User:AmericanUnreason

I changed my username on 4 April 2024.

Inspiration: In 2008 as a 17-year-old about to enter his last year of high school, I read Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason. Having grown up in a nonreligious family in the US, I found myself frequently questioning the influence of religious activism on our politics - especially because I'd started spending a lot of time on Wikipedia and eventually discovering the rise of Conservapedia (and subsequently this site). With the election taking place that year, I found a jarring contrast between a nation where Barack Obama could be a serious contender for the presidency and the masses of ignorant-by-choice citizenry who spread blatantly false beliefs about Obama (such as his citizenship).

In retrospect, reading that book truly changed my life and worldview, and I regret not changing my username earlier!

The good news is, The Age of American Unreason was reissued in 2018.