Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy

by Talia Lavin

A mouthy Jewish woman reporter makes an immersive dive into white supremacy’s explosive metastasis online, exploring the undercurrents of propaganda, religion, misogyny and history that led us to where we are now--and how to fight back.

Talia Lavin is every skinhead’s worst nightmare: a loud and unapologetic Jewish woman, acerbic, smart, and profoundly anti-racist, with the investigative chops to expose the tactics and ideologies of online hatemongers. Culture Warlords is the story of how Lavin, a frequent target of extremist trolls (including those at Fox News), dove into a byzantine online culture of hate and learned the intricacies of how white supremacy proliferates online. Within these pages, she reveals the extremists hiding in plain sight online: Incels. White nationalists. White supremacists. National Socialists. Proud Boys. Christian extremists. In order to showcase them in their natural habitat, Talia assumes a range of identities, going undercover as a blonde Nazi babe, a forlorn incel, and a violent Aryan femme fatale. Along the way, she discovers a whites-only dating site geared toward racists looking for love, a disturbing extremist YouTube channel run by a 14-year-old girl with over 800,000 followers, the everyday heroes of the antifascist movement, and much more. By combining compelling stories chock-full of catfishing and gatecrashing with her own in-depth, gut-wrenching research, she also turns the lens of anti-Semitism, racism, and white power back on itself in an attempt to dismantle and decimate the online hate movement from within.

Shocking, humorous, and merciless in equal measure, Culture Warlords explores some of the vilest subcultures on the Web-and shows us how we can fight back.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Audiobook, Race, History, Sociology, Social Justice

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 2020

About the author

Talia Lavin is a freelance writer who has had bylines in the New Yorker, the New Republic, the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, the Village Voice, and more. Profoundly anti-racist and a nifty digital native, Lavin possess the online skills needed to go behind the scenes of the digital white supremacist movement (even if that does mean becoming the frequent target of extremist trolls and Fox News staff). She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reads like when a smart and reasonably funny friend, who has spent way too much time on the internet, takes a couple of bong hits, and unloads for a long while about the ugly things they found there--it's all interesting, and at times funny, but presented in a somewhat stream-of-consciousness fashion with random asides, repetitions, and detours that lack signposts, and never quite going into enough depth or detail. This is neither a piece of investigative journalism into a subculture (or rather, subcultures), nor a scholarly study of belief systems held by a relatively small but dangerous minority, but somewhere in between, without really living up to the standards of either genre.

In the end, I did enjoy reading this book, and the author's message is undeniably important, but it wasn't the book I was hoping for.

[Chrystopher’s Archive · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not so much that this is a quick read as that, once begun, I could no more put it down than I could stop playing a horror movie in the middle, just when the looming, overarching sense of dread demands some kind of relief. But this is not a horror movie, this is all too real. This is the world we live in.

Of course, I was expecting that when I went in - not just the horror, the revulsion, the recognition, but also how morbidly fascinating the subject matter is. What I wasn't expecting was grace. And humor. And prose that's not only readable, but also manages to be beautiful in places.

This was an amazingly engaging and interesting read, and Lavin's clear-eyed, just rage at the darkness that exists in the human heart is a welcome call to action. Highly recommended.

[Ayesha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into this hoping to understand the white supremacist psyche, the detailed steps to radicalization that the web accelerates, snd the means with which organized hate turns opinion into violence, and finances violent campaigns. Generally a clearer view into the vulnerabilities that underly white supremacists. What I took from Talia’s work was, for lack of a better word, a rant of her experiences when infiltrating white supremacist channels, and surface level observations of their online activity. It was an opinion piece for me, not a research driven analysis. Talia puts a lot of herself into the whole book (understandably so) and how she’s personally victimized by these people, which also takes away from the objective nature of the book. We all know that organized hate is barbaric today, that their opinions and actions are terrifying... Talia basically found different ways of reinforcing just that in each chapter and reminding us how horrible they are - that’s it. Why exactly do they behave this way, and how does the web bring out the worst in them? I didnt get any answers or insights for that - only hundreds of organizations that I couldnt keep a track of and long winded history lessons that I struggled to see the point of. Last flaw I want to point out on this book - the chapters dont build on each other. There’s no flow I could make sense of, which left the whole story feeling a bit flat. Overall, would not recommend this book - you wont learn as much as you’d expect to.

