Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect - Hardcover

West, Mick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1510735801 ISBN 13: 9781510735804

Verlag: Skyhorse, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

Here is a conclusive, well-researched, practical reference on why people fall down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole and how you can help them escape. Mick West shares the knowledge and experience he’s accumulated debunking false conspiracy theories, and offers a practical guide to helping friends and loved ones recognize these theories for what they really are.

The Earth is flat, the World Trade Center collapse was a controlled demolition, planes are spraying poison to control the weather, and actors faked the Sandy Hook massacre…. All these claims are bunk: falsehoods, mistakes, and in some cases, outright lies. But many people passionately believe one or more of these conspiracy theories. They consume countless books and videos, join like-minded online communities, try to convert those around them, and even, on occasion, alienate their own friends and family. Why is this, and how can you help people, especially those closest to you, break free from the downward spiral of conspiracy thinking?

Perhaps counter-intuitively, the most successful approaches to helping individuals escape a rabbit hole aren’t comprised of simply explaining why they are wrong; rather, West’s tried-and-tested approach emphasizes clear communication based on mutual respect, honesty, openness, and patience.

West puts his debunking techniques and best practices to the test with four of the most popular false conspiracy theories today (Chemtrails, 9/11 Controlled Demolition, False Flags, and Flat Earth) — providing road maps to help you to understand your friend and help them escape the rabbit hole. These are accompanied by real-life case studies of individuals who, with help, were able to break free from conspiracism.

With sections on:

• the wide spectrum of conspiracy theories
• avoiding the “shill” label
• psychological factors and other complications
• (and concluding with) a look at the future of debunking

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Mick West is a science writer and professional debunker. While he began his career as a video games programmer, his primary focus at the moment is investigating and explaining conspiracy theories such as Chemtrails, 9/11, False Flags, etc. He also covers more esoteric topics such as UFO’s, pseudoscience, Flat Earth, photo analysis, and other quackery. Mick has appeared on numerous major media outlets, including CNN, CBS This Evening, the Joe Rogan Experience, and many others.

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Escaping the Rabbit Hole

How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect

By Mick West

Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright © 2018 Mick West
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5107-3580-4

Contents

Acknowledgments, 
Prologue: Willie–Rabbit Hole Escapee, 
Introduction, 
Overview, 
PART ONE, 
Chapter 1: The "Conspiracy Theory" Conspiracy Theory, 
Chapter 2: Conspiracy Spectrums, 
Chapter 3: The Shill Card, 
Chapter 4: The Rabbit Hole: How and Why, 
Chapter 5: Core Debunking Techniques, 
Chapter 6: Steve – A Journey through the Rabbit Hole, 
PART TWO, 
Chapter 7: Chemtrails, 
Chapter 8: Stephanie – A Former Chemtrailer, 
Chapter 9: 9/11 Controlled Demolitions, 
Chapter 10: Karl – Temporary Truther, 
Chapter 11: False Flags, 
Chapter 12: Richard – Drawing the Line at Sandy Hook, 
Chapter 13: Flat Earth, 
Chapter 14: Bob – Escape from Flat Earth, 
PART THREE, 
Chapter 15: Complications in Debunking, 
Chapter 16: The Future of Bunk and Debunking, 
Conclusion, 
Glossary, 
Endnotes, 

CHAPTER 1

The "Conspiracy Theory" Conspiracy Theory

"Conspiracy theory" is a term that I use extensively and have done for a long time, and yet I initially struggled with it, and constantly tried to find alternatives.

The problem is that "conspiracy theory" (and "conspiracy theorist") is considered by many to be deliberately derogatory. The fact that "conspiracy theory" is on the cover of this book might lead some people to dismiss the book as an attempt to mock or belittle the people who believe such things. But if you look at a typical dictionary definition it will be something like:

A theory that explains a situation or event as resulting from a secret plot by some powerful group.

With "conspiracy theorist" being simply defined as a person who believes a conspiracy theory. This is a perfectly reasonable definition that fits what 9/11 Truthers believe, or what JFK conspiracists believer, and what chemtrailers, Moon landing hoaxers, Sandy Hook false flaggers, and alien base coveruppers all believe. They think that there was a secret plot behind something, and/or that's a secret cover-up of something.

