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Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation - Printable Version

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Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation - Clover - Nov 12 2025

I've been slowly reading this book by Andrew Marantz from 2019.

Quote:From a rising star at The New Yorker, a deeply immersive chronicle of how the optimistic entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley set out to create a free and democratic internet--and how the cynical propagandists of the alt-right exploited that freedom to propel the extreme into the mainstream.

Honestly so far it has been a really interesting read. If anyone thought the The Rhetoric Tricks, Traps, and Tactics of White Nationalism article was illuminating, I feel like this book digs deeper into that topic.

I think I'm only like four or five chapters in, but the author basically spent a lot of time scouring the "alt right" internet to see how Trumpism reigned supreme in the 2016 presidential election through the use of social media.

So far, this book has given me more to think about, in terms of online communities, like possibly what bothered me about places like Ovarit/Vexxed, ala their noble "place for all women" message and the right-wing Overton window shift many have felt they noticed there. I'm on my phone and perpetually tired, but I hope someday soon to write up my thoughts on specific excerpts from this book.

I'm also hoping that this book can help illuminate ways to defend against right-wing creep online and how to maintain left-wing communities.

RE: Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American ... - Elsacat - Nov 14 2025

This sounds like one of those books I should read and that I would find interesting, but like I would feel so much rage while reading it, so I hesitate to get into it.