The True Story of Fake News: How Mainstream Media Manipulates Millions

Is fake news being spread through social media as part of an information war? Are political operatives publishing disinformation to smear the opposition and help their own agendas? Who creates fake news, how does it spread, and can it be stopped? What are the real world effects of fake news stories that go viral? Did it affect the outcome of the 2016 presidential election? Or is ‘fake news’ a fake problem, designed to justify tighter control over the mechanisms of sharing information online to drive audiences back to brand name media outlets because their audiences and influence are dwindling? Media analyst Mark Dice takes a close look at the fake news phenomenon and the implications of mega-corporations like Facebook, Google, and Twitter becoming the ultimate gatekeepers and distributors of news and information. You will see the powerful and deceptive methods of manipulation that affect us all, as numerous organizations and political activists cunningly plot to have their stories seen, heard, and believed by as many people as possible. The depths of lies, distortions, and omissions from traditional mainstream media will shock you; and now they’re colluding with the top tech companies trying to maintain their information monopolies. This is The True Story of Fake News.

In 1999, a seemingly incongruous collection of protestors converged in Seattle to shut down the meetings of the World Trade Organization. Union leaders, environmentalists dressed as endangered turtles, mainstream Christian clergy, violence-advocating anarchists, gay and lesbian activists, and many other diverse groups came together to protest what they saw as the unfair power of a nondemocratic elite. But how did such strange bedfellows come together? And can their unity continue? In 1972-another period of social upheaval-sociologist Colin Campbell posited a cultic milieu: An underground region where true seekers test hidden, forgotten, and forbidden knowledge. Ideas and allegiances within the milieu change as individuals move between loosely organized groups, but the larger milieu persists in opposition to the dominant culture. Jeffrey Kaplan and Helene Loow find Campbell's theory especially useful in coming to grips with the varied oppositional groups of today. While the issues differ, current subcultures often behave in similar ways to deviant groups of the past. The Cultic Milieu brings together scholars looking at racial, religious and environmental oppositional groups as well as looking at the watchdog groups that oppose these groups in turn. While providing fascinating information on their own subjects, each essay contributes to a larger understanding of our present-day cultic milieu. For classes in the social sciences or religious studies, The Cultic Milieu offers a novel way to look at the interactions and ideas of those who fight against the powerful in our global age.

Introduction / Jeffrey Kaplan and Heléne Lööw The cult, the cultic milieu and secularization / Colin Campbell Diggers, wolves, ents, elves and expanding universes / Bron Taylor The historical communal roots of ultraconservative groups / Timothy Miller Neo-shamanism, psychic phenomena and media trickery / László Kürti The gothic milieu / Massimo Introvigne Black and white unite in fight? / Mattias Gardell The idea of purity / Heléne Lööw Thriving in a cultic milieu / Frederick J. Simonelli The postwar paths of occult national socialism / Jeffrey Kaplan The modern anti-cult movement in historical perspective / J. Gordon Melton "Who watches the watchman?" / Laird Wilcox. Index About the Contributors In 1999, a seemingly incongruous collection of protestors converged in Seattle to shut down the meetings of the World Trade Organization. Union leaders, environmentalists dressed as endangered turtles, mainstream Christian clergy, violence-advocating anarchists, gay and lesbian activists and many other diverse groups came together to protest at what they saw as the unfair power of a non-democratic elite. This book asks: how did such strange bedfellows come together? And can their unity continue? Beginning with Colin Campbell's 1972 theory of cultic mileu, this book discusses the varied oppositional groups of today, such as the diverse protestors who converged in Seattle in 1999 to shut down the meetings of the World Trade Organization