Jon Ronson hangs out with various people who have one thing in common - they believe that the world is controlled by a shadowy cabal of powerful people (many of them Jews) who decide the fate of the world. According to this grand conspiracy theory, the "secret rulers" engineer the elections of heads of state, start and end wars, have people assassinated, etc.

The title Them has a dual meaning. It refers to the people who believe in this world conspiracy and those who supposedly are its members. Ronson hangs out with KKK leaders, an Islamic jihadist, and neo-Nazis, and various apocalypse watchers. He is tailed by mysterious men in sunglasses, and he crashes a weird annual "pagan owl ritual" attended by powerful men in government and business. Ronson is constantly asking himself whether the paranoia of his companions is starting to rub off on him. As for the owl thing, it is pretty bizarre, but it mainly seems like a gathering for aging frat boys.

The beauty of this book is that it shows how different people can interpret the same sets of facts in radically different ways. The supposed members of this ruling elite seem suspicious, but Ronson admits that, seen from another perspective, his own behavior is akin to a stalker. But then he thinks that even paranoiacs have enemies. It is a conundrum that Ronson never bothers to resolve.

Really interesting, but also just absolute chaos!

Normally, I love everything Ronson writes, and I did like this one - it just made for an uncomfortable read. Many of the features were difficult to read, but I personally found the Klan rally to be the worst of the bunch. I would recommend this read, it has the features of Ronson's characteristic engaging style, but it naturally doesn't have the same level of flippant, humorous observation found in 'The Psychopath Test' or 'So you've been publicly shamed', but it made for a very precient read in the contemporary age given it was published a few decades ago.

Absolute banger, but at this point what are you expecting from Jon Ronson? His voice is so strong as a writer in a way I envy, the relevance of his writing is as relevant as ever (interviews with Alex Jones! Complex feelings on conspiracy theories!) and he's just so damn readable. Really good way to keep out of my reading slump.

This is ultimately a rather disappointing book. My review comes after a second reading a decade and a half from its first reading. The first third was better than I remembered and the last two thirds much worse.

Taken together, it is a series of picaresque adventures by a rather slippery Jewish journalist dealing with 'extremists' who are treated comically, albeit at times with grudging respect. There is no analysis, no context, just entertaining vignettes with, admittedly, a few laugh-out-loud moments.

The problem here is that extremism is a category that means a very wide range of opinions, some of which are no longer very funny (Islamism) and others are perhaps a little unfairly treated in the context of the book.

Ronson himself is surprisingly fair-minded even if he wears his Jewishness on his sleeve a little too much. This is when he is the 'cosmopolitan' self-regarding liberal trying to be fair but coming down on the side of reason in a way that sets an ideological agenda regardless of intent.

The first third is good not only because he cleverly humanises a rather silly man in Omar Bakri Mohammed (rather as he points up the essential authoritarian narcissism of Ian Paisley in a later vignette) but because he takes us into the heart of the New World Order conspiracy theory.

The standard response to NWO conspiracy theory is that it is the territory of half-educated half-wits and that there is no conspiracy. There probably isn't it in the way that most believers believe - the ruling order is not that clever as we see from disaster after disaster in recent years.

What he manages to do though is show how, regardless of the association with the radical right (here a non-Jew makes the sign of the cross to ward off the evil), the belief in the NWO is not quite as irrational as it may seem set against the brutal actions of 'federales' and elite secrecy.

All that is happening is that people with no information are filling the gaps to make sense of their own lives. There does happen to be a Bilderberg Group, it does happen to have an agenda, it does seem to intimidate and Randy Weaver's boy and wife were killed by thugs.

The reality is probably infinitely more complex than the conspiracy theorists may like but the facts are in Ronson's book - that the Federal Government thought it could get away with murder and that when your Government thinks that, you think defensively about why that might be.

If you want to know what your Government is capable of, just study history and, in Britain, the draft of the Cold War Emergency Powers Bill. Most Government is good and honest but some is not and when people see that is not, they start to ask why and for whose benefit.

Looking back over a decade and a half, some of the humour in the book now looks complacent and not only about Omar Bakri Mohammed. It is arguable that the irresistible rise of Arturo Trump was sown in the dumb brutality of the FBI on Ruby Ridge and its stupid attempted cover up.

