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Land of Delusion: Out on the Edge with the Crackpots and Conspiracy-Mongers Remaking Our Shared Reality
Not so long ago, conspiracy theorists were relegated to the cultural fringes. They were the oddballs in the tinfoil hats, raging to one another about who really shot JFK and whether or not an astronaut walked on the moon. In recent years, however, as everything from stolen-election claims to vaccine disinformation to QAnon has made daily headlines, conspiracists have moved, if not front and center, then awfully close.
As the American right wing retreats further into its political bunker and war rages in Ukraine, two particularly bizarre theories are gaining traction in the United States and Russia. They seem laughably far-fetched, but behind the absurdity lurk radical ideas that are becoming alarmingly commonplace. These ludicrous beliefs offer a road map of where we might be headed and also highlight the lunacy that’s already here.
In Land of Delusion, cultural historian Colin Dickey, author of the acclaimed The Unidentified and Ghostland, introduces us to Tartaria, a great empire that sprang from Russia and spread across the globe, only to be destroyed by evil schemers who erased it from the history books. We also meet the New Chronologists, who claim that history began just eight hundred years ago and that the world was originally dominated by blond, blue-eyed Slavs. Crackpot theories to be sure, but they’re fueled by troubling beliefs that are all too real: that superior societies have been overrun by “others,� that we’ve been corrupted by fake news, and that power and lost glory must be restored. The far-reaching influence of Fox News, Alex Jones, lies generated by the Kremlin are enough to tell us that not only are these beliefs potent, they might soon become dominant.
By turns entertaining and grimly serious, Land of Delusion takes us inside the warped logic of conspiracy theorists and connects the dots between crazy ideas and real-time events. Weird is one thing—weird and dangerous demands our full attention.
As the American right wing retreats further into its political bunker and war rages in Ukraine, two particularly bizarre theories are gaining traction in the United States and Russia. They seem laughably far-fetched, but behind the absurdity lurk radical ideas that are becoming alarmingly commonplace. These ludicrous beliefs offer a road map of where we might be headed and also highlight the lunacy that’s already here.
In Land of Delusion, cultural historian Colin Dickey, author of the acclaimed The Unidentified and Ghostland, introduces us to Tartaria, a great empire that sprang from Russia and spread across the globe, only to be destroyed by evil schemers who erased it from the history books. We also meet the New Chronologists, who claim that history began just eight hundred years ago and that the world was originally dominated by blond, blue-eyed Slavs. Crackpot theories to be sure, but they’re fueled by troubling beliefs that are all too real: that superior societies have been overrun by “others,� that we’ve been corrupted by fake news, and that power and lost glory must be restored. The far-reaching influence of Fox News, Alex Jones, lies generated by the Kremlin are enough to tell us that not only are these beliefs potent, they might soon become dominant.
By turns entertaining and grimly serious, Land of Delusion takes us inside the warped logic of conspiracy theorists and connects the dots between crazy ideas and real-time events. Weird is one thing—weird and dangerous demands our full attention.
- GenresNonfiction
ebook
Published November 16, 2022
12 people want to read
About the author
Colin Dickey
13books239followersColin Dickey grew up in San Jose, California, a few miles from the Winchester Mystery House, the most haunted house in America. As a writer, speaker, and academic, he has made a career out of collecting unusual objects and hidden histories all over the country. He’s a regular contributor to the LA Review of Books and Lapham’s Quarterly, and is the co-editor (with Joanna Ebenstein) of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology. He is also a member of the Order of the Good Death, a collective of artists, writers, and death industry professionals interested in improving the Western world’s relationship with mortality. With a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Southern California, he is an associate professor of creative writing at National University.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 17, 2025
One thing I know for sure about conspiracy theorists: what best describes them is the saying "strong opinions, loosely held". Basically, anything can be bent and altered to fit your beliefs. And the beliefs themselves are many times built on quicksand.
While not badly written, the book is really short, so it lacks depth.
I did learn something, the definition of “sensible middle�: a substantial enough proportion of the population not given to irrational excess, a bulwark guided by logic and rational thinking,
whose work is to keep the country from being derailed by paranoia and conspiracy either from the right or the left.
While not badly written, the book is really short, so it lacks depth.
I did learn something, the definition of “sensible middle�: a substantial enough proportion of the population not given to irrational excess, a bulwark guided by logic and rational thinking,
whose work is to keep the country from being derailed by paranoia and conspiracy either from the right or the left.
October 3, 2024
I actually greatly enjoyed this novel that breaks down the (lack of) logic behind conspiracy theoriests.
February 16, 2025
A short read further illuminating the lack of logic behind conspiracy theories and the theorists.
March 29, 2025
a short novella style book showing the illogic (and danger) of conspiracy theorists. it’s uses a more modern theory called Tartaria which i hadn’t heard of before and that made this book even more interesting to me.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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