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Black Pill

How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics

by Elle Reeve

Narrator Elle Reeve

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Length 8 hours 28 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“Reeve looks at the people behind the renaissance of American racism, and what she finds is both horrific and human. There is Fred, the incel wizard suffering from brittle-bone disease whose wish for self-annihilation leads him to embrace eugenics. There is Matt, whose high IQ does nothing to ease his social isolation until he finds community in the darkest parts of the internet. There is Richard, the proud patriot who (perhaps unwittingly?) marries a Russian agent. There are secret societies and online trolls and weaponized irony and the very real possibility that the end of democracy began as online harassment between video game fanatics. Reeve does not forgive the ugliness she finds in these individuals, but she does not forget their humanity as she attempts to understand why so many reject decency in favor of hate. This is a perfect read for fans of Kelly Weill's Off the Edge and Jonathan Lemire's The Big Lie, or podcasts like Long Shadow and Jon Ronson's Things Fell Apart. ”
— Adam • Prairie Lights Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Wow. First things first. Elle Reeve is brave. She thinks fast and writes well. Second, man, I learned a lot reading this book. It's about belonging and needing to belong. And the absolute power of the internet and algorithms and how you can become lost in its power. The author narrated the audiobook, very well done.”
— Melanie • The Well-Read Moose

Summary
About the author
About the narrator

This tour de force of investigative journalism—in the vein of The Next Civil War and Why We’re Polarized—reveals how the battle between the right and left is spilling out from the darkest corners of the internet into the real world with often tragic consequences.

Award-winning journalist and CNN correspondent Elle Reeve was not surprised by the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. With years of in-depth research and on-the-ground investigative reporting under her belt, Reeve was aware of the preoccupations of the online far right and their journey from the computer to QAnon, militias, and racist groups.

At the same time, Reeve saw a parallel growth of counterforces, with citizen vigilantes using new tools and tactics to take down the far right. This ongoing battle, long fought mainly on the internet, had arrived in the real world with greater and greater frequency.

With a sharp eye for detail and a dash of dark humor, Reeve explains the origins of this shocking sweep of political violence. Drawing on countless interviews with sources in the white nationalist movement as well as hundreds of as-yet-unseen documents, she takes us on a surreal journey from the darkest corners of the internet to the most significant and chilling scenes of real-world political violence in generations. A stranger-than-fiction odyssey into the dark heart of what American politics has become, Black Pill is necessary reading for any supporter of democracy.

History Politics & Economy Nonfiction Social Science

Elle Reeve is a CNN correspondent whose work has won numerous awards, including the Emmy, the Peabody, and more. Her writing has appeared in VICE, The New Republic, New York magazine, Elle, The Atlantic, and The Daily Beast. She lives in New York. You can follow her on Twitter @ElspethReeve.