Weaponized Lies: How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era Audiobook (Free)

Previously Published like a Field Guide to Lies

We’re encircled by fringe theories, fake news, and pseudo-facts. These lies are getting repeated. New York Times bestselling author Daniel Levitin displays how to disarm these socially devastating inventions and get the American mind back on track. Here are the essential lessons in critical thinking that we need to know and talk about now.

Investigating numerical misinformation, Daniel Levitin displays how mishandled statistics and graphs can provide a about Weaponized Lies: How to Believe Critically in the Post-Truth Era grossly distorted perspective and lead us to terrible decisions. Wordy quarrels alternatively can easily end up being persuasive because they drift away from the facts in an interesting yet misguided way. The steps we can try better evaluate information, advertisements, and reviews are clearly comprehensive. Ultimately, Levitin transforms to what underlies our capability to see whether something is true or fake: the scientific technique. He grapples with the limitations of what we are able to and cannot understand. Case studies are offered to demonstrate the applications of reasonable thinking to quite varied settings, spanning courtroom testimony, medical decision making, magic, contemporary physics, and conspiracy theories.

This urgently needed book enables us to avoid the extremes of passive gullibility and cynical rejection. As Levitin attests: Truth issues. A post-truth era is an period of willful irrationality, reversing all of the great advances humankind has made. Euphemisms like “fringe theories,” “severe sights,” “alt truth,” as well as “fake news” can literally be dangerous. Let’s call is situated what they are and catch those producing them in the work.

*Contains a PDF of supplemental images on visualizing conditional probabilities