The idea that history is recurrent is one of the most powerful in Western society, from the halls of Harvard to characters on "Battlestar Galactica" reciting, "All this has happened before. All of this will happen again." It can feel like we're living in unprecedented times in the United States, with a rising fascist movement led by a reality TV star. But it's not so. (Well, the reality TV part is novel.) In his new book, "The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis," author Jared Yates Sexton roots the delusional thinking that drives Trumpism in a long history of the world, where people often sink into paranoid fantasies in order to justify their worldview.
Sexton spoke with Salon about how the toxic rejection of reality we're all witnessing now has long been an unpleasant feature of human societies, and how hopefully we can learn from this to do a better job in fighting back in our current moment. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
