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Episode 1: Devon Arthurs

By: Max Kutner
Narrated by: Max Kutner
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  • Summary

  • Devon acts out after he meets a mysterious friend online named Odin, who teaches him about “national socialism.” [Contains sensitive content]
    ©2020 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC
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What listeners say about Episode 1: Devon Arthurs

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pretty interesting

This is a pretty good piece. It does focus a lot on the early parts of the group and really kind of glosses over that later more recent days. I just think people would be more interested in the Order of Nine Angles (not angels). The whole ideology of the ONA is often disputed but, has a lot of infiltration and subversion. The man the many say started the ONA also started as a neo nazi then turned to extreme Islam and now supposedly lives a life of peace for Jesus. Who knows but, there's certainly a ton of similarities there.

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Very interesting, holding my interest so far.

This story is keeping my interest. I just know it's leading to a heartbreaking ending.

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1 person found this helpful

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A nice introduction

Episode 1 did a great job of not plying me with too much info that I'd need to construct a diagram to keep track of, which is nice. Yet, it delved into a bit of who Devon Arthurs is, where he is from, who his family is and was to him with recordings of interviews with his father.

I am definitely eager to listen to Episode 2 and enjoy the pace of the story.

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Anti-gamer-culture or liberal bias? Not exactly

Around 5 minutes into the first episode, the narrator begins talking about where the subject, Devon Arthurs, first came into contact with and established a rapport with radicalised individuals: a gaming site and chatroom.

At 13 minutes into the first episode, it acknowledges that there has been speculation about whether video games lead to real world violence and the narrator says that there is no definitive proof that it does. They then run through a series of young people who say what they play, how often, and if it gives them a sense of community with other players they interact with. The ultimate point the narrative is trying to make is that through gaming one can establish a kind of comradery with other players through a shared interest, and that gaming allows one to chat and be engaged for hours. This leads to its potential as a place where one could recruit or radicalise others (young people in particular).

At around 16 minutes, the parent being interviewed confesses to considering assaulting Devon for having a discompassionate and opposing perspective on a highly publicized event that resulted in a death and a trial. The narrator refers to this apathetic reaction as the first red flag but they do not resort to labeling the villain in the case being discussed, instead only mentioning the relevant details and only the age and death of the victim that made it so controversial. Only the parent being interviewed casts the case through what could be seen as a liberal lense.

I am surprised that the violent intent of the parent wasn't an avenue to explore in how this attitude may have impacted the subject, but they were only being interviewed, not scrutinized or examined. I think the interviewer asked the parent to list red flags (things that ultimately lead to Devon murdering a number of people) rather than it being something the reporter themselves picked out as portents of violence (while dismissing the potential problems in the parent's approach at the time).

It is interesting and I intend to continue listening to see where this goes.

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yay

really good.nuthin else to say.and also its dramatica and rlly good.soooooo good.i wanna share this to my friends

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A must listen

This is such an engaging story and is so clearly and perfectly reported. Everyone should listen

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realize this is a TRUE story

I see the reviews for this and people are mad at the topic, you CHOSE the book. this is a great book to get into the minds of people and their behavior. They are not supporting his behavior they are telling his story. what a great series!

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Fascinating!

Loved this! Makes my heart beat faster with anticipation. It's fascinating to try to understand how criminals think, and what led up to their demise.

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Be careful of insinuations

Just in the first episode Kutner seems to insinuate through what he doesn't say that Autism is linked to future violent behavior towards others, that video games cause violence (not just that online game chats are being used by radicals) and that because nazis were socialist that contemporary socialists are neo Nazis (not all dogs are poodles) ... that is just the first episode. Kutner is playing a little fast and loose with common, often inaccurate, assumptions. This really rings of knee jerk fear mongering and scapegoating that we saw so much of in the 80's and 90's and that never really got to the heart of real issues society was/are grappling with. First episode is only laying out Arthur's background but im not hopeful of a real in depth look at the process of this guys radicalization.

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Didn’t get past episode 1

Though it started nicely, but then he gave a warped version of Travon Martin death. He had his facts so distorted on the Travon incident that I would be doubtful of anything further in his actual story line.

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2 people found this helpful