Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Them: Adventures with Extremists
Them: Adventures with Extremists: Picador Classic | Jon Ronson
With an introduction by Russell Brand What if a tiny, shadow elite rule the world from a secret room? My worryingly paradoxical thought process could be summarized thus: Thank God I don't believe in the secret rulers of the world. Imagine what the secret rulers of the world might do to me if I did. What if a tiny, shadow elite rule the world from a secret room? In Them Jon Ronson sets out to find this room, with the help of the extremists - Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen - that believe in it. Along the way, he is chased by men in dark glasses, unmasked as a Jew in the middle of a Jihad training camp, and witnesses international CEOs and politicians participate in a bizarre pagan ritual in the forests of northern California. A Sunday Times bestseller and the book that launched Jon Ronson's inimitable career, Them is an eye-opening, outrageously funny exploration of extremism, which makes both author and reader think twice about the looking-glass world of 'us' and 'them' . . .
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
CRR
post image
Pickpick

Interesting book that interviews and spends time with several different types of conspiracy theorists. The book has been around over 20 years—this is a slightly updated edition. Interesting to see how things have changed and also stayed the same. Ronson finds some humorous and interesting people to listen to and he looks into their claims as best he can. I enjoyed it.

28 likes2 stack adds
review
Megabooks
post image
Pickpick

This book is 20 years old and still relevant. There will always be conspiracy theorists, and Ronson talked to several. (Lizard people? Really?) But what impressed me more was seeing the start of how propaganda has been used so effectively in the last 20 years to raise white supremacy and Islamic terrorism to global levels. I will admit that the changes in the last 20 years have frightened me to my core. We must resist. 4⭐️

98 likes1 stack add
quote
Megabooks
post image

Maybe not so crazy with what we know about Jeffrey Epstein now. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Samary Have you seen the documentary on Netflix? Crazy stuff. Sick stuff. 4y
Megabooks @Samary I started it but haven‘t finished it. Just disgusting. 4y
MicheleinPhilly Stay away from QAnon crazies, Meg! 😉 4y
See All 6 Comments
Megabooks @MicheleinPhilly I will! 😂😂 I‘m just reading this chapter where Jon goes to a Klan rally, and the leader is trying to make a kinder, gentler Klan publicly to gain more political power outright... It‘s interesting reading this 20 year old book and seeing the changes that have actually happened. 4y
MicheleinPhilly Here‘s an idea for a “kinder, gentler” clan - DON‘T FUCKING EXIST! 🤬 4y
Megabooks @MicheleinPhilly I would agree!!!!! I put the quote in my Instagram stories. Reading this book 20 years later has been educational as to how different groups have changed their “messages” over the years to “sound more presentable.” 4y
70 likes6 comments
blurb
Megabooks
post image

About the only non-tiring thing that happened yesterday was getting these books from Book Depository. A lovely surprise, as I‘m never quite sure when they‘ll arrive. I started Them last night, and I am really enjoying it!

I love the cover art on these editions, too!

Megabooks @Bookwormjillk I‘m excited to get to that, but I just finished this one and I thought there‘d be some overlap. 4y
AutumnRLS Love Jon Ronson! 4y
See All 14 Comments
Megabooks @AutumnRLS these will be my third and fourth books by him. He‘s great! 4y
BarbaraBB Great covers! 4y
Megabooks @BarbaraBB thanks!! 😊 4y
britt_brooke Ooh, love those covers! 4y
Megabooks @britt_brooke I couldn‘t pass them up for $6.50 a book! 4y
Reviewsbylola I feel like their deliveries have been coming quicker recently! 4y
Megabooks @Reviewsbylola I agree! You know, I though of you when I priced buying the three Persephone books I wanted for Christmas both through book depository and the actual Persephone website and they came within a dollar of being the same price! Just FYI. 4y
Reviewsbylola Good to know! I actually think I‘ve bought a Persephone from there now that I think about it. 4y
Megabooks @Reviewsbylola I think I remember that you told me about BD having them, so I thought I‘d mention it was worth pricing for particular books. Maybe I‘m wrong about the person though...🤔 4y
Reviewsbylola I actually someone a year or two ago who found a bunch of them on sale on BD! I am so upset I‘ve never had that luck. 4y
Megabooks @Reviewsbylola yes!! The cheapest of the three books I want was still $21 on BD! 4y
85 likes14 comments
blurb
RiaWritten
post image

