You are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes, and Cultural Myths

by Russ Kick (Editor)

You Are Being Lied To is a massive collection of articles that ruthlessly destroy the distortions, myths, and outright lies that are fed to us by the government, the media, corporations, history books, organized religion, science and medicine, and society in general. No one is spared, and all sacred cows are candidates for the grinder.

Do you believe any of the following?
• Alcoholics Anonymous is effective.
• Hackers pose a grave threat to the nation.
• There's a hidden code in the Bible.
• The Big Bang is an airtight fact.
• Thousands of species have gone extinct because of deforestation.
• Licking certain toads will get you high.
• Most terrorists are Middle Eastern.

Wake up! You're being lied to.

This book acts as a battering ram against the distortions, myths, and outright lies that have been shoved down our throats by the government, the media, corporations, organized religion, the scientific establishment, and others who want to keep the truth from us. An unprecedented group of researchers--investigative reporters, political dissidents, academics, media watchdogs, scientist-philosophers, social critics, and rogue scholars--paints a picture of a world where crucial stories are ignored or actively suppressed and the official version of events has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. A world where real dangers are downplayed and nonexistent dangers are trumpeted. In short, a world where you are being lied to.

Among the revelations inside:

• Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Sydney Schanberg on John McCain's efforts to conceal information on POW/MIAs
• Howard Bloom on liars in the media
• Riane Eisler on the realities of human nature
• James Ridgeway on tainted blood and more
• Jim Marrs on missing evidence in important cases
• Greenpeace cofounder Peter Moore on environmental myths
• Michael Parenti on atrocities in Kosovo
• Douglas Rushkoff on the information arms race
• Gary Webb on the gutless corporate media
• Howard Zinn on Columbus

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Conspiracy Theories, Reference, Cultural, Sociology

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Editor of the website The Memory Hole which publishes and archives hidden US government documents, including scientific studies and reports, civil rights-related reports, intelligence and covert action reports.

He was also editor-at-large for The Disinformation Company, where he had published several books including The Book of Lists and 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book traffics conspiracy theories and half-truths in the service of feeding the interest of people who don't trust establishment. Which is pretty much fine and necessary, I guess, but the problem is that these exposés you can't really take seriously. Case in point: The chapter on the Columbine massacre. I don't think there's any serious debate as to what happened that day, or how many shooters there were. However, the book pulls quotes from articles published in local newspapers the day after the shooting, cherry-picking wildly inaccurate reporting and hysterical quotes from bystanders. But that's all bullshit. There were only two shooters, and it was a tragedy.

[Tamra · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the one hand, this book has essays by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, and quotes from people like Mark Twain, George Orwell and Bill Hicks. All good stuff. On the other hand, there are also essays that are strong arguments that the axiom 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence' should be tattooed to some peoples' foreheads. There are a number of essays that raise some interesting questions about what we think we know (Were there only two killers at Columbine?) and what other evidence exists (The two sons of the FBI's lead investigator may have been somehow involved with the Trenchcoat Mafia), but those essays take that information and twist it into grand conspiracy theories (The government is intentionally trying to keep us scared through school shootings!). I need some pretty extraordinary evidence to make that leap, and it just isn't there. It will be interesting to see what the new edition of the book looks like, but this is one that I would borrow before I buy.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this to be inaccurate often enough to have little credibility, and when it is right(government agencies and officials lie! GASP! Advertisers lie! WOW!), the reaction it inspires is more "Whoop-de-freaking-doo, so what else is new?" than shock or surprise. This guy takes himself WAY too seriously, or else he's a cynical hack. Either way, I wish I hadn't wasted as much time as I did before I dropped it.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

is a fascinating read: addressing a diverse number of topics, its many contributors offer alternative perspectives and compelling evidence to disprove many of today's popular myths, be they cultural, political, historical, religious or anthropological. One article offers up a few reasons to steer clear of aspartame, the popular artificial sweetener; another sets out to disprove the very existence of that one guy, Jesus.

