Anti-Social (Andrew Marantz)

Anti-Social by Andrew Marantz

When this book first came out back in 2019, I remember immediately putting a hold on the library for it. I heard several interviews with Andrew and read several reviews of the book. Before I got to it though, I had one of my periodic fallings-out with a given subject matter (aka Big Tech) and decisions that I needed to diversify my intake.

I was correct in my assumption at that time that this book wouldn’t have anything new to say about Big Tech (it doesn’t and the section where he talks about tech is by far the least interesting section).

What’s amazing about this book is all the scenes in which he interviews, hangs out with, or talks to the families of some of notable figures that constitute parts of the “alt right”, including Mike Cenovich.

What I found myself continually thinking is how easy it would have been for me to have become a story from this book myself. Many of the figures begin on the postmodern counterculture left (reading Adbusters, joining Bernie-mania, etc.), and this book echos Angela Nagel’s ideas about the ways in which the alt-right is a continuation of parts of the 60’s counterculture that people like myself grew up absorbing.

I participated in a lot of early internet troll culture myself since I spent a lot of time in on-line chatrooms and forums which were generally ruled by it during the period between 1998-2011 when I was active in those spaces.

I found it particularly useful though to understand how that culture has been weaponized to push cultural discourse, using “humor” as a way to normalize things that would otherwise be unacceptable to even bring up. I’ve certainly been disturbed by the way I’ve witnessed people wishing death upon each other throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and what that could mean for the future.