Them: Adventures with Extremists

Fascinating, entertaining, funny and intriguing, "Them" is a companion to the doco series The Secret Rulers of the World, which greatly revolves around the the Bilderberg Group's nature, aims, members, activities and secret meetings. "Them" is also a portrait of extremists of all sorts and conspiracy-theory believers done by getting to know these people directly and personally via Ronson. "Them" is, above all, an exposé of how nonsensical beliefs morph and adjust in the mind of people and groups whose values and belief systems are, a priori, totally contrary, and on how delusion can create a sort of matrix that feels very real to those people who plug into it. Finally, this book is, at a more personal level, an exploration of the meaning of being a Jew, of who are the Jews, Jewish and the Zionists according to people who are not Jews done by Ronson, a lapse Jew."Them" surprises, like many other Ronson's books, because presents the extremists from a very human point of view, with detachment and compassion at the same time. They are normal people after all, with families, beliefs, and a heart, people who live very normal lives, even though part of their normality is also extremism. They believe that we all, the others, are the real extremists and not them, and they are not happy to be called or considered extremists. As Ronson states, "I thought that perhaps an interesting way to look at our world would be to move into theirs and stand alongside them while they glared back at us."Who are these persons? They are neo-nazis, anti-Jews, anti-Catholics, anti-blacks, anti-Christians. All these people share the conviction that power elites, the Bielderberg Group, orchestrated the 11/9 attacks, that those in the World Trade Centre were part of the New World Order, "an internationalist Western conspiracy conducted by a tiny, secretive elite, whose ultimate aim is to destroy all opposition, implement a planetary takeover, and establish themselves as a World Government."The people profiled in the book are:1/ Omar Bakri Mohammed.2/ Randy and Vicky Weaver.3/ Jack McLamb.4/ Big Jim Tucker.5/ David Icke.6/ Thom Robb.7/ The movie director Tony Kaye.8/ Jeff Berry.9/ The Ku Klux Klan historian Richard Bondira.10/ The Aryan Nations group in Idaho.11/ Dr Ian Paisley.12/ Mary Moore, a local anti-Bohemian Grove activist,Ronson does a great job at creating a profile of what the Bilderberg Group is according to the extremists, and them goes directly to the very members of the group and even one of their founders to obtain their version.I have never seen the documentaries, but the book stands alone well. "Them" is well-written, very well organised and "staged", and most of it has just a great cinematic feeling that makes the reading truly enjoyable. No wonder that the rights of the book were purchased to turn it into a movie. It feels like a movie but, sadly, all of what is mentioned in the book is real. Ronson does a great job at presenting the subject to us in a very entertaining way, with very humorous real-life episodes, mixed with serious reflection and research (even adventure) journalism.Like in other of his books, Ronson has the great virtue of keeping his English Phlegm burning slowly even when people are talking badly about the Jews, at keeping his Jewish origin as hidden as possible, or perhaps not openly displayed, and at getting the trust of people who, then, he exposes without any regret. Ronson wants to present to us who the extremists are and what they stand for. That is great. What I find somewhat unethical is his apparently willingness to make those very people believe that he is a sort of unbiased analyst, even a friend, when he is basically a journo writing a story.I think the book can be used how the concept of Alterity.I found the chapter on Romania's Ceauceuscu very entertaining but way off subject despite the fact that Ronson says that "I had come to Romania because I imagined that an auction of Ceauescu’s belongings was a fitting microcosm of what I believed went on inside Bilderberg meetings."The story of Randy's Weaver is very sad and depressing, and I found great that Ronson delved into the deep trying to bring up to the public the version of the killing of the family in the family cabin .The Chapters Clearing of the Forest and The Secret Rulers of the World are utterly funny, in a weird sense, hilarious at times. Ronson describes himself, perhaps just for narrative purposes, as the naive Jon who gets into weird things as if by accident.Yet, he is able to make and answer important questions and to provide, honestly, his personal views on things. I found that he is perhaps more honest with the reader than with the people he follows and interviews in this book, but this is just my impression.NOTES> Shorter or Modified versions of some of the chapters appeared published elsewhere before publication in their final form in this book.> The profiling and research on some of the extremists mentioned in the book began in 1995 and the book was first published in 2001, and the first electronic edition in 2010. In that regard, many of the events mentioned in the book are no longer current and many of them have have had U-turns that aren't mentioned in the book. However, the book reads well and is still valid as an exploration of extremism and extremists. It would have been great adding an addenda mentioning some of those events, an update of what has happened to those characters since the book was written, something really easy to do in an electronic edition.TYPOS+ location 520 ‘Oh, give it tome!’+ loc 2395 wasa mistake.+ loc 2546 ‘who might want tomarry me?’+ loc. 3486 to see a filmwhich may+ All references to Ceauescu have the s replaced with the proper Romanian symbol, but they appear oversized and somewhat distorted in my phablet and a bit odd in my Kindle for PC.A NOTE ON THE COVERRonson's book cover for the kindle edition is utterly cool, like most of his other Kindle editions. Great design and colouring and very humorous with Ronson's glasses and silhouette face always on view. So 'catchy'! Kudos to the designer.A great reading overall.

