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Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson Biography

Journalist

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“When you gaze into the eyes of another person, you can only see as far as his closed door,' [Gary Maier] said. 'So take this as an opportunity to knock on that door. If he doesn't want to open the door you bow to him and you say, "That's fine. When you're ready."' 'What would be behind their closed doors?' I asked. 'Freedom,' said Gary.”

Freedom
Book:The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
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“I favour humans over ideology, but right now the ideologues are winning, and they're creating a stage for constant artificial high dramas, where everyone is either a magnificent hero or a sickening villain. We can lead good, ethical lives, but some bad phraseology in a Tweet can overwhelm it all - even though we know that's not how we should define our fellow humans. What's true about our fellow humans is that we are clever and stupid. We are grey areas. And so ... when you see an unfair or an ambiguous shaming unfold, speak up on behalf of the shamed person. A babble of opposing voices - that's democracy. The great thing about social media was how it gave a voice to voiceless people. Let's not turn it into a world where the smartest way to survive is to go back to being voiceless.”

PsychologySocial MediaShaming
Book:So You've Been Publicly Shamed
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“The DSM-IV-TR is a 943-page textbook published by the American Psychiatric Association that sells for $99...There are currently 374 mental disorders. I bought the book...and leafed through it...I closed the manual. "I wonder if I've got any of the 374 mental disorders," I thought. I opened the manual again. And instantly diagnosed myself with twelve different ones.”

PsychologyMental HealthMental Disorders
Book:The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
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“A tiny little baby!' says Tam. 'People look at me like I'm an animal. People who don't know me judge me. I always remember going up to visit someone in prison, and this woman was sitting there. She was looking at me, growling a bit, and I could imagine what she was thinking: "There's a pedophile!" Anyway, I later discovered about her character. And I'll tell you, it outweighed anything I'd ever done.' 'What had she done?' I ask. 'Shoplifting,' says Tam. There is silence.”

PedophiliaShopliftingYou Are WrongTam PatonThe Fall Of A Pop Impresario
Author:Jon Ronson
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“It's not a remarkable note except for one thing. The typeface Tony used to print it is the exact typeface Kubrick used for the posters and title sequences of 'Eyes Wide Shut' and '2001'. 'It's Futura Extra Bold,' explains Tony. 'It was Stanley's favorite typeface. It's sans serif. He liked Helvetica and Univers too. Clean and elegant.' 'Is this the kind of thing you and Kubrick used to talk about?' I asked. 'God, yes,' says Tony. 'Sometimes late into the night. I was always trying to persuade him to turn away from them. But he was wedded to his sans serifs.”

HumorousUniversHelveticaFontStanley KubrickFuturaTypefaceFutura Extra BoldStanley Kubrick S Boxes
Book:Lost At Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries
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“Practically every prime-time program is populated by people who are just the right sort of mad, and I now knew what the formula was. The right sort of mad are people who are a bit madder than we fear we're becoming, and in a recognizable way. We might be anxious but we aren't as anxious as they are. We might be paranoid but we aren't as paranoid as they are. We are entertained by them, and comforted that we're not as mad as they are.”

Chapter 8Page 210
Book:The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
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“And then one day it hit me. Something of real consequence was happening. We were at the start of a great renaissance of public shaming. After a lull of 180 years (public punishments were phased out in 1837 in the United Kingdom and 1839 in the United States) it was back in a big way. When we deployed shame, we were utilizing an immensely powerful tool. It was coercive, borderless, and increasing in speed and influence. Hierarchies were being levelled out. The silenced were getting a voice. It was like the democratization of justice. And so I made a decision. The next time a great modern shaming unfolded against some significant wrongdoer - the next time citizen justice prevailed in a dramatic and righteous way - I would leap into the middle of it.”

IdeologyCancel CulturePublic Shaming
Book:So You've Been Publicly Shamed
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“A stab had clearly once been made at de-uglifying these public spaces by painting a corridor a jaunty yellow. This was because, it turned out, babies come here to have their brains tested and someone thought the yellow might calm them. But I couldn’t see how. Such was the oppressive ugliness of this building it would have been like sticking a red nose on a cadaver and calling it Ronald McDonald.”

HumorArchitectureOppressionUglinessBuildingsOppressiveRonald McdonaldCadaver
Book:The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
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“Guy Savelli's role in the War on Terror began when half-a-dozen strangers, within days of one another, contacted him via e-mail and telephone in the winter of 2003. They asked him if he had the power to psychically kill goats. Guy was bewildered. He did not go around publicizing this. Who were these men? How did they know about the goats? He feigned a casual tone of voice and said, 'Sure I can.'Then he phoned Special Forces.”

IfsKnowsMenSaidI CanWarGuyForceVoiceHalfRolesSpecialWinterTerrorStrangerToneDozenMailTelephonesCasualGoatsWar On TerrorBewilderedSpecial Forces
Author:Jon Ronson
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“As I glanced at the phraseology of the research report, dull and unfathomable to outsiders like me, I thought that if you have the ambition to become a villain, the first thing you should do is learn to be impenetrable. Don’t act like Blofeld—monocled and ostentatious. We journalists love writing about eccentrics. We hate writing about impenetrable, boring people. It makes us look bad: the duller the interviewee, the duller the prose. If you want to get away with wielding true, malevolent power, be boring.”

PeopleIfsWantShouldWritingFirstsLooksHateAmbitionResearchBoringLike MeJournalistDullProseReportsGet AwayVillainOutsidersUnfathomableOstentatious
Book:Jon Ronson's Adventures With Extraordinary People
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“There is no evidence that we've been placed on this planet to be especially happy or especially normal. And in fact our unhappiness and our strangeness, our anxieties and compulsions, those least fashionable aspects of our personalities, are quite often what lead us to do rather interesting things.”

FactsInterestingPlanetsPersonalityNormalAnxietyEvidenceAspectUnhappinessCompulsionInteresting ThingsFashionableStrangeness
Book:The Psychopath Test
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