‘Could I understand the people who rushed into the Capitol?’: George Saunders on how stories teach empathy

‘The result of reading stories might be something like humility.’ Illustration: Stephan Schmitz/The Guardian

In the US, we are feeling the sickening after-effects of an attempted insurrection committed by people, many of whom, before that day, had never acted against their country or shown the least sign of being violent. What’s happening over here? Good question. And the truth is, nobody knows.

But here’s one way of looking at it: these people were told a false story and acted on it, with a level of passion and violence that would suggest true belief.