San Francisco Public Library

It came from something awful, how a toxic troll army accidentally memed Donald Trump into office, Dale Beran

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

It came from something awful

bibliography

1048938602

Dale Beran

how a toxic troll army accidentally memed Donald Trump into office

"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 2000's, 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"--, Provided by publisher

Introduction : the garbage fire eternal -- Countering counterculture -- The two sprouls -- It came from something awful -- Moot in raspberry heaven -- Memes, trolls, and Chan girls -- 2008 : anonymous accidentally starts a worldwide revolution -- 2008-2011 : from hope to despair to change -- Anon peeks into the Palantir -- From gentlemen to robots -- From robots to Nazis -- Gamergate : 4chan's depression quest -- Trump the frog -- Steve Bannon : nerd out of time -- #War on the sea owl -- Tumblr and the mosaic of identity -- Politics steps through the looking glass -- Tumblr goes to college -- 2016 : ejecta assemble -- 2017 : the alt-right implodes -- 2018 : what a time to be alive