Sowing Hate and Chaos: How Propaganda is Used to Destroy Democracy

If you've been baffled at how citizens of the United States, even people you know, could turn against their democracy, there is an answer. There is a method of psychological manipulation that can be used to turn someone from a citizen of a peaceful democratic society into someone who feels he or she must destroy the existing political system to save their nation. It has been used successfully to collapse nations in violent chaos and install autocratic regimes at least four times in the last century. Now it’s being used against American citizens through social media and other channels, with startling results. Mary Wald’s meticulously researched book, Sowing Hate and Chaos, pulls the curtain back to show how what is happening in our country isn’t a natural evolution of events or "pendulum swing,” but a carefully planned and executed campaign that uses experimental and behavioral psychology to manipulate the American people toward hatred and violence — without their even realizing it’s happening.