Jon Ronson writes a captivating tale here, explaining how he tried time and again without success to get "Bilderbergers" to answer his calls and letters. [He has heard that they -- "them" -- are the ones who rule the earth.]Now these Bildies, who include David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, and maybe ninety percent of the Big Media players -- to mention a few -- never reply. But Jon learns that they'll have their annual secret meeting 2000 in Portugal. He finds that "only one newspaper in Portugal, indeed only one in the world, as far as I could determine, was reporting the Bilderberg story." That was the "Portugal Weekly News," published and edited by Paul Luckman.I can tell Jon how Editor Luckman got this story. And I only report it because it proves that a little nobody from Long Island, NY, can have an impact on this "secret cabal." When I learned that the Bilderbergers would meet at the "Caesar Park" resort, I input "Portugal Newspapers" into my computer search, and then sent a short story to several of them. Paul was the only one taking me up on it, and he did a lot of checking. The guy deserves a Freedom Medal or some such. Though receiving veiled threats, he fully reported the meeting.**Jon Ronson might deserve a medal too, for -- as he explains in THEM -- trying to sneak into the meeting with indefatigible Jim Tucker of the late "SPOTLIGHT," superseded now by the improved "AMERICAN FREE PRESS." BUT Mr. Ronson throws it all over by cowtowing to Denis Healey, the British Bilderberger who assures our author that they're just a group of businessmen and financiers helping aspiring young fellows along their way....This is not to say that Ronson does not provide much to chew on -- especially the Randy Weaver story, how the Gov't sharpshooters shot Randy's son in the back and wife in the face -- and got away wiht it. Ronson not only goes to the scene (Ruby Ridge, Idaho), but interviews Randy's daughter Rachel and racist "Aryan Nation" characters in the area.But Ronson does injustice to "conspiracy theorists" in reporting on lizards, Ku Klux Klan, and the Bohemian Grove owl-worshippers. The fact that the Kissingers, Rockefellers, Clintons, and Joseph Liebermans meet in secret every year with no mention in Big Media, is enough without bringing lizards and owls into the mix.** When the Bilderbergers snuck off to an secluded island in Sweden the next year, I tried the same gambit for Swedish newspapers. Not a one, far as I know, carried the story -- or even dared ask about it.

This is a great book. The writing is smooth and the content is funny. It is Gonzo journalism of the Hunter S. Thompson type - a journalist inserts himself into the story and let's it ride. Ronson is a Jewish British chap who spent time with various "extremists" who believe that the world is being controlled by a secret group.Ronson hangs out with Big Jim Tucker of The Spotlight as the two try to infiltrate the Bilderburger group and then successfully infiltrates The Bohemian Grove with Alex Jones. For those who don't know what that it is, it is an annual party of some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the United States who gather to let it all hang out - they get drunk and sacrafice an animal. 5 years ago, Alan Greenspan arrived at the grove by stepping off a lear jet with Malcom Forbes. He was wearing a hat with the words capitalist tool on them.Ronson spends time with a KKK self-help guru who says it is time to stop using the N word, Omar Mohammed - the self-proclaimed "Bin Laden's man in Britian who unmasks Ronson as a Jew at a Jihad camp, Harold Ickes who claimes that lizards rule the world, and a man name Mr. Ru Ru.And there is a poignant chapter with Randy Weaver and his family from Ruby Ridge.Ronson lets all of these characters speek for themselves and they hilariously put their egos on display. A fun book. There is a reason why there are so many reviews of it here.

