conspiracies

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

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

Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect by Mick West

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mick West was a video game programmer in the 90s who cashed out, retired early and became fascinated with conspiracy theories–and then more specifically in debunking them. With plenty of time to support his hobby of debunking, West went on to create multiple sites on the subject, with https://www.metabunk.org being perhaps the best known. This is his first book on the subject.

Escaping the Rabbit Hole delivers exactly what the sub-title promises. West devotes space to general techniques and methods on debunking conspiracies, with the aim of helping you (the reader) to help someone else (referred throughout in the book as “your friend”) break free from believing whatever conspiracy or set of conspiracies they are holding to. He also offers more specific information on some of the more popular–and in one case, more fringe–conspiracy theories, including the claim that a controlled demolition brought down the World Trade Center towers, that the Sandy Hook shootings never happened, the theory that contrails from planes are actually chemtrails either changing the weather or poisoning us (or both), and, of course, the flat earth theory. The latter may boggle any sensible person, because it is by far the most extreme and easily disproved conspiracy theory, yet West provides an example of someone who genuinely believed the earth was flat.

West accompanies each specific conspiracy theory with a shorter chapter chronicling how a particular individual escaped the rabbit hole (such as the aforementioned flat earther), showing how for some it can happen swiftly–in a matter of a week–and how for others it may take years. Often it is the patient work of a friend that pulls them out, but sometimes it is seeing a specific video or getting a critical piece of information at the right time that gives the conspiracist just enough pause to start questioning what they believe. West also shows how it can also be a matter of adherents to a particular theory crossing a line that the believer isn’t prepared to step over.

Throughout the book, West keeps repeating his mantra of being respectful and patient, urging the reader to avoid arguing and mocking the conspiracist’s beliefs, rightly stating that this puts them on the defensive and makes them less receptive to hearing other points of view. He emphasizes the use of examples and evidence, or actual demonstrations where possible that show how the conspiracy theory doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

Anticipating one of the claims conspiracists will throw at him–that he is a simply a paid shill–West spends a chapter providing background on himself and how he came to be a debunker. Reading where he came from and how he ended up running metabunk as a hobby, I both envy and admire him for having the freedom and funds to not just pursue a hobby, but one that will genuinely help to make the world a better place.

He perhaps puts too much faith in the efforts of social media giants like Facebook and Twitter to combat bots, disinformation and conspiracy stories/videos. He is heartened by the work they have done (I am more skeptical), but still warns it is likely to get better before it gets worse, with AI growing ever-more sophisticated in its ability to present itself as credible-sounding “people,” not to mention the work being done in the area of deep fakes where pulling apart what is real and what is a fabrication will get increasingly difficult.

Escaping the Rabbit hole is a thorough, sensible and compassionate toolkit for getting someone you know out of the world of conspiracy theories. Even if you don’t know anyone personally who has gone down the rabbit hole, the book’s techniques and background are an interesting examination of modern conspiracy theories and the damage they can do.

Recommended.

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Book review: Area 51 – An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base

Area 51 – An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base is without a doubt the longest title of any book I’ve read in the last five years.

This 2011 title is also a thorough and engrossing recounting of the military base dating back to the 1940s, using both declassified documents and interviews from the men who worked there, some now in their 90s, to paint a still-incomplete picture of what happened–and still happens–there.

Author Annie Jacobsen does a stellar job with this, following a mainly chronological progression through Area 51’s history, venturing off to related matters when relevant and covering the politics that always served as the backdrop, from the end of World War II through the Cold War and on to the present-day where unmanned drones do the surveillance and unleash rocket-propelled judgment in one deadly (and expensive) package.

Area 51’s most infamous connection is to the 1947 crash of a flying disc near Roswell, New Mexico. Jacobsen addresses this and it forms one of the lingering puzzles of the base. More on that later.

The main focus is on the secret testing done mainly by the CIA, the U.S. Air Force and the Atomic Energy Commission (renamed several times, presently the Department of Energy). The first two conducted extensive tests on stealth planes, starting with the U-2 and the A12 “Oxcart”, jets designed to fly at unheard of heights–as much as 90,000 feet–and faster than any other aircraft, with speeds reaching up to mach 3. The first striking part about these tests is how relatively ineffective the stealth part was, even after many years of development and billions of dollars spent. Both jets were regularly spotted and sometimes shot down, though the data they provided was invaluable to the U.S.  It wasn’t until the 1980s that stealth technology really advanced with the F117a.

The second and more grimly striking part of the testing were the astonishing number of crashes and fatalities, with more than one pilot dying due to malfunctioning equipment while ejecting.

While the CIA and Air Force built planes in secret, the Atomic Energy Commission was testing atomic bombs–lots of atomic bombs, with yields many times greater than those dropped on Japan. I found myself repeatedly shaking my head over how utterly reckless these tests were. A dirty bomb simulation exploded radioactive material mere miles from Area 51, with no protection offered to anyone working there. The debris was never even cleaned up, just cordoned off with signs and fencing. One atomic bomb was exploded directly in the ozone layer, even though the scientists conducting the test had no idea what might happen.

Today a large swath of the Nevada desert looks like a moonscape, the ground dotted with dozens of craters from dozens of bomb tests. It’s a wonder the state doesn’t glow at night.

And what of Roswell? Jacobsen doesn’t spend much time on it but does drop a few interesting and somewhat conflicting accounts from those who worked there. Some insist they saw craft and bodies that were unmistakably alien. But Jacobsen puts forward a more prosaic view, that the flying disc was a craft designed in Stalin’s Soviet Union sent to the U.S. to frighten or warn the U.S. government. The aliens? Genetically or surgically modified children made to look like aliens, to scare everyone or something. The unusual flight characteristics of the disc–its ability to hover in defiance of gravity, to move rapidly and silently–are never explained. Nor is it explained that if this was Soviet technology why it was never seen nor heard from again, nor why any other country has ever developed anything like it. If one were paranoid, one might think there was some kind of cover-up going on.

The lingering impression that Area 51 leaves me with is one of discomfort. A lot of dangerous testing and experimentation has taken place there and much of it remains classified, with even the U.S. President often declared not having a “need to know”. This kind of ultra-secrecy, where projects are “born classified” is not healthy for a democratic society nor for the world in general. Edward Snowden may have famously blown the lid off the NSA last year but what went on and still goes on at Area 51 (still never officially acknowledged as existing) is more insidious and dangerous.

Jacobsen concludes with a chilling interview with an unidentified engineer who hints broadly at a huge number of horrifying experiments on humans (think Nazis in WWII) conducted at Area 51 and elsewhere in the U.S. that went on at least through the 1980s and could still be happening today.

Area 51 is a comprehensive and meticulously researched look at the world’s most infamous military base. It neatly captures everything from the camaraderie of test pilots flying experimental craft that guaranteed no safe landings to the blatant disregard for safety in the hundreds of nuclear weapons tests. Highly recommended.