Almost forty years ago, Neil Postman argued that television had brought about a fundamental transformation to democracy. By turning entertainment into our supreme ideology, television had recreated public discourse in its image and converted democracy into show business. In Trolling Ourselves to Death, Jason Hannan builds on Postman's classic thesis, arguing that we are now not so much amusing, as trolling ourselves to death. Yet, how do we explain this profound change? What are the primary drivers behind the deterioration of civic culture and the toxification of public discourse?

Trolling Ourselves to Death moves beyond the familiar picture of trolling by recasting it in a broader historical light. Contrary to the popular view of the troll as an exclusively anonymous online prankster who hides behind a clever avatar and screen name, Hannan asserts that trolls have emerged from the cave, so to speak, and now walk in the clear light of day. Trolls now include politicians, performers, patriots, and protesters. What was once a mysterious phenomenon limited to the darker corners of the Internet has since gone mainstream, eroding our public culture and changing the rules of democratic politics.

Hannan shows how trolling is the logical outcome of a culture of possessive individualism, widespread alienation, mass distrust, and rampant paranoia. Synthesizing media ecology with historical materialism, he explores the disturbing rise of political unreason in the form of mass trolling and sheds light on the proliferation of disinformation, conspiracy theory, "cancel culture," and digital violence. Taking inspiration from Robert Brandom's innovative reading of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Trolling Ourselves to Death makes a case for building "a spirit of trust" to curb the epidemic of mass distrust that feeds the plague of political trolling.

Jason Hannan's profile page

Jason Hannan is Associate Professor in the Department of Rhetoric, Writing, and Communications at the University of Winnipeg.

"A tour-de-force, essential analysis, and call to action of a book that becomes more relevant by the hour. Hannan's high-energy, meticulously researched tract is vivid, well-reasoned, morally astute, and rightly outraged, and should be required reading for anyone who wants to get at least a glimpse of the roiling factors and forces that are bending and rending our world to the breaking point." -- Paul Levinson, author of McLuhan in an Age of Social Media

"Almost forty years after Neil Postman's seminal work, Jason Hannan analyzes the profound problem of a poisoned public sphere in a platform society. His new book offers a deeply insightful analysis of the transformation of online culture, in which trolling, disinformation, and conspiracy theories are increasingly normalized. Essential reading for all teachers and students who believe that education can serve as a civic counteroffensive against the massive pollution of our online channels." -- José van Dijck,, co-author of The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World

"When assessing online toxicity, violence, and manipulation, it's tempting to frame each as creatures of the platforms' lagoons: 'new' problems caused by digital technologies. In this provocative analysis, Jason Hannan shows that there are creatures in the lagoon, yes, but those waters are older, murkier, and much more steeped in analog dysfunction than we might care to admit. Identifying these origins is the first and most critical step to understanding how we arrived at such a precarious political moment—and what we can, and must, do next to begin undoing the damage." -- Whitney Phillips, author of This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture

"Jason Hannan raises one of the most critical questions of our age: is the public sphere to be a space of reflective human agency or a sinister arena in which trolls divert, degrade, and destroy the prospect of democratic discourse? Hannan approaches this question with magisterial wisdom and abundant evidence. This is a book for those who do not want to be trolled to death." -- Stephen Coleman, author of Can The Internet Strengthen Democracy?

"Jason Hannan addresses the toxic influence of social media by broadly and brilliantly analyzing the practice of trolling. This book should be read by everyone who wants the tools-historical, political, and pedagogical-to both understand and dismantle online communities that engage in shaming, conspiracy theories, and lies. Trolling Ourselves to Death is more than a critique of social media; it is also a book that offers a language of possibility rooted in a pedagogy of trust, compassion, and social justice." -- Henry Giroux, author of Critical Pedagogy

"Democracy comes with an abundance of enemies, and lately with trolls. In this engaging read, Jason Hannan historicizes trolling with and without technology and walks us through its impact on civic cultures. This lucid and informed book is a must-read for those curious about what trolling is, why and how it manifests, and how we may survive it." -- Zizi Papacharissi, author of After Democracy: Imagining Our Political Future