It looks even more complacent as the black community finds itself reacting against a run of brutal police acts that have been normal practice in some American cities for too long and from which white liberals have averted their eyes for too long - as they have done to the gulag in their midst.

To be fair, Ronson was not to know how history was to pan out. He, in turn, is fair in his clever knife job on the pseudo-liberalism of the Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai Brith and on the manipulative censorship operation against David Icke by the usual suspects in Toronto.

White liberals come out of this book as badly as racist loons in many ways but Ronson does not take his advantage and run with it. He wants to amuse and not inform and it is interesting to see his books stacked up today as easy-reads in Charing Cross station's WH Smith.

Perhaps it is unfair of me to ask too much of a jobbing London journalist who has to feed the meter like the rest of us but this is not a good way of educating the general public about political reality - in laughing about populism, it feeds populism by the back door.

Still, as an entertainment with a few insights and some laughs, I would not want to deter you from it. Just take the whole thing with a pinch of salt when making judgments about those on whom he reports - either good or bad.

I read this when it was first published in 2001 (I was 17) and thought it was fantastic. Reading it again in 2009 (aged 25), I feel a little bit different. On one hand, Jon Ronson is a very good writer; his style is simultaneously hilarious and poignant, and he lampoons his subjects in an affectionate matter while making some very salient points about the dangers of both paranoia and complacency. On the other, I feel that some of the topics covered don't sit very well with the generally humorous tone; in particular, Ronson's experiences with Muslim extremist Omar Bakri and various members of the Ku Klux Klan lead to some genuinely disturbing encounters, and I'm not sure that portraying those involved as amusing, almost farcical characters is the right approach. However, the book is still worth a look and acts as a very readable and accessible primer for anyone interested in the truth behind conspiracy theories about the 'secret rulers of the world'.

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What is the Bilderberg Group? Is it a self-interested but vaguely benevolent private club composed of international movers & shakers who come together annually to discuss "government and politics, finance, industry, labour, education and communications"? Or is it a nefarious group of power brokers and nation breakers - the Secret Rulers of the World?

Who is David Icke? Goofy New Age conspiracy nut who believes our leaders actually belong to 1 of 16 sinister alien-reptile species? Or a misunderstood questioner of the powers that be?

Who is Ku Klux Klansman Thom Robb? Who is Omar Bakri Muhammad? Who is Ian Paisley? What really happened on Ruby Ridge?

But most important to me as a reader... who is Jon Ronson?

Is Jon Ronson a semi-comic journalist, author, and documentarian who has made a career out of puncturing various blowhards - in particular self-important politicians and freaky cult-style leaders? Is Jon Ronson a passive milquetoast who quivers in fear at the slightest threat? Is he an obnoxiously "neutral" and unusually self-absorbed member of the press corps... the sort of ruthlessly clueless reporter who would forget about pulling a kid out of burning car just so that he could take some cool snaps... the kind of hopelessly naive person who pretends that no one is truly capable of enacting evil - after all, you just gotta look under the surface and we're all just silly, harmless humans who couldn't hurt a fly, right? Or is Jon Ronson simply an adorable wet kitty cat?

n  n

This collection of anecdotes focusing on the "human elements" of various controversial figures and groups - with a brief but poignant (and ultimately infuriating) stop-off into the world of Ruby Ridge - is fast-paced and consistently amusing. I really appreciated the humanization of the assorted extremists - it fit right into my cynical-but-basically-humanistic perspective. People ARE funny. And even villains are people too, right? They have their little human foibles. No person is all bad or all good and everyone has their personal context and everyone is three-dimensional blah blah blah.

This has been a surprisingly popular book for a couple groups of friends. So let me talk about them for a little bit. These friends are: semi college educated & college educated & college - yeah right; work with their hands (so to speak), or not - but not office drones either; somewhat anti-intellectual; staunchly pro-human rights; semi hard-drinkin' family men... the kind of assortment of social work & blue collar & non-corporate, hates-all-politicians kind of guys who form a surprisingly large portion of the Democratic Party's backbone. Factor in youths spent in various alternate subcultures and you have in some ways an ideal audience for this novel. In an engagingly sardonic and self-effacing style, the book reveals who the assholes are and how fucked up governments are and points out the hypocrisy of certain extremists - fun stuff. Heads nod in agreement, including mine. And under all the mild snark and comfy irony is an almost sweetly idealistic theme of "people are just people". Awww, shucks.

