It Came from Something Awful

How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office

By: Dale Beran

Narrated by: Dale Beran

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 Audio

feels good man

good narrator, good writer, good story.
I highly recommend
now omw to check out "the twenty days of Turin"
thx!

based? based on what? this review?

As someone who is the right age group but only somewhat chronically online I remember hearing about 4chan by a self-proclaimed furry anarchist. then I heard all the anti establishment anonymous stuff in highschool. Then I went to college where I actually went outside, and after I graduated suddenly 4chan was full of Nazis and the stoner frog cartoon was officially declared a white supremacist hate symbol. It was very confusing.

This does a good job of explaining all that was really happening in more detail and it does a really good job of having all that make sense and explaining exactly why the Internet was a mistake.

The best of the "explaining internet trolls" subgenre

Highly recommend for anyone interested in a strong account of how our internet culture came to be. Unlike other books that have come out recently to "explain" the anime nazi phenomenon, Beran accounts for broader social phenomena on both left and right, and does a good job trying to contextualize events.

Brilliant

This book is so well researched and informative. I cannot recommend it enough. So many questions answered

absolutely worth a listen

a good exploration of the background and social impact of the chans and Tumblr.

a little uneven in the portrayal of alt right vs the black bloc enthusiasts where criticism of both could lead to a more honest narrative in my opinion.

the same could be said for "gamergate" as far as a balanced examination of both sides.

fantastic breakdown

great story and more relevant than ever as we evolve into a new world where 8chan/kun seems to have picked up where this book left off.

Truthful, gripping and frightening!

This is a masterful weaving together of trends and events to explain an ostensibly inexplicable direction of the modern political and social trends. The writing and the narration is powerfully gripping, incessantly intriguing and, on the whole, outright frightening!

Must listen!

Great reporting, analysis, storytelling from researcher Dale Beran. Highly recommended listen and I'll probably get the book to read again. Whole new historical perspectives and rabbit holes you didn't know existed. Wonderful book!

Great Book

Breadth and depth, this book is a fascinating listen. I’ll listen to it again in a year.

Important Modern History Lessonv

This book should be required reading for college-level American history and political science majors. It gives a very in-depth analysis of how the dark trenches of the internet led to a political and anti-government revolution.