The other day, I wrote a piece titled The Plague of Tribal Faux Intellectuals, and I’m glad so many of you read and enjoyed it. When I came across this news about Alex Jones, I thought it’d make for the perfect follow-up. When it comes to the manipulation happening on a daily basis, I think it’s important to recognize how frequent it’s actually happening, and Jones is a perfect example. And although many people appreciated the piece, as expected, there were many who got defensive as they tried to protect their favorite intellectuals.
It’s not abnormal to get defensive when someone criticizes a person, place, or institution you like. I do it too. But we’re discussing this because that’s the norm, and we’ll continue to get manipulated if we blindly trust those we like without ever questioning their conscious or unconscious motives.
It was just reported by Rolling Stone that Alex Jones made over $165 million in a three-year period selling supplements and pepper gear. Jones is an extreme example, and although he appeals to a very niche set of people, that group is shockingly large. Not only are they throwing their money at him, but they’ve also been motivated to do disgusting behaviors like harassing the parents of Sandy Hook victims.
I’m not a free speech absolutist, but I’m pretty close. The question I often ask myself as well as many guests on my podcast who advocate for free speech is, “How can we tell when speech will motivate people to take action?” When we look at the root fear of free speech, it’s not the actual speech most people are worried about. The fear is that what people say will motivate people to take harmful action.
Alex Jones pushes conspiracy theories and is the charismatic leader that we all worry about because these types of people drive others towards taking action. What we need to realize is that although faux intellectuals and other people of influence aren’t as bad as Alex Jones, what they say and do leads people to take action. Or, in the case of all of the anti-vax nonsense, it’s resulted in people not taking action, and it’s costing a lot of lives.
So, let’s use Jones and his millions as a case study to see what we can learn in order to avoid being manipulated by people playing into our tribalism and confirmation bias.
What’s in it for Them?
I’ll let you know right now that this is the number one question you should be asking yourself on a daily basis. With just about most encounters, you should ask, “What’s in it for them?” To maintain your sanity and your relationships, you shouldn’t do this all the time, but this is especially important when you’re listening to people of influence.
Just about every leaving species is driven by incentives, and humans are no different. None of us want to be seen as “selfish”, so this often flies under the radar. We’ve had to learn how to deceive ourselves into believing that we’re more altruistic than we are. And in order to evolve through cooperation, we’ve had to develop the default believe that others are acting in our best interest.
The reality is that this is rarely the case. Even effective altruists have acknowledged that a certain level of self-interest needs to be present in order to do the most good possible.
If we’re not skeptical of a person like Alex Jones, we completely miss the signs of someone who has a self-interested agenda. As I mentioned in the previous piece, it’s possible that Jones has self-deceived his own brain into oblivion and actually believes his ridiculousness, but that’s the best-case scenario.
For most of us, we’re not regular followers of Alex Jones, so we only hear about the really big stories. We hear about when he says the government is poisoning the water to turn frogs gay. We hear when he calls Sandy Hook a false flag. And we also hear when he says the Obamas smell like sulfur because they’re actually demons.
But what’s happening between these big stories?
Alex’s brand isn’t just conspiracies. He’s promoting mistrust. For the regular followers of Alex Jones, he’s feeding them a steady diet of reasons you shouldn’t trust the powerful. Whether it’s the government, Big Pharma, or the food industry, you can’t trust them.
No matter what a person’s brand is, we have to pause and ask, “What’s in it for them?” So, in the case of Alex Jones, with everything that comes out of his mouth, his followers aren’t stopping to ask this very important question. If you don’t ask this question, the default idea is, “Well, he just cares about my best interest and wants to get the truth out there.”
While I do my best not to be a cynic, it’s beyond rare that you’ll find someone like this.
Well, if Alex Jones isn’t actually just trying to expose the truth and look out for his followers, what reason could he possibly have? Well, as the Rolling Stones piece highlights, Jones has about 165 million reasons to continue with his brand.
Jones’ bread and butter is the ridiculous supplements he sells. Since he’s sold his audience on the idea that they can’t trust anyone, he’s become one of the only people they can trust.
Why get vaccinated when you can get some Ultimate Bone Broth Plus?! Who needs traditional medicine when you can down some Alpha Power or Viatmin Mineral Fusion?
It’s a really easy game to play here in the United States. The lack of regulation in the supplement industry is mind-blowing, so you just have to do a simple, three-step process.
