Sign-In
Cart
The Truth Economy: Who Shapes What We Believe and Why We Buy It
Paperback
Series: The Catholic Distinction
PhilosophyCatholicismGeneral Sociology
Currently unavailable to order
Please enter your email and a message will be sent to you when this product becomes available on our website.
Publisher: Independently Published
Pages: 130
Weight: 0.40
Height: 0.28 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
What if the most powerful forces shaping what you believe aren't asking you to believe anything at all? They're simply asking you to keep watching.
Every day, algorithms decide what reaches your screen. Influencers turn intimacy into persuasion. Brands sell identities alongside products. Outrage is packaged as certainty. Psychology becomes a business model. Spirituality becomes a marketplace. Artificial intelligence can now imitate the language, confidence, and authority we once associated with another human being.
And through it all, someone is competing for the most valuable currency you possess:
your attention.
In The Truth Economy, Luther Valencia investigates the hidden marketplace behind modern belief-how ideas become products, how certainty becomes a brand, and how our deepest convictions can be influenced long before we realize anyone is selling to us.
Drawing from psychology, economics, media research, philosophy, technology, and Catholic thought, the book explores the forces behind:
Algorithms that quietly curate reality
The branding of belief and identity
Inherited political and cultural assumptions
Confirmation bias and motivated reasoning
The psychology of anticipation and fear
Science, awe, and the temptation of certainty
The commercialization of psychology and spirituality
Outrage as a profitable product
Tribal loyalty and the social cost of changing your mind
Artificial intelligence and the collapse of easy authenticity
The enduring question of God
Death, meaning, and the truths the marketplace cannot manufacture
But this is not a book asking you to distrust everything.
It is a book about becoming harder to manipulate without becoming cynical.
The final challenge is practical: reclaim your attention, examine the beliefs carrying the most weight in your life, practice source literacy, cultivate intellectual humility, and learn to distinguish truth itself from the packaging in which it arrives.
For the Catholic reader, the distinction goes deeper.
Truth is not created by popularity, profit, political tribe, personal comfort, or an algorithm. Truth is something we are called to seek-in reason, conscience, charity, and ultimately in God.
Also from
Valencia, Luther
The Archangels for This Generation: What Catholics Need to Know About Angels, Spiritual Battle, Truth, and Healing
Valencia, Luther
Paperback
Father Said It, Everyone Felt It: The Funniest Catholic Homily Lines That Still Preach
Valencia, Luther
Paperback
St. Joseph: The Silent Strength of the Catholic Distinction: Fatherhood, Work, Obedience, and the Hidden Power of Holiness
Valencia, Luther
Paperback
What Life Is For: A Catholic Guide to Peace, Holiness, Mercy, and the Life God Meant You to Live
Valencia, Luther
Paperback
The Many Faces of Jesus: Images of Christ Across History, Cultures, and the Catholic Distinction
Valencia, Luther
Paperback
Jesus and Mary: The Catholic Distinction: Why Catholicism Still Stands for This Generation
Valencia, Luther
Paperback
Also in
General Sociology
I Can't Believe I Did That: The Game That Gives You Points for Sharing Awkward, Awesome, and Unforgettable Memories: Card Games
Nadelberg, David
Katcher, Neil
Other
Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea
Taylor, Astra
Hunt-Hendrix, Leah
Hardcover
Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America
Borgerson, Janet
Schroeder, Jonathan
Paperback
Guerrilleros and Neighbours in Arms: Identities & Cultures of Anti-Fascist Resistance in Spain
Marco
Paperback
Urban Revolutions: Urbanisation and (Neo-)Colonialism in Transatlantic Context
Kipfer, Stefan
Paperback
The Destiny of Modern Societies: The Calvinist Predestination of a New Society
Zafirovski, Milan
Paperback
Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
Kaku, Michio
Hardcover
The Agrarian Seeds of Empire: The Political Economy of Agriculture in Us State Building
Bauerly, Brad
Paperback
The Sociogony: Social Facts and the Ontology of Objects, Things, and Monsters
Worrell, Mark P.
Paperback
Revolution and Its Alternatives: Other Marxisms, Other Empowerments, Other Priorities
Brass, Tom
Paperback
How to Be Less Stupid about Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide
Fleming, Crystal M.
