Meme Wars

The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America

De: Joan Donovan, Emily Dreyfuss, Brian Friedberg

Narrado por: Rick Adamson

Bloomsbury presents Meme Wars by Joan Donovan, Emily Dreyfuss, and Brian Friedberg, read by Rick Adamson.

A groundbreaking investigation into the digital underworld, where far-right operatives wage wars against mainstream America, from a masterful trio of experts in media and tech.

Memes have long been dismissed as inside jokes with no political importance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Memes are bedrock to the strategy of conspiracists such as Alex Jones, provocateurs like Milo Yiannopoulos, white nationalists like Nick Fuentes, and tacticians like Roger Stone. While the media and most politicians struggle to harness the organizing power of the internet, the “redpill right” weaponizes memes, pushing conspiracy theories and disinformation into the mainstream to drag people down the rabbit hole. These meme wars stir strong emotions, deepen partisanship, and get people off their keyboards and into the streets—and the steps of the US Capitol.

Meme Wars is the first major account of how “Stop the Steal” went from online to real life, from the wires to the weeds. Leading media expert Joan Donovan, PhD, veteran tech journalist Emily Dreyfuss, and cultural ethnographer Brian Friedberg pull back the curtain on the digital war rooms in which a vast collection of antiesablishmentarians bond over hatred of liberal government and media. Together as a motley reactionary army, they use memes and social media to seek out new recruits, spread ideologies, and remake America according to their desires.

A political thriller with the substance of a rigorous history, Meme Wars is the astonishing story of how extremists are yanking our culture and politics to the right. And it’s a warning that if we fail to recognize these powerful undercurrents, the great meme war for the soul of America will soon be won.(P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Reseñas de la Crítica

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.

More of an historical document

A comprehensive retracing of the last decade of players and ideas behind political and cultural meme wars. If you’re hoping for strategies to defeat the toxic elements of the culture, this isn’t the book to diagnose and repair the culture. It serves as a timeline, covering the evolution of right and hard-right movements from early liberal “Occupy” foundations. More history than theory, it helps fill in the blanks in coverage, but offers no solutions. File between “LikeWar” and “Mindf*ck” on your political theory and disinformation shelf.

10 min in and pepe the frog is pronounced wrong

I'm only on chapter 3 but the narrator grossly mispronounces Pepe the Frog... can't take him seriously. Seems like they could have caught that mistake or chosen a narrator who's vaguely aware of memes.

Academic, interesting history

Interesting research linking the Occupy movement, driven by the Left, and Unite the Right up to the US insurrection.
Written by professional academics, not writers. So not too juicy.
Narrated by my directions app. The famous meme Pepe the Frog is pronounced “Peep” rather than peh-pay. AnTEEfah, the anti-fascist movement is pronounced AN-tih-fah. The narrator consistently references “Pow” which I believe is the /pol site on 4chan. Initially confusing and then just frustrating. Good thing none of the action takes place in Gloucester.
What is the word for typos in Audible?