Hi all! This is a quick note to say that, although I am still very into makeup and dresses, I am genderfluid and/or genderqueer in some as yet undetermined capacity. I will keep you posted, but until then, they/them pronouns please! Thank you! (Pictured is my new lipstick primer. Not sure it‘ll help, but what a name!)

blurb
JaneyWaneyB
post image

As the morning commute begins I'm going to delve into this treasure and hope I haven't got my hopes up too high....

#Reading #StartTheDayWithABook #Commuting #TrainJourney #AlmostTheWeekend #BookNerd #ReadABook #Books #JonRonson #Extremists #InvestigativeWriting #Them #Conspiracy #Theories

27 likes2 stack adds
review
Magpiegem
Pickpick

This book had really interesting and sometimes really disturbing content. I just need to stop listening to Ronson on audio because his reading style doesn‘t suit his writing style (for me). I feel mean saying that because I‘m sure he‘s a lovely man!

blurb
steph_hashes_tags
post image

Knitting and audiobook time! #24in48 #notgoingtomake24butstillgoinganyway

review
BruceWalken
post image
Pickpick

After reading the eclectic lost at sea I found this book a tough ride at first. The first chapters were quite brutal in tone, but after keeping going with it there is plenty to like here. Jon always seems to be able to show the best and worst of his subjects and boy there are some subjects here! David Icke and KKK members are some of many people in this book. If you dig his style or if you like Louis Theroux then this is a book for you 😁

RaimeyGallant Welcome to Litsy! #LitsyWelcomeWagon 7y
RaimeyGallant P.S. Some us put together Litsy tips to help new Littens navigate the site. It's the link in my bio on my page in case you're interested. :) 7y
BruceWalken Hi and thanks. If I get stuck I will check it out. My wife is on her to so she has been helping me around! 7y
4 likes3 comments
review
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image
Pickpick

Very twisty book as the author spends time with a Muslim Extremist, Ruby Ridge survivors, at Waco, with Alex Jones, the Klan, Aryan Nation, the IRA, and a few others getting into their headspace & ideas. Some seem crazy, some crazy like a fox, but many share their own conspiracy theories with Ronson and he attempts to track down the secret room full of "rulers of the world" that quite a few of these groups fear. Read by the author on audio. ?

Riveted_Reader_Melissa This book was published not long before 9/11, I often found myself wondered as I listened to it if his focus would have been different or if he would have even attempted this after 9/11. 7y
KVanRead Interesting! 7y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @KVanRead It was exactly that....very interesting! 7y
MyNamesParadise Stacked! 7y
56 likes4 stack adds4 comments
quote
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

After a few chapters with various White Supremacist groups... this is the part I'm going to share about a cross "lighting". All were disturbing in their own way, but this odd moment made me laugh anyway, and I think it's worth remembering that even the groups you think of with fear are just humans, have the same goofy human shortcomings and conversations, plus if you can laugh about something it loses some of its intrinsic oppressiveness.

35 likes2 stack adds
quote
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

Well that can't go well....can it?

I'd say he'd find nothing, but the last time he tried to track down a secret group meeting once a year, he actually found a secret meeting there.

