There was a disconnect between the two sections of this book, one focusing on politics and the other on Matt's undercover investigation of a Texas church and the other on 9/11 conspiracy theorists. While attempting to show how similar the extreme flanks of the left and right are, the book reads more like two separate volumes, and the reader left going back and forth between them. Perhaps in a future edition of the book, the two story lines could be disentangled and expanded to allow the reader to better appreciate the nuances of each movement. ( )

This book really should have been two books. For half the book Taibbi is investigating how Congress really works (a topic that he reports on quite well and makes understandable, but that really could fill hundreds of pages on its own). For most of the rest of it, he’s in deep cover at John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church, exposing the craziness of the people who appear to have taken over government and public discourse. I would have loved to have seen more of this as well, and maybe he could supplement it with undercover stints at Saddleback or New Life. I enjoyed his style and his passion, but I think the squashed-togetherness of this book might have deranged me a little. :) Even a two-part series would have worked better.

Eris Reads, my book blog

Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi tackles the Bush era mentality in his inimitable style. This book is not for the easily offended, but the more open-minded reader should appreciate it, especially his undercover infiltration of John Hagee's Cornerstone Church. ( )

Saw the author on BookTV.

This was a frighteningly enlightening book. Taibbi put himself into the lives of people from the fringes of the political spectrum and showed just how crazy everyone is. He has a angry writing style and uses profanity like a pro. It read more like opinion than fact and was a nice break from the logical step by step antiseptic wort of writing I usually read.

There were two main points in this book.

1) People are looking to belong to something and most will hold on to anything just to belong
2) Our government is broken because of money.

They said separation of church and state was important. They should have separated government and money instead.

Overall I liked the book and would recommend it to people based on the flavor of the book. The guy doesn't make you guess how he feels. ( )

This is a difficult book to describe. Taibbi is a reporter for Rolling Stone and in this book follows some of the irrational communities that many people in the United States are joining. The two he covers in this book are fundamentalist Christianity as found in John Hagee's megachurch, and in the 911 truthers conspiracy theorists. To show the political derangement that people are escaping from in these fringe communities, he talks about his experiences with Congress, both under the Republicans and the Democrats, and as a reporter embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq.

There are hilarious scenes, such as the experience of having his demons cast out as part of joining Hagee's church (including the foul demon of handwriting analysis), and his imagined transcript of a meeting where Cheney, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and others are plotting 9/11 as the 911 truthers insist they did.

There are also parts that make one want to scream, as he indicates that Congress is broken, beholden to the monied class, no matter which party is in the majority. he paints a bleak and depressing picture of politics at the end stage of the American Empire.

Some might be surprised to see how strongly he condemns the 9/11 Truthers, but by the end of the book he is convincing in debunking the ideas of that movement. The imagines transcript, found on pages 191 to 204, is alone worth the price of the book.

Taibbi has a surprising amount of compassion and understanding for the people caught up in these irrational movements. It has become so hard for people to trust in government or the media, and many people have little sense of what the facts ARE, since there no longer seem to be a set of agreed upon facts. So they turn to groups where they might find community and security, or a sense of understanding what has happened to create the world we live in today.

And he sees some signs of hope. Although at one point he mentions that those in Hagee's church have been so brainwashed they''ll accept anything, no matter how crazy, from the church's authority figures, and doesn't believe most of them can be brought to see reason, he still has hopes that people are realizing they've been suckers and are now ready to move past that. I hope it turns out to be true.

Recommended. ( )

Taibbi offers an interesting look at different groups within our society, and what they have to say about our country. While the book description initially makes it sound as if he spends equal time on soldiers from the Iraq War, 9/11 "Truthers" and members of a fundamentalist / apocalyptic mega-church, most of the book actually focuses on his experiences at the church, the people he met there, and what he learned about how it recruits and teaches new members, indoctrinating them into the church's beliefs and agenda. The sections where he meets with the "truthers" are also quite interesting - some of them are basically rational people with a lot of questions and some are full-on kooks, and his observations on their interaction are quite telling. Definitely worth the time to read. ( )

A good book in many ways, but Taibbi's mind is absolutely closed on the topic of 9/11 truth. There's some accuracy in his commentary on the 'movement' but he hasn't informed himself of the facts or the focus of the 9/11 truth advocates. ( )

I'm fed up. I'm tired of politics and politicians and revolted by how they elevate self-interest over public interest. It can be therapeutic to see you're not alone. And Matt Taibbi's The Great Derangement, also indicates there's a lot of people out there who feel the same way. It's just that the disaffection manifests itself in different, at times somewhat deranged, ways.

Often scathing, frequently humorous and usually insightful, Taibbi sees Americans as becoming deranged by the state of political and national affairs. He explores this derangement but what he views as analogous counterparts at either end of the political spectrum -- the end times-tinged evangelical movement and the 9/11 Truth Movement. To him, they are prime examples of the factionalization of the so-called blue-red divide stemming from an underlying and growing distrust of politics and government.

The main storyline here is Taibbi joining Cornerstone Church, founded by Pastor John Hagee, the evangelical minister whose endorsement John McCain so proudly trumpeted and then distanced himself from. We follow Taibbi to a church "encounter weekend" which culminates in participants vomiting out the demons that possess them, prayer groups with leaders who make sure to incorporate the church's political viewpoints, and even street (actually shopping mall) evangelism. While The Great Derangement provides insight to such activities, equally fascinating is Taibbi's discovery of how he adapts to the culture. He begins to grasp how and why the feelings it creates in members has helped churches like this grow and succeed, politics aside.

Taibbi also joins a meet up group of the 9/11 Truth Movement, which believes the Bush Administration was involved in -- or at least aware of and did not stop -- the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Although classifying the movement as "a narcissistic pipe dream for a dingbat, sheeplike population," Taibbi casts it here as a left wing counterpart to the ideas of Hagee and similar evangelicals on the right.

Interspersed with these focal points are trips behind the scenes of the budget process in Washington (which should be required reading for every American) and time Taibbi spent with American troops patrolling the streets of Baghdad. And while Taibbi is no fan of the evangelical right or the Bush Administration, he is an equal opportunity critic. Both parties and the media are frequently excoriated.

Balance of review here.

Matt is angry and funny. He is also a good writer and has things to say that should be noticed. I recommend this to anyone who wants to know why politics seems so strange lately. He spends a little time on that and you can fill in the rest. What he does spend time on is the effect retail politics has had on two large blocks of voters -- evangelical Christians and left wing conspiracy adherents. These turn out to be surprisingly large numbers.

His coverage of Congress shows that the voters have no effect on what is happening. ( )

Equally funny and heartbreaking, Taibbi narrates a journey into the fringe elements on both the left and right, and then plants us in the middle of our Nation's sickly twisted congress, where it seems not to matter if you're a democrat or republican, as long as you maintain power. A great read, and funny as hell. I loved it. ( )

If you love Taibbi's writing -- and I do -- you'll really like this book. Infiltrating John Hagee's church in Texas, hanging out with 9-11 Truthers, giving us the real story of what happens on Capitol Hill -- Taibbi brings all these threads together in a convincing though not overly structured way. His point: the mainstream political and media establishment have lost so much credibility among the US population that many are led to such fringe movements as the ones he discusses. He ends on an uncharacteristically hopeful note. Well worth the read! ( )