Big Technology
The Brilliance of All Gas No Brakes
People are joining fringe movements in search of meaning. It’s one thing to read about it, another to see it.
As he prepared to go hunting for Bigfoot, Andrew Callaghan picked up the phone.
It was just another day for the 23-year-old creator of the hit YouTube show All Gas No Brakes. For the past year, Callaghan’s been driving across the U.S. in an RV, periodically hopping out in an ill-fitting suit, putting a microphone in front of people’s faces, and letting them speak. What comes out is an illuminating look into the soul of the country. It’s not pretty. But if we want to fix our society’s problems, it’s worth our attention.
Callaghan, a Seattle native, mostly interviews people on the outskirts of U.S. life, though the fringe tends to be mainstream in this country today. As people speak with him — unfiltered, uninterrupted, and at length — a sense of emptiness pervades. You can see it when flat earthers discuss their large Facebook groups, gem enthusiasts preach the power of psychedelics, and conspiracy theorists come together to rush U.S. military zones. Traditional institutions that once provided purpose and kinship are falling, and the fringe is filling the void.
