Belief is the Battlefield. Explaining the post-truth world.

Here We Go Again – One Piece’s Straw Hat Jolly Roger

Straw Hat Pirates’ skull and crossbones wearing Luffy’s straw hat against a dark neon city, with “here we go again” above and beliefisthebattlefield.com below.

The Straw Hat Pirates’ Jolly Roger, drawn from Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece, appeared at protests as early as 2023 before spreading apparently organically through youth-led demonstrations across several countries in 2025. “Here We Go Again” asks whether that spread really reflects organic solidarity, or deliberate amplification by powers and principalities in the shadows.

See how deep the rabbit hole goes …

Front cover of The Selfish Idea, a report on Richard Dawkins’ meme theory.

The Selfish Idea: How Richard Dawkins’ Meme Escaped the Page and Took Over the Culture

Wireframe head targeted by arrows from media, institutions and algorithms, with a red target inside the brain.

How The Matrix and 9/11 Framed the 21st Century – Slides

Grant Morrison chaos magic infographic comparing traditional sigils with narrative hypersigils, belief, symbols and comic storytelling.

The Wizard of Glasgow: Grant Morrison’s Reinvention of Magic

Political satire poster naming Jacob Rees-Mogg above soldier silhouettes. Text: Some of you may die, but that's a sacrifice I am willing to make. Belief is the Battlefield.

Jacob Rees-Mogg – A Sacrifice I Am Willing to Make

Welcome to the Desert of the Real

9/11 25th anniversary memorial artwork, presented in full

9/11: Remembering the Lives Lost, 25 Years On

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Phil Tyson in a suit within surveillance crosshairs

Belief is the Battlefield is a conceptual art project investigating how 9/11 and The Matrix framed our ‘post-truth’ century. Through podcasts, video, stories and memes, it traces the technology and history of ideas behind today’s cognitive warfare - a contested world where what we believe has become the battlefield.

More about the project

Phil Tyson PhD is a psychotherapist and sociologist whose work - from clinical practice to systems research - has returned again and again to one question: how minds create meaning in an unstable world. philtyson.com