Kurt Andersen on Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire

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Mike talks with journalist and best-selling author Kurt Andersen about his most recent book, Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History.

Mike and Kurt discuss America’s founding by ‘a nutty religious cult’, the long history of American pseudo-empiricism, the dynamic equilibrium between fantasists and realists that made American great, how the fantasists ended up in the driver’s seat, ways in which the 1960s empowered the modern right, Donald Trump as a 21st century P.T. Barnum, and lots more.

Kurt Andersen on Twitter.

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2 thoughts on “Kurt Andersen on Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire”

  1. What is truly astonishing is that you and your guest can identify all the symptoms of the disease and yet not understand that you are the ones suffering from it.

    Donald Trump was not wiretapped, LOL what a crazy thing to say. Or is it just a simple way to say that the intelligence apparatus of the state was used to spy on him and his presidential campaign. Then when the schemes concocted failed to prevent his election they continued to use these tools to undermine the voice of the American people?

    You are the ones who live in the echo chamber. Your voice is always full of derision or contempt when anyone challenges your biases, and yet you never actually consider that you might be mistaken. Not even about the slightest thing.

    I question my biases every single day, and as a result I’ve been forced to eat quite a lot of crow, because I’d rather know the truth than have my illusions fulfilled.

    1. I can’t speak for Mr. Andersen, but I agree with you that questioning one’s biases is incredibly important, which is why, like you, I do it on a regular basis. I regularly consumer conservative media, co-host the weekly news analysis show we do on The Politics Guys with a conservative, interview conservatives on the show, and frequently read conservative writers. I most definitely consider that I might be mistaken. Maybe the deep state has been engaged in a systematic campaign to discredit and destroy Donald Trump. Or maybe Donald Trump is a deeply corrupt and inexperienced politician who is rightly the target of investigation. Or possibly it’s a little bit of both. I most definitely believe that politics, like life, is made up of not black and white or binary possibilities, but many, many shades of gray. -Mike

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