Among my favorites is an examination of the so-called "good" war, excerpted from a book by Michael Zezima. In "Saving Private Power," he challenges the notion that U.S. involvement in WWII was altogether heroic:

"American lives weren't sacrificed in a holy war to avenge Pearl Harbor nor to end the Nazi Holocaust, just as the Civil War wasn't fought to end slavery. WWII was about territory, power, control, money, and imperialism. Sure, the Allies won and ultimately that's a very good thing--but it doesn't mean they did it fair and square. Precisely how unfairly they behaved will be explored in detail herein but, for now, the words of US General Curtis LeMay, commander of the 1945 Tokyo fire-bombing operation, will suffice: 'I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal. Fortunately, we were on the winning side.'"

I also enjoyed Charles Bufe's "AA Lies," which dispels several myths about AA, that smug and self-important organization whose success rate is pitiful, according to a study cited by the author. Bufe also discusses AA's connection with the Oxford Group Movement, coercion tactics AA employs in our penal system and courts, and the pervasion of the 12-step treatment method, which is "essentially institutionalized AA."

In another article of intrigue, "Anatomy of a School Shooting," author David McGowan drops a couple bombs, pun intended, about the Columbine massacre. He cites reports from a number of sources to construct a vastly different scenario from the one with which we're familiar. Following this evidence to its logical conclusion, McGowan proposes that Harris and Klebold did not act alone.

Overall this catalogue provides invaluable perspectives and serves as an excellent launch pad for further research. An added bonus: its mass alone merits a prominent place on the coffee table.

If only I had a coffee table.

[John]

disinfo.com is a website ive been returning to for many years - one of the first ever subversive sites that i found. used to be the bomb, still has excellent stories from time to time. i should check back more regularly than i do.

[Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This includes my article on textbook censorship.

[Garrett Weigand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though everything contained in this mammoth collection of conspiracy theories, whodunits and intellectual capers must be taken with a fist-sized hunk of salt, it deserves serious consideration on the part of every free-thinker out there. Granted, many of the articles and essays in this book are contradictory and *ahem* a little out-there, the same can be said of the bible. So let's not allow the obvious textual issues inevitable with a book like this get in the way of our enjoying it.

You don't have to believe everything written here; I certainly don't. But it never hurts to get an alternative view on anything and everything people talk about. From cults to politics, cover-ups to unsolved mysteries, there's something here for anyone who ever thought "wait a minute, that doesn't make any sense at all" when they were watching the evening news.

Grade-A food for thought. All it needs is a little salt and pepper.

[Daniel Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fuck with it!

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there is a hint of skepticism in you about the information you receive on a daily basis, read this book.

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite an interesting collection of what some might call conspiracy theories. There were several I had never heard before.

[sologdin · Rating 1 out of 5]

some interesting left content here, but much more of the paranoid style (in Hofstadter's conception) than otherwise.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with any disinfo book, read with a truckload of salt. Plenty of cool bits, and some out there shit as well.

[HeavyReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is filled with fascinating information, sort of conspiracy therory-esque, but believable. Once I picked it up, I could barely put it down.

[Rusty · Rating 5 out of 5]

it should have been four or six different books.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of great articles. Too many to say.

[Chet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining alternative viewpoints of just about everything.

[Mike Greenfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew the media was corrupt, but I had no idea how bad it was until I read this book. It also comments about Religon, Government, etc. Great read.

[Ashti · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book of conspiracies that sort of make you wanna go ummmmm!!!

[Fall Madrigal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best conspiracy theory/informative book I've read so far.

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was on everyone's shelf in college and I've leafed through it probably 50 times. Fun light reading for the conspiracy theorist, or, as Connor says, the alternative historian.

[L · Rating 2 out of 5]

worth skimming. The chunk on opiates was great.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow its more believable when its written by the likes of Al Franken, a real politician.

[kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Your mind will never stop questioning everything ever again.

[Nick de Vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this at National around when I was in college. Was impressive back then.

[Taveri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book covers many instances of us being misinformed.  Here are some samples of the rage of topics:

P14 Chukchee of Siberia had few terms for visible hues but had over 24 terms for patterns of reindeer hides.

P30 Creating about face regarding ZZTop used a process called "percerptual engineering" to make critics see the substance they overlooked.

P31 the PLO levelled two Christian cities: Sidon and Tyre and carried out massacres in smaller Christian villages yet only one page appeared in the New York Times over a four year period of Lebanese atrocities.

P32 Until 1948 more Jews than Arabs lived in Baghdad yet no reporter championed the rights of 800,000 Jews that fled Arab countries

P38 in 1997 Florida reporters tried to air a series of dangers of a Montanto growth tormone injected into cows.  They were ordered to rewrite their script 80 times and were threatened to be fired if they didn't water down the story.

P41 Carl Bernsteig uncovered a list of 400 reporters and media moguls who had been basically rubber stamping CIA propaganda since the1950s.

P 46 the World Bank held sex slaves in the Washington area

P52 The Serbs were blamed for the infamous Sarajevo mapset massacre, but according to a leaked report it was Muslim operatives who had bombed Bosnian civilians in order to induce NATO involvement.

Pages 104 Gore and Clinton had done more to harm the environment than Reagan and Bush combined.

P114 of the 169 anti-US attacks reported in 1999, Latin America accounted for 96, Western Europe for 30, Eurasia for nine, and Africa sixteen.  The Middle East accounted for only eleven.

P117 a Canadian company imported blood from Russian cadavers and relabed it as Swedish.

P21 When General Colin Powel was asked about Iraqi casualities he said that was "really not a matter i am terribly interested in." ... tens of thousands of Iraqi children were dying because of the bombing of water supplies...

P223 more people died from fire in a six hour time period than ever before in the history of man[un]kind, during the March 9- 10, 1945 bombing of Tokyo

P234 America's Drug War is a $50 billion per year boondoggle which thrives on federal lies and and distortions.

There are 100,000 more Americans imprisoned for drug offences than the tntay pisoners in the European Union, even though the latter has 100,000,000 more oitizens.

P237 for every 104 penple who have used marijuana there is only onee regular used of cocaine (vs the claim/myth that 85% are likely to use cocaine).

P254 studies indicate there no better effectiveness of those that attend AA than those that have no treatment at all.

P318 Ten strikes against the Big Bang.

LP323 Human DNA from Tokyo and London is more alike than that from two lowland gorillas occupying the same forest.

P356 for every psychological term in English there are four in Greek and forty in Sanskrit.

P378 in 1830 more than 3500 free blacks owned slaves

P381 since 1979 there have been fourteen juvenile executions.  Pakistan, Rwanda, Barbados and Bangladesh accounted for five; the USA, nine.

[David Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exhaustive dive into everything misinformed. Starts strong with contributors like Noam Chomsky but by the end it feels a little repetitive and slightly off topic. Given the depth, it will have you questioning wtf is real in our modern world. Quite an exhausting train of thought. Contains a wide political spectrum so sometimes you will disagree with a particular topic but I feel that is a welcome change from politically singular books like these.

[Renee G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this many years ago. It was interesting.

[Differengenera · Rating 1 out of 5]

occasionally fun, but more often stupid and reprehensible

[J.C. Paulk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the essays here are frantic raves, others are more reasonable and at least give the reader a direction to turn to if they want more information. Secret FBI files are more believable however than Icke's lizard people.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few authors of sections may be missing a few tools from their shed, but no more than Lou Dobbs or Glenn Beck who somehow get to permeate the brains of the most vulnerable. Wolf Blitzer, I know where you sleep... Anyway, it's an interesting read with footnoted sources to review.