The Reverse Pinocchio Effect: How Propagandists Create Puppets and What We Can Do About It

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1

The Most Fundamental Challenge

Chapter 2

What Is a Conspiracy Theory?

Chapter 3

The Reverse Pinocchio Effect

Chapter 4

The First Mistake: Enabling Robotic Control

Chapter 5

The Second Mistake: Reversing Pinocchio

Chapter 6

The Third Mistake: Entering the Pied Piper Zone

Chapter 7

The Fourth Mistake: Slamming the Door Shut

Chapter 8

Reversing the Reverse Pinocchio Effect

Chapter 9

The Birth of Distrust

Chapter 10

The Theory of the Ornamented Tree of Emotion

Chapter 11

Defeatism versus Optimism in the Address to Shapeshifting

Chapter 12

Persuading through Focused Discussion

Chapter 13

Persistence as a Basic Policy

Chapter 14

Willingness to Look Silly

Chapter 15

Lies and Dividing by Zero

Chapter 16

The Sweet Spot in Our Path to Anger

Chapter 17

Complexity and Details

Chapter 18

The Absolute Power of the Voter

Chapter 19

Recognizing the Humanity of Those Who Share Our World

Chapter 20

Creativity and the Future

Preface

This is a book about the mistakes that people make that get them caught up in conspiracy theories. It is the outcome of years of interaction I have had with people who have embraced and promoted conspiracy theories.

I am a computer forensic investigator. I am hired to investigate civil and criminal matters in order to establish the truth about who did what and how they did it. Over the years I have been asked to untangle intractable snarls that were elusive because knowledgeable people were intentionally making them so, conspiring among themselves to engage in criminal or tortious conduct while using their technical expertise to bury the evidence of their actions. When I enter their area, they know much more than I do about what’s going on there. But I begin the process of gathering information, and ultimately I discover and document exactly what has been occurring. Often, the perpetrators make silly mistakes that expose them, but sometimes they are careful and, to their knowledge, cover all their tracks. When this occurs, I catch the perpetrators just outside their level of understanding. They were not aware that their actions left certain traces behind, and those traces confirm their culpability. I might not have been aware that such traces were left behind when I launched the investigation, but I discover them as I conduct the investigation.

One might imagine that a very knowledgeable person could eventually learn all there is to know about covering their tracks and thereby be able to carry out the perfect crime. But after having been an investigator for nearly three decades, I am convinced that there is no such thing as the perfect crime. A person who has attained a high level of knowledge about how the world works learns that there is no way to act in a perfidious manner in this world without leaving a trace.

My experiences as an investigator have given me a high degree of confidence that we can investigate and satisfactorily answer any question of relevance to the future of our society. This is the perspective that is lacking in the world of conspiracy theories, and this is a key perspective I hope to share through this publication. Conspiracy theories essentially stem from an attitude of defeat: Their believers have decided that answers cannot be known and, therefore, the only option left is to wreak havoc on society.

This is not a book about how to investigate. The specific steps that one undertakes in conducting an investigation are only of relevance once one has made the decision to find the truth. The problem we have in our society is not the how of finding the truth, it is adopting the determination to do so. People who get wrapped up in conspiracy theories do not embrace them because they lack the tools of investigation; rather, they embrace such conspiracy theories because they feel no compelling need to investigate them before accepting them. Anyone who wants to investigate effectively can learn how to do so. But if a person has no interest in discovering the truth and no desire to do so, the tools of investigation will remain unused.

Questions posed in conspiracy theories are usually not difficult to address. Most are so nonsensical that they dissolve the instant one directs any skeptical attention toward them. But why do people accept such nonsense without subjecting it to scrutiny? After talking to a great many people who have gotten themselves caught up in conspiracy theories, certain principles that help to explain the acceptance of such theories have become evident to me. Chief among these principles is the simple fact that our attitude toward our society is the single most important factor determining whether we will embrace a conspiracy theory. We all live together in our society, with some of us battling fears that give rise to conspiracy theories and others having a much more optimistic view. When we allow pessimistic communications to flow unchallenged through society, we surrender the future of our society to that pessimistic view.

It is my hope that this book will provide tools to enable the more optimistic among us to share that optimism with those currently embracing conspiracy theories, so they can learn that it is possible to know the truth and can look forward with confidence to the creation of a bright future for all of us.

Michael Dennis O’Brien

Los Angeles

Chapter 1

The Most Fundamental Challenge

At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reaches us, it must spring up among us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.

Abraham Lincoln

¹

More than half a century ago, in my teens, I was exposed to my first conspiracy theory—the claim that elections are a sham, that the president is selected by a secret group of powerful insiders, and that the process of voting is just theatrics for clueless masses. I was personally affronted by the idea that someone might be subverting my liberty in that way, and I resolved to do whatever needed to be done to put an end to it. I gathered more information on the conspiracies that were afoot in our society and began piecing together the tapestry of the hidden underpinnings of this horrifying maleficence.

After struggling with it for the better part of a decade, I was eventually able to see that what had been presented to me as intentional subversive activity had much simpler explanations. What had been spun as the actions of evil people could be more fully explained as a difference of opinion among those of different political persuasions. In speaking with others about the subject, however, I found it difficult to move people off the conviction that the favorite boogeymen of the hour were the most evil people who had ever walked the earth.

It became clear that embracing and spreading conspiracy theories was not based on logic or any rational process. I didn’t have a path for resolving that, and it wasn’t really a problem that needed to be addressed anyway because conspiracy theories mostly resided at the edges of society and didn’t seem to pose a threat to the stability of the country.

