Mind control. Satanic rituals. Unspeakable sexual perversions. Supervillains eating children's brains. A divine mandate to keep Donald Trump in the White House, no matter what. This surreal combination of horror-movie shocks and fascist marching orders is the signature of QAnon, which emerged from the dark corners of the internet in 2017 and soon became the galvanizing force behind Trump supporters, both during Trump's presidency and in the volatile, ongoing aftermath of the 2020 election. But despite the strange pervasiveness of QAnon, its origins remain obscure. Who is behind QAnon's messaging, and what do they want? And why do they pair their extreme political agenda with such obviously made-up, phantasmagorical beliefs? In Operation Mindfuck, Robert Guffey argues that this is not as mysterious as QAnon's anonymous "drops" of cryptic directives seem to be. Drawing on an encyclopedic knowledge of conspiracy theories and mixing deep-dive research, political analysis, and firsthand notes from QAnon's underbelly, Guffey insists that we've seen it all before. Unraveling QAnon's patchwork quilt of recycled material, from pulp-fiction spook stories to Hunter S. Thompson-style pranksterism to Nixon-esque dirty tricks, Guffey diagnoses QAnon as a highly engineered ploy, calibrated to capture the attention and lock-step loyalty of its audience. Will its followers ever realize that they've been had? Can this new American religion be dispelled as a cult like any other? The answers, Operation Mindfuck reveals, are hidden in plain sight.

The figure of the imposter can stir complicated emotions, from intrigue to suspicion and fear. But what insights can these troublesome figures provide into the social relations and cultural forms from which they emerge? Edited by leading scholars in the field, this volume explores the question through a diverse range of empirical cases, including magicians, spirit possession, fake Instagram followers, fake art and fraudulent scientists. Proposing 'thinking with imposters' as a valuable new tool of analysis in the social sciences and humanities, this revolutionary book shows how the figure of the imposter can help upend social theory.

Ruthless killers and murderers for hire: they are here, there, and everywhere. They lurk in the shadows, ready to pounce. They terminate on command. They change the course of the world. From the cunning, calculating, government-trained warriors to the psychopathic, homegrown freelancers, Assassinations: The Plots, Politics, and Powers behind History-Changing Murders exposes the hidden agendas, the open warfare, the cynical preparations, and devastating aftermaths of history's assassinations. You will be immersed in a world that is filled with killings made to seem like suicides, murders that were designed to look like heart-attacks or overdoses, and accidents that, in reality, were carefully orchestrated deaths. Covering 28 assassinations, attempts, and plots, this absorbing book takes an in-depth look at why so many famous and influential figures just had to go. With more than 120 photos and graphics, this tome is richly illustrated. A helpful bibliography and index add to its useful

Who believes in conspiracy theories, and why are some people more susceptible to them than others? What are the consequences of such beliefs? Has a conspiracy theory ever turned out to be true? The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories debunks the myth that conspiracy theories are a modern phenomenon, exploring their broad social contexts, from politics to the workplace. The book explains why some people are more susceptible to these beliefs than others and how they are produced by recognizable and predictable psychological processes. Featuring examples such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks and climate change, The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories shows us that while such beliefs are not always irrational and are not a pathological trait, they can be harmful to individuals and society.

From the highly acclaimed author of WAYS OF BEING. We live in times of increasing inscrutability. Our news feeds are filled with unverified, unverifiable speculation, much of it automatically generated by anonymous software. As a result, we no longer understand what is happening around us. Underlying all of these trends is a single idea: the belief that quantitative data can provide a coherent model of the world, and the efficacy of computable information to provide us with ways of acting within it. Yet the sheer volume of information available to us today reveals less than we hope. Rather, it heralds a new Dark Age: a world of ever-increasing incomprehension. In his brilliant new work, leading artist and writer James Bridle offers us a warning against the future in which the contemporary promise of a new technologically assisted Enlightenment may just deliver its opposite: an age of complex uncertainty, predictive algorithms, surveillance, and the hollowing out of empathy. Surveying the history of art, technology and information systems he reveals the dark clouds that gather over discussions of the digital sublime.