[Trin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this book had been better edited! Who let this go to press so poorly organized that the same terms were defined over and over again, including an instance of "incel" (which had already been defined!) being explained with the same phrase on two facing pages. This was distracting, and a detriment to the best of Lavin's writing, which can be very sharp. Her work shining a light on fascist spaces and individuals is vital, and the things she's exposing are very scary -- but I wish there was more in this book that I didn't already know or hadn't seen argued just as well (if not better) elsewhere. I was hoping for Jon Ronson-level reporting, and this didn't quite get there.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like her Jewish ancestors in Nazi-occupied Ukraine, Levin feels (and literally is) targeted by racist hate-mongers – this time American racists. Her response is to use all her journalistic sleuth skills to track them, expose their identities, and destroy their credibility. This is why she gets hate mail such as “We know where you live, your family members, EVERYTHING. What you give you’re going to get ten fold.”

Clearly, Levin is revolted by the murderous hate these white supremacists proudly display in their chat rooms. I found it sickening as well, but I notice that as a white male Canadian, I did not feel directly threatened. I could feel that these fanatics for ethnic cleansing would not come for me, the way they would for Levin or any of my non-white, non-Christian friends. The thing that I found most threatening was not the intensity of the supremacists’ hatred, but their insidiously deterministic logic, by which apocalyptic race war is an inescapable necessity. This is the realization to which these racists have “woke,” been “red pilled,” and become “race realists.”

Naturally, Levin finds the white supremacists obsessed with the original mother of all bigotries in Christian civilization, hatred for Jews. She briefly traces the endlessly repetitive conspiracy theories about Jews through history, showing how they morphed into the more all-encompassing “race replacement” theory, by which the Jews and all other “non-white races” are engaged in a satanic plot to corrupt, sexually pollute, and finally exterminate all white Christians, in an inevitable contest for supremacy or death. Forget love thy brother, find a win-win solution, respect your neighbors, have a good time. These people have “woke” to the certitude that their race finally has no choice but to kill or be killed.

Levin hopes to rally anyone who cares to hate the haters, publicly shame them, get them fired and jailed before they kill again. But I think the most effective thing she does is expose their private chat room banter to the light of day. It’s like what happened to the Klu Klux Klan when infiltrators exposed their secret passwords, ranked initiations, titles, etc., so the fearsome Klan started to look like a petty gang of school boys playing like they were an exclusive high class clubhouse for pathological bullies.

[Mehrsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yikes. I cannot imagine the fortitude of Lavin's stomach to be able to pretend to be one of these horrible people. There were some interesting tidbits in this book, but you might need to go watch Sound of Music afterwords or something similarly wholesome.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lavin’s writing crackles with energy and wit, and I’m very much in her corner politically. But this maddeningly repetitive and bafflingly unstructured book really, really, REALLY needed a good editor.

[Amanda Hupe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Hachette Books for the opportunity to read this book!

“To make peace with white supremacy, to give it room, to tender it mercy, is to assert that protecting black and brown and Muslim and gay and trans and Jewish people from violence isn’t all that important or necessary.”

TALIA LAVIN
Culture Warlords by Talia Lavin is an amazing piece of investigative journalism! Talia Lavin is a fierce Jewish woman who decides to face online, white supremacist, hate-fueled trolls. She is often the target for these trolls, so she is determined to expose them. She creates new identities to infiltrate these online groups. Before she discusses her investigation, she begins the book with a brief history of anti-Semitism and racism. We need to understand that we let this happen. The reason why this hate is rampant is that we let it grow. Racism, anti-Semitism, and violence did not begin in 2016 when Trump came to office, but his hateful rhetoric has emboldened his followers.

“The worst people are still people; their humanity is impossible to disregard, but it does not absolve them. If anything, it makes their choices more abhorrent, surrounded, as they are, by the banality of a life indistinguishable from other lives.”

