Film

Trumpland: Kill All Normies

Name: Trumpland: Kill All Normies
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2017
Cast: Angela Nagle, Harris O'Malley, Mike Cernovich, Jesse Singal, Adolph Reed

A sharp, unsettling 2017 documentary that tracks how the alt-right emerged from forgotten internet corners—4chan, Reddit, incel forums—where alienated young men found community, grievance, and radicalization. Director Jon Ronson and writer Angela Nagle interview the actual people involved. It's urgent reporting that feels already urgent, uncomfortable to watch, and essential for understanding how online spaces weaponize loneliness.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you followed the strange meme-driven politics of message boards and want a brisk, interview-led map of how irony and trolling curdled into something uglier.

Skip it if you want deep reporting or a sharp verdict, since at 43 minutes it sketches its figures in passing and leaves the bigger questions hanging.

What it asks of you: It is brief and talk-heavy, a run of interview subjects with little visual variety, so it wants a single sitting and your undivided attention.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Social Dilemma2020

Examines how algorithmic platforms amplify extremism and outrage by design. Broader in scope but shares the urgent mission to show how the internet reshapes human behaviour and political belief.

But Leans on hand-wringing and celebrity talking heads. Less granular reporting than interviews with actual movement participants.

HyperNormalisation2016

Adam Curtis's hypnotic essay explores how confusion and despair create perfect conditions for radical movements. Covers similar ideological terrain with his signature baroque montage style and penetrating historical linkage.

But Extremely long (161 minutes) and requires active attention. Curtis's voice-over can feel portentous, and conclusions aren't always clear.

The Century of the Self2002

Curtis's four-part series on how consumer capitalism and psychology shaped modern politics provides historical depth for understanding why disconnection and identity become so profitable to exploit online.

But Aired 22 years ago and feels it. Some arguments have been refined since; others feel dated in their conclusions about where this leads.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Trumpland: Kill All Normies

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

We Are Still Here2015

Both examine how resentment pools in enclosed spaces (online forums/an old house) and turns into something that consumes those inside it. The mechanism is identical: isolation + grievance = something monstrous.

A horror film about a haunted house that functions as a parable for how communities are invaded and destroyed. Shares Kill All Normies' anatomy of invasion and resentment, but through pure genre viscera instead of documentary argument.

But It's genuinely frightening and gory. If you're looking for ideas, not atmosphere, the horror elements may feel like indulgence.

AlphaGo2017

A riveting, different angle on how algorithms and AI reshape human psychology and competition. Shares the year and the sense that invisible digital forces are rewriting human life in real time.

But Ostensibly about a board game. If you don't care about Go or competitive gaming, the stakes may feel abstract.

The Creepy Line2018

Takes the internet's role in radicalisation seriously with a focus on corporate surveillance and algorithmic sorting. Made by conservatives, so it offers ideological counterpoint to Kill All Normies' analysis.

But Runs the risk of muddying causation. Also falls into some of its own partisan traps about who's being silenced.

Four Rooms1995

A comedy about incels before incels had a name. Captures the desperation, entitlement, and sexual anxiety that Kill All Normies identifies as tinder for radicalisation—funny, sad, and weirdly prophetic.

But A 90s indie comedy, so it's not trying to be serious. The humour may undercut what you're looking to understand.

The Ring2002

Among the first films to genuinely capture how internet rumour spreads and mutates through subcultures. The viral curse as metaphor for how online communities amplify harm.

But A horror film, so it prioritises scares over analysis. The internet angle is background, not foreground.

Zeitgeist: The Movie2007

An early internet conspiracy documentary that shows how online subcultures synthesise political alienation into grand unified theories. Unintentionally illuminates the mindset Kill All Normies documents.

But It's confused and conspiratorial itself, which makes it hard to know if you're learning or being infected. Requires critical distance to parse.

Goodbye, Dragon Inn2003

While Kill All Normies shows radicalisation born from displacement, this film explores the grief underneath. It's the emotional truth of what the doc only diagnoses: the loneliness of belonging to something dying.

A Taiwanese masterpiece about the last night of an old cinema. Shot almost in silence, it's a meditation on mourning, displacement, and watching a world you belonged to disappear. Emotionally vast and completely still.

But Slow cinema. Very slow. Almost no dialogue. If you want narrative momentum, this will feel like watching paint dry.

Ghostwatch1992

Kill All Normies documents how crowds form and radicalize via screens. Ghostwatch is what that looks like when everyone's beliefs synchronise—the same mechanism, turned into collective hysteria instead of political violence.

A BBC mockumentary masquerading as a live investigation that sparked genuine panic. A prescient nightmare about how media, crowds, and belief systems collapse into mass delusion when channelled through a screen.

But Banned for years due to viewer panic. Some find it dated now; others find it still genuinely unsettling. Watching people believe a hoax spread can be its own kind of horror.