Fantasyland ch. 39

                                                            Ciara Rush- Section 13                                                        

                                                      

Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire is a novel by Kurt Andersen that explores how humans have believed in make-believe, or "fantasyland" fantasies since the beginning of time and explains different examples of this in history, and present day. 

    In chapter 39 of Fantasyland, Andersen explains someone named Alex Jones, who is a media radio-host who has been known to be at the center of many conspiracy theories. He is described in the chapter as a conservative because he rants about gun regulation, government subsidized healthcare, and taxes. He is out of the more "out there" individuals regarding these conspiracies. With a quote about him stating "He is the very epitome of cutting-edge political discourse, where outright fiction is presented and consumed as non-fiction." The chapter touches on how Jones provides these ideas on his radio-show and tries to back them up. His idea of backing up these theories involve not strictly fact and opinion, but at times zero fact and a lot of opinion that is completely insensitive and borderline insane. An example of this is when he states "the Democratic Party has got black people in their web murdering your people and they love it." And another example being how Jones claimed that the Sandy Hook school shooting, was a hoax with crisis actors. These are terrible things to say when you have an audience and platform consuming your content and forming opinions based on yours. So, obviously Alex Jones doesn't care how his platform positively or negatively affects his viewers or targets, and that is a problem. Andersen speaks on how Alex Jones basically will say anything in order to make himself seem right. Even though this greatly compromises his credibility, he still has many followers that believe every word he says. 

    We can compare this to the nature of humans to follow something which questions the way things are. Our nature to question the universe and question the unknown has evolved greatly with conspiracy theories, and I believe that is highlighted in this chapter. With Jones claiming that he is not playing a character, and then using the same defense that he is -in fact- playing a character when in court shows how he will stop at no lengths of delusion to make himself seem right. Andersen explores how the line between reasonable and deranged has become fuzzier throughout the years. "Somewhere between Jones and people who know that extraterrestrials secretly run the world is a fuzzy frontier- on one side, maybe a hundred million Americans with strongly conspiracist predispositions and ideas, and on the other, several million committed to beliefs that seem symptomatic of mental illness, way beyond the pale." Anderson states. This is likely influenced by the romantification of conspiracies in the 21st century. We know, conspiracy theorists and wonderers of the mind have existed since the beginning of time, where questioning authority would get you into a mental asylum or even executed. Now, deranged, delusional ideas can now be passed off as "entertainment" or "playing a character" and be consumed by many people worldwide, and that is highlighted in chapter 39 of Fantasyland. 

     

Above is a photo of Alex Jones in 2023, six years after Fantasyland was published. He is still getting into trouble.

In class, a discussion question I asked was "Why do you think that Alex Jones will say anything to make himself seem right, disregarding how it affects his character?"

Some responses I got included (with my own interpretation):

He is just a delusional man, and he has created a group of people who want to be just like him and believe the things that he says. 

He probably does it for the money, his exaggerated character is great at making headlines and probably views and montetation contribute to his need to keep his radio-show going. 

    You can purchase to read Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire here: https://www.amazon.com/Fantasyland-America-Haywire-500-Year-History/dp/1400067219