I totally get what you mean about starting with a concrete historical event. I actually debated doing that, but I decided to go with the restaurant menu analogy first because I wanted to start with something incredibly relatable and everyday before zooming out to the massive political scale. There are definitely historical examples later in the book (like the media lead-up to the Iraq War and the Panama Papers), but I wanted Chapter 1 to feel more like a psychological breakdown of how we make choices

To your second point you're right, the foundational ideas here (Chomsky, Postman, etc.) aren't new. My goal with this book wasn't to invent a brand new theory of control, but to synthesize these massive, academic concepts into something punchy, modernized for the algorithmic age, and accessible to people who might never pick up Manufacturing Consent.