Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars From 4Chan And Tumblr To Trump And The Alt-Right

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Angela, Nagle (November 2015). "An investigation into contemporary online anti-feminist movements". doras.dcu.ie. Archived from the original on 9 March 2018 . Retrieved 14 March 2018.

a b c d e f g Nagle, Angela (12 August 2017). "The roots of the alt-right". Vox (Interview). Interviewed by Illing, Sean. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021 . Retrieved 14 March 2018.And I wasn't totally convinced by the idea that 4Chan and other such forums are just taking transgression, as celebrated in art, to its logical conclusion. It's not just another twist in the culture wars. It's not as though critics and artists haven't historically differentiated between types of transgressive art and what individual works are saying. I don't think transgression for transgression's sake has ever really existed or been 'successful' in art? I don't know enough to say. I originally didn't want to read this book, only having read a few excerpts whining about Tumblr (more specifically, trigger warnings and gender identity) that made me not want to touch it. The book kept popping up on my newsfeed, and so I decided to read it to see if it fulfills its hype (Spoiler alert: it doesn't). I also recommend these two podcasts where Ms. Nagle (and Ms. Frost in the 2nd one) discuss the book and related themes in the context of socialism. Nagle brings a lot of valuable research and firsthand reporting to helping people make sense of the various facets of the alt-right, but it wasn't nearly as compelling as I was expecting from a book about the internet communities that have emerged in the past decade. The best parts are the really detailed outlines of the various factions of the right's anti-feminist and white supremacist groups, as well as the philosophical explanations of the anti-moral subversive nature of 4chan. Nagle discusses the ongoing (or lost?) cultural war between Tumblr liberalism vs. 4-chan inspired alt-right while both of the terms comprises of highly heterogenous elements. Internet, once lauded as the free, “horizontal” space of a new kind of anarchical democracy (not long ago but around 2013 many of the liberal left still saw and hailed the new “democratic” terrain of the Internet) today has been dominated by the misogynistic, Nazi-sympathizing Man’s Rights activists.

First of all: Holy shit. This is a book that I have been waiting to read for quiet some time now, but the level of insight and highly comprehensive discussion of what is going on in the cultural wars on the Web by Nagle exceeded my expectations. It reminded me of early works by Naomi Klein which combined the journalistic approach to the material at hand with detailed, but still accessible discussion of the theoretical aspect of the subject. Some reservations toward this book. It seems mostly just as if it's unfinished; typos abound, strangely wrong quips about PTSD, unclear and sporadic theses, repeatedly bafflingly caricaturistic presentations of Friedrich Nietzsche, etc. It felt like the book was in dire need of a good editor most of the time. Related: a lot of things the Left thought were inherently left (anarchism, transgressive art, focusing on culture wars rather than elections) can be used effectively by the Right. Nagle, Angela (2017). Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars From 4Chan And Tumblr To Trump And The Alt-Right. Alresford, UK: Zero Books. ISBN 978-1-78-535543-1. Either way, it's clear where her sympathies lie, given that she's so much more careful in delineating shades of right than she is with anything else.Nagle draws a line through history from the 'culture wars' of the 1960s to those of today, arguing that the transgressive, countercultural spirit historically embodied by the anti-establishment left has been sublimated much more effectively by the modern right. She also undertakes an in-depth (though concise) review of the many, many factions of what is often sweepingly referred to as the alt-right, from 'chan culture' to the alternately pathetic and terrifying 'manosphere'. Not only is this pretty fascinating in itself, it also brings to light the serious theoretical and academic roots of certain strands of this movement – something often ignored by liberal pundits who concentrate instead on clutching their pearls at the outrageous antics of high-profile figures like Milo and Alex Jones. The idea of a handful of demagogues and professional trolls riling up people who essentially don't understand politics has been a common theme (deployed with varying levels of sensitivity) in analysis of the Trump and Brexit victories; Nagle's study shows this to be dangerously reductive. I’m not an extremely on-line politics person, so I found this to be an really concise and useful guide to the roots of the on-line right and how it all ties in to today’s broader political climate. Can't recommend this one highly enough. And to everyone. Essential to understanding how the death spiral of our national discourse *can only be understood dialectically.* Nagle makes the compelling case that the success of the alt-right and what she calls the alt-light (not really overtly Nazi, more capitalizing on the newfound glamour of fascist thought) in their endeavor to shift American culture toward a misogynistic, overtly racist direction is rooted in the so-called left's reliance on the "politics" of transgression (think the Piss Christ). I wanted to read this ever since it came out. I was on tumblr in the year of our lord 2014 and attended Oberlin College at that time, which is basically used as punching bag in the same way as tumblr is. In fairness, it sometimes was like being on a tumblr dash but in real life at all times. Being a freshman I basically absorbed all of this uncritically and had the same tumblr identity politics as everyone around me, but I was also OBSESSED with lurking on incel forums and even turned in essays analyzing Return of Kings for school. I absolutely read Elliot Rodger's manifesto in full. I considered myself immune from any ideology on those forums because I am basically the exact type of stacy girl that incels hate. All of this is to say, I have been paying attention to both of the worlds in this book for several years and was very excited to read something that would synthesize all that knowledge and draw some useful conclusions.