Matt Taibbi's The Great Derangement is a lesson in civics for brave Americans, an at times hilarious and despairing sociological travelogue exploring a landscape Taibbi tries to laugh at but can't quite, not without also crying. He travels through four defining American subcultures, all seemingly engaged in pointlessly destructive behavior and embracing willful misunderstanding: the Big Cons of militarism, money-powered representative government, the right-wing church and what passes for populist movement politics. Often compared to Hunter S. Thompson and H.L. Mencken, sometime undercover journalist Taibbi's gleeful righteous indignation, wit and generous mockery ultimately points toward a path call, tentatively, Reality...which he recommends we embrace. Matt Taibbi is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and author of two previous collections, Spanking the Donkey and Smells Like Dead Elephants. Noon on Bibliocracy.
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