Author | Tal Lavin |
---|---|
Language | English |
Subject | White supremacy |
Genre | Non-fiction |
Published | 2020, Hachette Books |
Media type | Print, e-book, audiobook |
Pages | 288 pages |
ISBN | 978-0-30684-643-4 |
Website | hachettebooks.com/titles/talia-lavin/culture-warlords/9780306846434/ |
Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy is a non-fiction book by Talia Lavin. [1] [2] In the book, Lavin describes a project of inventing online personae that allow her to meet and expose fascist white supremacists who gather in online chatrooms and websites; the book also traces the historic roots of these contemporary phenomena.
Time named Culture Warlords one of the 100 must-read books of 2020.
Lavin, who is Jewish and the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, [3] became motivated to investigate the topic following white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, where "Jews will not replace us!" was a rallying cry. [4] This may be in reference to the white genocide conspiracy theory.
In March 2019, Lavin sold Culture Warlords to editor Paul Whitlatch at Hachette Books. [1] [5] It was published on October 13, 2020. [6] [7]
Lavin invented online personae, which allowed her to gain entry to white supremacist websites and chatrooms, gathering information for journalists and anti-fascist activists. The book describes these present-day encounters while also tracing “the distant and near history of the alt-right, from the medieval European blood libel to Henry Ford’s mainstreaming of anti-Semitic ideas to Gamergate and the stories of a radicalized adolescent YouTuber.” [3]
Publishers Weekly called the book a "bracing and wide-ranging look at the internet as a breeding ground for racism and misogyny. Readers with a strong stomach for hateful ideology will find plenty of harrowing takeaways." [6] Kirkus gave Culture Warlords a starred review [8] and USA Today named it number one in the “hottest new book releases” for the week it was published. [9]
Writing in The New York Times , Jennifer Szalai said, "One of the marvels of this furious book is how insolent and funny Lavin is." [10] In her review for the Boston Globe , Kate Tuttle notes that while other books treat similar material, Lavin's work "feels particularly insightful, perhaps because she understands so deeply both the modern idiom in which these bigots operate today and their historic roots in race science, eugenics, and anti-Semitism." [11]
Time named Culture Warlords one of the 100 must-read books of 2020. [12]
White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine of scientific racism and was a key justification for European colonialism.
The Zionist occupation government, Zionist occupational government or Zionist-occupied government (ZOG), sometimes also called the Jewish occupational government (JOG), is an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming that Jews secretly control the governments of Western states. It is a contemporary variation on the centuries-old belief in an international Jewish conspiracy. According to believers, a secret Zionist organization actively controls international banks, and through them governments, to conspire against white, Christian, or Islamic interests.
Kevin B. MacDonald is an American antisemitic conspiracy theorist, white supremacist, and retired professor of evolutionary psychology at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB).
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Taki's Magazine, called Takimag for short, is an online magazine of politics and culture published by the Greek paleoconservative commentator and socialite Taki Theodoracopulos and edited by his daughter Mandolyna Theodoracopulos. It has published articles by far-right figures such as Gavin McInnes and the white supremacist Jared Taylor; the white supremacist Richard Spencer was an early Taki's editor.
Stormfront is a neo-Nazi Internet forum, and the Web's first major racial hate site. The site is focused on propagating white nationalism, Nazism, antisemitism and Islamophobia, as well as antifeminism, homophobia, transphobia, Holocaust denial, and white supremacy.
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Opponents of the alt-right have not reached a consensus on how to deal with it. Some opponents emphasized "calling out" tactics, labelling the alt-right with terms like "racist", "sexist", "homophobic", and "white supremacist" in the belief that doing so would scare people away from it. Many commentators urged journalists not to refer to the alt-right by its chosen name, but rather with terms like "neo-Nazi". There was much discussion within U.S. public discourse as to how to avoid the "normalization" of the alt-right. The activist group Stop Normalizing, which opposes the normalization of terms like alt-right, developed the "Stop Normalizing Alt Right" Chrome extension. The extension went viral shortly after the release of Stop Normalizing's website. The extension changes the term "alt-right" on webpages to "white supremacy". The extension and group were founded by a New York-based advertising and media professional under the pseudonym George Zola.
How to Be an Antiracist is a 2019 nonfiction book by American author and historian Ibram X. Kendi, which combines social commentary and memoir. It was published by One World, an imprint of Random House. The book discusses concepts of racism and Kendi's proposals for anti-racist individual actions and systemic changes.
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor is a book by Layla Saad published on January 28, 2020. Structured as a 28-day guide targeted at white readers, the book aims to aid readers in identifying the impact of white privilege and white supremacy over their lives. It contains quotations, terminology definitions and question prompts. It received positive critical reception, entering many bestseller lists in June 2020 after a surge in popularity in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests.
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Talia Lavin is an American journalist. She is the author of Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy, published in 2020, and Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America, published in 2024.
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is the 2021 debut novel by American poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. It explores the history of an African-American family in the American South, from the time before the American Civil War and slavery, through the Civil Rights Movement, to the present. Themes include family history, education, and racism, and the prose narrative is interspersed with poetic passages that provide insight into and detail of the protagonist's ancestors, who are people of African, Creek, and Scottish descent.
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