Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power

I've been an urban legend enthusiast since I bought a book called Rumor as a fifteenth birthday present to myself.  A few years later, I discovered alt.folklore.urban, where we'd collect and debunk various legends or cite Jan Harold Brunvand's books on the topics. Back then, we talked about things like whether it's illegal to drive while barefoot (at the time, it was in two states - like many legend, there's a grain of truth to that one) or whether acid washed jeans fall apart in the dryer because they can't get all the acid out after the dying process (thanks to my lab partner, I could tell everyone what happens if you wash a pair of jeans with a few drops of HCl dried into the thighs). In the last days of Usnet, the myths were changing to black helicopters and new world orders, but they were still mostly for fun.

25 years later, urban legends, which have always had a nasty thread, have devolved into toxic hoaxes.  Aided by US and foreign political operatives who have an interest in chaos and the amorphous nature of the internet, they've become a way of accusing political opponents of heinous crimes and recruiting for hate groups.

Anna Merlan began exploring these groups when she reported on the Conspira-Sea, a cruise for UFO researchers and other conspiracy theorists. When the 2016 Presidential campaign became rife with rumors (none of which stand up to the slightest bit of analysis and some of which can be traced back, as Brunvand did in his books, to earlier rumors and legends). Ranging from the relatively harmless world of UFO investigators through Pizzagate and into the sordid world of white supremacists, she not only describes what these groups do but also how they appeal to others. It's simple, really, as it's always been. We're psychologically programmed to see patterns, and it's more comforting to think that there's a reason for everything - even something horrible - than to think it just happened. Seeing an attack as a "false flag" with "crisis actors" gives those who see the "truth" a perverse sense of superiority. They're not torturing the parents of children who were murdered in their first grade classrooms, but fighters for the truth. The internet makes it easier for these groups to find each other, but Merlan shows how it didn't create them.

Merlan also shows a deft touch in her exposing and debunking of these toxic tales. We can't leave these groups and stories completely in the dark because then they have a chance to expand, but we have to be careful not to help them spread. Merlan uses a clinical tone to explain how these hoaxes developed, puts them in a cultural context, and all along repeats that they are not true, and that they're harmful. Republic of Lies is what we need right now - a book that exposes and calmly debunks the toxic tales that are undermining our society.