Kurt Andersen on Fantasyland

With Fantasyland, Kurt Andersen offers a new understanding of our post-truth world and explains the American instinct to believe in make-believe.  He argues that our post-truth, “fake news” moment is not something entirely new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character and path. From the Salem witch trials to Scientology, from P. T. Barnum to Hollywood, from conspiracy theories to our fetish for guns and obsession with extraterrestrials—our peculiar love of the fantastic has made America exceptional in a way that we’ve never fully acknowledged.