The True Believer: Fanatics, TikTok, and the Need to Belong
edJEWcation Book Club 4
Written in 1951 by a longshoreman with an unsettling grasp of human psychology, The True Believer asks a simple question with terrifying implications: why do ordinary people become fanatics?
In this edJEWcation Book Club episode, we dig into Eric Hoffer’s timeless analysis of mass movements, self-hatred, humiliation, certainty, and the seductive power of belonging. From Nazism and Communism to campus encampments, TikTok activism, and online extremists, we debate whether Hoffer was describing history or diagnosing our present.
We wrestle with uncomfortable questions:
Is hatred easier to organize than love?
Are today’s movements real revolutions or just cosplay with slogans?
Why do people crave certainty so badly?
Why do some religions help people lead meaningful lives, and others turn them into fanatics?
Along the way, we talk loneliness, social media, male humiliation, Holocaust jokes in unexpected places, and why not knowing might be the most Jewish answer of all.
Plus: a surprise detour into Marty Supreme, Timothy Chalamet, and why humiliation might be the hidden engine of fanaticism.
Read the book. Question everything. And maybe, just maybe, turn your phone off.