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October 9, 2025 35 mins

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Forget the smoke-filled rooms and the Illuminati. The real story of who runs the world is far more complex, measurable, and closer to your wallet than you think.

In this deep-dive episode of Fortean Winds, we cut through the noise of myth and conspiracy to deliver a data-driven analysis of global power. The hard truth is not a shadowy cabal, but a decentralized web of elite influence—a network of an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 individuals across economic, political, and intelligence clusters that shape everything from your daily news feed to global policy.

We trace the lines of systemic leverage wielded by these elites, grounding our investigation in numbers from credible sources like Forbes, OpenSecrets, and the AARO Report. You'll learn:

  • Economic Control: How just a few thousand individuals control over $14 trillion in wealth and how investment firms like BlackRock and Vanguard effectively dictate the policies of 80% of S&P 500 firms, driving up your costs for housing, healthcare, and food.
  • Information Manipulation: The terrifying reality that six media conglomerates control 90% of the U.S. media, and how algorithms on platforms like Google and X curate roughly 60% of what you see online, creating echo chambers and suppressing certain worldviews.
  • Political Lobbying & Policy: How billions in political donations and lobbying ensure that an estimated 80% of U.S. policies align with elite interests, not public opinion, limiting your economic and political mobility.
  • The Fortean Twist: UAP Secrecy: We integrate the strange reality of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), examining official government documents (like the AARO Report) and the possibility that a tiny subgroup (50–200 people) is controlling potentially transformative, non-human technology. Is this secrecy delaying free energy and other innovations?

This is a vital listen for anyone who has ever asked, "Who runs the world?" We provide a clear, evidence-based answer that moves beyond vague talk of a "grand conspiracy" and points directly to the measurable systemic leverage that is shaping your future.

Tune in to Fortean Winds as we synthesize the evidence, revealing the central nodes of power, why they compete, and what the high stakes of this fragmented, elite-driven system mean for you.

You can find the data and citations in our companion article on Fortean Winds:

https://forteanwinds.com/2025/08/27/unraveling-elite-influence-who-really-runs-the-world/


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