Fantasyland
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Fantasyland
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Narrated by:
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Kurt Andersen
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By:
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Kurt Andersen
About this listen
Random House presents the audiobook edition of Fantasyland, written and read by Kurt Anderson.
You’re entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts
Fantasy is the USA’s primary product. From the Pilgrim Fathers onward America has been a place where renegades and freaks came in search of freedom to create their own realities with little objectively regulated truth standing in their way. The freedom to invent and believe whatever the hell you like is, in some ways, an unwritten constitutional right. But, this do-your-own-thing freedom also is the driving credo of America's current transformation where the difference between opinion and fact is rapidly crumbling.
So how did we get to this weird pseudo-reality, where science and objective facts are dismissed in favour of opinions and wild speculation, or indeed, fantasies? The post truth, fake news, free-for-all mentality isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. If you want to understand Trump's America, how the lines between reality and illusion have become dangerously blurred, you have to go back to the very beginning and take a dizzying road trip across five centuries of crackpot delusion and make-believe from Salem to Scientology.
Fantasyland is a journey that connects the dots between crazed franchises of true believers – a rich freak show tapestry from Mormons to Flat-Earthers and satanic panic, new age quacks to anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists of every stripe, creationists to climate change deniers, UFO-obsessives to gun-toting libertarians, showmen hucksters from P T Barnum to Trump himself, all topped off with a dangerous dose of anti-government paranoia and pseudoscience. Along the way, New York Times bestselling author Kurt Andersen has created a unique and raucous history of America and a new paradigm for understanding our post-factual world.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Dr. John Grierson
- 19-10-21
Masterful and a little scary
A brilliant light shone on where America is today and how it got here. Excellent.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- M
- 29-10-19
Brilliant!
An eye opening and forensic deconstruction of the way that Christian fundamentalism and the blurring of fiction and reality that serves to form each persons own “truth” impacts life in the US, and the rest of the world as a result. Highly recommended!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 18-08-24
Everything started to make sense!!
This is a brilliant book! I learned so much throughout, especially as a non American. It has helped me understand why I feel so uncomfortable about reality tv and that I need to look at what I accept as reality and check with actual facts….
As Kurt says - You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts……
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Kevin Blake
- 31-03-21
Fascinating account of American magical thinking
Well written, engaging, fascinating history of America's penchant for fantasy and magical thinking over science and facts, from the religiously maniacal puritans to P.T. Barnum to Donald Trump. For those of us who have watched aghast in recent years at the rise of Trumpism and the cult of MAGA and wondered if we were witnessing a repeat of the fall of the Roman Empire in accelerated real time, with Dopey Disinfectant Donnie as Emperor Nero, the good news according to Andersen is that this isn't necessarily anything new - it turns out that America has always been bat shit crazy! There may be some solace in this. Anyway, I highly recommend this excellent book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mr. H.
- 15-09-18
What has become of us?
A truly remarkable history and explanation of the many factors which have brought us to where we are now, willing to believe just about anything. This should be required reading (or listening) for all Americans.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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- W. Lensvelt
- 22-06-18
Kurt Andersen Completely Missing The Point
Kurt Andersen should really take the red pill.
His condescending tone towards his idea of a conservative make this book impossible to finish.
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