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For what it is, the book is well written, humorous, and delves into what has happened in the US over the past 12 years or so. It's a decent primer into the rise of the alt right and what fueled their growth. Unfortunately, that's the best I can say about this book.
With something as serious as this topic was, the author could have stood to use a bit more professional language, and a bit less slang. On top of that the complete lack of cites means we have to take the word of the author on what happened, which is never good when it comes to discussing politics.
I would expect this kind of writing on reddit. When I'm reading a book, I expect more. And definitely expect such a book to be able to cite their sources; if people editing Wikipedia can do it, I expect an author who has written for newspapers to do so as well.
My suggestion if you want to learn about Troll Nation? Read this book, then pick up something a bit more substantial.
With something as serious as this topic was, the author could have stood to use a bit more professional language, and a bit less slang. On top of that the complete lack of cites means we have to take the word of the author on what happened, which is never good when it comes to discussing politics.
I would expect this kind of writing on reddit. When I'm reading a book, I expect more. And definitely expect such a book to be able to cite their sources; if people editing Wikipedia can do it, I expect an author who has written for newspapers to do so as well.
My suggestion if you want to learn about Troll Nation? Read this book, then pick up something a bit more substantial.
Marcotte is a very entertaining, knowledgeable writer—and surely her thesis (that a lot of the right is animated more by the desire to troll liberals than by any coherent policy or ethical perspective) has a lot of truth to it, as her many examples attest.
However, while the book was indeed entertaining (to someone like me, who's predisposed to agree with her views), I could not help but feel it was a bit of a rush job and rather shallow. As another reviewer notes, there are a disturbing number of typos and trivial errors scattered throughout this text...and there are zero references to any sources. I know this isn't a scholarly text...but even non-scholarly books about serious issues generally trouble to at least provide a short bibliography or mention a source now and again in the text or in endnotes.
The net result was that this book was a lot less persuasive and recommendable to the not-already-persuaded than it could have been with a little more care.
However, while the book was indeed entertaining (to someone like me, who's predisposed to agree with her views), I could not help but feel it was a bit of a rush job and rather shallow. As another reviewer notes, there are a disturbing number of typos and trivial errors scattered throughout this text...and there are zero references to any sources. I know this isn't a scholarly text...but even non-scholarly books about serious issues generally trouble to at least provide a short bibliography or mention a source now and again in the text or in endnotes.
The net result was that this book was a lot less persuasive and recommendable to the not-already-persuaded than it could have been with a little more care.
A well-reasoned explanation of how 46% of American voters have become immune to facts, logic, and reason. Highly recommended.
This felt like just a long winded rehash of my Mastodon feed, meaning I'm already singing in the choir this book is preaching to. It's a fine book but I don't need it.
challenging
funny
informative
fast-paced
Amusing, albeit p*ssy hat basic Liberal book. Its conclusion of "Trump only won because boomers wanted to trigger us le epic style" is a lazy one and fails to address the centuries-long racism and white supremacy so tightly entangled within American, Western, colonial and postcolonial history which also benefits Bernie Bros and Hillary fangirls like Marcotte herself. The love of the far right for 45 (or, better worded, the hatred for anything he stands against) is no joke and it would have erupted eventually with or without friggen gay frogs.
Not quite done, but as I read further through this book, something was getting under my skin and it wasn't until about halfway through I realized what it was.
This reads like a super-long OP Ed, a super-long Reddit or Facebook rant, or simply a stream of consciousness from one who clearly hates one half of the political apparatus in the United States. Not that this last point particularly matters to me. The thing that was getting to me? The utter lack of any citations, references, or a bibliography.
Let me explain.
In serious, academic writing, such as many of the books I've read this year from journalists and historians covering the Trump years, extremism, the alt-right, and social media - you come to expect that the author takes the time to show where they're pulling information from. This accomplishes a couple of things. First - it establishes credibility. Meaning - "the data is accurate and this is where you can go look to see it for yourself." Second (and kind of in line with the first point) it shows that you're not just reading pure speculation or opinion on the part of the author.
As a left-leaning moderate, I find that I don't necessarily disagree with the author's stance on many things (except the juvenile and misinformed stance on gun ownership), but the fact that this work is purely opinion without so much as citations for supposed direct quotes leads me to believe that this work was probably her first foray into serious authorship outside of writing opinion pieces for newspapers or online journalism outlets.
Definitely don't recommend this book to anyone engaging in research on things such as the aforementioned topics such as Trump, the impact of online extremism, etc. as the work cannot be considered credible due to the lack of academic effort on the author's part. Definitely do recommend if you want to have a few laughs at some of the more pointed observations and some of the more acerbic takes on things from the Trump years.
3/5 stars, leaning 2/5.
This reads like a super-long OP Ed, a super-long Reddit or Facebook rant, or simply a stream of consciousness from one who clearly hates one half of the political apparatus in the United States. Not that this last point particularly matters to me. The thing that was getting to me? The utter lack of any citations, references, or a bibliography.
Let me explain.
In serious, academic writing, such as many of the books I've read this year from journalists and historians covering the Trump years, extremism, the alt-right, and social media - you come to expect that the author takes the time to show where they're pulling information from. This accomplishes a couple of things. First - it establishes credibility. Meaning - "the data is accurate and this is where you can go look to see it for yourself." Second (and kind of in line with the first point) it shows that you're not just reading pure speculation or opinion on the part of the author.
As a left-leaning moderate, I find that I don't necessarily disagree with the author's stance on many things (except the juvenile and misinformed stance on gun ownership), but the fact that this work is purely opinion without so much as citations for supposed direct quotes leads me to believe that this work was probably her first foray into serious authorship outside of writing opinion pieces for newspapers or online journalism outlets.
Definitely don't recommend this book to anyone engaging in research on things such as the aforementioned topics such as Trump, the impact of online extremism, etc. as the work cannot be considered credible due to the lack of academic effort on the author's part. Definitely do recommend if you want to have a few laughs at some of the more pointed observations and some of the more acerbic takes on things from the Trump years.
3/5 stars, leaning 2/5.
4.5 stars
I listened to the Audible narration of this book.
I listened to the Audible narration of this book.
Amanda Marcotte is a great pen, she is funny and has some really good points. The problem is her attitude towards the subject. Her goal is not to solve any problems, but rather to win a war. The book is not written to explain anything to Trump supporters. It is written to fuel the hate towards them and to prove how evil they are. Everything they do is just to troll the left. She never tries to understand where this bitterness on the right comes from. This book is therefore only going to increase the tribalism, something the world really does not need today.