"Truther" media keeps talking about how "the movie" White Noise was about a train derailment.

They don't mention that it was a book from 1985, and the book is all about fear, simulations, precognition, televised events, myth and narratives, and relation between those.

The main character is this professor who specializes in "Hitler Studies".
He invented this line of study basically through the academic cult of personality, which he preens and manicures at a professional level in order to maintain his academic position.

The town gets evacuated by a group called SIMUVAC, for simulated evacuation.
They say that this event is supposed to be real, but the lines get a little blurry.
The themes of fear, and fear of death are a big part of the book.

There is a drug called 'Dylar' which is supposed to overcome the fear of death.
The professor's wife cheats on him with a man called "Mr. Grey" in order to get access to this drug. There is a big traffic jam of people trying to escape the "event", and the professor's youngest kid rides his tricycle across the highway and everyone is amazed when he doesn't die.

There are clear-pills dropping everywhere, esp. regarding fear and catastrophe porn:

In a conversation about the event:

"Why is it that that decent, well-meaning and responsible people find themselves intrigued by catastrophe when the see it on television? ... Why? Because we are suffering from ** brain fade. ** We need an occasional catastrophe to break up the incessant bombardment of information. its obvious."

This expands to a larger section on this topic about California, how it is a place for disaster porn that people engage in since most don't like their relaxed lifestyle and think they deserve some suffering. Mudslides, fires, earthquakes, and television cameras always present to play it on the news. He talks about how people's minds process different suggestions or catastrophes at different levels, and basically how people become hypnotized and don't pay attention to things they should (it's better to read this part yourself).

Another insightful quote:

"Every disaster made us want for more, for something bigger, grander, more sweeping"

This was an especially interesting line:

"It's no wonder they call this thing the airborne toxic event. it's an event all right. it marks the end of uneventful things. this is just the beginning wait and see. this is the end of uneventful things, just wait."

Back in the early 00s there was a band called Airborne Toxic Event on "Alternative" Radio. The Clear Channel (CC) DJ would always remind listeners that this band was named after the book White Noise by Don Delillo. I'm sure this script was syndicated across the country, as all their scripts would have been in these very syndicated show. After hearing about this, I picked up the book back then and read it.

All of these actual topics of the book make me wonder if it was in fact a scripted event, if TPTB would be pointing to some of these other topics the book addresses.