This books emerged from a growing concern that our political conflicts are no longer just about values or policy, but about reality itself. Over the last decade, I've watched conversations with friends, colleagues, and even family members break down not because we disagreed on solutions, but because we couldn't agree on basic facts.
This is not a book of predictions. History is not predetermined, and technology is not destiny. It is a book of analysis, intended to make visible the structural forces shaping how we know, trust, and decide together.
I've drawn on political theory, media studies, and history, but also on conversations with journalists, engineers, and civic organizers who wrestle with these problems daily. Where I use scenarios or historical analogies, they are tools for thinking, not prophecies.
My hope is that readers across the political spectrum find something here that clarifies rather than inflames. Democracy depends on disagreement, but it cannot survive without a shared reference point. Rebuilding that is the work ahead of all of us.