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jdalton's review against another edition
5.0
I’m often found to be saying “I miss when conspiracy theories were fun” but maybe they weren’t actually “fun” lol. I enjoyed this book by breaking down why people believe them and how we can help people who do. I recommend this book for anyone who wonders why their friends and family believe certain things and how they can possibly fall for it.
jvanwago's review
informative
4.0
This helped me understand conspiratorial thinking, both the constructive and paranoidal kinds. Shermer does an admirable job explaining why conspiracy theories are baked into humankind.
The three main drivers are proxy beliefs (conspiracies reflect an underlying belief, such as distrust of government), tribal loyalty (we believe conspiracies to demonstrate loyalty to our tribe), and constructive suspicion (some conspiracies turned out to be true, so better be safe than sorry).
These rationale help explain why confronting conspiracy theorists with facts will almost never affect their belief.
It is easy to forget that many conspiracies throughout history of turned out to be true (yes, the government often lies to us). Shermer runs through examples of these as well as more paranoid conspiracies (QAnon) and how to distinguish them from one another.
Belief in some conspiracies is benign (e.g UFOs), but Shermer points out that belief in other conspiracy theories sometimes has fatal consequences (e.g. replacement theory).
What keeps this book from five stars for me is the glaring absence of discussion around the more recent phenomenon of mostly decentralized, “benevolent”conspiracies. Many examples of these of these can be found around COVID-19, climate change, and youth gender dysphoria.
For example, a lot of recent evidence has come to light demonstrating how evidence and discussion of the lab leak origin hypothesis for COVID-19 was suppressed and/or covered up by many scientists, journalists, and social media companies.
For the most part this was not done to purposely harm the American people, but to protect virology, research funding, avoid upsetting relations with China, and gatekeeping the preferred narrative. Hence my descriptor of “benevolent”.
This conspiracy started in small groups of top researchers and government officials, but became decentralized once mainstream publications and thought-leaders caught on to this preferred narrative.
There are many such examples, and they often are much more nuanced than black-and-white conspiracies (like whether climate change is a hoax or not).
The three main drivers are proxy beliefs (conspiracies reflect an underlying belief, such as distrust of government), tribal loyalty (we believe conspiracies to demonstrate loyalty to our tribe), and constructive suspicion (some conspiracies turned out to be true, so better be safe than sorry).
These rationale help explain why confronting conspiracy theorists with facts will almost never affect their belief.
It is easy to forget that many conspiracies throughout history of turned out to be true (yes, the government often lies to us). Shermer runs through examples of these as well as more paranoid conspiracies (QAnon) and how to distinguish them from one another.
Belief in some conspiracies is benign (e.g UFOs), but Shermer points out that belief in other conspiracy theories sometimes has fatal consequences (e.g. replacement theory).
What keeps this book from five stars for me is the glaring absence of discussion around the more recent phenomenon of mostly decentralized, “benevolent”conspiracies. Many examples of these of these can be found around COVID-19, climate change, and youth gender dysphoria.
For example, a lot of recent evidence has come to light demonstrating how evidence and discussion of the lab leak origin hypothesis for COVID-19 was suppressed and/or covered up by many scientists, journalists, and social media companies.
For the most part this was not done to purposely harm the American people, but to protect virology, research funding, avoid upsetting relations with China, and gatekeeping the preferred narrative. Hence my descriptor of “benevolent”.
This conspiracy started in small groups of top researchers and government officials, but became decentralized once mainstream publications and thought-leaders caught on to this preferred narrative.
There are many such examples, and they often are much more nuanced than black-and-white conspiracies (like whether climate change is a hoax or not).
socraticgadfly's review
fast-paced
1.25
Horrible book, not on the conspiracy theories, which I don't need Shermer to tell me, but on him totally getting wrong the one actual conspiracy he discusses, which is why this is 1-starred on a grok.