TALIA LAVIN
What a badass! Talia Lavin is inspiring. She exposed a 14-year-old who has a Youtube channel, who had made threats on the Youtube CEO’s life. She had almost a million followers. It is disturbing that this CHILD has been influenced her entire life to hate and spew that hate. But don’t even get me started on the White Supremacist dating site! When I read that section my first thought was, “God, I hate it here.”

As readers read through Talia’s investigations, it feels like something straight out of a horror novel–only this is real. But as I finished the book, I felt hope. If we could all channel Talia Lavin’s courage, this world could be a better place. Read this book. I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

[Stewart Sternberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am proudly Antifa. I stand against White Supremacy, Jingoistic Nationalism and State sponsored violence against its own people.

This is a hard book to read but a fascinating fall into the hate filled world of Charlottesville and the right wing venomous orgies that gathered around Trump.

[Traci Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really appreciated the detail of this book. Over all i learned a lot. Very understandable. It got repetitive and wasn’t rich enough in drawing lines between past and present. Solid book.

[Lauren D'Souza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four stars for the book and an additional star because Talia Lavin is a badass antifascist hero who literally risks her life and mental health to expose neo-Nazis with genocidal ideations. You rock, Talia.

In Culture Warlords, Talia Lavin describes her journey (and life's work) infiltrating white supremacist groups on the Internet, in the deepest, exclusive corners of the web where "contributors [feel] safe to speak freely." In order to do so, Lavin invented personas that were very much the opposite of who she is. Instead of being a Jewish, outspoken, antifascist reporter, who would never be allowed into the myriad Discord servers, Gab, Voat, etc., Lavin becomes Ashlynn, a waitress in a small-town Midwest diner whose loves to hunt and dreams of bearing upstanding Aryan children. She becomes Tommy O'Hara, an incel with cystic acne whose forays onto r/theincelpill and r/foreveralone began to radicalize him into deep misogyny with violent desires. Only by becoming the picture of white supremacy and incel-ism can Lavin successfully infiltrate these communities, observe their violent rhetoric in the wild, and hopefully learn enough personal information about these fascists to expose them.

This is equal parts antifascist activism - exposing neo-Nazis and white supremacists - as it is a study in anthropology. Lavin details the virtual dictionary of words and dog-whistles in different communities that signify one has been initiated, e.g. in the incel community, "Chads and Stacys" are sexually successful men and women, "rope" is suicide, and "going ER" is committing mass murder much like the incel community's god and hero, Elliot Rodgers, who went on a shooting spree at a Santa Barbara sorority and left behind a manifesto about incelism that has become the bible for the community. This extensive vocabulary allows members of the group to find other initiated members on more restrictive fora like Twitter and Facebook (relatively more restrictive, compared to anonymous/"free speech" oriented platforms) without discussing topics that would cause bans or shadowbans.

Lavin also explores how the Internet is a unique tool when it comes to radicalization - all it takes is a few hours on the right fora, and any person who's felt a shred of hatred toward Black people or Jews can become radicalized into a full-on white supremacist. Manifestos and videos are easily distributed, and interested participants can fall down internet holes and get to places where talking about mass murder and genocide is the cool thing to do.

Lavin spends chapters on white supremacist dating sites, incel groups, neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups, and more. She witnesses members discussing if they would r*pe her after she posts an article about white supremacy, and she becomes the target of benign-but-horrifying floods of images of roast beef and real death threats after she publicly exposes a European neo-Nazi. I can't even imagine the toll that this work has taken on her physical and mental health, and I applaud her for it.

This is one of the most fascinating and horrifying books I've read this year, but I tore through it because learning about this increasingly present and dangerous group is important, especially when President #45 refuses to condemn white supremacy and tells them to "stand back and stand by." Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley!

[Lizzie S · Rating 4 out of 5]

A critical read in a time of rising white supremacy and far-right violence. In Culture Warlords, Lavin describes her encounters with far-right extremists on the internet and in real life. A frightening read that makes the horror of white supremacy even more frightening through its humanization, this book provides a lot of insight into the process of radicalization and the ways in which the internet have facilitated the growth of extremism.

