravity of it. The solutions presented about handling propaganda and misinformation felt rudimentary and don’t inspire too much confidence about the upcoming elections. But overall, still an informative book and can work as a good primer on the topic.
August 15, 2024
Probably closer to 3.5 stars? This began (according to the author) as a shorter manifesto, and that feels evident in the reading. Some areas were stronger than others, and in some descriptions of pre-20th century influence campaigns, like the discussion of the Indian Wars of the 19th century, the application of the term “psyop” seemed like a forced fit (for example, towns rewriting their own history and engaging in forms of willful ignorance — IS that a psyop, really?)
Ultimately I’m mixed on the book, it felt like it either could have been shorter (pure manifesto) or longer (additional context and research and nuance). Maybe I’ll think differently as I sit with it longer.
Ultimately I’m mixed on the book, it felt like it either could have been shorter (pure manifesto) or longer (additional context and research and nuance). Maybe I’ll think differently as I sit with it longer.
July 14, 2024
3.5 stars? I feel like this needed to be longer and more thorough, and that the thesis wasn't fully integrated, but I did learn some interesting things.
January 25, 2025
I'm already familiar with the works of Edward Bernays and Noam Chomsky, but this book threw me. I had no idea the connections between post-war science fiction and PSYOPS operatives, such as Paul Linebarger aka Cordwainer Smith. But that's not the whole of the book. PSYOPS is a military operation with one rule: never to use it on the American public.
But of course, the pr people who have supplanted actual journalists and gone to work in social media have no such moral compass. If you want to understand why and how the public has increasingly taken a rightward shift, the chapter on Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytics will shock you.
We needed an education system that teaches kids about social engineering, as they do in Canada and Finland. But it appears too late for that. This book also serves as a memorium of our downward spiral.
But of course, the pr people who have supplanted actual journalists and gone to work in social media have no such moral compass. If you want to understand why and how the public has increasingly taken a rightward shift, the chapter on Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytics will shock you.
We needed an education system that teaches kids about social engineering, as they do in Canada and Finland. But it appears too late for that. This book also serves as a memorium of our downward spiral.
February 1, 2025
3.5 - I liked this book but it was scary.
From “The Lost Indian” myth in colonial america, to the IQ test inventor and his eugenics beliefs, to the racist bell curve “theory”, to Cambridge Analytica, to anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in the present day, there’s so much to cover.
The concepts were interesting, but I would’ve liked more detail and overall connection between topics; the scope felt a bit too big. It was still an interesting read though.
From “The Lost Indian” myth in colonial america, to the IQ test inventor and his eugenics beliefs, to the racist bell curve “theory”, to Cambridge Analytica, to anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in the present day, there’s so much to cover.
The concepts were interesting, but I would’ve liked more detail and overall connection between topics; the scope felt a bit too big. It was still an interesting read though.
July 26, 2025
The first section is important for everyone to read. It is an eye-opening look at history and how psychological manipulation and propaganda of many forms has shaped it. I do recommend finishing the book. She goes on to talk about social media, which I found facinating. It kept my attention and I don't read a lot of non-fiction.
March 17, 2024
Another great non- fiction book by Newitz, this time dealing with propaganda in war and peace and how to deal with it. Short very readable book.
This is an advance copy from the publisher. Thank you Golda!!
This is an advance copy from the publisher. Thank you Golda!!
September 29, 2024
The role of stories in everyday life and how they can negatively affects us. Psychological warfare, propaganda, misinformation. We tend to treat fiction as politics. So many slippery slopes. Nothing much positive here, but a quick, interesting read.
December 25, 2024
Great easy to read book on the current status of propaganda and psyops. It provides a good build up on it's usage in the USA and how it came it be. Furthermore it's a good reminder that faster information isn't always the best or correct information.
January 14, 2025
In summary: libraries are our saviors
(This is another book that I would be fascinated to read a second edition with thoughts exploring the 2024 election and how psychological warfare impacted it from both sides of the aisle)
(This is another book that I would be fascinated to read a second edition with thoughts exploring the 2024 election and how psychological warfare impacted it from both sides of the aisle)
dnf
June 22, 2024meh life is too short
July 10, 2024
Overview of propaganda, roughly from WW2 to present. Interesting to see parallels between past approaches and current (social media).
July 28, 2025
Required reading in 2025, tbh. Fascinating and depressing, but with a smidgeon of hope at the end.
October 16, 2025
I love everything they write, it was also crazy to read history I've lived through.
October 23, 2025
This is crazy, please read/listen
January 9, 2025
Informative.
July 28, 2025
I do NOT just hand out five star ratings; this book fr changed my life. Have you ever wondered how we got to be drowned in fake news and how we got so divided as a nation, particularly in the last 5 years or so? How did this propaganda get so powerful?? And what the heck are we gonna do about it? This book answers these questions with mind blowing facts. Critical thinking!!! I need all Americans to read this book and freaking use their brains. Wow. I wanna turn around and read this book again.
January 25, 2025
I should start reading some fiction reality is so trash.
January 29, 2025
Literally should be required reading for everyone. Literally.
UPDATE: I'm still thinking about this book weeks later.
UPDATE: I'm still thinking about this book weeks later.
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