This Author Infiltrated Racists Spaces Online. Then Wrote a Book About It.
Political columnist Anjali Enjeti speaks to Talia Lavin about her debut, ‘Culture Warlords’
President Trump’s nod to the Proud Boys, a hate group, coupled with his refusal to condemn White supremacy at the first presidential debate, would have come as no surprise to Talia Lavin, author of Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy.
New York-based Lavin began writing about the world of White supremacist organizations a few years ago. In 2019, she decided to take the plunge to go deeper. To infiltrate virtual racist spaces, an impossible task for a Jewish woman to do as herself, Lavin first invented online identities that would enable her acceptance.
Enter Ashlyn, a chaste, blonde, gun-toting Nazi from Amber, Iowa, who knows all about hunting season, and introverted, never-been-kissed Tommy O’Hara, an “involuntary celibate,” (“incel”) who hates women because they won’t have sex with him. Through these personas, Lavin seduces bigots to gain a larger understanding of the ideology, methods of recruitment, and the origins of the violent rhetoric White supremacists use against Jews, Muslims, Latinx, Blacks, immigrants, and women.