“In every era, there are individuals who are prone to question received narratives and ideals, and in every era, such thinkers bifurcate. There are those who use that questioning spirit to seek out truths with integrity and rigor, and others who allow themselves to be snowed by propaganda, to enter harmful, self-serving orbits of errant belief. And, in every era, the latter confuse themselves with the former.”

[Hadrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have liked to appreciate this book much more than I did. I cannot overstate the value of serious investigative reporting on the extreme right, as well as the infiltration and exposure of their spaces.

Much of the book is descriptive, and draws from Lavin's own reportage and undercover work. Much, to be honest, is not a surprise - there is the vicious and disgusting anti-Semitism, the anti-feminism -- and that bringing with it an overlap with the 'involuntarily celibate', or 'incels'. Then the transphobia, anti-Black and anti-Asian racism, etc. Hatreds overlap.

Much of the book is a kind of loser safari; Lavin invites us to gawk at the almost (but not really) pitiful people that are drawn to these movements, poke at the intellectual bodge that is their beliefs, and we are invited to laugh every now and then. Lavin describes her social media profiles - maybe call it a kind of catfishing? - with humor. It is very easy to laugh at her targets, but then you do remember that these are Nazis and their fellow travelers.

The description is valuable. But there is not enough analysis or organization. There are only some selections of 'who goes Nazi' and how radicalization happens online, there are only a few estimates of their numbers or organization. there is only so much of a description of what to do about it. Exposure is one suggestion; the shunning of any putschists from the rest of society might be another way to to do it; or long-term investigations to bring up their more violent cells and possible attempts to remove their own infiltrators from places of authority. But I will defer to other experts here.

I modestly, even timidly, give this three stars.

[Gemma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick, bold and somewhat terrifying! People who are Extremely Online might not be surprised by some of what thy read here (I think Gamergate left mental scars on us all), but Levin stares at the roiling nightmarish underside of the internet of white supremacy and exposes it for the bizarrely stupid and dangerous thing that it is. I laughed at some of these people while reading, but it was with a shiver down my spine -- the people that Levin learns about may be foolish and delusional but they are deadly serious nonetheless.

[Eva B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5
The biggest issue with CULTURE WARLORDS is that it was written and published before the attempted coup on January 6th, and therefore now feels like a slightly dated look at online right-wing extremism (for example, Parler is barely mentioned, if at all). It touched briefly on a lot of issues but due to its length, failed to really delve into them. In the chapter about Lavin being chased from a far-right YouTube convention that she infiltrated, there's mention made of the alt-right pipeline that YouTube and similar sites enable, a topic that could really be the subject of its own book.
Nevertheless, I have an intense respect for Talia Lavin after reading about what she put herself through for this book. I certainly know that I wouldn't have the guts to infiltrate and catfish people who wanted me dead and shared some of the "fantasies" she recounts.
The most chilling sections are either her chapter on anti-Semitism or when she infiltrated a white-only dating website (or when she later used that same persona to catfish a neo-nazi who retaliated by threatening the lives of the people who published the article).
I think I can safely say that while I would love a sequel that delves more into the way that far right news stations like OAN and Newsmax (as well as conservative pundits) spread lies about the election, COVID-19, and the vaccine, the way that online alt-right spaces played a role in January 6th, and a bit more about the alt-right pipeline and those who play a part in it, I also don't want Talia Lavin to inflict this disgusting, disturbing side of the internet onto herself more than she already has.
I can't say I've ever had to end a review like this before, but I hope that Talia Lavin and her friends, family, and coworkers are safe after publishing this.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really solid and fascinating book diving into the culture of white nationalism. Horrifying and informative, and I really enjoyed Talia's voice.

[Rebecca Brenner Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

CULTURE WARLORDS: MY JOURNEY INTO THE DARK WEB OF WHITE SUPREMACY by Talia Lavin should win all the relevant awards. as an investigative journalist & writer, the author sacrificed her peace of mind & sense of security to infiltrate the alt-right spaces of the Internet. through her own experiences strengthened w/ additional research, she reveals that the alt-right monsters who plan violence & spew hatred are real people. although we might think that we know this already, we really learn who these people are and all that’s at stake through Talia Lavin’s words. central takeaway is that she wrote this book so that we can understand w/out having to endure what she persevered through to write Culture Warlords. did I mention that the writing is stunning, especially the intro, w/ zero weak chapters. thank you Hachette for my ARC!