But being literally correct does not make a word immune to being offensive. It's the applicability to the more esoteric theories that is offensive to the more mainstream conspiracists. The average person who simply thinks that the CIA assassinated JFK sees himself as a reasonable person and does not want to be associated with the odd people who think the Queen is a shape-shifting lizard. Similarly, the 9/11 Truther does not want to be thought of as a "tinfoil hatter" who worries that the NSA is beaming messages into his brain with radio waves.

But beyond this simple association, there's a deeper reason why conspiracists shy away from the label. That reason is itself a conspiracy theory — the theory that the term "conspiracy theory" was invented in 1967 by the CIA to discredit conspiracy theorists.

This "conspiracy theory" conspiracy theory points to a 1967 CIA document that surfaced in 1976 after a FOIA request from the New York Times. The document, titled "Concerning Criticism of the Warren Report" is a fascinating snapshot of the time. The CIA is concerned, for a variety of reasons, that there's a rising tide of unfounded conspiracy theories that are damaging the reputation of the CIA and the government. They suggest ways of countering them, but they don't suggest using the term "conspiracy theory."

But people who might have that label applied to them (like people who think the World Trade Center was destroyed with explosives) feel that the document is very much about labeling them as "conspiracy theorist" in an attempt to ridicule and sideline them. One of the main promoters of this theory is Dr. Lance DeHaven-Smith, who used it as the central thesis of his book, Conspiracy Theory in America, writing:

Thus the conspiracy-theory label has become a powerful smear that, in the name of reason, civility, and democracy, preempts public discourse, reinforces rather than resolves disagreements, and undermines popular vigilance against abuses of power. Put in place in 1967 by the CIA, the term continues to be a destructive force in American politics.

DeHaven-Smith admits that the document itself does not actually explicitly encourage usage of the term, and to get around this he embarks on a series of interpretive mental gymnastics, attempting to determine the hidden meaning in the CIA document. He goes through it sentence by sentence, and sometimes word by word, forcing his interpretation upon it.

CIA Dispatch 1035-960 appears to be a straightforward memo with clear language and reasonable motives, but it is actually a subtle document, conveying many of its messages by indirection and implication. To grasp the nuances in the text requires a very careful reading. Some sections of the dispatch clearly have a surface meaning for ordinary readers, and a deeper, less obvious meaning for readers who are listening for, as it were, a second frequency, a hidden meaning. Multiple levels of meaning occur in various forms of speech....

CIA Dispatch 1035-960 is not a Platonic dialogue ... but it is a document written by spies for other spies, and spies know that, as a written document, it could fall into the wrong hands, as, in fact, it did because of the Freedom of Information Act request. So we should assume that the dispatch may contain some veiled meanings.

While DeHaven-Smith claims that the "conspiracy theory" label was "put in place in 1967 by the CIA," in fact the term had been in use for decades before that. The first usage dates back to 1870 with a theory about a conspiracy to physically abuse the criminally insane in mental asylums. The term took hold in the United States as a description for a particular theory about the succession of the South from the Union and appears in several books around 1895, nearly seventy years before the CIA document. It continued to be used in the early twentieth century, such as in the paper "The 'Conspiracy Theory' of the Fourteenth Amendment" in 1930.

A decade before the CIA memo, and years before JFK's assassination, the term was in actual use in the United States in much the same way as it is now — as a descriptor for largely unfounded theories that seek to explain events with a nefarious conspiracy. At that time one of the main sources of such theories was the "Radical Right"— extreme-right religious and nationalist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society. In 1960, William Baum wrote in "The Conspiracy Theory of Politics of the Radical Right in the United States":

... acceptance of the reality of an omnipotent and demonic conspiracy is the most significant and distinctive ideological characteristic of the contemporary American extreme or radical right.

Baum's work was quite influential and was repeated in several papers and books. In 1962, the year before the assassination of President Kennedy, Walter Wilcox wrote "The Press of the Radical Right" including an attempt to quantify the various types of conspiracy theories. In it they gave several examples:

• NAACP is operated by a New York Jew through Negro Fronts

• Fluoridation [of drinking water] brings people under control as a narcotic, not good for teeth

• Unemployment is increasing in US...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Skyhorse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1510735801
• ISBN 13: 9781510735804
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 304
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar