would have you believe

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,
“And it’s far worse than the add-one or even an invisible gorilla would have you believe.”
–The ‘add-one’ and ‘gorilla’ irrelevant, validity of “would have you believe” torments me…
Thank you.

2

“would have you believe” = would want you to believe / would try to cause/persuade you to believe

(from the basic pattern “have someone do something” = cause someone to do something)

3

As I got it from different sources, ‘have someone do something’ pattern is about giving instructions or orders (some refer to it as ‘more common in American English’). So the original sentence could be interpreted as “… you have to believe.”, right?

4
  1. And it’s far worse than the add-one or even an invisible gorilla would have you believe.
  2. And it’s far worse than the add-one or even an invisible gorilla you have to believe.

If you are asking whether #2 has the same meaning as #1, then no. #1 means that the “add-one” and invisible gorilla would make/cause you to believe. This “have…” is more about persuasion/impression/causation than someone literally giving instructions or orders (though it is all part of the same family of senses as instructions like “I’ll have him fix that straight away”).

#2 is not a very good sentence and its meaning is somewhat ambiguous.

“would have you believe” (and close variants) is almost a set pattern.