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talia Lavin is a badass. This book is unabashed gonzo journalism. Lavin, a Jewish progressive, embedded herself in the electronic realms of racists, white supremacists, anti-Semites, and incels as one of them. And she kept notes.

This book was hard to read. There are vast networks of people who hate the idea of living in a world where all of its children can live; who relish the idea of going into the dark and lighting their way with the corpses of those whose existence they resent. These assholes get together and fuel each other's hatreds and resentments. Sometimes one pops up, spews some bile, and kills some people. Sometimes, they gather between the place I work (in non-pandemic times) and where I get my sandwiches. I want to believe it's the last gasp of a world built to justify and explain treating people as things and we're over that. But I know we're not and it isn't.

She put herself through hell for this book. "One you start gazing into the abyss of the far right, pretty soon it turns its gaze right back on you. And its gaze is a fearsome thing, a twisted thing, one full of boredom and anger that have calcified into hatred." (18). She was lurking under a proxy in groups that were discussing whether she was too ugly to rape, which is a level of horror I do not want to imagine. These groups talked lustily about killing people she loved. (238).

There were times it was laugh out loud funny. Speaking of the end of a neo-Nazi group, "The TWP fell apart in spectacular fashion in 2018 after its leader caught the group's chief spokesman having sex with his wife - an event archly dubbed by antifascists 'The Night of the Wrong Wives,' in reference to the infamous intra-Nazi Party purge known as the Night of the Long Knives." (126).

She closes with a piece of wisdom I first learned at the funeral of a beloved friend:

In The Ethics of Our Fathers, a book of the Talmud, Rabbi Tarfon says: "You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it." By the end, this is how I came to feel about my work. Dismantling the rise of fascism is best not left to lone vigilantes, nor to the punitive mechanisms of the state, but to people working together to stamp out hate wherever it arises. In the meantime, I cook like a Jew: paprika, dill, onions, garlic, warm broth, and company. The herring is optional, but love is not optional. It is what we must marshal to break the back of the beast. To do so, we must break bread together: a prickle of salt, a pat of melting butter, a bite, a kiss, a homily in the mouth about what's worth fighting for." (240).

I take a lot of comfort in the idea I am not required to finish the work, and strength from the idea that I must not abandon it.

Also deplatforming Nazis seems to work. https://twitter.com/chick_in_kiev/sta...

Lots to wrestle with in this book. Well worth the time.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a complex read that often required me to put the book down and reflect on what I had just learned. This is, of course, the highest possible praise I can offer a non-fiction work that takes on the complicated world of organized hate. Even as someone who tries very hard to keep up on all the ways that misogyny, antisemitism, racism and white-supremacy have roots in American culture and politics, this was an eye-opener on many levels.

Levin blends important historical events and trends with her own undercover social media work to really explore white-supremacy and the people who live in a world of hate. The narrative, perhaps inevitably, expands to include all manner of bigotry. The ways that white-supremacy, misogyny and homophobia intertwine is thoroughly analyzed and examined. While many of us may have long suspected that incels, racists and homophobes make up one circle in a Venn diagram, this book gets into the connections that seem to create the relationship between all these manners of hatred. The systems by which that hatred trickles into politics, policy and social movements is also well explored, an especially important lesson for our current times. If you have also wondered who “these people” are, this book will help you understand just that.

[Nancy Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talia Lavin is really a hero. Who else wants to enter the underworld of white supremacists and women haters to find out what makes them tick, who they are, where they are and what we can do about them? It isn’t easy and I give her a million kudos for even attempting it. She has brought serious attention on herself and as a Jew and a woman she is placing herself in harm’s way. So Talia be careful!!!! Talia is funny, self-deprecating and totally candid. Her personality shines through the book. Which is a good thing given the subject matter.

