Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

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

11 reviews

klsreads's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

3.5

There was a lot I really liked about this book. The scary look into far-right infiltrative journalism really put me on edge. Lavin is incredibly brave and principled. However, much of this book read like a collection of well-written journal articles. The overall story lacked cohesiveness. I enjoyed each section independently ("We Keep Us Safe" was a standout), but don't go into this expecting a deep dive into the path of online radicalism. It's good as a more intro-level text of vignettes. Lavin's writing is strong, personal, and emotional, though I found it repetitive (and I spent a fair amount of time looking up words). 3.5 stars.

"To those who find themselves uncomfortable with the operation of antifascists outside the comfortable bounds of institutions and, at times, the law, I remind you that the French partisans of World War II were acting illegally, while the Einsatzgruppen had the full support of German law. We tend to like our noble lawbreakers to be comfortably in the past, where time and death have sanitized them into heroes, and to suffer those who struggle against injustice in the present only grudgingly, if at all."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Police brutality, Cursing, Ableism, Body horror, Racial slurs, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Sexism, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racism, Misogyny, Transphobia, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Death, Suicide, Stalking, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Islamophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Self harm, Slavery, Hate crime, War, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, Torture, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child death and Pandemic/Epidemic

catnapping's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

2.75

This book seems like it didn't quite know what it wanted to be. I wish it had included more of the author's personal experience infiltrating white nationalist spaces. Instead, it came across more as a disjointed series of lectures on the history & current state of white nationalism. 

While the history and background provided was important, it lacked cohesiveness and was in need of better editing. After one incident when the same phrase was defined three times in the span of 5 minutes the lack of both storytelling finesse and editing became pointedly unbearable. 

Given the heaviness of the subject, these issues made an already hard read harder. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Misogyny, Body shaming, Islamophobia, Bullying, and Racism

Moderate: Mass/school shootings, Rape, Violence, and Stalking

Minor: Police brutality

jonezzzing's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Hate crime, Antisemitism, and Violence

caseythereader's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

3.75

 - I think it is important, when you can manage it, to look at horrible things straight on so you know what you're up against. That said, CULTURE WARLORDS is filled with some of the most horrifying and horrific things I've ever read, all the more terrifying because it's all happening right under our noses.
- I think if you've spent any time at all learning about (or experiencing) what the far right is up to, there isn't a lot of new information in this book. However, Lavin really does a great job of linking seemingly disparate ideologies, events, and social and governmental failures together to show how we arrived here. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Cursing, Hate crime, Homophobia, Police brutality, Murder, Suicide, Transphobia, Racial slurs, Rape, Blood, Racism, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Animal death, Death, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, War, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Stalking

collins1129's review

dark informative fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Stalking, Violence, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Death, Domestic abuse, Biphobia, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Colonisation, Gore, Gun violence, Lesbophobia, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Murder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Transphobia

deepcurvesahead's review

This book was just too much for me to read right now. I may try again in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Antisemitism, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Violence

thechiaraface's review

challenging dark informative medium-paced

3.75

 I think this book started out strong and provides a lot of interesting (and oftentimes also horrifying) information. This book made me so mad at times (some notes to myself on particular passages in this book include: 'I think I just threw up in my mouth' and 'are you F*ING kidding me?!'), so I only listened to a chapter a day. It really explores how hate groups morph and thrive online. I think this book is informative, insightful, and thought-provoking, however it's not a perfect book. The last couple chapters just did not hold up compared to the rest, it was less journalistic and instead seemed to try and convince us all to take action/get involved, but didn't provide any actionable steps so it fell flat in my opinion. It also had some moments where it felt a bit repetitive and imperfectly organized, but overall I found it very informative on the nitty-gritty details of how these groups function and the people involved. Also, I think her emphasis that these people (white supremacists, white nationalists, anti-semites, etc.) are everywhere and are not necessarily who you expect, is an important point. I think one of the biggest things I took away, and if you read it I hope you take away from it also, is that white nationalism and other online hate groups did not start with Trump, they were here long before (and fun fact, were some of the earliest internet users – a  KKK chapter was one of the early adopters to have a website back in the 1980s) and didn't suddenly disappear. I recommend this book – with the caveat that this has major hate-speech trigger warnings, there is truly heinous language (including graphic threats, including jokes & threats of rape and murder against the author she saw in chatrooms) included as part of this book.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Rape

ehmannky's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

4.75

 I'm going to be thinking about this book for a long while. Lavin documents the various ways in which white supremacy has become a global movement online and the ways in which tech companies such as YouTube and Twitter are complicit in that. She follows the history of white supremacy, tangled with antisemitism, and how it is fed by misogyny, homophobia, and a deep-seeded racial hatred towards anyone who isn't a very specific kind of white person. I felt a deep respect for Lavin's willingness to go undercover and submerge herself in the rampant abuse in order to show everyone what this culture is and why it's so dangerous to ignore it and allow it to grow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, Bullying, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

syddles's review against another edition

emotional informative tense fast-paced

3.0

An informative look at modern white supremacy, inceldom, and other kinds of hate, interspersed with Lavin's experience going "undercover" in Nazi chatrooms. Can be kind of repetitive, especially if you've got a basic understanding of these hate groups already. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia

offalcute's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny informative tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, and Xenophobia