Andrew Marantz

A Jewish journalist writing for the New Yorker spends multiple years getting to know people in what became known as the "alt-right". Each chapter is essentially a New Yorker article with more commentary, taking on one person and characterizing them (faithfully, it seems). We meet alt-right social media stars, white nationalists and supremacists, men's men who troll liberals by acting gay, gay-for-Trump folks, meek women, anti-Semites and anti-establishment Jews, entrepreneurs interested in show more profiting from misinformation, true radicalized believers, the technologists who own social media, and everyone in between, as they define their in/out-groups, beliefs, and rationalizations. Marantz explicitly ties the rise of the alt-right to the "techno-utopians" of Silicon Valley, who still proclaim that "the best stuff gets shared" and that free speech is sacrosanct -- far past the point when parts of the country began to question these principles.

Marantz's insights and core theses are well-known at this point, years past when he began his reporting. Although the topics have been taken up repeatedly (most recently in the Pulitzer-Prize-winning "No Compromise" podcast), this book still felt fresh and like it had substance worth its length, likely in part due to its long-form personal story format. It also was immensely, immensely depressing. I found myself both addicted to reading and in a horrible, snappish mood from starting to finishing the book. There is very little here to actually give hope. Reading between the lines, we need policy action to make ads non-remunerative so eyeballs don't pay, we need stronger community ties to undercut radicalization, we need tech companies to abandon libertarian ideals and to be willing to sacrifice profits for (expensive) moderation, we need deradicalization programs at home. All of these are immensely counter-cultural prescriptions in their venues, they risk backlash, and they aren't anything that individuals can really do much about. But without them, our future seems to be impotent democratic processes, manipulation of swing voters, and/or violence -- and the spectre of liberal elites supporting an authoritarian regime that promises stability seems not-as-impossible as I'd like to imagine.

So yeah, depressing book. But I'll give it 5 stars for entertaining and informative reporting that raises key questions around what it means to live in a democracy when marginal voices reinforce themselves and there is a fiscal incentivize to agitate. show less

This nonfiction resonated but in the most unfortunate way. Knowing this was published over five years ago makes it even more unsettling. Not enough people read it or learned from it. Americans have continued their descent into shameless fascism, unchecked and often amplified by social media. A central theme of the book is the flawed assumption that free speech combined with social media would naturally elevate the best ideas. But as the book lays out so clearly, that’s not how the internet show more works. Popularity online isn’t about truth, it’s about sparking an emotional reaction, any reaction. And this is the society we’ve built. The strategies used to push hateful ideologies didn’t start with the internet, but social media has supercharged them. It’s horrifying to see how quickly people fall into fascist thinking, abandoning empathy. The last chapter, Common Sense, feels especially eerie considering how Trump has co-opted the phrase, echoing Reagan. It’s hard to see anything sensible about what’s happening politically right now, although it is becoming too common. This book was great, sharp, well-researched, and packed with moments that had me pausing to send quotes to friends and family as we all spiral further into collective political despair. show less

Andrew Marantz provides readers with an outstanding deep-dive into the world of the alt-right. What makes the book so successful is that he takes you into the private lives of so many of the players in the alt-right space so these familiar names are fleshed out into real people and not just names you see in the news.

The book begins with an explanation of the Overton window and how these social media players have moved the window for what is and is not acceptable discourse in the public show more square. The people he presents are adept at creating outrage, generating attention and the clicks necessary to be successful. He reports that many are not really that political but have realized that making provocative political posts is the best way to get attention. Many of the people he reports on are racist or are border-line racist. Others are antagonistic toward those outwardly racist.

The book unfortunately ends in 2018. It also is missing information on the financial aspects of the alt-right as well as more information about the audience for their podcasts and posts. I found the book to be deeply unsettling as it brings you into the world of the alt-right. The book is strongly recommended. show less

A series of New Yorker-style pieces on the mostly pitiful people who are destroying society. The internet is terrible because many people are terrible. (The best aside: the printing press enabled Martin Luther to distribute his Ninety-Five Theses, but also later a pamphlet he wrote called On the Jews and Their Lies, in which he advised his followers to “set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn.”) People who moved in conventional show more publishing and policy circles ignored what was happening online until it was too late: for example, John McCain was widely praised for rejecting an audience member’s assertion that Obama was “an Arab,” but “[f]ew people thought to wonder exactly what the woman had been reading, or which content-distribution algorithm had served it to her.” There is no magic switch that radicalizes people, but aimless people who aren’t sure what they believe or what they should be doing are vulnerable to extremism spread virally. Marantz argues that online gatekeepers could be doing a lot better at setting rules, though his time behind the scenes at Reddit suggests just how hard “doing better” is at scale. He concludes with what I think might be as hopeful a statement as is possible: “the arc of history is not bent inexorably or automatically. It does not bend itself. We bend it.” show less