Satan Goes to the Mind Control Convention: Manchurian Candidates, Recovered Memories, and the Dark Side of Conspiracy Culture

looks at the role that conspiracy theories play in American life and the current political climate. The book begins at a convention for therapists who uncover "memories" of past lives, extraterrestrials, and government mind control operations. From there, the reader will encounter Pizzagate enthusiasts, conspiracy entrepreneurs, Satanists, flat-earthers, and more. Ultimately, the author cautions that right-wing conspiracy culture is a fascist confidence trick that will only get more violent over the coming years. "Joseph L. Flatley goes where few journalists dare to tread: into the heart of America's conspiracy culture. Sociopaths, quack psychologists, targeted individuals, flat-earthers, antisemites, one world government freaks-no moldy rock is left unturned. Reading this book, first you'll want to laugh and then you'll want to run home and lock your doors. Because it makes one thing very clear: America's conspiracy culture is a lot less fringe, a lot more profitable, and a hell of a lot more right-wing and scary than most of us want to admit." "Joe Flatley is that rarest journalistic observer of conspiracy culture: deeply informed of its history and lineages, perfectly rational, and just sympathetic enough to know when harmless eccentricity and justified paranoia bleeds into malevolent madness. In these investigations he is at his best, deep-diving into worlds of belief where the CIA, Satan and the Occult are the only forces that matter." "Nobody gets inside the minds of conspiracy theorists and other American oddballs quite like Joe Flatley. This book is a pleasure to read-and a little frightening." "A haunting and intimate look into the darker corners of the conspiracy movement, Satan Goes to the Mind Control Convention explores the toxic practices used by groups who exploit and control people seeking help. Joseph L. Flatley clearly demonstrates the dangers they present to an America obsessed by conspiratorial thinking."