Read Inside the Minds of White Supremacists and Misogynists

Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy by Talia Lavin and Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists by Laura Bates are two important exposés of modern extremism that everybody should read.

Whether you consider yourself a conservative or a liberal, these books should be a wakeup call for our time to stop violent extremism, bigotry and misogyny.

Talia Lavin, the author of Culture Warlords, is a Jewish journalist who went undercover to infiltrate the extremist spaces online—in their chat rooms, messaging apps, dating sites, and more. She created her fake personas, like a white supremacist and an Aryan femme fatale looking for love, in order to expose how toxic and racist ideologies grow online.

Lavin, a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, wanted to investigate the rise of the alt-right after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. During the rally, an extremist ran into a crowd with his vehicle, killing one counter-protester, and the white supremacists burned swastikas and chanted, “Jews will not replace us!” The rise in fascist rhetoric in America has concerned many for years, and people are concerned that it is finally coming to a head.

The book connects modern extremist movements with history, offering her unique perspective, firsthand experience, and thorough historical research.

Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates exposes the extreme misogyny in the “manosphere,” the broad network of online communities run by and for men including websites, blogs, forums, and social media. They share a few things in common: misogyny, an opposition to feminism, and the false belief that men are discriminated against in society.

There are pick-up artists who claim to love women really just love conquering things; “men’s rights activists” use their grievances and entitlement to hate women; and the “involuntarily celibate” (incels) men who blame and hate women for not dating or having sex with them.

Bates also went undercover in these men’s spaces and peeled back the veil for readers on the violent rhetoric she witnessed. Young, vulnerable men are recruited and radicalized by misogyny, sometimes leading to mass shootings or attempted mass shootings, sexual assault, and stalking.

White supremacy and misogyny are inextricably intertwined. Lavin describes how misogyny is fundamental to white supremacy because women are vessels for racial purity; and Bates saw the overlap within the manosphere. People who hate so vehemently are interlocked with more than one type of hate.

Unfortunately, in the digital age, the internet is the incubator. Without online chat rooms, forums, and social media accounts garnering hundreds of thousands of followers and collective billions of views, organized recruitment would be much harder, thus less people would be radicalized into violent extremism.

These are powerful books that do not shy away from the uncomfortable truths, and I recommend that every informed reader pick up a copy of each. Talk about it with friends, family, congregations, leaders, and especially your sons.