You Are Still Being Lied To updates iconoclastic disinformation guide You Are Being Lied to: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths. While it retains a few touchstone essays – most notably Noam Chomsky’s essay “What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream,” new material outnumbers original content almost four to one. Kick has also added a section analyzing the relationship between corporations and government titled “One Nation, Under Corporation.”
Equal parts crackpot theory and brilliant insight, this essay collection may be one of the best tools to exercise critical thought created. Each essay writer is convincing and convicted; most present researched evidence (although they themselves do not always stop to question their research; no one is immune to confirmation bias.) Those that do not present subtle thought puzzles to pick apart one contention at a time.
The reader ends up rethinking everything from Alcoholics Anonymous to the relationship between HIV and Aids. Some conclusions drawn in the essays force the curious to research for themselves. This is the purpose of the book – not to replace information, but to force the reader to seek truth.
Recommended.
~ review by Diana Rajchel
Editor: Russell Kick
The Disinformation Company 2009
pp. 447, $28.95
