More than any other book or article I've read, this book explains just how America came to elect Donald Trump. He is the living embodiment of the idea that "if you're fanatical enough about enacting and enforcing your fiction, it becomes indistinguishable from nonfiction." (p. 30)
At first, I wasn't sure if I should read this book because I was afraid it might solidify my despair at how rampant belief in disinformation is in America right now, particularly within the Republican party. Towards the end of the book, the author explicitly addresses how Republicans have adopted fantasy as their party platform: "[R]ealist Republican leaders effectively encouraged and exploited the predispositions of their fantastical partisans... They were rational people who understood that a large fraction of Americans don't bother with rationality when they vote... Keeping those people angry and scared won them elections." (p. 367)
As it turns out, irrational thinking is part and parcel of the American experience. Conspiracy theories and populism didn't start with Donald Trump, and this book shows how all of American history was priming America for the rise of someone like Trump. In a way, it was surprisingly reassuring to know that American history is fraught with preposterousness; the current situation is not really new, which implies that we can weather it like America has weathered all the other absurdities in its past.
According to this book, we have a culture of relativism here in America. It's not about what is factually true, but what each person believes to be true. Some people decided that America's freedom-loving hyper-individualism extends to facts and truth, giving them permission to believe whatever they want in the name of "personal freedom", even when there is no rational support for that belief.
America is exceptional in that Americans have a unique penchant for believing in outrageous fantasies. Americans are particular in their "common determination to believe the unbelievable, live enchanted lives, be characters in their own adventure stories, make their fantasies real." (p. 84)
This book is an irreverent romp through history. The author points out every crazy grift and supernatural or pseudo-scientific claim Americans and their forefathers have bought into, including but not limited to: witchcraft, homeopathy, phrenology, new religions, creationism, get-rich-quick schemes, unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, miracle cures and their snake-oil salesmen. In modern times, we are still suckers for all kinds of fantasy and dubious beliefs, from Disneyland to the fear GMO foods. Readers may feel sheepish when they realize that they, too, are consumers of the fantasy-industrial complex, which invites us to live in our dreams and forget reality for a while. The author himself occasionally admits to buying into some American fantasy or another, but for the most part, his tone is something like playful mocking.
Apparently, most Americans are delusional in some way or another, so anyone reading this book will likely be offended at some point, when the thing they believe in is ridiculed in turn. In particular, the author spends a great deal of time taking down Protestant religions, so if you're a Christian, be forewarned: the author describes Christianity as a set of "magical rules" within a "fantasy scheme" (p. 17) and devotes an entire chapter to Mormonism, calling the Book of Mormon "a monumental and pioneering work of fan fiction." (p. 70) Personally, I never understood how Christian fundamentalism could exist in a rational world until the author quoted an early 20th century publication that explained its origin this way: "Fundamentalism is a protest against that rationalistic interpretation of Christianity which seeks to discredit supernaturalism... Christianity is rooted and grounded in supernaturalism, and when robbed of supernaturalism it ceases to be a religion and becomes an exalted system of ethics." (p. 125)
If the emphasis on religion seems unfair, I think the overlap between Trump supporters and white church-goers, and between QAnon conspiracists and white evangelicals, goes to show that it's worth exploring how religion has played a role in shaping our American consciousness of credulity.
Reading this book in 2021-2022, I was struck by the relevance of the author's use of a quote by Mark Twain: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." (p. 82) We are at this moment seeing a resurgence of efforts to ban books and the teaching of racism in schools, and the words of the Scopes Monkey Trial defense lawyer are still fitting: "We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States." (p. 129)
I also appreciated the author's use of a quote by Thomas Jefferson: What's it to me if other people are wacky, if "it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg"? (p. 321) Again, reading this book after the 1/6/21 insurrection and during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is blatantly obvious to me how someone else's baseless beliefs can affect me and others directly. Trump supporters believing in The Big Lie (that Biden did not legitimately win the presidency) resulted in actual lives lost at the Capitol building and has put the entire American system of democracy in jeopardy. Incidentally, the emergence of an anti-government armed insurgency should not surprise us, either; in chapter 43, in a discussion of the proliferation of armed military simulation (MilSim) organizations, the author surmised, "Surely some of the American MilSim gamers have understood their games to be training for a fantasy that they don't consider a fantasy - the secession and patriot insurgency and civil war that may arise after the tyrants in Washington, D.C., finally give the order to confiscate their guns." (p. 400)
It is clear now, too, how the anti-vaccination population "picks my pocket and breaks my legs". Even before the pandemic it was known that "almost a third of Americans believe that 'vaccinations can cause autism' and that schools shouldn't require children to get them" (p. 379- 380), so anti-vaxxers foiling America's vaccination-centered pandemic response was completely predictable. Furthermore, the author points out that "when their illnesses deposit them in the actual-doctor-and-hospital healthcare system late in the treatment game, paid for by insurance and the government, that does pick our pockets" (p. 322), and it further breaks our legs when the entire healthcare system is at risk of collapsing because of a surge COVID-19 patients who are largely unvaccinated.
For most of the book, I walked away with a feeling of, "History has shown that rational thinking eventually wins the day, and so it will win today, too." The problem, however, is that modern internet technology is allowing those who used to fade away at the fringes of society to now gather together and amplify each other's wackiness, making their ideas more mainstream. (p. 264) This book does an excellent job of identifying the problem, but then basically leaves the reader hanging in terms of what we can do about it. There's a sense that we just have to be optimistic that "our blithe conviction that America's forms of freedom and democracy and justice and affluence must prevail in the end." (p. 437) The author does provide one clear actionable piece of advice: "Fight the good fight in your private life. You needn't get into an argument with the stranger... but do not give acquaintances and friends and family members free passes." (p. 440)
As sweeping as this book's history is, I actually wish that more specific information was included. More than once, the author described events but, for unknown reasons, chose not to divulge a person's name. In one historical account, several paragraphs told how two ministers organized major religious revival events in Kentucky (p. 60-61), but what were their names? In current times, an "eminent child psychologist at Boston University" (p. 408) was mentioned, but who is it?! I guess the names of these people are not exactly important to the point being made, however, for me, excluding the names gave those passages a kind of nebulous feeling, like when someone tells a story about "a guy they heard about".
Along the same lines, I wish the book delved more deeply into some of the topics. For example, I was floored when the book mentioned only in passing the "Oneida Community, which...lasted for decades before morphing into a major cutlery and tableware company." (p. 103) I did a bit of Googling and read up on some of their outrageous beliefs, and I wish the book had included more details to illustrate the fantasy nature of this particular community. Considering how much information is already packed into the book, though, I understand that the author couldn't elaborate on every subject, and it's actually a sad indictment of just how many nonsensical ideas Americans have bought into that the book had to sacrifice depth for breadth, even with 400+ pages.
Entertainingly, this book is very much written for a contemporary audience. There are a lot of specific references to American pop culture, for example, when the author makes passing mention of the Borg (p. 433) from Star Trek. Also, there are some fun tangential tidbits in the footnotes.
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