A review by dana_naylor
Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind by Annalee Newitz

dark informative sad medium-paced

4.5

It's a tough read.

Achieving psychological peace doesn't always require us to tell new kinds of stories. Instead, it involves understanding how many of our social interactions are shaped by the stories we've heard. It's about recognizing weaponized stories when they come flying at us, instead of accepting them as factual or unquestionably good. (p203)

Book is divided into three parts: Psyops, Culture WARS, and Disarmament.
As Newitz is also a science fiction author, it's no surprise that they use science fiction examples and comic examples throughout the book. I WAS very surprised to learn that a well-known science fiction author from the 50s, Cordwainer Smith by penname, wrote the book on Psychological Warfare for the US Military in 1948.

It's a good book and I'm glad I read it, even though not much was new to me.
I found it much more hopeful to read now that Harris is running for president. I think it would have been (as they say it was for them) much more traumatic to read earlier in the year.