Conspiracy theories, while not unique to the Middle East, are a salient feature of the political discourses of the region. Strongly reflecting and impacting on state-society relations and indigenous impressions of the world beyond the region, they affect how political behaviour within and among the states of the region is situated, structured, and controlled. Discounting the common pathological explanation for conspiracism, the author argues that a complex mix of political factors account for most conspiracy theories in the contemporary Arab world. The author argues that the region's modern history, genuine conspiracies, the complex and oftentimes strained relationship between state and society, the role of the state and the mass media as conspiracy theorists, and the impacts of new technologies have all helped to develop and sustain conspiracist narratives. Drawing on a range of examples and cases, including the impacts of globalization, economic reform, weak state legitimacy, the war in Iraq, the Arab-Israeli issue, the rise of political Islamism, and internet and satellite television, the book illuminates the complex sources of conspiracy theories. Providing a comprehensive overview of this controversial topic, this book will appeal not only to students and scholars interested in Middle East studies, political science, globalization and conspiracy theories, but to anyone seeking an understanding of the region's complex economic, social, and cultural dynamics.

We are not alone. And we never have been.

For years we've been taught that human progress has been a long, slow climb from the primordial ooze to hunter-gatherers to empires. But what if that's only part of the story?

Bestselling author and legendary conspiracy researcher Jim Marrs now takes on his biggest subject: the history of humankind. Offering mind-blowing information that will radically alter the way we think about the world and our place in it, Marrs goes beyond the revelations of his classic Alien Agenda, interweaving science and authentic archaeological finds with provocative speculation to show how human civilization may have originated with nonhumans who visited earth eons ago . . . and may still be here today.

Marrs sifts through the historical, scientific, and cultural record, showing how numerous ancient texts and tablets tell of visitors from the stars colonizing the earth. From the flying vimanas of the Hindu Vedic literature and the flying shields reported by the Romans to the mysterious airships of the 1800s and the UFOs of today, he argues that someone other than us is still present on this planet. But are these visitors simply observers--or do they play a much more active and controlling role? Jim Marrs raises this shocking question and more in the provocative and persuasive Our Occulted History.

The truth is out there . . .

THE EMERGING NEW WORLD ORDER A depraved satanic cult called the Illuminati is waging a covert war against humanity. This is the key to understanding mankind's tragic history and current predicament. For more than a thousand years, Cabalist money lenders have conspired to usurp power from church and aristocracy, according to a plan detailed in "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." This plan does not represent Jews, but only a small cabal of bankers who organized in Masonic secret societies. They intermarried with prominent Gentiles and formed a vast occult and criminal underground. They are stealthily constructing a totalitarian world government. Taking God's place, secularism is a transition step to their Satanism. They involve nations in needless wars and enthrall the masses with porn, violence, trivia and toys. They attack our sources of identity and love - God (religion); family (gender); country and race - in order to stymie and dehumanize us. Sounds incredible, but after reading some of these 90 short essays, you'll nod in agreement. Their goal is to control your mind. If you know the truth, they can't.

This book examines a wide array of phenomena that arguably constitute the most noxious, extreme, terrifying, murderous, secretive, authoritarian, and/or anti-democratic aspects of national and international politics. Scholars should not ignore these "dark sides" of politics, however unpleasant they may be, since they influence the world in a multitude of harmful ways. The first volume in this two-volume collection focuses on the history of underground neo-fascist networks in the post-World War II era; neo-fascist paramilitary and terrorist groups operating in Europe and Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s; and the manipulation of those and other terrorist organizations by the security forces of various states, both authoritarian and democratic. A range of global case studies are included, all of which focus on the lesser known activities of certain secular extremist milieus. This collection should prove to be essential reading for students and researchers interested in understanding seemingly arcane but nonetheless important dimensions of recent historical and contemporary politics.

