Fantasyland, Kurt Andersen

How did America go haywire within its 500-year history? Kurt navigates the history of America, and how “fake news” today is nothing new, it’s been going on throughout the history of our country. He covers it all - religion, politics, media, etc. He debunks Dr. Oz as a modern-day witch doctor – dispenser of make-believe potions and supplements; the joke that is ‘The Secret’; once you ‘believe’ something you can always find new evidence to support your beliefs; apocalypses, fantasists; how we now seem to create our own reality not based on facts; gullibility of people – example… increase in UFO sightings after Close Encounters of the Third Kind movie; when the GOP went off the deep end both with Liberals and Conservatives; the fantasy-industrial complex of movies, TV, gaming; how fantasy can be used to excess, to evil, and even delude our minds; how Donald Trump represents the epitome of this ‘fantasy-industrial complex; how the least educated are twice as likely as more educated to be highly predisposed to believing conspiracies. He’s right on. Sums it up well: remember when ‘viral’ was a bad thing, referring only to the spread of disease? The same goes for what you read and watch and believe.