Unlike my friends, I'm a Queer White Collar Nerd. But I doubt that that has anything to do with my different reaction. My friends are not naive (and, I should add, they are awesome), so maybe I'm just more of a prick. Whatever the reason may be, I didn't enjoy this as much as everyone else did. I really wonder why. This book annoyed me, sometimes even disgusted or angered me - but not because of Them's various subjects. JON RONSON was the problem. Oops, almost forgot my meaningless Venn Diagram:

n  n

Anyway, I enjoyed it enough to give it 2 stars. It was fun. Cute even, at times. People and their little foibles, amused sigh. Crazy people sure are crazy, good grief! And yet they're human too, my goodness! Funny crazy humans!

Eyeroll. I have some questions for you, Jon Ronson:

- What is your problem with being a Jew? My God man, have some fucking pride! I'll give you this: you acknowledge your unseemly hypocrisy in buddying up with various creeps who base their careers on demonizing jewish folks and who actually fund groups whose intent is to Kill Jews. Yes, you acknowledge that practising dishonesty by omission made you feel bad. But you continued to do it! At one point you fantasize about sabatoging an effort calling for the decimation of your people. All you had to do was throw away some horrifically offensive flyers. And yet you do nothing, not the slightest thing, you just wish you could do something, and then you move on with a shrug. I'm sorry, but I'm just not cool with that. Have some courage. I don't respect wusses just because they admit that they are being a wuss. Fine, thanks for being honest - but you are still a wuss. Am I supposed to be charmed by your sheepish confessions and your continual lack of backbone?

- Do you really think the Bilderberg Group is simply an overhyped bunch of harmless (albeit security-happy and obnoxiously exclusive) businessmen? Do you truly think they have had no impact whatsoever on the various events that have happened on the world stage? Are you that stunningly naive? Do you actually work for the Bilderberg Group?

- Don't you believe in checking out someone's background before you go a-spyin' with him in Spain? I'll give the Good Ole Boy in question his props: he didn't seem like a complete idiot. But you didn't bother to check out the rag he edits first? You are surprised that his small-town rag published some virulently racist articles? As a journalist, you didn't think it was necessary to check out his actual work before going on a super secret spy mission with him? Do you think that just because someone is garrulous and down-to-earth that they can't be capable of doing things that are incredibly wrong?

- Why didn't you mention that you had filmed a documentary on Ian Paisley prior to meeting him? You paint this scary blowhard as oh so mean to poor wittle Jon Ronson - Paisley's monstrous rudeness just comes out of nowhere. Don't you think it was at all necessary to declare your past history with the gent in question? That chapter functioned as a near hit piece... why? Sweet revenge for past insults?

- Do you think that writing a narrative, reporting a story, being a documentarian... somehow lets you off the hook when it comes to basic decency? I hate frickin' excuses, and in particular I hate excuses that are trying to let someone off the hook out of doing the right thing. Case in point: you are aware that some jackasses are planning to physically and publicly humiliate a guy who you know is not a bad guy, who is not a racist or anti-semite or whatever... you know that what the jackasses are planning to do is completely unjust... the guy bares his soul to you, including all about his greatest fear: public humiliation, ON THE WAY TO WHERE THE PUBLIC ATTACK IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN... and you do nothing. Journalistic integrity, I suppose, right? Must not interfere, right? Fuck off! So it didn't turn out how the jackasses wanted it to turn out. So what? It could have - and you did nothing. I really wanted to kick your ass after that sequence.

- Do you truly believe that the Fourth Estate is unbiased and objective? In your quest to understand extremists and extremism, to show the human inside the monster, to show the basic foolishness of man... have you forgotten that people actually die for their beliefs...that words and actions sometimes have meaning? Your chapter on Ruby Ridge was the only place I found genuine anger... are you afraid of anger? Are you afraid of being disgusted by people who do truly disgusting things? Is the world and all of its woes and all of its angry violent people and all of its blood and slaughter simply amusing and interesting topics to snort and smirk over? Are there truly no stakes?

- Do you believe such passive engagement with the world is capable of delivering any kind of real truth? Well, at least the kind of truth that I can understand. "Objectivity"... Neutrality. Goddamn I hate that bullshit. Feh! Grow up, man. No one is truly neutral. Everything is subjective.

