Show me the birth certificate! How America’s internet-enabled conspiracist media culture is destroying American politics

This piece was originally published in Volume 1 of HA: The Journal of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities at Bard College.

Lewis Lapham, who spoke from this podium earlier in the day, said something interesting. He said, “The truth doesn’t have a big fan base. It’s not a popular product.” That really echoed for me because that is exactly what I heard from certain publishers when I pitched my book about conspiracy theories. At first, they were excited, “Oh, you’re writing a book about conspiracy theories. Great! You believe the lizards are taking over…or maybe some kind of zombie apocalypse?” I said, “No, no, no this is a book against conspiracy theories — a book about how we all have to be more rational.” The publishers became much less excited. They said, “Well, it sounds a little dry.” But then, Adam Bellow, an editor at Harper Collins, took a chance on me. And for that, I am grateful. The result was my book Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground, which came out earlier in 2011.

I think it is important to talk about this subject at a conference dedicated to the subject of “truth-telling,” such as this — because conspiracy theories are both a symptom and…