Right Story, Wrong Story: How to Have Fearless Conversations in Hell

by Tyson Yunkaporta

I know how this disinformation works, because that technology is fully installed in me now and has become a central part of my operating system. I personally generate at least two different conspiracy theories a week and I’m not even trying—it’s just how my mind processes information now. This means I can’t be trusted to make sense of it all. For example, when I see the same billionaires backing anti-vax propaganda who are also supporting the Big Pharma lobby to oppose price caps on vital medications, I can’t help speculating that pharmaceutical companies would make a lot more money selling vaccines at a steep mark-up to individual consumers instead of mass-producing them for fixed-price government contracts, and suddenly I’ve generated a conspiracy narrative about Big Pharma being behind the anti-vax movement. This is how wrong story is born, with the best intentions and worst methodology. I become concerned about my ideological bias, so I take that ‘political compass’ test online to see what my political brand is. No surprises: I end up as far as the test can measure to the bottom left corner. That would make me some kind of anarcho-communist. I