Has anyone else read the book "Them"?

[LisaM]

and if so, would you like to discuss it, or the Bohemian Grove crapola?

[NAO]

1. THEM was fantastic! A delight to read, very informative

The chapter on Ruby Ridge really opened my eyes to how badly the media distorts events. I remember the coverage of Ruby Ridge, and it was NOTHING like the events as told by the survivors to Jon Ronson, which is corroborated by the public record.

The chapter on David Icke was a riot. Every chapter was a treasure.

The Bohemian Grove chapter was very interesting. That, and the chapter on the Bilderbergers really showed how there is a factual basis to these oddball notions; how the obsessive secrecy and the voluntary media blackout fuels paranoia and rampant speculation; but damn it, there IS something there.

There IS a Bohemian Grove, elites do meet there, they enforce secrecy, the media does not cover it - even though it would be VERY easy for them to do so. Now whether it involves human sacrifice and Satanic Illuminati plots and 6-ft alien reptiles from another dimension is wild speculation. But there are objective, real, concrete, observable events behind many of these subjects.

I highly recommend THEM.

[goodhue]

2. Weaving Spiders Come Not Here!

eom

[HawkerHurricane]

3. I haven't read the book, but I did see the movie.

[gauguin57]

6. Thanks for the "Them" poster.

I LOVE that movie -- Edmund Gwynn as the scientist, giant ants in the desert ... and then in the city's sewers, little girl screaming "It's THEM! It's THEM!"

LOVE it!

[LisaM]

4. The movie, being "Teddy Bear's Picnic?"

Or is there another movie that I don't know about?

The book is worth it for the stuff on the Bildeberger and Bohemian Grove stuff alone. The players who shocked me the most were: Vernon Jordan, Tony Blair, and Charlie Rose.

[NAO]

5. THEM by Jon Ronson is not related to the giant spider book/movie

It is a journalistic investigation of extremists, particularly those who believe the world is controlled by powerful elites. Ronson interviews the Ruby Ridge survivors and David Icke, and he penetrates a Bilderberg Meeting and the infamous Bohemian Grove.

Them: Adventures with Extremists
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743233212/qid=1114566658/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-6424535-4495136?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Editorial Reviews from Amazon.com

In Them, British humorist Jon Ronson relates his misadventures as he engages an assortment of theorists and activists residing on the fringes of the political, religious, and sociological spectrum. His subjects include Omar Bakri Mohammed, the point man for a holy war against Britain (Ronson paints him as a wily buffoon); a hypocritical but engaging Ku Klux Klan leader; participants in the Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas, battles; the Irish Protestant firebrand Ian Paisley; and David Ickes, who believes that the semi-human descendants of evil extraterrestrial 12-foot-tall lizards walk among us. Despite these characters' disparities, they are bound by a belief in the Bilderberg Group, the "secret rulers of the world." In a final chapter, Ronson manages, with surprising ease, to penetrate these rulers' very lair. He writes with wry, faux-naive wit and eschews didacticism, instead letting his subjects' words and actions speak for themselves.

From Publishers Weekly
U.K. journalist Ronson offers a look into the world of political, cultural and religious "extremists" who dwell at the edges of popular culture and the conspiracy theorists who love them. His only criteria for groups' inclusion as extremists is "that they have been called extremists by others," which may explain why the Anti-Defamation League is profiled along with the modern-day KKK, radical Northern Ireland Protestant spokesperson Dr. Ian Paisley and a former BBC sportscaster who believes the world is ruled by a race of alien lizards. The best as well as most timely and unsettling of these essays follows Omar Bakri Mohammed, a radical Islamic militant, on his often bumbling effort to organize British Muslims into a jihad. (Bakri was arrested after September 11.) Ronson's journalism is motivated less out of a duty to inform the public than a desire to satisfy his own curiosity. At the heart of the book is Ronson's quest to find the Bilderberg Group, a secret cabal said to meet once a year to set the agenda of the "New World Order." Fortunately for the reader, his efforts lead somewhere: an informant tracks Bilderberg to a golf resort in Portugal; later, a prominent British politician and Bilderberg founder discusses it on the record. Once viewed up close through Ronson's light, ironic point of view, these "extremists" appear much less scary than their public images would suggest. It is how he reveals the all-too-real machinations of Western society's radical fringe and its various minions that makes this enjoyable work rather remarkable. (Jan.)Forecast: In the U.K., Ronson's book was accompanied by a five-part BBC documentary, which helped make him into a star. If he can capitalize on media appearances here, this may turn into a quick cult hit

[Nikia]

7. I thought that it was a cool book

He got to hang out with some real characters. That's the sort of book that I'd like to write. Talk about an adventure.

[Jade Fox]

8. I thought you meant "Them" by Joyce Carol Oates....

an amazing, frustrating novel about a white working class family in Detroit,
if memory serves.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. Check out Jon Ronson's new book - about secret CIA Phys. Ops.

He was on booktv Sat., and it will be reproadcast Monday at 4:45 pm.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3744557&mesg_id=3744614

Jon Ronson talks about his book, "The Men Who Stare at Goats," at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC. Mr. Ronson discusses a secret wing of the U.S. military formed in 1979 called the First Earth Batallion. The author explains that the group was created to form "Warrior Monks," a group of soldiers with the ability to walk through walls, read minds, become invisible, and kill goats by staring at them. Mr. Ronson argues that some of these ideas have inspired techniques used by the military in the present War on Terror. The author answers questions from the audience following his presentation.




Knowledge is Power. Please kick these threads….

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