*Plus...don't some of these theories sound an awful lot like the conspiracies that just went around the last election cycle (15+ yrs after this was written). Leave free trade agreements, secret Clinton sex ring in the basement of a pizza place, etc

quote
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

This book is so twisty and convoluted, and most bizarrely true. The author is traveling around with "extremists" of multiple beliefs and finding that although some of them are crazy, some of them are not completely wrong, as crazy as that sounds. I can't wait to see how he resolves all this, even just for himself & I'm finding myself very glad he took this journey pre 9/11, because I'm not sure that any journalist would have attempted it after.

Louise Sounds very interesting! We often don't realize just how many extreme viewpoints surround us daily. 7y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Louise Yes, it is so interesting. He starts out with a Muslim extremist in the U.K., then with surviving family members from Ruby Ridge in the US, visits the site of Waco, to Alex Jones of Info Wars, and now is onto people who believe that a secret cabal meets once a year and runs the world. Some sound completely bonkers, some seem to have valid points...and yet there is overlap among groups that shouldn't agree. Very twisty and I'm finding.... 7y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa ... it oddly intriguing just to get a peek into these very disparate thinkings. 7y
See All 6 Comments
Louise I'm so curious to read it! Paulo Coelho writes about secret societies too, albeit in a different context. His secret "spiritual guide", if I remember correctly, is a CEO somewhere in France. I've met people who believe in the "secret cabal". And really, who knows?! ????One thing I like to bear in mind is something that Elie Wiesel said when he spoke at my university many years ago: The greatest danger to world peace is fanaticism. 7y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Louise That sounds interesting too....I've only read one of his before The Spy, it was very good. I have Wiesel on my to read list, but I agree and you were so lucky to hear him speak before he passed away. 7y
Louise With Coelho, I read all his books for a while; and then at some point, it felt as if he had become a parody of himself. I no longer enjoyed his writing or followed his posts on social media. With Wiesel, however, his speech was unforgettable. His presence in the room was so powerful--such humility, compassion, and intelligence! Yes, I was very lucky to experience that special evening! His writing is also deeply moving. (edited) 7y
33 likes1 stack add6 comments
blurb
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

That's the plan anyway! Hahaha, which I always fail miserably at. 😂

Lots of good stuff coming up, and lots of comics, so looks like good summer reading to me. 🤞

#TBRTuesday

Riveted_Reader_Melissa And their pick for last month that I'm still in the library wait list for..... 7y
AThousandLives87 What's the Atwood book???!!!! 💚 7y
See All 6 Comments
AThousandLives87 Oh wow. They must have changed the cover from the copy I have. @Riveted_Reader_Melissa (edited) 7y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @AThousandLives87 That's the cover that came up from Goodreads, my copy doesn't look like that either. 7y
55 likes6 comments
blurb
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

Finish one audiobook, time to pick another....have to have something to listen to in my car. This will be my second Jon Ronson on audio...his are always interesting and unique and this one sounds like it will break even that mold as he travels with and hangs out with different extremists (Them) to see what they think....and if the world is controlled by a secret cabal can he actually find it and expose it?

57 likes3 stack adds
review
Karen_V
post image
Pickpick

This is a review of THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM by Jon Ronson, which isn't in the Litsy database yet. It's a short but scary read, since it was written before the 2016 US election. Ronson illuminates the influences of Alex Jones/Infowars, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort & Steve Bannon on the Republican candidacy. I learned a lot, but it was a painful read because he's fairly confident that Trump would not be elected.

8little_paws Yes!! I also read this post election and it is even scarier that way 8y
16 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
Steph_EE
post image
Pickpick
blurb
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

The Stacks: Part 2, the audiobook addition!
Just because they are on audiobook, doesn't mean they don't stack up. Www.audible.com, I love your sales even when they make me feel like I'm failing behind! #augustofpages

MemoirsForMe 😄👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 8y
Sydsavvy SO TRUE!!!! 8y
Sweettartlaura I have an Audible "stack" too. It's amazing how we readers find ways to horde books, even digitally ? 8y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Sweettartlaura It's the new thing, the invisible stacks. 8y
60 likes5 comments