The Elephant in the Room: A Journey into the Trump Campaign and the "Alt-Right"

Jon Ronson was there at the beginning of the MAGA movement, and we’re lucky enough that he narrates his own audiobook edition of the birth of what came to be called the “alt-right” but which we have simplified to “Nazi.” We innocents think that it all began in 2015, and that the enthusiasts have gotten crazier and more detached from reality. Ronson reveals that they were always delusional; they’re just more visible and, having tasted victory and violence, more desperate.

Early in this slender book, Ronson says:

The world in which Alex [Jones] is a leading voice — a loose collection of conspiracy theorists and nationalists and some racists — suddenly had a name: the alt-right movement… I would never have predicted that

show more

these people would one day have the ear of a presidential nominee, that their movement might carry a man to victory. How’d it happen?

Ronson proceeds to tell you how it happened in the sense of what events followed on each other. What I wish that Ronson had done, though, is spend less time on the back-and-forth and more on how people fell for the Greatest Con on Earth. I’ll be reading Ronson’s Them: Adventures with Extremists in hopes that he reveals the answer in that longer book.

That said, even with Donald Trump safely out of the White House, I feel as if it’s still a MAGA world, and we ignore the danger at our peril. show less

Short but entertaining and intelligent take on the road Donald Trump has taken to presidential candidacy and some of the characters that have and continued to influence that journey.

I read this in January, before our 45th president was inaugurated. This is not a partisan statement; when I teach American government, I am critical of both parties and the role of lobbyists, the influence of money, and the revolving door that exists in modern America. It is what James Madison warned against - the factions.

This was well researched and documents some head-scratching events. Is it going to be a popular view? Probably not. But it was interesting, at least to this reader.

Elephant In The Room: A Journey Into The Trump Campaign & The 'Alt-Right'
by Jon Ronson
2016
audio
4.0 / 5.0

Ronson shares his travels to Cleveland, to attend the Republican National Convention, as a spectator and reporter. He runs into an old friend, Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist host of a talk-show. He engages Ronson into discussing this presidential campaign, having a chance run in with Roger Stone while there.
Ronson's short book is as funny as it is frightening. A book that captures a defining moment in American history.
Worth a listen.

Excellent -- contrary to what some others say, I thought he packed a LOT into a short 'extended essay'. Just reminding myself that super-bright, super-funny people like Ronson exist, eased post-election shock and glumness a bit.

I love Ronson’s work and his journalistic style, but this piece felt hurriedly slapped together: a collection of observations loosely tied together by Ronson’s friendship with Alex Jones. Overall, this piece lacked a thesis and was devoid of Ronson’s usual wit.

This short yet fascinating insight into the rise of Trump is a kind of follow up to Them: Adventures with Extremists where Ronson recalls sneak filming the brining effigy theatre at Bohemian Grove where he bonded with and helped launch the career of Info Wars radical conservative conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Reconnecting with Jones as his inside track to the burgeoning Trump campaign where he explores the bizarre influence Jones seems to have on Trump while both operate with confidante Roger Stone lurking in the background in the role of provacetuer and political tricks.