'The most gripping and satisfying thriller I've read in more than a decade' Sophie Hannah 'One of the best legal thrillers ... as elegant and gripping as Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent' Daily Mail 'Quite the tour de force! Twelve Angry Men meets Chinatown and creates something of its own' Sarah Pinborough 'This is a tense, emotionally charged, scary-good, stand-out read' Caroline Kepnes ********** MAJOR TV SERIES COMING SOON - FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT YOU NETFLIX'S UNBELIEVABLE... One juror changed the verdict. What if she was wrong? 'Ten years ago we made a decision together...' Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar fortune, vanishes on her way home from school. Her teacher, Bobby Nock, is the prime suspect. It's an open and shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed. Until Maya Seale, a young woman on the jury, persuades the rest of the jurors to vote not guilty: a controversial decision that will change all of their lives forever. Ten years later, one of the jurors is found dead, and Maya is the prime suspect. The real killer could be any of the other ten jurors. Is Maya being forced to pay the price for her decision all those years ago? ********** 'Plunge a syringe filled with adrenaline into the heart of Twelve Angry Men and you've got The Holdout: the first legal thriller in thirty years - ever since Presumed Innocent and A Time to Kill electrified readers the world over - to rank alongside those two modern classics.' AJ Finn 'A page-turning legal thriller with a twisty and absolutely riveting plot ... plus a strong and compelling female heroine. You won't be able to put this one down!' Lisa Scottoline 'Clever, well-written and twistier than a can of silly-string. You absolutely need to read The Holdout!' Emma Kavanagh 'Amazing thriller, deserves to be one of the biggest books of 2020' Michelle Davies 'Terrific, twisty and well-structured thriller' Adele Geras

Since the bestselling "Titanic: The Ship That Never Sank" was published in 1998, author Robin Gardiner has unearthed a wealth of new evidence for his theory that the sinking of Titanic was a vast conspiracy, and that the ship that went down on April 12 was in fact Olympic, Titanic's sister ship, and the sinking was planned as one of the world's greatest insurance frauds. To the present day the most common maritime insurance fraud involves changing identities of ships. But tragically the planned staging of the sinking of Titanic, whereby other ships from the company would be on hand to rescue all the passengers and crew, went disastrously wrong and 1500 souls perished on the supposedly unsinkable ship's maiden voyage. This book concentrates on the conspiracy, with evidence of why the White Star company intended to defraud the insurance company by swapping the identity of Titanic and the recently damaged Olympic in a collision with HMS Hawke, with new conclusive photographic and documentary evidence of the swap. The story starts with financier J P Morgan's takeover of White Star and the Royal Navy's investment in the company's new liners as potential troop carriers. Following the Agadir crisis in 1911 Morgan began to ship gold and other treasures back to the safe haven of the US. The pressure on White Star to make up the cost of the damage to Olympic, which the insurance company would not cover, through swapping the identities of Olympic and Titanic, was also the opportunity for Morgan with the collusion of the British government, to quietly ship GBP8 million of gold to the US. But unbeknown to the government, the gold was spirited away. The subsequent staged collision with the iceberg went horribly wrong as those in charge of Titanic completely underestimated the scale of the panic and the ensuing disaster as the ship quickly sank and the rescue boats failed to arrive became a disaster that would reverberate around the world. This gripping account recounts the author's theory on the whole build up to the disaster and its aftermath in which all parties were involved in collusion, conspiracy and cover-up on an unprecedented scale. Is it true or is it fiction? Only the reader can decide.

How the new conspiracists are undermining democracy-and what can be done about it Conspiracy theories are as old as politics. But conspiracists today have introduced something new-conspiracy without theory. And the new conspiracism has moved from the fringes to the heart of government with the election of Donald Trump. In A Lot of People Are Saying, Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum show how the new conspiracism differs from classic conspiracy theory, how it undermines democracy, and what needs to be done to resist it.

