The United States has its own origin myths, its own extremist groups. At SCL, I had the displeasure of watching countless propaganda videos disseminated by ISIS and deadbeat wannabe African warlords. The way members of jihadist cults fetishize their guns is no different from the way members of the NRA fetishize theirs. I knew that if we were going to truly study America, we needed to do it as if we were studying tribal conflict—by mapping out the country’s rituals, superstitions, mythologies, and ethnic tensions.
