Meme Wars

Reviews

A punchy exploration about how alt-right blogs and forums burst into real life and how an elementary form of propaganda evolved from distasteful humor to a political ideology. Best to leave on the shelf if you’re not into cursing. Fascinating and frightening … [the authors'] in-depth, detailed and not-easily-dismissed thesis should be a must-read for anyone who is concerned about our future … It is also a testimonial to the immense power of images to shape and define the conversation in ways that are increasingly divorced from reason and rationality. A convincing argument that the political right has successfully “meme-ified” their arguments, uniting supporters with messages that exclude outsiders, make followers fell smart and included, and simplify complex social issues in appealing ways … for readers curious about the roles played by social media personalities who exploited online ecosystems and fueled existing social divisions prior to the [January 6] attack, Meme Wars offers a great deal of insight. Written by three leading disinformation scholars from the Shorenstein Center ... [Meme Wars] examines how former president Donald Trump emboldened those “meme warriors” and drew support from their once-fringe networks, laying the groundwork for the “Stop the Steal” movement falsely claiming rampant election fraud in 2020. A discomfiting investigative history of far-right-driven memetic warfare in the United States--a war many may not be aware is even being waged. Clear-eyed and persuasive, this is an alarming look at how internet culture has imperiled democracy. Meme Wars masterfully tells the story of how America got to be the way it is better than anything I’ve ever read. Even if you think you know everything about politics or online culture, trust me, you will learn something new. A thrilling, informative tale about our modern world that treats online influencers as the power brokers they literally are. Meme Wars unearths a history of the internet that otherwise would have remained buried forever. Analyzing the negative consequences of unchecked power, rapid growth, and the political adoption of social media by bad actors, the authors create a compelling case for redesigning global technologies to serve the public interest. Donovan, Dreyfuss, and Friedberg offer a lapidary analysis of the hate machine that has brought us addled insurrectionists, red-pilled extremists, and a generation of nihilists masquerading as political thinkers. An eye-opening and disturbing read on where the infrastructure of disinformation is taking us. An incisive look at the struggles and provocations that are shaping online discourse in the twenty-first century and hastening the corrosion of democracy in the United States. Anyone who cares about our politics, its discontents, and its outrages will be grateful to these three gifted and indefatigable researchers. They will shake up your sense of how political discourse works now with their tales built around the effects of the ‘infrastructure and incentives’ of the internet. ‘Meme wars are culture wars, accelerated and intensified,’ they write, and can do a number on ‘patience, kindness, and understanding.’ Friends of these virtues have a lot to learn about how to defend them, and Meme Wars is a great introductory class. Expand reviews