Culture warlords : my journey into the dark web of white supremacy
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-254) and index.

"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 stumbled into a byzantine online culture of hate, becoming one of the nation's leading experts on how white supremacy proliferates online, who has herself become the frequent target of extremist trolls (including those at Fox News). Some journalists go into war zones in far-away places. Talia traverses war zones on the internet. In CULTURE WARLORDS, she uncovers the hidden places online where extremists hang out -- and exposes a veritable 'bestiary of terrible people,' as she calls it: Incels. White nationalists. White supremacists. National Socialists. Proud Boys. Christian extremists. You've heard of these groups, but in this book, you will see them in their natural habitat. In stories chock-full of catfishing and gatecrashing, combined with extensive, gut-wrenching research, Talia goes undercover as a blonde Nazi babe and a forlorn incel to infiltrate deep into extremist communities online, including a whites-only dating site where white supremacists try to find romantic connections. She discovers the digital world of disturbingly young extremists, including a white supremacist YouTube channel run by a 14-year-old girl with over 800,000 followers. Ultimately, she turns the lens of anti-Semitism, racism, and white power back on itself in an attempt to dismantle and quash the online hate movement's schisms, recruiting tactics, and the threat it represents to the 2020 election and beyond. Shocking, provocative and humorous in equal measure, and with a take-no-prisoners attitude, CULTURE WARLORDS explores some of the vilest subcultures on the Web -- and how they're doing their best to break into the mainstream." -- Dust jacket flap.