You know the old adage, ‘Sticks & stones my break my bones but words can never hurt me.’ As I often say, the scientific term for that is “bullshit.” Words can and do immense damage. And as today’s guest Annalee Newitz explains in her new book (out today) STORIES ARE WEAPONS: PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE AND THE AMERICAN MIND, this really is war.
They open the preface to the book writing, “It’s hard to write about a war while it’s raging. Especially when there are no craters in the ground, no missiles streaking overhead – just words and images that are inflicting a form of psychological damage that is impossible to measure, impossible to prove.”
Such is our challenge as these words and stories continue to misinform, pervert and harm both people and our democracy, fragile as it is.
Her words and stories from our history show just how dangerous these PsyOps are and how we must defend against them.
