It Came from Something Awful
How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office
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It Came from Something Awful
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Narrated by:
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Dale Beran
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Written by:
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Dale Beran
About this listen
This program is read by the author.
An insider's history of the website at the end of the world, which burst into politics and memed Donald Trump into the White House.
The internet has transformed the ways we think and act, and by consequence, our politics. The most impactful recent political movements on the far left and right started with massive online collectives of teenagers. Strangely, both movements began on the same website: an anime imageboard called 4chan.org. It Came from Something Awful is the fascinating and bizarre story of 4chan and its profound effect on youth counterculture.
Dale Beran has observed the website's shifting activities and interests since the beginning. 4chan is a microcosm of the internet itself - simultaneously at the vanguard of contemporary culture, politics, comedy, and language, and a new low for all of the above. It was the original meme machine, mostly frequented by socially awkward and disenfranchised young men in search of a place to be alone together.
During the recession of the late 2000s, the memes became political. 4chan was the online hub of a leftist hacker collective known as Anonymous and a prominent supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement. But within a few short years, the site’s ideology spun on its axis; it became the birthplace and breeding ground of the alt-right. In It Came from Something Awful, Beran uses his insider’s knowledge and natural storytelling ability to chronicle 4chan's strange journey from creating rage-comics to inciting riots to - according to some - memeing Donald Trump into the White House.
©2019 Dale Beran (P)2019 Macmillan AudioWhat listeners say about It Came from Something Awful
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2023-08-23
Insightful and very informative
I couldn’t stop listening to this book. Dale’s story telling was comprehensive and told in a way that was interesting, and kept me wanting more.
In my humble opinion, this book should be read by anyone and everyone who wants to understand the craziness that has been the 2010s to now.
Wish we could get more like this! Thank you!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Robertson D Holden
- 2021-04-01
essential to understandig
essential reading to understand how things got to the point we are at today. Beran's recounting of the history of internet counter culture was at once familiar to this 1980s-born listener who spent more time on something awful in 2001 than outdoors. Watching r/thedonald rise on Reddit in 2016, I was at first deeply amused at what seemed like the type of irreverent, antagonistic anti-comedy i had soaked myself in 15 years previous on SA. As the year progressed I became sickened to realize that couched in the memes, the rare Pepe's, and all the wild noise that was happening was obscuring something very ugly beneath the surface. Beran's history and analysis of these events felt like a key to a lock, and has I have found it invaluable in understanding how we today are seeing an increasing breakdown in civil discourse and society and the looming threat of fascist groups organizing and agitating.
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1 person found this helpful