Just Finished Reading: Weaponized Lies – How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era by Daniel Levitin (FP: 2016) [263pp] 

One thing that my LONG educational journey – School, College and University – taught me well was how to create good arguments. Equally important was the ability to deconstruct arguments to see how they work or to show why they don’t work as well as they should. I was taught to spot assertions masquerading as facts and failures of logic. I actually enjoyed taking arguments apart, either in writing or verbally during a debate, and pointing out hidden assumptions, unstated beliefs, false equivalence and so much more. Debating was FUN. It also helped that, as far as I can tell, I’m a natural sceptic and I take some convincing about things I’m initially unsure about. It goes a long way to explain why I’ve been an Atheist from the moment I started thinking about the subject. But this isn’t about belief in gods. This is about the present we find ourselves in – were misinformation and disinformation are not only hyper-prevalent but weaponised to boot! 

Weaponised lies are nothing new. Such things have been around for as long as humanity has existed on this ball of dirt. What’s new is the speed, the power and the targeting of such lies – and they are lies not just debatable points – to influence people and, ultimately, get them to mistrust almost everything, even things (or maybe especially things) they see with their own eyes. So, can we do anything about it or are we destined to spend our lives liken frightened rabbits staring into the headlights of social media? Thinking *critically* is the key. When you’re presented with an argument or information the 5G towers spread Covid, or that the Earth is FLAT and not a globe, or that vaccinations make people magnetic or that we never landed on the Moon or that the world is secretly run by a cabal of alien lizards you can go... Hold on one second. How exactly is THAT supposed to work? Then you can start teasing the ‘argument’ apart and see if it stacks up to reality and exactly how it's all supposed to hold together. You might need to do some (proper!) research, you’ll probably need some basic knowledge of how things really work, and you might even need a passing acquaintance with mathematics but none of that is beyond most people – even those with busy lives. Red Flags are something that you should be aware of – like graphs without labelling of the axes or where they don’t explain why the scale changes as you move along one axis. A BIG red flag for me is FAST talking. If someone is bombarding you with ‘information’ and never pauses long enough for you to either think or interject it seems to me that they’ve got something to hide. Likewise, those who reject questions or requests for clarification. I particularly don’t trust people who get angry when you question what they’re saying. If they can’t put their argument over without shouting or attacking you (hopefully just verbally) then they’ve already LOST their argument in my view. 

Following on from his previous book ‘The Organized Mind – Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload’, this is a valuable read with a host of techniques anyone can use to check what they’re reading or hearing for validity or BS. Unfortunately, these days it seems that these are skills we need to have to hand at a moment's notice. But they’re nothing to be afraid of. Thinking critically can be learnt and can be utilised in a hundred different ways, from avoiding e-mail scams to working out if an offer in your local supermarket is really an offer or not. Most importantly it’s a skill that can be used to reduce anxiety and discover what’s really going on in the world rather than worrying about space lasers or pizza parlour paedophiles. Definitely recommended and more from this author to come.  

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