Interview With Author Robert Pitts
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a cybersecurity expert by trade and a social critic by necessity. I spent years hunting for bugs in digital systems, looking for the vulnerabilities that bad actors exploit. Eventually, I realized that the most dangerous glitches aren’t in our computer networks, but in our culture. I write from the mountains of West Virginia, intentionally far removed from the echo chambers of Washington D.C. and Silicon Valley. My goal is to apply the logic of a forensic audit to modern society—stripping away the emotional noise to find the root causes of our isolation and confusion.
To date, I have written two books. The Common Sense Manifesto is available now, and my second book, The Atomized American, is currently in production and coming soon.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is titled The Common Sense Manifesto.
It was inspired by the overwhelming sensation that we are all being gaslighted on a massive scale. I looked at the world around me—the economy, the media, the culture—and realized that basic logic was being systematically replaced by emotional reasoning. We are constantly told by “experts” that things are fine, even when our own eyes tell us they are broken.
As a systems guy, I saw this as a fatal error in the operating system of our society. I wrote this book because I was tired of being told that 2+2=5. I wanted to provide a manual for people who feel like they are the last sane person in the room—a tool to help them reclaim their grip on objective reality.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I practice what I call “Digital Air-Gapping.” In cybersecurity, an air-gapped computer is one that is physically isolated from the internet to prevent intrusion. I do the same thing with my brain when I write.
I take an old laptop—one that I’ve stripped the Wi-Fi card out of—and I go out to the cab of my truck or sit by the river here in West Virginia. No phone, no signal, no research tabs open. In my line of work, you learn that if a system is connected, it is vulnerable to influence. I realized I couldn’t write an honest book about “Common Sense” if I had the chaotic noise of the internet screaming in my ear. I have to be completely offline to hear the signal.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My influences are the people who understood the mechanics of freedom and warned us what happens when we lose it.
First and foremost, The Constitution of the United States. It isn’t just a legal document to me; it is the ultimate “source code” for a free society. It laid out the rules for a decentralized system that actually works—provided we follow the instructions.
Glenn Beck has been a significant influence, particularly his deep dives into American history. He has a unique ability to connect the dots between past tyrannies and present dangers, teaching his audience to look for the patterns in the noise rather than just consuming the headlines.
I also look to Thomas Paine. His original pamphlet Common Sense was the spark that woke a nation up. I view my work as attempting to carry that same torch—using plain language to explain why the current system is intolerable.
And finally, George Orwell. As a privacy advocate, I don’t read 1984 as fiction; I read it as a warning label that we ignored. These authors didn’t just write words; they built frameworks for understanding liberty.
What are you working on now?
I am currently putting the finishing touches on my next book, titled The Atomized American.
It began as a personal investigation into a simple, nagging question: “What happened to community?”
Why do we have Ring cameras instead of neighbors? Why does it feel like we are more digitally connected than ever, yet we have never been lonelier? I wasn’t satisfied with the vague answers people usually give, like “people just changed.” People don’t change unless the environment changes.
So, I approached the problem like a cyber incident response. I performed a forensic audit on the American neighborhood. I tracked down the specific zoning laws, economic policies, and tech algorithms that systematically dismantled our social fabric. The Atomized American is the report of that investigation. It proves that our isolation isn’t an accident—it’s a feature of the system—and it provides a tactical manual on how we can rebuild the network from the ground up.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Right now, my most effective weapon is X (formerly Twitter).
But I don’t just post links. In the modern attention economy, simply saying “buy my book” is noise. I use what I call the “Value First” strategy. I take the core concepts of my books—the hard truths about the economy, the loss of privacy, the failure of institutions—and I break them down into long-form threads that give the reader immediate value.
If I can prove to you in 280 characters that I understand the problem better than the mainstream media does, I’ve earned your trust. Once I have your trust, you’ll want the full manual.
Beyond that, I rely heavily on Word of Mouth in niche communities. My books aren’t for everyone—they are for people who are awake to reality. When one person in a gaming clan or a local car club reads it and says, “This guy gets it,” that recommendation is worth more than a thousand dollars in Facebook ads. I don’t pay for marketing; I pay with truth.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I am a new author myself, so I am learning in the trenches right alongside you. But here is the one thing I do differently than the standard advice: I stopped trying to be “Creative” and started trying to be “Effective.”
Most new authors get paralyzed trying to write beautiful sentences or impress the critics. Forget beauty. Focus on utility. Your reader is fighting a battle—whether it’s against confusion, a corrupt system, or just the chaos of modern life. Your job isn’t to paint them a pretty picture; your job is to hand them a weapon.
If a sentence doesn’t arm your reader with a new idea, a new tactic, or a clearer view of reality, cut it. When you stop writing to be “liked” and start writing to be “useful,” the writer’s block disappears. Don’t write a book; write a manual, at least in my style of books.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I ever found wasn’t given to me personally; it was a question posed by Orson Scott Card that changed how I view my duty to speak up. He wrote:
“How much responsibility do you bear for the ill uses others might make of your ideas? Almost as much as the responsibility you bear if you fail to speak your ideas, when they might have made a difference in the world.”
That quote is the engine that drives everything I do.
In my line of work, and in the current political climate, it is safer to stay silent. It is safer to keep your head down and let the world burn so you don’t get canceled or targeted. But that quote reminds me that Silence is an Action.
If you see a system that is broken, or a danger that is approaching, and you say nothing because you are afraid of how your words might be twisted, you are complicit in the disaster that follows. I write because I would rather be criticized for what I said than feel the guilt of staying silent when I could have made a difference.
What are you reading now?
I am currently re-reading The Federalist Papers.
To most people, that sounds like a dry history assignment. But to me, looking at it through the lens of a system architect, it is fascinating. It is essentially the original “White Paper” or documentation for the United States government.
When you are trying to debug a crashed server, the first thing you do is read the manual to see how it was supposed to work. That is what I am doing with our country right now. I am comparing the “intended design” that Hamilton and Madison wrote down against the “glitchy reality” we are living in today. It is shocking to see how many of our modern problems—from factions to foreign influence—they predicted with absolute clarity over 200 years ago. We didn’t lose the manual; we just stopped reading it.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I don’t really have a “wish list” of stories; I have a Target List of broken systems.
I view my writing career as a long-term auditing project. The Common Sense Manifesto was the initial wake-up call. The Atomized American (my upcoming book) is the audit of our community structure.
Next on the list? I am looking closely at the Education System—how it was designed to produce obedient factory workers rather than critical thinkers. I’m also gathering data on our Food Supply Chain, investigating how we traded resilience for convenience and left ourselves incredibly vulnerable.
I plan to go down this list, one by one, dismantling the myths we’ve been sold and offering practical, tactical solutions to fix them. I’m not just writing books; I’m trying to build a complete library of “patches” for a crashing operating system.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
If I am stranded, I am not looking to be entertained; I am looking to survive and stay sane. I would bring a tactical loadout, not a reading list.
The SAS Survival Guide by John ‘Lofty’ Wiseman. Because “Common Sense” in that situation isn’t abstract; it’s knowing which berries will kill you, how to set a snare, and how to distill water. It is the ultimate technical manual for staying alive.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. When you are truly isolated, your biggest enemy isn’t hunger; it is your own mind. This book is the operating system for Stoicism. It teaches you how to master your internal world when the external world is chaotic (or empty).
The Federalist Papers. If I eventually get off that island—or if I have to start a new tribe right there—I want the original “source code” for how a free, functional society is supposed to be built.
1984 by George Orwell. To remind me that even though I’m stranded, at least I’m not being watched by a Telescreen. It would remind me why I shouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to get back to “civilization.”
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