politics

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

Talia Lavin is every skinhead’s worst nightmare: a loud and unapologetic Jewish woman, acerbic, smart, and profoundly antiracist, 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.

I had already purchased this book after hearing a podcast interview. Then, I heard another interview where Talia stood her ground against some kinda shitty interview tactics by Brianna Grey Joy and realized, oh, I have that book, and I immediately started reading it. It was excellent.

Shitty podcast interview (which is excellent because of Talia and shitty because of Brianna) ~~here~~ (I tried to find a link to the audio podcast, but it was a pita. You can see part of it on a YouTube link or look for the true audio from Sept 2021 by loading the RSS of the Bad Faith podcast.).

I won't thump my chest. I fear violence. But violence is called for and justified regarding these pieces of shit. I'm posting this twice because I want it to be in the main thread and because I'm responding to the Talia-method: see => punch

It's going to keep happening until someone gets fed up and sticks some of them in the ground.

OTOH - First amendment. Unless they behave violently, nothing that can really be done.

Where is antifa?

Of course this is bad, but it least it's a small number, only about 62 total from both rallies. I hope these people are under surveillance.

Blood Tribe’s first public outing was in March, when 20 masked members disrupted an LGBTQ+ event in Wadsworth, Ohio. Blood Tribe’s leader Christopher Pohlhaus, who goes by “The Hammer,” was armed and his followers shouted homophobic and epithets, threatening “There Will be Blood.” This was followed by a similar appearance in April.

So... not really new then, is it?

What a tiresome article - it seems to simultaneously argue any of this is somehow new while also implying it's Republican core/aligned e.g. not new. I can respect the implication if for nothing more than these neonazi groups using the same propaganda and messaging strategies we've seen since red team rallied around the tea party, but fringe groups being absolute shitheads is pretty far from new.

Media giving them attention and a spotlight they don't deserve, on the other hand...

Spencer Sunshine is a long-time researcher of the far right. Follow him on Twitter: @transform6789.

Ah, fair enough. This is just some rando's blog.