Make people not trust the government and traditional medicine
Get them to trust you instead
Bottle up useless, pseudoscientific ingredients and sell them to your audience
The Tricky World of Motivated Reasoning
If (and it’s a big if) I’m being charitable towards Jones, he’s brainwashed himself. As cynical as I may come off when discussing this topic, I always try to give the person a possible out. Something I’ve learned through numerous books on deception detection is that we suck at knowing another person’s motives, so I never like to say that I’m certain that a person is purposely manipulating people.
But, in the case of Alex Jones, it’s important to keep in mind that under oath, he’s said that he’s just playing a character.
For many like Alex Jones or any of the other faux intellectuals and so-called “truth tellers” we need to keep an eye on, we need to understand something called motivated reasoning.
“In broad terms, motivated reasoning theory suggests that reasoning processes (information selection and evaluation, memory encoding, attitude formation, judgment, and decision-making) are influenced by motivations or goals. Motivations are desired end-states that individuals want to achieve.”
Motivated reasoning takes many forms, and often times, it’s when discussing a person’s inability to see their biases on polarizing political issues. Something that we don’t discuss enough is the people at the top of the power structure who are victims of motivated reasoning. There are the messengers and those receiving the message, and people like Alex Jones are the messengers.
Alex’s entire livelihood revolves around the brand he’s built. He’s making millions of dollars that not only makes him rich, but it also pays his staff and supports his children. Remember, motivated reasoning can be about your personal goals. So, when someone like Jones has the goal of maintaining his personal lifestyle, the brain can do some amazing self-deception.
A fun example of this is the story about how YouTube wrongfully took down a video I made debunking QAnon COVID conspiracy theories. In that video, I pointed out the motivated reasoning of QAnon influencers pushing conspiracies. The fact is that many QAnon influencers were nobodies before QAnon popped off, and then it turned into their primary source of income.
It’s not just about money either, money is often just a means to an end. The only reason money matters to most people is because of status. Alex Jones, QAnon influencers, and many of the people of influence we need to be skeptical of have reached a status level that they want to hold onto. Their motivated reasoning may be due to the fact that they’ve reached high-status in a community, and that’s why they continue to push their bullshit.
And if you want to learn more about social status, I highly recommend the new book The Status Game by Will Storr. You can also listen to my episode with him on the podcast.
Never Forget the Question
“What’s in it for them?” Never forget to ask that question. It should be on your mind regularly when you’re watching the news, listening to your favorite podcast, reading tweets or articles.
Batya Ungar-Sargon often says something that I love, which is, “Every time a news story makes you outraged, someone is making a million dollars.”
And if this still hasn’t clicked for you, I think dealing with salespeople is a great example and way to practice this very important skill. I’ve spent years in sales and marketing, and I’ve seen first-hand how people are incentivized.
Whether you’re buying a car, a new TV or some clothes, you’re going to encounter someone making a commission or someone who has a job that depends on customers making a purchase. When I worked in the car service industry, my paycheck was 100% commission. When you don’t get paid unless you make sales, of course you’re going to be as nice and friendly as possible.
“You’ll look great in this car.”
“Your kids would have plenty of room in a vehicle like this.”
“This new couch would be great for the next party you host.”
“Imagine how great your family nights will be watching movies on this new TV.”
I hate to tell you this, but this stranger really doesn’t care about the leg room for your kids or your next family night. They don’t go home at night, rest their head on their pillow and think, “Gosh. I sure hope Bob is enjoying that new TV.”
Maybe it’s because I’m from Las Vegas, but I give a pass to people in service industries because they’re often massively underpaid. So, let them be friendly, and hook them up with a decent tip.
But anyways, most of the people of influence we encounter have the underlying motivation of money, status, or both. This doesn’t instantly make them wrong about what they’re saying, but just remember that their motivations aren’t always pure. As we discussed in the last piece, we need to stop lying to ourselves that these are independent thinkers looking out for our best interests. Most of the time, they’re just telling us what we want to hear.
Most of these people aren’t making millions from selling sham supplements like Alex Jones. In many cases, they have books they’re selling or currently writing. Maybe they have a podcast that’s dependent on listenership so they can get advertising dollars. Or, it’s possible that they’re just looking for the attention and status that comes with social media followers engagement.
And don’t get it twisted. I’m human too. I hope you’re asking why I create content.
Personally, I just believe that we need to find those who are doing their best to keep decent morals, values, and principles in tact while they speak to an audience. We all have bills to pay and many of us have kids to feed. But that should never take priority over the greater good by fueling polarization or possibly motivating people to take actions that can hurt others, or possibly, themselves.
I’m currently writing a book about how we’re manipulated by the news, social media, technology, advertisers, and each other. It dives into the psychological history of manipulation, our biases, tribalism, and more.
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