This book brings to the surface the rotten pus pocket at the center of our society. That surface is currently bubbling and ready to erupt thanks to our authoritarian racist president and his enabling staff and senators, some of whom are Neo-nazis like Stephen Miller. Let’s be real. This should not be happening in America or anywhere else but it is. This book is well researched and well written. The only complaint I have is that it isn’t long enough! This is the tip of the iceberg. We need to be finding these assholes, doxxing them and making their lives hell. Shame is acceptable and necessary. Anti fascists need to continue doing what they do. She makes note of the fact that ANTIFA has never to our knowledge killed anyone. It’s unfortunate that standing up against hate often leads to violence as was evidenced in Kenosha. Talia talks about this and it is a big conundrum in this godawful year of 2020.

I wish I was younger that’s all I can say. This book makes me angry and yet I am so glad Talia wrote it because it will make a difference! Hate is not confined to one thing, one enemy. It likes to see connections where they don’t even exist and exploit them for the sake of more hate. It is pernicious. We see it every day in our news cycles. This country needs to stop this downward spiral now. Start by voting them all out! It won’t stop the hate that’s already out there but maybe we can get a handle on it. We have to for the sake of our country and future generations.

Read this book and then read more!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[ElphaReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!

This was a book that was terrifying and harrowing, and while I knew a fair amount about white supremacist movements online (as well as misogynistic movements like incels, though the overlap is definitely there), Lavin really peels back the nitty gritty of the awfulness. She has well researched information, as well as primary sources given that she basically went full on undercover to get close to these groups in their online forums and message boards, which is so incredible to me. Her grit and bravery is stunning, and while I don't like to toss the word 'hero' around for any old thing, I really do see her as such. She also did have a lot of information that I didn't know, and while this book made me a bit more paranoid regarding the safety of my loved ones and myself, I really appreciate getting all these details. It's important to know what antifascists are up against right now. And it's really, really scary.

CULTURE WARLORDS is a must read given the election coming up and the people that the GOP has been buddying up with and catering to. These online fringe groups MUST be taken seriously. The danger is there and it keeps on growing.

[Vovka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talia Lavin (the author) is a badass. Her brand of antifascism involves catfishing nazis and racists and incels and spilling their secrets for readers like you and me, so that we may know the shape of their hatred and how best to combat it in our homes, communities, and jobs. She's a hero doing important journalism at the front lines of today's culture wars, and I'm grateful for this book.

Only thing that I wish could have been better: tighter editing. There were a few editing errors that made it clear that this is a book that was pieced together from multiple articles previously published (or pitched) elsewhere. For example, she explains who Elliot Rodger is multiple times, and explains the term incel more than once, and she may have explained the meaning of 88 and 14 one too many times as well. That sort of repetition was merely an annoyance and not a huge deal in terms of my ability to appreciate and enjoy this book, though it does knock a star off the rating.

[Ally S · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a DNF for me. I got to chapter 8/10 and had to stop. My main issues are that the author focuses too much on herself, and I’m not sure who the audience is supposed to be.

Talia writes a lot about herself, which would be fine if I wanted a book about Talia. However, I was hoping for some internet history about white supremacy and a deep dive into the conversations and organization happening online. I might need to turn elsewhere for that.

Additionally, the book includes very high level language, which, again, is fine, but this book isn’t scientific research or even a critical analysis of white supremacy. It reads more like a personal narrative and feels like it’s meant to have a broad audience. I’m not sure the structure quite gets there.

I might try and return to this topic, but for now I’m abandoning this book.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good content, although as I was skimming through the end just to get it over with, I went over to Twitter to look up the author and realized I had muted her at some point. I don’t know when or why, but I rarely mute, so it’s likely because I found her deeply irritating. It’s frustrating when leftists whose politics I generally agree with communicate in such a florid and self congratulatory style. I think this style seeps into the book and makes what could have been revelatory instead kind of a slog

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn the world is fucking scary. Talia Lavin is amazing to do what she does. You delve into the minds of some fucked up white people and now I'm a bit suspicious of my neighbors. But seriously, this is an important book that displays clearly what is going on today everywhere. Mothers and fathers, please check on your sons!

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. It was equally scary and enthralling and I had a very difficult time putting it down.

