The Coming Storm

Gabi's Review

Buckle up folks! The Coming Storm by BBC journalist Gabriel Gatehouse is based on his podcast, and deals with the way conspiracy theories are creating calamitous social rifts in American society. Rifts that culminated in the storming of the White House on Jan 6th, 2021, and which are now threatening the viability of the 2024 election. Gatehouse’s riveting, revelatory book examines today’s meme warfare by tracing the origins and growth of the far-right American political conspiracy theory and political movement Q Anon. He connects the dots to decades-old grievances about coverups, private profiteering and increasing social inequality.

The book opens with a succinct examination of a few historic precedents in which disinformation campaigns have combined with new technologies (i.e. the printing press) to result in horrific societal outcomes such as the 15th-century witch hunts that found reinvention later in the US in Salem, Massachusetts. Conspiracy theories have found traction through the new technologies of the decentralised internet and social media, aided by the unbridled opportunism of press barons intent on inflaming divisions in society. Gatehouse gives as one prominent example the fantasy “of a corrupt cabal of Democrats" working with the Federal Reserve, the FBI and the CIA to profit from and deceive the American people. Conspiracies of this nature, he argues, are deeply entrenched in the American psyche, jeopardising the country’s democratic foundations.

Gatehouse’s book is a fascinating look at a complex topic. It combines investigative reporting and personal experience to follow both the nation, and himself, down a metaphorical rabbit hole as he interviews insurgents across the US. This eye-opening journey reveals a monumental shift in political culture, demonstrating how the current political crisis in the US was initiated during the early years of the Clinton administration. Clinton’s famous triangulation of Free Market Capitalism with a Social Democratic Face was a seemingly invincible political strategy that left his political opponents resorting to smear campaigns designed to destroy his political career. Initially unsuccessful, their tactics gained momentum in the following decades, due to the shrinking of over 1000 independent US news journals to 14 news corporations with divided political allegiances.

Gatehouse also shows that while allegations in the past could be quickly authenticated or repudiated, they are now obfuscated to the point of absurdity in a smokescreen intended to create further social divisions. He argues that the invasion of Capitol Hill was not the chaotic finale to Trump’s presidency but a doubling down on divisional media mudslinging tactics, supported by high profile players in big tech with terrifyingly regressive political agendas. Google Peter Thiel and Curtin Yarvin aka Mencius Moldbug if you desire another rabbit-hole deep-dive to discover who is informing and supporting Trump’s ultimate agenda.

This conspiratorial movement has united white supremacists, men’s rights activists, tech entrepreneurs aligned with dictatorship-oriented ideologies, as well as disillusioned leftists. As America approaches the November election, The Coming Storm provides valuable insights into the dangers that lie ahead for a nation in which both sides of politics believe that the other represents the end of democracy and freedom. Several recent books have exposed a dangerous new breed of politics and social forces seeking to benefit – financially, politically, culturally – from an egregious abuse of power, including Yuval Harari's Nexus, Thomas Frank’s Listen Liberal, Nick Bryant’s Forever Wars and Eric Beecham’s The Men Who Killed the News. Gabriel Gatehouse’s new book is a compelling, insightful exposé that takes its rightful place in these timely and increasingly crucial analyses of contemporary American politics.

Publishers Reviews

"Gabriel Gatehouse is a brilliant spelunker of the rabbit holes of American political culture. A spellbinding storyteller and reader of the runes of the strange times we live in." - Louis Theroux

Is this how democracy dies?

The Coming Storm is Gabriel Gatehouse's brilliant exploration of how conspiracy theories are tearing America apart. It's a story that takes you down a rabbit hole - one that both the US as a nation and he as a journalist fell through - to unpack an epochal shift in political culture that starts in the earliest years of the Clinton administration and reached a crescendo on 6 January 2021 with the storming of the US Capitol. But that event wasn't the wild finale of a chaotic Trump presidency many hoped for - it was only the beginning.

A compelling mix of research and reportage, The Coming Storm gets under the skin of these conspiracy theories to show us a radical new kind of politics emerging, a movement that has coalesced around a loose alliance of tech bros, internet trolls and white supremacists. At a perilous moment in the history of American democracy, Gatehouse tells us some dark truths about our present, and provides clues about our future. The Coming Storm marks the debut of a major new voice in political journalism.