One of the themes of the 2016 presidential election was the influence of the so-called "alt-right." The problem is that no one really knows what that means, or who was a part of it. Unfortunately, Angela Nagle's Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right doesn't shed a lot of light.
Part of the problem is that Nagle and others assign labels that the people or groups themselves explicitly reject. Milo, the Proud Boys, and others do not embrace the racist, white supremacist perspectives of many on the alt-right. Further, she seems to attribute to the alt-right outsized credit and influence.
Nevertheless, the alt-right was a part of the conversation in 2016, and Nagle does a decent job of introducing them and reflecting on their methods and influence. Her discussion brings up the larger question of the use of social media to bring attention to people and issues. Unfortunately, this power is used more often for ill than good. Sure, there are feel-good stories that go viral, but when the digital mob goes after someone in a public shaming, there's no turning back. The internet, she writes, "became a panopticon, in which the many lived in fear of observation from the eagle eye of an offended organizer of public shaming."
That's where Kill All Normies is most instructive, as a warning against the abuses of the power of social media and the internet. Curiously, the power of the so-called alt-right has waned since the election, probably because more mainstream sources pay less attention, and when they do, the rest of the world sees the alt-right for the fringe element that it is. The recent "Unite the Right" rally in D.C. drew only a couple dozen participants, whose numbers were dwarfed by people opposing them. Nagle's book is a record of a relatively insignificant blip in America's political history.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
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