Looking for truth

Truth under fire isn’t anything new. But three recent books—and one old one—can help us meet new challenges in fact-finding and truth-telling.

First, it’s easy to see the bombs, tanks, and bullets of Russian aggression in Ukraine. But don’t miss the quieter side of the conflict—Russian cyber warfare and disinformation. Reporter Amy Zegart, a Hoover Institute Senior Fellow and Stanford professor, illuminates this kind of warfare in her new book, Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence.

Based on hundreds of interviews and decades of research, Zegart’s book details new vulnerabilities created by technological advancements around the world, including artificial intelligence and bioengineering. She shows how these invite “a wide array of bad actors” including Russia and China to inflict “disruption, destruction, and deception … with the click of a mouse.” Tech advances aren’t the only challenge, but they magnify constant weaknesses like the “seven deadly biases” (e.g., confirmation bias that looks for evidence supporting a prior belief).

For truth to prevail, Zegart suggests better congressional oversight, less politicization of intelligence agencies, and more cooperation between Silicon Valley and Washington. She also praises the “defend forward” tactics now used by U.S. intelligence agencies.

American families and educators can “defend forward” with Cindy L. Otis’ True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News. It equips teens (the book’s target audience) and adults to see through fake news and propaganda. Eye-popping anecdotes, quizzes, and plenty of photos make this a book a no-brainer for the smartphone generation. Be warned, Otis does support the LGBTQ+ cause, and she recommends media outlets like NPR as balanced and neutral. Still, used with adult guidance, the book can help teens see through threats by online trolls, cults, and thousands of cloaked social media accounts run by Russian agents.

Third, defending truth requires defending free speech. For a striking portrayal of the Western “memory of unfreedom” during World War II, see Rosemary Sullivan’s The Betrayal of Anne Frank. Sullivan brings readers along for a six-year-long cold case investigation into who betrayed the Frank family in 1944. As she whittles down the list of possible informants, Sullivan paints a picture of Dutch society wracked by fear, cruelty, and growing isolation. She quotes a resistance leaflet that sought to expose the German plan of attack:

“All prior German measures had aimed at isolating the Jews from the rest of the Dutch, to make contact impossible and to kill our sentiments concerning living side by side and in solidarity. ... The Jews have to be killed in secrecy, and we, the witnesses, must remain deaf, blind, and silent.”

This book flashes a warning about the loss of free speech in another way as well. The New York Times reported on Jan. 18 that some experts criticize the book in at least two ways: for relying too much on circumstantial evidence and for being insensitive to racial issues.

Per the second point, The Times  article quotes author Dara Horn, who says that by accusing a Jewish man, the book plays into “Holocaust inversion” or blaming the Jews for the Holocaust. She says, “There’s a reason why that’s appealing to a non-Jewish audience. It makes it so you don’t have to think about your own responsibility.” But if a Jewish man were responsible, shouldn’t the author say so? Sadly, in light of such criticism, the book’s Dutch publisher has indefinitely suspended further printings of the book.

Russian dissident and Christian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn knew the sorrow of being isolated for speaking truth. His 1962 novel, A Day in the Life of Ivan Deni­sovich, draws on Solzhenitsyn’s own experience serving time in a Russian labor camp for criticizing Stalin. It’s not a fun read, but it does offer one glimmer of real hope. Although main character Denisovich dismisses God (and be warned the book includes profanity), fellow prisoner Alyosha reads Scripture aloud, giving voice to the enduring nature of God’s truth. Even in our weakness, He is strong.