Antisocial

Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation

By: Andrew Marantz

Narrated by: Andrew Marantz

"Trenchant and intelligent." --The New York Times

As seen/heard on NPR, New Yorker Radio Hour, The New York Book Review Podcast, PBS Newshour, CNBC, and more.

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

A New York Times Notable Book of 2019

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.

For several years, Andrew Marantz, a New Yorker staff writer, has been embedded in two worlds. The first is the world of social-media entrepreneurs, who, acting out of naïvete and reckless ambition, upended all traditional means of receiving and transmitting information. The second is the world of the people he calls "the gate crashers"--the conspiracists, white supremacists, and nihilist trolls who have become experts at using social media to advance their corrosive agenda. Antisocial ranges broadly--from the first mass-printed books to the trending hashtags of the present; from secret gatherings of neo-Fascists to the White House press briefing room--and traces how the unthinkable becomes thinkable, and then how it becomes reality. Combining the keen narrative detail of Bill Buford's Among the Thugs and the sweep of George Packer's The Unwinding, Antisocial reveals how the boundaries between technology, media, and politics have been erased, resulting in a deeply broken informational landscape--the landscape in which we all now live. Marantz shows how alienated young people are led down the rabbit hole of online radicalization, and how fringe ideas spread--from anonymous corners of social media to cable TV to the President's Twitter feed. Marantz also sits with the creators of social media as they start to reckon with the forces they've unleashed. Will they be able to solve the communication crisis they helped bring about, or are their interventions too little too late?

America’s Dark, Pathetic Underbelly

The world of social media Nazis May be the underbelly but they have come close to the mainstream and we’re at least part of a movement combing anger, ignorance and cynicism that helped elect a president. I was familiar with many of the characters in the narrative, having discovered and tangling with them during the 2016 campaign. As I would have expected, most of them are predictable pathetic. Their outsized sense of importance combined with an inability to compete in the mainstream world of humanity seems to have pushed them to the fringes. On the fringe, a loser with enough cleverness and delusions of intelligence can become hero’s of the angry, stupid and ignorant. They combine pseudo-science, pseudo-philosophy and pseudo-history and mix in a little smarminess to impress losers. It’s hilarious that they all compete and deride all the other fringe groups that are a little more or a little less racist than they are. Apparently they believe that just the right degree of racism is the key to life.

I found myself getting angry on every page. That not a criticism, I think if you don’t get angry there’s something wrong with you. I also laughed a lot, not with them but at them. So do I feel superior? Well not in a general sense but I sure fell superior to the losers in this book. However, we should not turn our heads from what our society contains. I have developed an even greater respect for what these hucksters call the “mainstream media” but I insist on calling the free press.

Worthwhile Read

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I expected a consolidation of New Yorker essays about a trendy topic. And it sometimes appears to be so. But after finishing the audiobook I felt the author takes his reporting episodes and creates a story that educated me about the ways and means of social media and the influencers who populate and use or abuse it. Every new technology has positive and negative impacts on our society. Some planned or anticipated, and some not. I felt the author, though at heart a reporter and keen observer, gives the reader profound insights into this one.

illuminating!

I learned so much from this book! I highly recommend it, infect I've already recommended it. I was recommending it before I finished it! I would absolutely buy another book from this author. I bought it because I saw him talking about this on CBS News. Really well written and read.

Worth it

I’ve read a lot of work on this subject and written some myself. In fact I read a lot (in part) to make sure I’m not repeating what’s already been said. At first I thought this was going to be a lot of stuff I already knew and had already heard - but I stuck with it and found a really deep and nuanced approach to the subject matter.

Excellent Narration, Narrative, and Analysis

Vape-pens, one word answers while staring at a phone, periscope-aired demonstrations, listicles, click-bait, contrarian psuedo-intellectualism. This book describes a culture that exists right now and if anyone asks decades from now—how did Trump get elected? This will likely be the first book I grab to describe the times. Very vivid, strong narrative (well voiced too), but also complete with useful analysis. Occasionally Marantz is smug, I suppose, and some of the reviews seem perhaps a bit (personally) peeved at that. But time and time again he encounters nit wits who self identify as journalists but proclaim no respect for knowledge, fact-checking, you know—vetted process, just more views, follows, internet traffic. I think for him to not frame it this way would be disingenuous. I can’t speak for anyone else but I imagine that those around the age of 30 will likely know people who identify with the culture in this book, even if they are in your past and I think this book offers compassionate and clear insight as to how they may have got there. To the extent that this book scares you, I hope it also motivates you to understand the algorithmic bias of social media better, appreciate it’s power, and take action for greater transparency and regulation.