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Brings up that all the case studies we've looked at in this book all exist on a spectrum of social identity, where one group wants to remove any connection, and the other end has people constructing their own based on a shared content world. It's interesting to some degree.

Again, this is just repeating the flaws of each to bring together a more cohesive, and arguably, more productive style of organization. It's got good points.

We get to the last chapter (despite the fact that everything says 100 pages left) and it asks the question: What counts as being political? Which is interesting. It breaks down some of the problems every group up to this point have faced and how they could overcome it, or how some hybrid of the organization structures could be the best. We'll see how much longer it takes for me to finish this.

Talking about a shift between "dutiful citizenship" (performing an act because you should) and "actualizing citizenship" (performing to reach an attainable goal) is a really interesting thing we touch on here. There's been a widespread shift away from doing things because your supposed to, and I think that's indicative of multiple things going on in the world. This was written pre-covid and it shows.

The libertarian idea (at least, this text posits it as libertarian) of de-emphasizing traditional politics due to it being too big and too old fashioned is interesting, but I question if we ever have enough people who enter into the system wanting to make change at the same time, as if it's a handful dispersed over years, I fear that they will never amount to much, given the slow process the system is shown to work.

Here I am, over halfway through the book and realizing that they have been talking about two different kinds of politics, participatory and institutionalized, and the distinction between the two. Participatory is local elections, institutionalized is like congress. It's interesting to note that distinction because the two are vastly different, and thinking that they are the same is probably part of the problem.

It is interesting how they describe libertarianism, as (I think I've mentioned previously) it's been used as a dirty word. The mentions of Ayn Rand and other theory based creatives reminded me where some of that connection has come from. But, like the person is quoted in saying, she's not the saint of Libertarianism. There's more to it then that.

Giving more context than I'm used to related to the term "libertarianism," this chapter is interesting to me because I haven't really dug into it at all. I'm used to it being a bad word more or less.

Another chapter done. This new one, about the growing libertarian movement, feels like it's off to a good start. I am actually excited to keep reading.

I like how this text has started from a fairly boomer standpoint only to prove that standpoint wrong. The internet can be beneficial for people wanting to interact with their larger society, and choosing to interact online can domino into more activity happening outside of the digital space.

Coming out videos serving as digital messages in a bottle was an interesting notion. This chapter continues to be more interesting than the last one, but only by a small margin.

A lot of talk about the benefit of posting a coming out video as an undocumented citizen. Interesting points. This feels tonally wonky with the previous sections but still connected I guess. I like the idea of this book but I feel that the organization is funky.

Gives a lot of information that I have heard over the past decade more or less but doesn't necessarily explain it. But there's some good bits in it. Pointing out that undocumented immigrants need to interact with social causes as they can't participate in any legal form of government is interesting.

Chapter 4 was underwhelming in the scope of its information. Very limited, not much it was actually saying. The previous chapters feature a lot more case examples that I think help the reader get to the point by reading through the experience, and not dry text talking about statistics. Chapter 5 seems like it might be a better setup, but we'll see.

This section makes an interesting point about the need for comedy as a method of punching up while also elevating the people speaking to challenge ideas about stereotypes. Not just in stand up but also in mundane tweets or other social media posts.

Saying things that I never thought to consider, for example, how policed some content creators might feel in their behavior as "the gay one" or "the x one" as it might be the only interaction their public may have with someone falling under that describer. But it's interesting.

More good case studies that point to the power of the internet but at the same time, this feels more eye opening and yet still more boring than the other chapters. Mixed on the dryness of the text. If I wasn't reading this for class... I don't know if I'd finish it.

More revealing information that's setting the stage of where it's going. But I don't fully know where that is yet. We'll see.

As we get deeper into this chapter, the central theme starts to become clearer. It is interesting to hear how Muslim's reacted to 9/11, as well as realizing that the internet allows for people to be so much more free with who they are, but that can be both a good and bad thing. I doubt this will talk about the bad side of it as much as the good, but I'm curious.

Definitely starting on the most interesting concept of the chapters up to this point, but I'm sure it'll get boring just the same. Have we, as a society, moved past the need for academic papers? The world may never know.

So we're plugging away. I find it interesting to draw lines between a fan community around a youtube channel (based in real people) and fan communities around IPs. But the commonalities help prove what the authors are saying, as well as makes the two concepts feel appropriately similar. It's more on me for keeping them separate in my head up to this point. Says something about the legitimacy of Youtube.

This section specifically references how, due to interacting with different fans, you have a higher likelihood of interacting with someone of varying political views. They point out that this is different from interacting with political "echo chambers" as the two are just foundationally different. I thought that was interesting.

It's interesting to note how these organizations have been able to shift over time and reassess how to appeal to these people. Calling attention to how Hunger Games 2 was marketed is interesting given how tonally off it feels to cater the marketing to the antagonists of the story, but I guess that's not unique to that property.

This chapter is reading more like a study on the neuroses of fan cultures and how that can be utilized to political action, which is interesting, but I'm more interested in the studying of fandom culture honestly. So I'm not getting what I want. But it's funny hearing Harry Potter be referred to as a dead franchise, I wonder if it will be after the TV show starts coming out....

Brings up the solid point that Harry Potter is all about a group of teens coming together to do good in the world and make things better for everybody. Again, this touches on things said earlier, but the point still stands and it's a good point.

It's repeating what earlier parts of the text say, but it's not a bad message, those who tend to participate in fan culture are socially aware and tend to reflect that activity in political movements as well. This chapter does continue to be the most interesting, but not enough to make me feel excited to keep reading it.

Reading the description of the Green Brothers and their efforts in an academic style just feels wrong. It makes me feel that their stuff feels more cringy than it probably should. But it got them success and apparently started a few trends towards political engagement so props to them. This chapter already feels more interesting but idk, I'm sure I can be wrong about that.

Kony chapter is done. Now onto stuff about the Green Brothers. I'm expecting a sizable amount of cringe. But yeah, it ended on a note consistent with the rest of the chapter. Not super exciting, but it's got some good points. There's some stuff at the end talking about the intentions of the group and how that didn't come across necessarily and I think it's well said.

This chapter being able to focus on flawed elements of one organization is far more interesting to read about, even if the text itself is somewhat boring. This does do a lot to remind me how crazy the widespread adoption of the modern internet was, as things hadn't been done, and there was a lot more freedom. I might come back to this. The initial spread of everything was quick and crazy.