Conservation writer and historian Betsy Gaines Quammen lives in the heart of Bozeman, Montana a city and a state that have been inundated with wealthy transplants in recent years, thanks in part to pandemic-era migration out of urban areas and the hit TV Western series Yellowstone.

Long-standing myths about the American West including the perception of the region as a limitless open frontier where freedom is paramount are also reshaping Montana and other Western states, as Gaines Quammen details in her recent book, True West: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America . As the West has become a more and more enticing destination for people to settle, it has also become an increasingly welcoming space for far-right extremism to take root.

In True West, Gaines Quammen takes pains to dismantle what she refers to as the Western myth museum, and offers solutions for how to fight back against a rising tide of misinformation and extremism.

Its ever more important for people, in looking at truths, to be able to navigate interconnectedness, Gaines Quammen told HuffPost. We cannot fall prey to these reductive ways of thinking. And there are so many politicians who want us to do that.

Gaines Quammen calls True West a companion piece to her first book, American Zion, which chronicled Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his familys feud with the federal government over grazing cattle on public lands. The Bundys, who are Mormon, believe they have a divine right to lands that were long occupied by Indigenous peoples and are now owned by all Americans. The Bundys helped energize a far-right, anti-government militia movement, some of whose members went on to fight against COVID-19 restrictions and participate in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

HuffPost recently spoke with Gaines Quammen about True West, personal misconceptions she had to confront during her research, the threat of so-called conspirituality, what she views as our countrys most hopeless myth, and movies and TV shows that have shaped our perception of the American West.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I want to start with a question about how you see the West that you call home. As you so clearly lay out in the book, myths and misperceptions are rampant, often layered on top of one another and accompanied by misinformation. Cut through the noise for a minute: What is the West?

If youll kind of indulge me, its named True West, which is supposed to be a little tongue-in-cheek, because what is the true West? The idea was, there really isnt a true West. We all kind of have our version of it. In looking at versions of the West, that took me right to mythology, because the West is such a mythologized place. I feel like these myths are absolutely foundational to what Americans think of themselves.

Im sure you cant make that sweeping generalization. There are Americans that dont buy into, you know, this idea of endless resources, this idea of Manifest Destiny, the adoration of the cowboy, these things that we think about when we think about the West.

The true West, its really in the eye of the beholder. I talk about the West as a proving ground, a homeland, as having the seeds to some of what happened on Jan. 6.

True West opens with you touring the Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum with its director, Robert Canen. The museum, located in Glendive, Montana, presents as fact that the Earth is 6,000 years old and dinosaurs and humans roamed at the same time. You argue that while such beliefs arent necessarily dangerous on their own, the logic behind them is. Talk about that. Where are you seeing similar dogma in national politics?

Its this idea of thinking in lockstep. With Robert who, I will say, is a delightful man. I mean, he absolutely was enormously generous with me. He was very kind. But there is the idea, in terms of being a biblical literalist, that you have to buy the Bible 100%, that theres no room for any sort of questioning. So when he reads Genesis and he reads it not as a religious text, but as a scientific text, he takes from it that the world is 6,000 years old.

Once you start to question it, youre starting to make waves. [Robert] would make the argument that once you make those waves, then your questioning becomes an existential crisis. Youre never going to feel content, youre going to be an unhappy Christian. So its better just to believe the Bible cover to cover.

If youre a Christian nationalist or a fundamentalist evangelical and you begin to say, I see the Bible as a beautiful sacred text with some wonderful lessons, but I dont buy it 100%, youre not walking in lockstep. These are cultures that need to have people buy everything and not question, whether thats the layers of patriarchy or the layers of dominion go forth and subdue the Earth or [the idea that] Donald Trump is the patriarch. If these are things that theyre adopting and theyre saying, You have to believe all of this this idea that if you question anything, that brings up issues of loyalty. Its basically all-or-nothing thinking. And once you have all-or-nothing thinking, you have a group of people who are not going to be swayed by evidence or persuasive arguments or critical thinking. Its dangerous.