At that time, my discussions with conspiracy theorists took place directly, in person, with neighborhood friends. Today, these discussions occur primarily online, where there is much less accountability, and the fear that gives rise to conspiracy theories can propagate rapidly.

There has been much discussion about the dangers of allowing conspiracy theories to run amok through society. Having vast numbers of people fuming about a litany of falsehoods while being convinced that the tools of self-government are being denied them is a recipe for instability that could ultimately lead to losing our nation to a mob determined to save our democracy by destroying it.

Conspiracy theories are no longer being relegated to the fringes of society. They have become mainstream, and it has reached the point where we, as a society of thinking creative individuals, must step up and do something about it.

People who embrace conspiracy theories typically operate under the false belief that there are others who are evil and out to get them. This is the foundation of the attitude that underlies conspiracy theories in general, and it makes people weak, as they constantly have to keep an eye out for these evil people. This tendency to readily accept and internalize such frightening narratives is a basic human frailty. As such, when we set out to address the negative impact of conspiracy theories, we must avoid pointing the finger at others, which will simply reinforce the self-imposed conviction that they are under attack. When addressing the subject of particular conspiracy theories with others, it may be satisfying to be right and to drive home to someone else that they are wrong, but this just firms up the resolve of people on all sides of the issue and makes it impossible to focus on the fact that we are all united in the desire to live in a free and safe society in which we can pursue our dreams.

Over the years, I have observed four key mistakes that people make when receiving and evaluating information. These mistakes progressively undermine the individual’s ability to properly understand that information, culminating in surrendering their autonomy and placing themselves fully under the control of a propagandist. I call the sum of these four mistakes The Reverse Pinocchio Effect, on analogy with the famed puppet who was transformed into a real boy after living with diligence and truth. When this process is reversed, Pinocchio’s success becomes the failure of a real boy who, living with lies, finds himself transformed into a puppet for the author of those lies.

It is tempting to consider that this can only happen to people other than oneself, but The Reverse Pinocchio Effect is a phenomenon so common and so widespread, it is not appropriate to describe it as something that happens just to others. It is something that happens to us. It is so much a part of the human experience, it should be viewed on the same order as getting the hiccups, stubbing your toe, or waking up on the wrong side of the bed. In fact, waking up on the wrong side of the bed can be seen as the initial stage of The Reverse Pinocchio Effect, as it introduces into our lives a measure of unwanted stress that makes us irritable—and when we are irritable, we are, just to that degree, irrational.

How many times have we stormed off in a huff, refused to listen, accepted idiotic nonsense as if it were true, and then sworn by it just because it seemed the thing to do at the time? We have to acknowledge it’s something we are at risk of doing at any time, without warning. The Reverse Pinocchio Effect is a flaw in all humankind, a chink in our armor, a weakness all of us can and do trip over as we ricochet through life.

The factors that counter The Reverse Pinocchio Effect, however, are simple statements of those essential qualities that elevate humankind to lofty heights: confidence, friendship, brotherhood, diligence, optimism, courage.

Everyone has their blind spots. No one should consider that they are above making the sorts of errors that can bring about The Reverse Pinocchio Effect.

Conspiracy theories can take root in the minds of those who have been knocked off balance, causing them to see the world through a distorted lens that colors their view with a dystopian pessimism, undermining their competence and power. People who embrace conspiracy theories need assistance in improving their ability to sift through information so that they can become more able to separate the wheat from the chaff, the truth from the lies, the useful data from the red herrings.

The true challenge, then, is not correcting people. It is empowering them to become more capable and successful, which can help them to realize the fullest expression of those human qualities. With this renewed ability to recognize truth, such people can then become confident in their own ability to evaluate conspiracy theories presented to them.

Addressing the phenomenon of conspiracy theories involves chipping away at the collection of misapprehended values that makes it possible for such theories to take root and grow in our society. One by one, people can be persuaded to adopt a more workable set of attitudes for evaluating information they receive, which will guide them toward a more optimistic worldview.

This book outlines some of the lessons that conspiracy theories have to teach us, which can help us to move beyond them. But such theories are a relatively insignificant part of a much broader challenge for all individuals in society. A conspiracy theory is like a weed that grows in an untended field, wherein the problem is not the weeds necessarily but rather the loss of the field’s productive value. Our world and each person in it can benefit in many ways by tackling the mindset that provides fertile ground for unfounded conspiratorial speculation. We have an opportunity to benefit from the fact that people in our midst have embraced ideas of that nature. Just as a person who comes down with an infectious disease develops antibodies for that disease, so can we, as a civic body, in addressing the phenomenon of conspiracy theories, become stronger, ultimately becoming immune to them. As a result, we will strengthen our own abilities to move successfully toward our dreams.

¹ Address before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838; The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions, in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol 1 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 109.

Chapter 2

What Is a Conspiracy Theory?

Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1

All societies give rise to people who are willing to do unethical things as long as those actions benefit them. Agitating base instincts within a group of people can raise the profile of the agitator within that group, and with that increased attention comes increased profitability and eventually increased power within the group. One of the tools used by such a person to stir up turbulent emotions is the conspiracy theory.

A conspiracy theory is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as The theory that an event or phenomenon occurs as a result of a conspiracy between interested parties, specifically, a belief that some covert but influential agency (typically political in motivation and oppressive in intent) is responsible for an unexplained event. ²

This definition allows for a wide range of variations in meaning that extend from logical sanity surrounding a legitimate concern to mindless nuttiness wrapped around a tapestry of outlandish falsehoods. As a result, the term itself is of limited use unless action is taken at the outset to describe which meaning is intended for the term within that discussion.

The idea of a theory providing a hypothesis for the existence of a conspiracy is not in itself controversial. Conspiracies do