Post-Weird: Fragmentation, Community, and the Decline of the Mainstream

Synopsis

An ambitious look at rhetoric and psychosis that explores how communities form when society collapses American society seems to have fractured. Common touchpoints of authority have receded in recent decades and beliefs that were once taboo are now openly shared, from neo-Nazism to occultism to conspiracy thinking. In this book, Calum Lister Matheson goes beyond the fraying of contemporary American culture to ask how splinter communities form in our current media environment, what keeps them together, and what they build from the ruins of shared language. In his stirring exploration of how people communicate when old forms of authority and meaning collapse, Matheson examines far-flung groups that have departed the mainstream—Sandy Hook deniers, Appalachian serpent handlers, pro-anorexia bloggers, incels, transvestigators, pseudoscientific reactionaries, and more—and finds unexpected similarities among their many differences. Key among their parallels is the insistence that the symbols shared by each community represent a hidden truth that cannot be questioned or interpreted but is revealed through signs—words, images, videos, and texts. By documenting American fringe cultures, extremism, and the social functions of language, this book rethinks concepts like irony, psychosis, propriety, and what it means to be normal in weird times.

Copyright:

2026

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781978840164

Related ISBNs:

9781978840171, 9781978840188

Publisher:

Rutgers University Press

Date of Addition:

11/11/25

Copyrighted By:

Calum Lister Matheson

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Religion and Spirituality, Psychology, Social Studies, Language Arts, Communication, Sociology

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.