Why Do Smart People Believe Lies?

Convincing people to stop smoking might take time, but it’s doable. Convincing people that a man can get pregnant would, in contrast, seem to be impossible. 

But if you could do it — overcome common sense and decency— then you could convince people of… anything. And, if you can convince people to do, say, or believe things they know are wrong, well, that’s real power. 

And as we’ve seen, especially over the last century, real power in the hands of evil people is a huge problem. Names like Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao come to mind, not just because of the horrible things they did, but because at one point, they were trusted by the very people they later betrayed. 

But before we’re too quick to judge the Russians or the Germans or the Chinese, consider that it was only a few years ago that Americans were reporting their neighbors to the police for not wearing a mask outside. 

You may know some of these people; you may have been one yourself. 

How does this happen?

How do we explain smart people convincing themselves that evil is righteous?

As a former CIA analyst, I’ve given this question a lot of thought. In my book, Manufacturing Delusion, I examine how tyrants manipulate entire populations by using specific mind control techniques. I’ll describe a few of them here so you can recognize them and, hopefully, protect yourself.

First, conditioning: any training or programming that pushes you to react in a predetermined way. It works on dogs and it works on humans, too. 

For example, during COVID, social distancing was a conditioning tool. We were told that being in close proximity to another human being represented a mortal threat. Thus, we had to get no closer than six feet to another person. 

Millions of people went along.

And what did we find out later? There was no scientific basis for it; it was just made up to keep us in line — literally. 

Second, menticide: killing the mind. 

The powers that be convince you that what you know is true is false. 

This is the theme of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. 

They can kill your mind by methods as extreme as torture, or as subtle as the threat of losing your job for not using someone’s preferred pronouns. 

If they can make you look at a 230-pound middle-aged man whose name was Larry five years ago, but now wears a dress and insists his name is Lucinda, and you say, “That’s a woman,” you’re a victim of menticide. 

Third, weaponized law.

Only a few Black Lives Matter rioters faced serious consequences for their criminal actions. Yet, many who were at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, languished in jails for over a year — sometimes in solitary confinement — for alleged nonviolent crimes. 

Or consider the multi-million dollar Russia collusion investigation of President Donald Trump, and the four separate criminal indictments brought against him leading up to the 2024 election. 

As the former dictator of Peru, Óscar Benavides said almost a century ago: “For my friends everything, for my enemies, the law.” 

The message is clear: obey or face ruin. 

It didn’t work with Donald Trump, but it usually does. 

Fourth, isolation.

The Left has waged a century-long war against those things that naturally bind us together: patriotism, religion and family. 

All of this leaves us atomized and disconnected. 

The lonelier and more isolated we feel, the more susceptible we are to totalitarian movements and ideologies that promise meaning and community: communism, socialism, fascism, environmentalism, feminism, wokeism, transgenderism. The list goes on. 

Fifth, identity construction.

Think of a mob. They chant the same slogans and believe the same talking points. 

These marchers often don’t know one another and may have little in common. 

Yet each individual’s identity is tied up, at least in the moment, with that of the crowd. They are no longer isolated, no longer alone. They belong. 

Mobs act like religious fanatics who are absolute in their certainty while conducting themselves like wild beasts. 

Within a mob people are capable of violence and crimes they would never contemplate in their normal, individual lives. 

Your average lawyer or software developer wouldn’t throw a brick or bottle of urine at a police officer, but as members of a BLM or anti-ICE riot, they would.

All manufactured delusions — whether achieved by conditioning, menticide, weaponized law, isolation or identity construction — have one thing in common: They are rooted in lies that are easily exposed.

But the deluded cannot be swayed by contrary evidence. The delusion becomes dogma.

When infected with delusions, once-free people can become bitter, violent, and destructive —and they won’t even know how it happened. 

Once mass delusion takes hold, it is extremely difficult to control and even harder to end.

That’s why we need to stop it before it gets started. 

Now that you know what to look for, don’t fall for it. 

Stand firm for what you know is true. And never ever say something you know is a lie. 

I’m Buck Sexton, author of Manufacturing Delusion, for Prager University.