The 9/11 fringe exposed: Jonathan Kay's new book, "Among the Truthers"

As I write No Truer Hearts, I will be dealing briefly with the conspiracy addicts who lead the 9/11 "truth" movement. Very Briefly. They have infected cyberspace especially with their unsupported and fanciful ideas like a bad strain of the flu in a daycare center. Anyone who is interested in what these deluded people peddle is welcome to learn more online. My book, is interested in the facts, just as Beverly Eckert was.

Fortunately, I do not have to spend time de-bunking the various fake scenarios imagined by the conspiracy crowd. Others have done this superbly, and I have blogged about their efforts already. But I did want to mention a new book: Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Undergroung by Jonathan Kay. The author analyzes some members of the 9/11 "truth" movement, noting, rather frighteningly, that among their psychological characteristics is a detachment from large portions of reality. The internet, where anyone can say anything, has made it possible for these people to build a mental world utterly dependent on the views of other similarly deluded people.

There have been for millenia struggles between those who use reason, and those who don't. One of the great drawbacks of the digital age is that it makes it easy for people to disguise falsity as truth, and to peddle it to the innocent masses at the mere push of a button.