I've read Them. Him and his producer yelling at each other shouldnt be as funny as it is when you can't hear it. Have you heard this? https://www.thisamericanlife.org/670/beware-the-jabberwock/act-two-4
The most profound effect Them had on me was it made Randy Weaver a sympathetic person. You can tell who Ronson considers a clown - he lets them paint themselves up with no real assistance. But Randy Weaver and his daughter? Ronson basically lets them make their case and I found it compelling. I think where he really excels is in taking an absurd story, going "Here's a thing, here's what I saw, here's the questions I asked, kindly connect the dots" and then leaving you to wonder how you feel about it. There's a lot of ambivalence present in everything Ronson has to say about Frank Sidebottom, for example.
I've heard multiple sympathetic Randy Weaver stories including Jon's. It does seem like entrapment. I just watched one the other day on Netflix that was very sympathetic. Then at the end it seemed to show Weaver wearing a ZOG tshirt. I guess it's not illegal to be racist but I think every account I've heard said he was not racist, just hung out with racists. He was racist but not violently racist maybe? I'd still recommend the documentary. His daughter is interviewed a lot and it's sad no matter what
We've lost something in our polarity. Used to be you could be a liberal Republican with bad ideas about taxation or a conservative Democrat who championed social welfare. Now? You're a good guy or a bad guy and we'll figure out which is which depending on what our social media signals tell us to think. You don't hang out in Sand Point unless you're okay with your friends advocating for the dominion of the white race. Thaaaaaat's racist. But legal protections apply to racists, too or else the whole system collapses. Frontline did a profile on Waco. It's pretty clear that the ATF were a bunch of cowboy vigilantes looking to crack skulls and that they celebrated the stereotypes the prepper community (at the time) vilified. They had a massive cultural problem that manifested itself as dead kids and thank fucking god they learned a thing or two by the time of the Bundy ranch.
I think it was a Frontline doc I watched on Netflix. I'm pretty uncomfortable with the ZOG thing. The Bundy family though? It's not like I can't be sympathetic to right wingers' complaints. Land rights in the west is a surprisingly complex issue. They're also mad about nuclear fallout. One of them is even woke on immigration. I was way more surprised to be sympathetic to Yall Qaeda. Yeah, killing people is obviously bad. Taking control of a ranger station or whatever? WTF? learns some things OK Weird flex but you've got some valid points. Wasn't expecting to make that concession when it was playing out https://longreads.com/2018/05/15/bundyville-chapter-one-a-war-in-the-desert/
I recommend his books as audiobooks. Hearing him describe Alex Jones putting on a disguise to sneak into Bohemian Grove and panicking when he thinks he's going to be caught is a thing of beauty. I think the disguise is just like a Columbia shirt, shorts and some sunglasses. He describes them as looking like golfers or some such bougie white guy