I’ve only ever read half of another Jon Ronson novel, but I knew from a few pages in that I preferred that half to this whole novel. That’s not the say this one wasn’t entertaining, but the witty and awkward Jon we met in The Psychopath Test didn’t seem to translate into this book quite as well.I really wanted to love this book but it didn’t grab me quite as much as I’d hoped. I found the plot of conspiracy theorists and the Bilderberg Group really intriguing, but it didn’t actually work so well on paper. Personally, I found the stories in this novel felt disjointed and random, where I was expecting an easy flow of stories to tell a bigger story.Some of the characters Jon meets felt far more interesting to me than others, and so that translated into the chapters. One could hold my attention and I would read it through all in one go, others felt lacklustre and slow, so I would put the book down and splash around in the pool instead. Maybe it was just the surroundings I was in, and maybe even the fact I had read The Boy on the Bridge just before this book, but I couldn’t seem to focus my attention on this.Don’t get me wrong, the plot was really interesting and I did learn lots of new things about conspiracy theories that I hadn’t know before. I even did some of my own research on the Bilderberg Group afterwards (I found out that The Bilderberg Group actually came to Watford when I was a child and lived there, and the whole city centre was shut down!), so the topic was something that worked for me. Plus, there were definitely some funny moments and I did get a chuckle out of a few of the scenarios and conversations that Jon got himself into.In the end, I think I thought this book was going to be something else? I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t exactly what I got. My mum did say to me that she felt this was his weakest book, so I’ve got more to look forward to with his other work… of which I will be giving a shot!

Perhaps the best thing about this story is the grain of truth that some of the conspiracy theorists, extremists and so on seem to have stumbled upon in amongst so much madness. Some of the personal stories are truly but wrenching. But in the end it feels safe to enjoy this as irreverence rather than be concerned about a global conspiracy. But I suppose that's just what the New World Order would want you to think...

Given that the book involves Ronson spending time with some of the most abhorrent and dangerous individuals and groups, Ronson provides a marvellously funny insight into their beliefs and motivations and comes up with some deeply disturbing details of the truths behind the extremists' conspiracy theories that motivates much of their political beliefs.It sounds awful but one of the funniest parts is the internal conflicts between 2 rival factions of the KKK.

It's a Jon Ronson book, so it's bound to be one that keeps the reader gripped, and it did for me. This book did not disappoint. Thoroughly enjoyed this read.Ronson puts himself in quite some frightening, and life threatening situations to bring us stories "from the other side" which are not only entertaining, but quite shocking eye openers.There is a touch of humour, but I found it more disturbing as Ronson's encounters with individuals and organisations in "high places" reveal that the people branded as "conspiracy theorists" might just be right after all about a few things; confirmed by a Bilderberg member themselves, and by the reaction of the person working at the British Embassy who answers Ronson's call for help.Although the extremists in the book do exhibit extremist ideologies, Ronson's encounters also reveal that the ones who seem most innocent in the eyes of the world, may well be just as extremist themselves.If there is one thing I've learned from Ronson's books, it's "question everything".

This is written very well and kept me engaged throughout. I enjoyed the chapter structuring as it added to the overall impact of the book. I found at times it went off on a tangent or two in respect of the overall theme but rather than this devaluing the book I actually thought it added to its bizarre subtle charms. I'm my opinion Jon is a very likable, unusual character which makes him ideal to do this job as his honest desire to delve into the world's he becomes immersed in gets him in and out of a few scrapes. It's like a abstract gonzo road trip British style.