Hardcover
The Day It Finally Happens: Alien Contact, Dinosaur Parks, Immortal Humans--And Other Possible Phenomena
Pearl, Mike
Paperback
Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets
Kretzmann, John P.
Paperback
Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World
McNeill, J. R.
Paperback
Screening Out the Past: The Birth of Mass Culture and the Motion Picture Industry
May, Lary
Paperback
The Clash of Globalizations: Neo-Liberalism, the Third Way and Anti-Globalization
Kiely, Ray
Paperback
Aging Out: An Exploration of Caregiving, Community, and How Americans Grow Old
Schiller, Lucy
Hardcover
AI for Good: How Real People Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things That Matter
Tyrangiel, Josh
Hardcover
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Goldstone, Brian
Paperback
The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shapes the Way We Experience Everything
Jezer-Morton, Kathryn
Hardcover
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
Soares, Nate
Yudkowsky, Eliezer
Hardcover
Doing Small Things with Great Love: How Everyday Humanitarians Are Changing the World
Eubank, Sharon
Hardcover
American Alt: A True Story of Madness and Friendship in a Fractured Country
Lockhart, Chris
Hardcover
Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War
Katz, Catherine Grace
Hardcover
Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online
Latifi, Fortesa
Hardcover
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Goldstone, Brian
Hardcover
The Culting of America: What Makes a Cult and Why We Love Them
Reed, Amy
Mestyanek Young, Daniella
Hardcover
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong--and What You Really Need to Know
Oster, Emily
Paperback
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home
Grant, Stephen Starring
Paperback
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
Gladwell, Malcolm
Paperback
Pay Attention: How the Algorithms and Media Wars Are Suppressing Truth and Rewiring Your Brain
Pakman, David
Hardcover
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Davis, Angela Y.
Paperback
The Tribe and I Have Spoken: The Definitive (Unofficial) Lore and Legacy from the Game's Smartest Surviving Loser
Kavutskiy, Alex
Cesternino, Rob
Hardcover
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care
Hayes, Kelly
Kaba, Mariame
Paperback
Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile
Naparstek, Aaron
Goodyear, Sarah
Gordon, Doug
Hardcover
Scream with Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980)
Johnson, Eleanor
Hardcover
The Power Broker (Pulitzer Prize Winner): Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Caro, Robert A.
Paperback
Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves
Gilbert, Sophie
Paperback
Who We Are Becoming Matters: The Courage, Wisdom, and Aloha We Need in a Timeplace of Collapse
Wong, Norma Kaweloku
Paperback
The Goddess That Failed: Feminism's Unending War against Men, Families, and Civilization Itself
Fiamengo, Janice
Paperback
Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI
Veliz, Carissa
Hardcover
One Bad Mother: In Praise of Psycho Housewives, Stage Parents, Momfluencers, and Other Women We Love to Hate
Dickson, Ej
Hardcover
From Life Itself: Turkey, Istanbul, and a Neighborhood in the Age of Erdoğan
Hansen, Suzy
Hardcover
Street Smarts: Trust Your Instincts, Outsmart Danger, and Stay Safe in a World That Isn't
Eve, Dannah
Hardcover
Our Minds Were Always Free: A History of How Black Brilliance Was Exploited--And the Fight to Retake Control
Davis, Lisa E.
Hardcover
Te vas a morir y todavía no has empezado a vivir: 29 principios para vivir mejor (y con más sentido)
Moreno Montana, Uli
Falces, Laura
Paperback
In Sickness and in Health: Love Stories from the Front Lines of America's Caregiving Crisis
Mauldin, Laura
Hardcover
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Higginbotham, Adam
Paperback
How to Break Up with Your Phone, Revised Edition: The 30-Day Digital Detox Plan
Price, Catherine
Paperback
One Nation Under Blackmail - Vol. 1: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime That Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein, Vol.1
Webb, Whitney Alyse
Paperback
Las Como Hablar para que Los Ninos Escuchen: y Como Escuchar para que los Ninos Hablen
Mazlish, Elaine
Faber, Adele
Paperback
Killers of Roe: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Abortion Rights
Littlefield, Amy
Hardcover
Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind
Zengerle, Jason
Hardcover
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home
Grant, Stephen Starring
Hardcover
The New Dark Ages: The Death of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society
Marriott, James
Hardcover