Books

While conversing with friends, a man mentions an entry from an encyclopedia — only to discover that the text, describing the mysterious Middle Eastern region of Uqbar, is absent from all other copies of the same edition.

This is the beginning of Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, a story by Jorge Luis Borges — and the most chilling piece of literature I have ever read.

Just as Tlön began with a false encyclopedia entry, today’s conspiracy theories based often start with authoritative-seeming sources that present fictional explanations or analyses with scholarly precision that emerge from seemingly credible origins. These sources create complete parallel information ecosystems with their own experts, evidence, and internal logic.