Chaos Comes Calling

Starred review from July 8, 2024
Two small towns grapple with a rising tide of right-wing conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric in this enthralling account. Journalist Abramsky (Jumping at Shadows) profiles residents of Sequim, Wash., and Shasta County, Calif., who experienced these developments firsthand, including Mary Rickert, chair of the Shasta County board of supervisors, who received violent threats for enforcing California’s 2020 Covid mitigation measures, and Charlie Bush, Sequim’s city manager, who was ousted over his opposition to the QAnon conspiracy theorizing of the town’s mayor, William Armacost. Abramsky argues that while America has always had its “demagogues and political hustlers,” today’s brand of “irrationality” has a new quality—it’s being spread “lightning fast,” intensifying its potency. The bulk of the right-wing rhetoric he tracks was posted on Facebook, but Abramsky also highlights surprising and fascinating ways in which social media and radio work together as a hybrid media echo chamber: Armacost, for example, shared conspiracy theories on Facebook, but also went on local talk radio to discuss QAnon; and in 2023, when Sequim residents became fearful of an imminent “antifa attack,” the rhetoric leapt from “Facebook Live warnings... to truckers’ CB radios, the remaining log haulers in the region help... spread rumors.” The result is an eye-opening close-up view of American politics.

Starred review from July 15, 2024
A view of the MAGA-wrought culture wars as they play out in small towns. Abramsky, author ofThe American Way of Poverty andThe House of Twenty Thousand Books, chronicles his visits to red islands in mostly blue states, such as Sequim, Washington, which was torn apart by antinomian politics during the pandemic. The county's medical officer tried to head off the virus by requiring masks and restricting bars and restaurants to vaccinated patrons. It worked, and in the capital, officials "extended the proof-of-vaccination mandate to include the entire state of Washington." Her strategy earned death threats, propelled by people who make significant money spreading lies. Abramsky ranges to places such as deep-red Shasta County, California, where locals seriously discuss secession when things like virus-control mandates arrive from the faraway capital and where political action is often a reaction to progressivism, such that "a half-century-plus of social change was being litigated and litigated again on a daily basis." It's in small-town America where the culture wars are being fought the most fiercely: where experts come under attack, where books are banned, where school boards are taken over by people intent on dismantling public education. More than that, as Abramsky illustrates at numerous points, in those small towns, where progressives are most often a distinct minority, those wars are being fought between right-wingers and farther-right-wingers, complete with litmus tests of ideological purity. Fortunately, it seems that more moderate forces are in the ascendant. After the pandemic, writes the author, many voters returned to the center: "The majority...wanted their local public officials to be laser-focused on issues such as housing rather than going down rabbit holes about QAnon, about the evils of public health responses to a once-in-a-century pandemic, about stolen elections." An excellent, fearless work of political reportage in the face of America's violent discontents.

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August 1, 2024

Political journalist Abramsky (Jumping at Shadows) provides a stark, unsettling examination of the volatile political shifts in small towns across America, specifically in areas of Shasta County, CA, and Sequim, WA. He argues convincingly that these places are microcosms reflecting broader national trends and suggests that understanding and addressing these local dynamics is crucial for the health of American democracy. He meticulously documents how fervent patriotism, paranoia, and misinformation have fomented an environment ripe for violence, exacerbated by the fallout from the George Floyd protests and the COVID pandemic. Through detailed case studies and personal accounts, the book reveals how moderate authorities have been replaced by far-right figures, driven by a toxic mix of disinformation, fear, and personal gain. Abramsky contrasts these developments with historical upheavals, such as the McCarthy era and the Spanish flu, which he asserts did not cause seismic shifts. He contends that today's rapid spread of lies, rumors, and fake news have, however, created unprecedented political fractures. VERDICT An unflinching, sobering, and essential read, filled with first-person narratives and reflections that offer an urgent warning about the fragility of democratic institutions in the face of rising extremism in the United States and around the world.--Lee De Groft

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