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Escaping the Rabbit Hole

How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect

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Escaping the Rabbit Hole

By: Mick West
Narrated by: Ralph Lister
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About this listen

The Earth is flat; the World Trade Center collapse was a controlled demolition; planes are spraying poison to control the weather; and actors faked the Sandy Hook massacre....

All these claims are bunk: falsehoods, mistakes, and in some cases, outright lies. But many people passionately believe one or more of these conspiracy theories. They consume countless books and videos, join like-minded online communities, try to convert those around them, and even, on occasion, alienate their own friends and family. Why is this, and how can you help people, especially those closest to you, break free from the downward spiral of conspiracy thinking?

In Escaping the Rabbit Hole, author Mick West shares over a decade's worth of knowledge and experience investigating and debunking false conspiracy theories through his forum, MetaBunk.org, and sets forth a practical guide to helping friends and loved ones recognize these theories for what they really are.

Perhaps counterintuitively, the most successful approaches to helping individuals escape a rabbit hole aren't comprised of simply explaining why they are wrong; rather, West's tried-and-tested approach emphasizes clear communication based on mutual respect, honesty, openness, and patience.

West puts his debunking techniques and best practices to the test with four of the most popular false conspiracy theories today (chemtrails, 9/11 controlled demolition, false flags, and flat Earth) - providing road maps to help you to understand your friend and help them escape the rabbit hole. These are accompanied by real-life case studies of individuals who, with help, were able to break free from conspiracism.

With sections on:

  • The wide spectrum of conspiracy theories
  • Avoiding the "shill" label
  • Psychological factors and other complications
  • And concluding with a look at the future of debunking

Mick West has put forth a conclusive, well-researched, practical reference on why people fall down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole and how you can help them escape.

©2018 Mick West (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Elections & Political Process Media Studies Politics & Government Social Sciences Critical Theory

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Ok so I enjoyed the book and am giving it 5 stars as I believe the author means well. He debunks flat earth and chemtrails pretty convincingly. The disappointment comes from his mentioning of the KFK assassination believing it to be a conspiracy yet the recent (and to be fair old) evidence demonstrates without doubt there was a shooter on the grassy knoll. See a book called "hear no evil" to thoroughly debunk the official story regarding this. The authors website Metabunk is a very mixed bag of information and misinformation but to be fair to the author the content is from contributions from forum members so possibly outside of his control. There are site contributors still claiming the covid vaccine is safe despite the FDA being forced by a judge to release all the trial data showing more died in the vaccinated group than the placebo group, an 87.5% fetal death rate for pregnant women, and 158,000 adverse effects during the initial 12 week rollout. We must debunk and cast aside the authors advice to use fact checker sites too, we can show through the Hunter Biden laptop situation and covid coming from a lab situation how wrong these sources can be. As testified by Marc Zuckerberg under oath these are merely "opinion checkers" not fact checkers. The author does provide some good advice regarding not believening every video you see online. The level of deep-fake videos is becoming extremely realistic so his advice here is worthwhile. All in all a pretty basic and somewhat flawed book however a pretty easy listen and some good talking points. I would definitely like a sequel with more difficult theories to de-bunk along with a list of theories that the author believes are true as he mentions some conspiracy theories are actually factual but doesn't really put himself out there by listing them. Definitely worth a listen or read but before you go framing your debunking certificates so you can put them up on the wall you need to remember, just like Jeffery Epstein they don't hang themselves!

Read with a pinch of salt.

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Excellent pure dead brilliant and a that magic super geezer Mike West bot not bot talk bot

Brilliant

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It was a hard choice between 2 or 3 stars for this one.

Ultimately I gave it 3 stars because I did learn a few interesting things, although they were buried between extremely dry and overworked material.

Partly my fault, I came to the book thinking we were going to deep dive into all the main conspiracies, their history, where they originated, why some people believe them, the psychology of how some people get so deeply involved whilst others can easily tell them to be false. And then, lastly, how to debunk them. Now that, to me, would’ve made a fantastic book.

Instead it is solely the latter. I understand the premise of the book and I assume it would be great for those really deep down the rabbit hole to hear all the lengthy explanations on why what they believe isn’t true. Or for someone worried about a friend/family member down the rabbit hole. But for anyone else, this book is super boring.

Like I said, there a few interesting lessons; the conspiracy around Vietnam attacking the US’ destroyers was super interesting. But literally a whole HALF the book is spent on chemtrails alone. It’s far too long. And a missed opportunity to explore other conspiracies; I was disappointed the book didn’t touch on aliens in Area 51. Or aliens in general, the amount of people in the US who think they’ve been abducted by aliens and put back is insane. I think it’s a missed opportunity not to explore and debunk that one.

Overall, all the author does is explain why a conspiracy can’t be true. He goes on for far too long on some conspiracies, I.E. chemtrails. He doesn’t go into the history or psychology. It is purely a book to learn how to debunk. So if that’s what you’re after this is the perfect book for you. If you are after the same thing I was, skip it.

Lastly, and this is more of an annoyance with audible, it really bugs me when audible doesn’t put on the correct chapters. The author said ‘chapter 13’ and I was on something like chapter 84. It was ridiculous. And the chapters were just labelled ‘chapter 1’ etc. so I couldn’t choose to skip on if I wanted because none of the chapter titles has been put on so that I knew which chapter to skip to.

Audible put the correct chapters on your books!

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What a great kind interesting and diplomatic book. Genuinely helpful advice with a compassionate heart to help people. Learnt a lot and can’t wait to be called a government shill 😂

A must read

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I never write reviews - thats how pleasently surprised and impressed I am by this book.

If you are at all interested in the subject of false beliefs, and in effectively talking to people who hold false beliefs, it will give you a lot of food for thought.
Of particular note is Mick West's general approach to communication, which, despite a topic rife for name calling and beliittlement, advocates respect, understanding and compassion. highly recommended.

excellent

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I thought it was extremely interesting and very useful in understanding how people get sucked into believing all sorts of conspiracy theories.

My only critique is that I found it was a little repetitive, but otherwise I thought it covered the subject really well and I have come out with a better understanding of how to approach some subjects. Understanding how people can slowly be indoctrinated into believing something that perhaps a year or two before they themselves would have found absurd.

Brilliant

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I always enjoy a debunking, but somehow the chap narrating this book makes the subject seem like the world's longest, and most boring TED talk.

Not the best narration.

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As someone that has worked with a conspiracy theorist before this book was great at laying out exactly the kind of thinking and approach I tried (and failed) to implement when going about discussing these topics with them. In the end, as laid out in the book, there is no guarantee but still a good approach to take. Would recommend

Great resource

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struggled to follow, but that's the nature of the topic. good book and there are few covering these conspiracy theories and helping people to escape the rabbit hole

scary stuff

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After listening to Mick on his podcast I decided to download this particular book as I have a family member and former friend who both have went down rabbit holes of varying depths. some excellent insight from Mick and really impressed by his patience and understanding when it comes to conspiracy "stuff" that some people believe. intelligent people can be sucked into these rabbit holes also. looking forward to more of Micks podcasts and books in 2024.

Mick West

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