This is a powerful, well-researched read about who we allow to be the true "gatekeepers" of our thoughts. Language, national media, social media, trolls, etc. Who controls the "narrative"? Who do we allow to control the narrative and the trajectory of our morals and beliefs as a nation and as human beings?

I deeply respect Andrew Marantz's journalistic integrity as a writer for The New Yorker. At one point he mentions to Jim Hoft, founder of The Gateway Pundit (a right wing opinion website that is noted as providing false news, conspiracy theories, and hoaxes by sources ranging from Wikipedia to Media Bias Fact Check), that one of The New Yorker's full-time fact-checkers will probably be in touch prior to a published article, Hoft says, "'Oh yeah, just like The Gateway Pundit . . . We've got a huge department of full-time fact-checkers.' He laughed so hard at his own joke he nearly spilled his lemonade" (236). [Aside: The fact-checker at one point discovers that Marantz has incorrectly labeled someone's pottery as being from New Mexico when it was actually from the country of Mexico--such are the details that fact-checkers unearth, excavate, and expose--even when details are seemingly unimportant to the "story," they still help tell the truth].

This is both a frightening and important book to read.