That's the title of a 2009 book by Chris Hedges.
It answers, in part, the question posed by 4 Non Blondes in their song "What's Up":
"What's going on?"
Here's Hedges:
A public that can no longer distinguish between truth and fiction is
left to interpret reality through illusion. Random facts or obscure
bits of data and trivia are used either to bolster illusion and give
it credibility, or discarded if they interfere with the message . . .
When opinions cannot be distinguished from facts, when there
is no universal standard to determine truth in law, in science,
in scholarship, or in reporting the events of the day, when the
most valued skill is the ability to entertain, the world becomes a
place where lies become true, where people can believe what they
want to believe. This is the real danger of pseudo-events and
pseudo-events are far more pernicious than stereotypes. They
do not explain reality, as stereotypes attempt to, but replace
reality. Pseudo-events redefine reality by the parameters set
by their creators. These creators, who make massive profits
selling illusions, have a vested interest in maintaining the power
structures they control....
—Chris Hedges, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, New York: Nation Books, July 2009.