We live in times of increasing inscrutability. Our news feeds are filled with unverified, unverifiable speculation, much of it automatically generated by anonymous software. As a result, we no longer understand what is happening around us. Underlying all of these trends is a single idea: the belief that quantitative data can provide a coherent model of the world, and the efficacy of computable information to provide us with ways of acting within it. Yet the sheer volume of information available to us today reveals less than we hope. Rather, it heralds a new Dark Age: a world of ever-increasing incomprehension. In his brilliant new work, leading artist and writer James Bridle offers us a warning against the future in which the contemporary promise of a new technologically assisted Enlightenment may just deliver its opposite: an age of complex uncertainty, predictive algorithms, surveillance, and the hollowing out of empathy. Surveying the history of art, technology and information systems he reveals the dark clouds that gather over discussions of the digital sublime.

In a quest to discover the truth behind the twentieth century's disastrous record of conflict and war, Terry Boardman considers two contradictory approaches to history: so-called cock-up theory and conspiracy theory. Could there be truth to the often-dismissed concept of conspiracy in history: the manipulation of external events by groups and individuals mostly hidden from the public eye? In the work of philosopher and scientist Rudolf Steiner, Boardman finds convincing evidence of the existence of secretive circles in the West, which have plans for humanity's long-term future. Steiner indicated that such 'brotherhoods' had prepared for world war in the twentieth century, and had instructed their members, using redrawn maps as a guide, on how Europe was to be changed. If these brotherhoods existed in Steiner's time, could they still be active today? Based on detailed research, Boardman concludes that such groups are directing world politics in our time. As backing for his theory, he studies a series of important articles and maps - ranging from an 1890 edition of the satirical journal Truth to more recent pieces from influential publications that speak for themselves. He concludes that vast plans are in progress for a New World Order to control and direct individuals and nations, and he calls us to be vigilant, awake and informed.

Are conspiracy theories everywhere and is everyone a conspiracy theorist? This ground-breaking study challenges some of the widely shared assessments in the scholarship about a perceived mainstreaming of conspiracy theory. It claims that conspiracy theory underwent a significant shift in status in the mid-20th century and has since then become highly visible as an object of concern in public debates. Providing an in-depth analysis of academic and media discourses, Katharina Thalmann is the first scholar to systematically trace the history and process of the delegitimization of conspiracy theory. By reading a wide range of conspiracist accounts about three central events in American history from the 1950s to 1970s - the Great Red Scare, the Kennedy assassination, and the Watergate scandal - Thalmann shows that a veritable conspiracist subculture emerged in the 1970s as conspiracy theories were pushed out of the legitimate marketplace of ideas and conspiracy theory became a commodity not unlike pornography: alluring in its illegitimacy, commonsensical, and highly profitable. This will be of interest to scholars and researchers interested in American history, culture and subcultures, as well, of course, to those fascinated by conspiracies.

Here is a true story of international intrigue, romances, corruption, graft, and political assassinations, the like of which has never been written before. It is the story of how different groups or atheistic- materialistic men have played in an international chess tournament to decide which group would win ultimate control of the wealth, natural resources, and man- power of the entire world. It is explained how the game has reached the final stage. The International Communists, and the International Capitalists, (both of whom have totalitarian ambitions) have temporarily joined hands to defeat Christian-democracy. The solution is to end the game the International Conspirators have been playing right now before one or another totalitarian-minded group imposes their ideas on the rest of mankind. The story is sensational and shocking, but it is educational because it is the TRUTH. The author offers practical solutions to problems so many people consider insoluble.

Conspiracy theories are no longer just a curiosity for afficionados but a politically salient theme in the age of Trump, Brexit and "fake news". One of the countries that has been entrapped in conspiratorial visions is Turkey, and this book is the first comprehensive survey in English of the Turkish conspiratorial mind-set. It provides a nuanced overview of the discourses of Turkish conspiracy theorists and examines how these theorists argue for and legitimize their worldview. The author discusses a broad range of conspiracy theories, including some influenced by Kemalist and Islamist perspectives as well as those of the ruling Justice and Development Party. The most influential authors, books, references and images within the conspiracist milieu are all examined in detail. This book will be an important source for scholars interested in extremism in Turkey and the societal and political impact of conspiracy theories.