Chaos Comes Calling: The Battle Against the Far-Right Takeover of Small-Town America

Two small towns grapple with a rising tide of right-wing conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric in this enthralling account. Journalist Abramsky (Jumping at Shadows) profiles residents of Sequim, Wash., and Shasta County, Calif., who experienced these developments firsthand, including Mary Rickert, chair of the Shasta County board of supervisors, who received violent threats for enforcing California’s 2020 Covid mitigation measures, and Charlie Bush, Sequim’s city manager, who was ousted over his opposition to the QAnon conspiracy theorizing of the town’s mayor, William Armacost. Abramsky argues that while America has always had its “demagogues and political hustlers,” today’s brand of “irrationality” has a new quality—it’s being spread “lightning fast,” intensifying its potency. The bulk of the right-wing rhetoric he tracks was posted on Facebook, but Abramsky also highlights surprising and fascinating ways in which social media and radio work together as a hybrid media echo chamber: Armacost, for example, shared conspiracy theories on Facebook, but also went on local talk radio to discuss QAnon; and in 2023, when Sequim residents became fearful of an imminent “antifa attack,” the rhetoric leapt from “Facebook Live warnings... to truckers’ CB radios, [and] the remaining log haulers in the region help[ed]... spread [the] rumors.” The result is an eye-opening close-up view of American politics. (Sept.)