I could have been riveted by this book if it had had the strength to have an actual opinion. This isn't a history book, it is not clinical research or a community needs assessment - it is a personal narrative. Personal Narrative. And so No Opinions = Bullshit. Be real, don't be afraid to have some opinions or to get a little hardcore. To be yourself. To be angry that there are a bunch of fucked-up things going on in the world, all the time, throughout time. I'd much rather have that pissed-off messiness than this determinedly amusing, blandly pleasant, roll over & die softcore truthiness.

jon ronson ur prose is so sexxxxxxxxxxy and ur ethics are sooooooo grey

Before there was a book, there was the BBC documentary series World of Wonder. The episode "Secret Rulers of the World" is available on YouTube and covers the last chapter of the book about the Bohemian Grove. In both he travels there with radical radio personality Alex Jones, his girlfriend Violet and cameraman Mike Hanson (who became "producer" in the book). In the documentary, Ronson interviews Rick who has reportedly infiltrated the Bohemian Grove before and gave them tips on how to casually walk in wearing preppy clothes. This is where it diverts into two very different accounts. In the documentary, Ronson and Violet drop Alex and Mike off at the driveway that leads to the front entrance. Alex and Mike take video footage of the ceremony before walking out of the camp and being picked up by Ronson and Violet at 1am. Back at the motel, Alex and Mike show Ronson and Violet the video footage, which is turned sideways and difficult to make out because they forgot to change the light settings. In the book, Ronson enters the Bohemian Grove with Rick and they catch up with Alex and Mike. Not only is this contrary to Ronson's own documentary with a personal narrative voice over, Mike Hansen's own account is that only Alex and he infiltrated the Bohemian Grove.

I'm not sure why Ronson changed his story to be a personal account of something he only witnessed secondhand. I imagine it's because it makes for a better story, but ultimately it ruins his writing for me. Once an investigative journalist is caught in a deliberate lie, all of his research becomes suspect and needs further investigation before being believed.

Jon Ronson has the most lovely written style. He is one of just a handful of writers I am aware of who knows how to be sly. He achieves his considerable results by underplaying, understating, and refusing always the easy option of mockery or condemnation. His subjects are some of the most colourfully insane characters you will ever read in fiction - except that they are, almost unbelievably, real. This book is a marvel, an eye-opener, an education. And he contrives to be funny, without really ever being funny, but just allowing the innate funniness of these individuals to express itself naturally.

What is most surprising though is that, as the book develops, he finds himself uncertain as to who the crazies really are. The world he is describing is one in which one group of deranged individuals is confronted by another, equally demented group, and he is forced to confront his own inability to decide between 'Them and Them'. The Truth is elusive, complicated, far more nuanced than it at first appears, and he is torn between conflicting versions of lunacy. At one point he says 'Thank God I didn't believe in the secret rulers of the world. Imagine what the secret rulers of the world might do to me if I did.' My favourite quote, though, is from Islamic 'teacher' Omar Bakri: 'Be careful from homosexuality! It is not good for your tummy!' Subtle, bewildering and wildly funny.

If puzzling weird scenarios are you thing then I am sure this book will have something which appeals to you. This was a long car journey listen for me and held my interest in parts, whilst I definitely drifted off and ignored certain sections.

At times the situations were interesting and bizarre and Jon Ronson's experiences fascinated me (I particularly enjoyed the recounting of the events at Ruby Ridge) whereas at other times I questioned his judgement or lost interest in his stories (such as David Icke's preposterous notions of a sinister reptilian race).

Overall this was fun and quirky but repetitive in parts and the authors narration didn't strike a chord with me!

Very twisty book as the author spends time with a Muslim Extremist, Ruby Ridge survivors, at Waco, with Alex Jones, the Klan, Aryan Nation, the IRA, and a few others getting into their headspace & ideas. Some seem crazy, some crazy like a fox, but many share their own conspiracy theories with Ronson and he attempts to track down the secret room full of "rulers of the world" that quite a few of these groups fear. Read by the author on audio which I fully recommend.

Side Note: This book was published not long before 9/11, I often found myself wondered as I listened to it if his focus would have been different or if he would have even attempted this after 9/11.