Re: <nettime> What do you read?

[David Garcia via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

Geert asked
I am curious what you read and find interesting, enlightening, 
disturbing, beyond the ordinary news flow.
-------------
I am reading Phil Tinline's book on an influential hoax "Ghosts of Iron 
Mountain: The Hoax that Duped America and its Sinister Legacy". Its 
about a fake (1962) 'think tanky style report with lots of foot notes 
'so it must be true' The Report from Iron Mountain claimed that winding 
down America's vast war-making machinery would wreck the economy and 
tear society apart, necessitating draconian controls over the 
population.

It was published as non-fiction - and was frighteningly convincing. 
Journalists tried to find out who had written it. Worried memos reached 
right up to the president. It became a bestselling cause celebre.

Even though the hoax was revealed long ago many still refuse to believe 
it isn't real. And it has been seized on by eager figures on the 
political extremes but most energetically by the far right and militia 
movement, who insist that it revealed terrifying government conspiracies 
to  enslave Americans and even instigate eugenics. It's been regularly 
referenced by Q etc and the legacy lives on and on.

Many have defended taking it seriously on the grounds that it "feels 
true". Following the journey of this conspiracy and its many lives gave 
me a useful account on the shifting nature overview of what constitutes 
'proof' then and now.



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