[Sylvie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please do not have this be the first or only source of information you read about modern far right wing culture or how the internet is/has been used to disseminate far right wing thinking. Although there were some cited sources and facts, they are sandwiched between conjecture and opinions parading as fact. I respect her opinions for what they are. However, I really wanted more citations for some claims as they were not at all what I experienced or saw even though I was also very much involved in some of the situations she described (Gamegate, rise of incels, etc.). Also, there were just times I wanted to read further and a citation would have really helped me navigate to where I could learn more. Of course opinions in a political book should be assumed. I just wanted to let those deciding whether to read know that this is largely about her personal experiences through the lens of her strong leftist journalistic lens. That being said, I do not disagree with the fundamentals here: that these are dangerous groups, people, and ideologies that are ultimately against the very existence of groups of minorities. I do really think this is a great book to speak to the anti-semitism of the far right and does a good job at including all the far authoritarian right communities I could think of.

Near the end, she discusses how Youtube has played a large part in the spread of far right information. Until very recently, they have allowed anti-semitic, racist, homophobic, etc. content, even that which was violent, be recommended and trend. In recent weeks, I have seen a Tiktok trend where people joke about how they were 10-15 years old looking at Minecraft and Roblox videos, then Youtube rabbit holed them into hours of far right propaganda. I am very glad to see this touched on in this book as reaching children via video game play throughs and live streams is such an easy way to gain viewers by using the algorithm to their advantage. Other topics she mentioned are less talked about such as the schism of white supremacy that is Christian vs. Pagan, but are equally as important so we can identify white supremacy when we see it. From lesser known to more well known topics, she explains thoroughly the slang used so as not to leave readers behind.

What really got me was the lack of citations for some claims, as I mentioned earlier. Also, the writing style was not as clean as I would have liked it. She will use a slang term a couple times before stopping to explain what it means. There are other breaks for explanation that seem entirely unnecessary, making it more difficult to read the sentence. There are also times she explains the same term multiple times. I suppose it just feels as if it could have gone through another round of editing before being published. She is obviously well read, but the structure leaves something to be desired.

Final Rating: ★★★

[em · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short but heavy read. Lavin's investigative journalism into the seedy corners of the white supremacist internet is disturbing and eye-opening at once. Her prose is cutting and clever, but the book also could have used more editing as there were certain statements that were repeated in different places, such as the definition of the term incel, the backstory of one of the white supremacist websites, etc.

I also was left unsatisfied because I think that the book could have done a lot more delving into the psychology of racism, political extremism, and how people become radicalized. There is a section about the much spoken about alt-right pipeline (which as a teen I made it partway down, regretfully, but fortunately I had enough of a moral compass and sanity to not follow it all the way to its horrendous endpoint. I disembarked somewhere around the realm of Ben Shapiro). I wanted more exploration of how hateful viewpoints are laundered by "centrists" and "sane conservatives" of the variety I used to watch in my more naive years, because it is a pernicious and pervasive force that we can see the effects of in the 2024 election. (of course, I know this book was written before that)

Overall though, this book demonstrated remarkable resilience on Lavin's part-- honestly, I don't think I would be able to handle reading such horrendous statements about myself in these unsavorable telegram channels. I also liked the connections she drew between the incel and tradcath movements and how these ideologies usually lead towards the gravitational pull of white supremacy.

I also appreciated the discussion of the paradox of tolerance-- the idea that intolerant ideas should not be tolerated by a tolerant society, because their ability to spread jeopradizes the very tolerance of that society-- since it is part of the reason my former "free speech absolutist" standpoint dissolved. Frankly, humans just aren't fundamentally rational enough for the best idea to always win out in the "marketplace of ideas." It's never the best idea that people believe; it's the one with the best rhetoric, the one that appeals to their psychological hangups. And as we have seen time and time again, tribalist and violent ideologies are like catnip to humans in large groups.

[Jeffrey (Akiva) Savett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Type the name of this book into an amazon search. Then peruse the section called “Books You May Like” or “People who searched for this book also searched for.”

You’ll find a glut of books—all published in the last five years—about the alt-right, fascism, totalitarianism, white rage, etc. And yes! I absolutely know why. And yes! I absolutely detested our previous President with a granular repugnance. And yes! I absolutely know that his ouster from office doesn’t end or even diminish the white supremacy he fished for, fanned and fostered, and ultimately, helped normalize, or “launder” as Lavin helpfully calls it.

