Living in the Bizarro Communication World

If you’re even a casual fan of the Superman comics, you’ve heard of Bizarro World—a strange, cube-shaped planet where everything runs backward. Its inhabitants are distorted versions of familiar characters who believe that what is wrong is right and imperfection is perfection. It’s a parody of Superman’s world, flipped on its head.

Lately, doesn’t it feel like we’re living there now?

We live in a 'Bizarro World' where communication, data, and nature get twisted to suit the messenger.

Every day, things we know that are strange or wrong are presented as normal by the very people in charge of explaining them. And we feel that mismatch deep down. Psychologists say this disorientation often shows up during times of stress, rapid change, or when our expectations collide with reality.

So how do we cope?

First, anchor yourself in solid facts. When the real world feels unreal, grounding yourself in what you know is real matters. The first sign you’re encountering false information is that internal pause—a split-second where your mind steps back and whispers, Is this really true? Something feels off. Instead of reacting, you check the details. Sometimes it’s a misunderstanding. Other times, nothing lines up.

That’s when you start asking gentle, clarifying questions—not to accuse, but to shine a little light into the fog:

“Where did you hear that?”“Do you have a source?”“Can we check this together?”

And when the lie matters—when it threatens your safety, your work, or your reputation—you protect yourself. You document. You verify. You refuse to agree to anything built on information you know isn’t real.

One powerful strategy: don’t rely on the source’s framing. Open a new tab. See what independent outlets, fact-checkers, or experts say. Research from the Stanford History Education Group shows that expert fact-checkers use the “lateral reading” technique to quickly evaluate credibility. Lateral reading is a fact-checking technique where you leave a webpage to investigate what other sources say about something, instead of only analyzing the page itself.

Experts Lewandowsky, Ecker, and Cook also note that misinformation spreads best when wrapped in emotional language or selective framing. Fear and anger, in particular, make us less analytical and more vulnerable.

So sharpen your critical thinking. Inoculation Theory tells us that learning how manipulation works—cherry-picking, false dilemmas, conspiratorial cues—helps protect us even when the message comes from a trusted voice.

In the end, navigating today’s Bizarro World isn’t just about spotting lies. It’s about protecting your clarity, your integrity, and your peace while standing firmly in what you know is true.

(Tim Herrera is the author of “Public Speaking: Simple Steps to Improve Your Skills” and “Mastering Media: Strategies for Effective Communication in the Digital Age.”  You’ll find both Amazon.)