He Spends His Days Tracking America's Wildest Conspiracy Theorists. What He's Seeing Lately Is Eye-Popping.

"Sommer has been covering the grotesqueries of outrè right-wing conspiracy culture for nearly a decade now. He has memorized the biographies of charlatans like Jacob Wohl, Gavin McInnes, and Steven Crowder, to say nothing of the empire of content published by Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson. But more than that, Sommer possesses a special fluency with the illusory reality being signal-boosted by a seemingly infinite number of outlying MAGA partisans."

"All of this research produced Sommer's book, Trust The Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Reshaped The World, which charted the information crisis that birthed Jan. 6. Somehow, American politics has only grown stranger since then. For Sommer, that means one of the most recent editions of his newsletter, False Flag, focused on the worryingly large number of Republicans who believe this latest assassination attempt was staged."

"His encyclopedic knowledge of murky right-wing media networks requires a dedication to the canon that few are willing to muster. The archetypical Sommer tweet features him effortlessly rattling off the perverse backstories of ancillary MAGA figures, with sourcing cultivated far outside the visibility of mainstream news consumers."

Will Sommer, a prominent disinformation reporter at the Bulwark, specializes in analyzing right-wing conspiracy culture and fringe media networks. His work covers figures like Jacob Wohl, Gavin McInnes, Steven Crowder, Candace Owens, and Tucker Carlson, documenting how their content influences MAGA partisans and shapes political consensus. Sommer's book, Trust The Plan, examines QAnon's rise and its role in the January 6 Capitol riot. His newsletter, False Flag, continues tracking conspiracy theories, including recent false claims about assassination attempts being staged. Sommer maintains encyclopedic knowledge of obscure right-wing media ecosystems through dedicated research and sourcing outside mainstream visibility.

Read at Slate Magazine