So I’m not sure how to justify my disappointment with this book without sounding like one of the “well-meaning liberals” Lavin calls out with particular disdain for “our” reasonableness and lack of action.

I’ll just put it the way I feel it: I came to the book quite familiar with the history of antisemitism and its contemporary manifestations. I’m Jewish. I’ve studied the subject pretty deeply. Maybe that part of the book isn’t so much for me. After all, there is only one chapter devoted to “The Jews,” but as a consequence, I suppose, of Lavin’s identity, the thread of antisemitism binds the various chapters together. But it does so in a way that quickly feels repetitive and, I’m sorry, kind of self-indulgent.

And it’s repetitive in other weird, but irritating ways. The chapter on “Incels” started off interestingly. But several times in the midst of her narrative, Lavin stops to define “incel” again as if we haven’t just read what we’d read. The following chapter “That Good Old Time Religion,” really just scratches the surface of alt-right/fundamentalist Christianity. There’s little discussion about how and WHY such ideology continues to inform our national historical consciousness.

I found the structure of the book and this superficiality disappointing. As is often the case in my reviews, I’ll offer this disclaimer: the subtitle of the book is “My Journey Into The Dark Web of White Supremacy.” It REALLY IS about the details and anecdotes of Lavin’s journey. She said it was going to be so. For many readers, and obviously, for many critics, this exploration from this point of view is both welcome and novel. For me, its consequence is myopia. The story detailing Lavin’s being chased out of a casino by a white-supremacist and her boyfriend is scary. I can’t imagine how threatening that was for Lavin. But actually, to some degree, I CAN. Because she spends pages and pages dissecting the experience. And I’m not sure what the entire encounter actually achieves. As I said, earlier in the book, Lavin castigates well-intentioned liberals for their social inaction.

There is definitely something to be said for Lavin’s courage in turning over the rocks of the dark net to deny haters and hate groups the protection of anonymity.

But by the end of the book, I’m not totally sure what that something to be said IS. Indeed, in the Afterword (it may be in the chapter “We Keep Us Safe,” my memory is fuzzy), we find the images/rituals of Lavin cooking traditional Jewish foods for those she loves and for herself. Without a mote of cynicism, I’d say she’s earned it. After being called every horrible thing possible, I can understand why one would want to “shower” in a reclamation and celebration of the very identity that rouses such virulence.

But I’m left wondering how different the WORLD and its hate groups really are as Lavin shelters and rejoices in the warmth of chicken soup, the home and wall permeating smells of cholent and steaming kasha. I’d love to have a seat at Lavin’s Shabbos table with a full bowl and plate. I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to DO after it ends.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few years ago, I attended a conference and listened to a lecture on the radicalization of white supremacist men on the internet. It was a fascinating lecture, followed by a great discussion.

I feel like I learned more from that one lecture than I did from reading this book. Or maybe more accurately, I didn't learn anything new from this book that I hadn't heard before, in that lecture and elsewhere. And while I do think that the online radicalization of white supremacist misogynists is important... I think there are better ways to learn about it.

I also feel like this book really suffered from an overstated premise! The most interesting parts were when the author was describing exactly how she, a Jewish feminist woman in her thirties, catfished violent anti-Semitic white supremacists around the world before they could act on their violent plans. I was fucking gleeful at her descriptions, happy that someone, somewhere was taking a shot at these "genocidal assholes" before they put their hateful rhetoric into action. I wish the book had been called "How to Catfish a Nazi for the Good of the World."

I want to keep making excuses for how meh this book was because I agree so hard with the author. And she's not a bad writer! I just think this is another book that suffers from misaligned expectations and execution.

Regardless, we should all be fucking worried that young men are identifying as incels/MRAs/Proud Boys/Q-Anon cultists/white nationalists/white ethnocentrists/harbingers of white genocide/whatever and indoctrinating each other into these toxic death cults. But you can get this information in more digestible form through subscribing to Contrapoints. I want to read the author's work in the form of op-eds and Atlantic articles instead.