Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Shutterstock/philippgehrke.de
evening sitdown
Your evening longread: Jon Ronson on making sense of conspiracy theorists
We bring you an interesting longread each evening to take your mind off the news.
EVERY WEEK, WE bring you a round-up of the best longreads of the past seven days in Sitdown Sunday. And now, every weeknight, we bring you an evening longread to enjoy which will help you to escape the news cycle.
We’ll be keeping an eye on new longreads and digging back into the archives for some classics.
Jon Ronson on conspiracy theorists
20 years ago, Jon Ronson wrote the classic book Them, where he looked at the situation with conspiracy theorists across the world. Now he looks back at how things have evolved, and asks – could he have known how things would end up?
(The Guardian, approx 10 mins reading time)
And, in hindsight, it was all clues. The most popular tables at the gun shows were frequently the ones selling the conspiracy VHS tapes – recordings of very long conversations between unengaging men in public access TV studios. They’d discuss how the Illuminati were the puppet masters behind the deaths at David Koresh’s church in Waco, or how the all-seeing eye on the dollar bill was evidence of the Illuminati’s takeover of the Federal Reserve. They were as dull as anything, but due to their scarcity the VHSs were passed around militia circles like rare jewels, gun-show Rosetta stones.
have your say