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Kings appointed by gods: how legitimacy was manufactured
A 2.25 m stele shows Hammurabi before the god of justice, but its 282 laws contain almost no religion. How rulers borrowed the gods' authority, from Babylon to James I, what it could and could not do, and how to notice it today.
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State religion as a tool: 1,600 years of altar and throne
Soviet open churches fell from 28,560 to 1,744 in a decade, then Stalin needed a patriarch. Documented cases from Rome to Moscow, Bucharest, Washington, Tehran, Riyadh and Beijing of states using religion, and why forced belief rarely works.
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What propaganda is, and what it is not
Propaganda is not just lies. Jacques Ellul showed it mostly uses true facts and hides its falsehoods in intentions and interpretations. Agitation stirs people up; integration keeps them in line. The opening post of How minds are moved.
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When prophecy fails: what really happened to the Seekers
In 1954 a group waited for a flying saucer that never came. The 1956 classic says they doubled down; a 2025 archival study argues the leader recanted. What people really do when a prophecy fails, from the Millerites to economists.
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Troll farms from every direction: six documented operations
Six covert account operations, from Russia's Internet Research Agency and Iran's Storm-2035 to a Pentagon anti-vaccine campaign in the Philippines: what courts, Senate reports and platform takedowns document, what is disputed, and how little most achieved.
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Making an enemy: the ten principles of wartime propaganda
Every war needs an enemy, and every side builds one with the same ten claims. Ponsonby's 1928 Falsehood in War-Time and Morelli's ten principles, tested on documented cases from Britain, Germany, the US, Kuwait, Russia, Ukraine and Gaza.
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"Doubt is our product": how the tobacco industry sold uncertainty
In 1954 the tobacco companies did not deny the cancer evidence. They manufactured a controversy. A 1969 memo called doubt "our product". How the recipe works, where it travelled, and how to spot it.
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Fear as a lever: how fear narrows thinking
Fear narrows attention and makes us cling to protectors. Research shows fear appeals work, especially with a clear action. From the 1918 flu to the 2020 SPI-B paper, fear was held down or raised on purpose, by every kind of power.
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Leaded petrol: one man's fight against an industry's science
In 1925 leaded petrol was called "a gift of God". For forty years its safety was judged by an industry-funded lab, until Clair Patterson's clean measurements broke the story. How the burden of proof was flipped.
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"Completely harmless": thalidomide, and the official who said no
Thalidomide was sold as completely safe, even in pregnancy, without tests to back it. Over 10,000 babies were harmed in 46 countries; in the US, 17. The difference was Frances Kelsey, who kept asking for evidence.
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The parade under the cloud: Chernobyl and official silence
On 1 May 1986 Kyiv's children marched under fallout, and Romanians were told radiation rose "without danger to the population". How performed normality works, what people lived, and how to notice it.
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Romania 1989: "sixty thousand dead" and the terrorists never tried
The charge sheet said more than 60,000 victims. The most cited count is about 1,100, and some 940 died after Ceaușescu fled, fighting "terrorists" no court ever identified; who fired after 22 December is still disputed.