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mburnamfink 's review for:
Them: Adventures with Extremists
by Jon Ronson
I love love love the paranoid fringe. Every Friday is FriDDEEEES!!! on Facebook, where I post one of the delightfully insane artworks of paranoid antisemitic David Dees. So this book is a natural fit.
Ronson spent a long time hanging out with figures on the extremist fringe, Thom Robb of the KKK, Rachel Weaver-survivor of Ruby Ridge, Omar Bakri-Osama bin Laden's man in London, Alex Jones of Infowars and many others. The idea was simple, hang out with lunatics, let them explain how the world is controlled by a shadowy conspiracy, and then try and find the conspiracy. After all, the New World Order might be powerful, but they have to meet somewhere. Ronson plays the extremists up for laughs, and they're mostly pathetic and humorous in their sadness and confusion. But he doesn't shy away from the very real truths coming out of the conspiracy movement. Yes, the Bilderberg Group is real, and yeah, a hundred-odd business men and politicians meeting in private every year isn't very democratic, but these people rule the world because they're already rich and powerful, not because they're Secret Masters of the Illuminati. Bohemian Grove is legitimately weird and gross, but more because it's the ultimate boy's club with people like Kissinger and Nixon dressing up in drag and drinking till unconsciousness, rather than some kind of Satanic Cult. The Conspiracy is real, but rather banal.
Conversely, while groups like the Anti-Defamation League keep tabs on the extremists and try and hamper their activities, you don't need to scratch a conspiracy theorist to see that the International Bankers or Giant Space Lizards or whatever are actually The Jews. There's some sort of subtle difference between the Conspiracy Jews, and actual practicing members of Judaism and/or people descended from practicing Jews, but given the history of antisemitism, this isn't an area where people get the benefit of the doubt.
Can you have conspiracy theories and extremism without hate? I doubt it. Thom Robb's attempt to reinvent the KKK as some sort of self-actualization support group are some of the funniest chapters, because this Grand Dragon totally misses the point. Hate is fun; hate binds people together. I just wish "they" didn't hate people like me.
Ronson spent a long time hanging out with figures on the extremist fringe, Thom Robb of the KKK, Rachel Weaver-survivor of Ruby Ridge, Omar Bakri-Osama bin Laden's man in London, Alex Jones of Infowars and many others. The idea was simple, hang out with lunatics, let them explain how the world is controlled by a shadowy conspiracy, and then try and find the conspiracy. After all, the New World Order might be powerful, but they have to meet somewhere. Ronson plays the extremists up for laughs, and they're mostly pathetic and humorous in their sadness and confusion. But he doesn't shy away from the very real truths coming out of the conspiracy movement. Yes, the Bilderberg Group is real, and yeah, a hundred-odd business men and politicians meeting in private every year isn't very democratic, but these people rule the world because they're already rich and powerful, not because they're Secret Masters of the Illuminati. Bohemian Grove is legitimately weird and gross, but more because it's the ultimate boy's club with people like Kissinger and Nixon dressing up in drag and drinking till unconsciousness, rather than some kind of Satanic Cult. The Conspiracy is real, but rather banal.
Conversely, while groups like the Anti-Defamation League keep tabs on the extremists and try and hamper their activities, you don't need to scratch a conspiracy theorist to see that the International Bankers or Giant Space Lizards or whatever are actually The Jews. There's some sort of subtle difference between the Conspiracy Jews, and actual practicing members of Judaism and/or people descended from practicing Jews, but given the history of antisemitism, this isn't an area where people get the benefit of the doubt.
Can you have conspiracy theories and extremism without hate? I doubt it. Thom Robb's attempt to reinvent the KKK as some sort of self-actualization support group are some of the funniest chapters, because this Grand Dragon totally misses the point. Hate is fun; hate binds people together. I just wish "they" didn't hate people like me.