Weaponized Lies

How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era

By: Daniel J. Levitin

Narrated by: Dan Piraro

Previously Published as A Field Guide to Lies

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

Investigating numerical misinformation, Daniel Levitin shows how mishandled statistics and graphs can give a grossly distorted perspective and lead us to terrible decisions. Wordy arguments on the other hand can easily be persuasive as they drift away from the facts in an appealing yet misguided way. The steps we can take to better evaluate news, advertisements, and reports are clearly detailed. Ultimately, Levitin turns to what underlies our ability to determine if something is true or false: the scientific method. He grapples with the limits of what we can and cannot know. Case studies are offered to demonstrate the applications of logical thinking to quite varied settings, spanning courtroom testimony, medical decision making, magic, modern physics, and conspiracy theories.

This urgently needed book enables us to avoid the extremes of passive gullibility and cynical rejection. As Levitin attests: Truth matters. A post-truth era is an era of willful irrationality, reversing all the great advances humankind has made. Euphemisms like “fringe theories,” “extreme views,” “alt truth,” and even “fake news” can literally be dangerous. Let's call lies what they are and catch those making them in the act.

*Includes a PDF of supplemental graphics on visualizing conditional probabilities

Well... maybe

Very interesting audio book.You won't fall asleep with this book. I even listened to it while driving. However, it should be noted that there are parts which must be read with the printed page to get the full impact, e.g. when the author uses diagrams and visual illustrations.

Upon reading this, you will see why 9 of every 10 readers found this book enlightening... well... maybe.

Required reading

If you read a newspaper or news feed, surf the Web, use Facebook, watch TV or YouTube, you need to know how to tell truth from lies. This will help.

Pretty basic stuff

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

The first 9 chapters are about statistics which should be very familiar to any scientist, physician or interested person.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

nope

Any additional comments?

This would serve best as a text for a high school class on evaluation of "truth" But I learned zero.

Not What Expected

It was interesting to here hiw statistics could be skewed in detail. We always here that but this book explains just how to sniff out the stats being skewed. One or 2 Chapters would have been enough of that for me. I was expecting more of how stories are biased and maybe applying some critical thinking to watching and listening to reporting. This was touched on a few times but much too briefly for what I was looking for.

Just Don’t

This is probably the second worst book I have ever downloaded. Nothing at all except for rhetoric. Don’t waste the money. Watch Fox News or CNN and let them tell you how “the other side” is lying to you. Other than any book ever written by Dick Morris, this book is the worst.