Rather than there being JUST and ONLY an Austrian conspiracy against Serbia in 1914, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand instead traces directly through one "Apis," head of both Serbian military intelligence and the secret society named The Black Hand, and also directly or semi-directly through confederates of Apis in the nationalist organization Narodna Odbrana, to Serbian Prime Minister Pasic. All of this and more is documented by Christopher Clark in the excellent book "The Sleepwalkers," which Shermer ACTUALLY REFERENCES and then ignores for Tim Butcher's "The Trigger," which is
A. A piece of crap and
B. Only about 10-20 percent about lead assassin Gavrilo Princip and 80-90 percent directly or indirectly about Tim Butcher.
Shermer's right that this is arguably the world's deadliest conspiracy. He's dead wrong about where the conspiracy started.
==
The rest of the book, without this egregious ax-grinding, would probably be 3 stars, no more, so, even without this, it's not worth a read. It's a basic definition of conspiracy vs conspiracy theories, basic overview on why many people believe in conspiracy theories, and how to try to talk to them.
But, surely Shermer could have found something else to discuss as a true conspiracy. Rather, it appears that, following in Butcher's footsteps despite having read Clark's documenting the likely ties to the Serbian government, and despite mentioning the Black Hand, even in an overall superficial treatment (and even talking about an assassination conspiracy, though trying to limit it to just the Black Hand, if that), he thought he could use some intellectual judo to show an Austrian conspiracy.
In reality, despite Conrad having been pushing for pre-emptive war with Serbia for years, even after the assassination, the Dual Monarchy was divided on going to war. And, trying to treat its Byzantine turns in just a few pages will be a good way to get superficial treatment even if not wrong — which, of course, Shermer is. And, I can say that as having read "The Sleepwalkers" TWICE.
Rather than there being JUST and ONLY an Austrian conspiracy against Serbia in 1914, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand instead traces directly through one "Apis," head of both Serbian military intelligence and the secret society named The Black Hand, and also directly or semi-directly through confederates of Apis in the nationalist organization Narodna Odbrana, to Serbian Prime Minister Pasic. All of this and more is documented by Christopher Clark in the excellent book "The Sleepwalkers," which Shermer ACTUALLY REFERENCES and then ignores for Tim Butcher's "The Trigger," which is
A. A piece of crap and
B. Only about 10-20 percent about lead assassin Gavrilo Princip and 80-90 percent directly or indirectly about Tim Butcher.
Shermer's right that this is arguably the world's deadliest conspiracy. He's dead wrong about where the conspiracy started.
==
The rest of the book, without this egregious ax-grinding, would probably be 3 stars, no more, so, even without this, it's not worth a read. It's a basic definition of conspiracy vs conspiracy theories, basic overview on why many people believe in conspiracy theories, and how to try to talk to them.
But, surely Shermer could have found something else to discuss as a true conspiracy. Rather, it appears that, following in Butcher's footsteps despite having read Clark's documenting the likely ties to the Serbian government, and despite mentioning the Black Hand, even in an overall superficial treatment (and even talking about an assassination conspiracy, though trying to limit it to just the Black Hand, if that), he thought he could use some intellectual judo to show an Austrian conspiracy.
In reality, despite Conrad having been pushing for pre-emptive war with Serbia for years, even after the assassination, the Dual Monarchy was divided on going to war. And, trying to treat its Byzantine turns in just a few pages will be a good way to get superficial treatment even if not wrong — which, of course, Shermer is. And, I can say that as having read "The Sleepwalkers" TWICE.
aiyam's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Antisemitism, Abortion, Classism, and Deportation
micpoll's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
I REALLY enjoyed this book, even though it was a challenging one. I’ve always been fascinated by why people believe these “wild” conspiracy theories, especially in the age of COVID and Trump, and I got some answers from this book.
Not only does Shermer explain why people believe them, how they aren’t actually that new, how some big theories have been debunked, he also explains why this issue is important and how we can discuss/challenge our opinions when talking to someone who doesn’t agree.
I got this from my local library, but I am very tempted to buy myself a copy to keep!!
Not only does Shermer explain why people believe them, how they aren’t actually that new, how some big theories have been debunked, he also explains why this issue is important and how we can discuss/challenge our opinions when talking to someone who doesn’t agree.
I got this from my local library, but I am very tempted to buy myself a copy to keep!!