Book Review: Off The Edge

Image: The cover of the book is a red background with a pixelated representation of the horizon on the sea running through the center. At the end is a silhouette of a black sailing boat tipping over the edge. Across the top in white letters is, "flat earthers, conspiracy culture, and why people will believe anything." In large white letters in the center is "off the edge." Under that is kelly weill's name in smaller white letters.
 

Kelly Weill is a journalist who has focused a lot of her work and research on conspiracy theories- especially flat Earth. This made her an excellent choice to pen a very accessible and entertaining book, Off the Edge. Weill navigates difficult subjects with accuracy and compassion. I was drawn to this book due to having someone in my life whose mental health led them into a world of harmful conspiracy culture and I wanted to find new ways to think about and, frankly, better tolerate discussions about it. 

I really enjoyed the way Weill immersed herself in these movements and showed honest interest in how people became involved in these types of ideas. Being a decent journalist has allowed her to remain detached enough to give them a chance and caring enough to look deeper. The way she discusses the lives and beliefs of many of these people showed the diversity of backgrounds and also the similarities of how they are roped in. This allowed her to capture in painful detail just how sad and dangerous things can get when people fall down the conspiracy rabbit hole.

Not knowing Weill's work before this, I thought from the title that this might have more psychological analysis to it. Weill did touch on "why people will believe anything" throughout the book, including what she learned from researchers. But, most of the book was more of a character study of who believes what. Even though I did not get what I thought I would regarding the psychological part, the characters in this story still told me quite a lot.

I also liked Weill's general message encouraging us to try and help people immersed in conspiracy culture rather than immediately blocking them or cutting them off. This is a problem with conspiracy culture and often overlapping mental health struggles like clinical delusions. As leftists we claim to care about mental health, but then immediately sever ties with people who are obviously fragile at best when they promote baffling, oppressive, and/or wild conspiracy theories. I know I have sadly done this. I also think back to a time during the 2009 G20 when we found embarrassingly unskilled undercover cops at a march. Being very new to mass action organizing and also the not-internet-savvy person that I was and still am, I later posted what I did not know was a right wing conspiracy article on police infiltration from a website that also claimed all anarchists are actually infiltrators. A fellow anarchist gently suggested I check the source and that was that. I learned something that day and did not embarrass myself further. 

This is not to say it's always that simple, but I tell that story (still blushing) to show the timeline from real-life-betrayal to conspiracy theory website was a very short one for me. Many people start from a place of understandable mistrust and are then bombarded with algorithms that led them straight into the dragon's den over and over. It's actually quite normal to respond to information the way many conspiracy theorists of certain backgrounds who are led through this sort of trap do. Instead of cutting these people off right away, we should attempt to listen to them and understand how they got to where they are. Some people will never come around, and this is not to say that one should endure abuse. It is saying that often, treating someone who is on shaky ground as human will help them not to isolate further and go deeper into conspiracy culture where they are often preyed upon by far right extremists that deliberately target such movements and individuals.

This doesn't mean I am suddenly going to stop being angry, irritated, sad, or afraid when a loved one tells me an offensive or hurtful conspiracy theory. But, I have found that sometimes, I can get someone to listen to me once I have understood and listened to them. So much of it comes from trauma or mistrust of authority, and I can surely relate to that. And, like Weill states, all of us have likely believed in some form of conspiracy theory before. I don't know what to do when someone is in too deep, but some do make their way out, sometimes with the help of psychologists who specialize in cults and related phenomena. With algorithms in the mix, we have to be creative if we're ever going to combat these sorts of problems.

This was also posted to my goodreads.