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How the alt-right's political violence went from online to real life

27:06

October 04, 2024

White nationalist demonstrators walk into the entrance of Lee Park surrounded by counter demonstrators on Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Va. A federal judge on Dec. 30, 2022, has slashed millions of dollars from the damages a jury ordered white nationalist leaders and organizations to pay for their role in the violence that erupted during the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

When reporter Elle Reeve is recognized at the airport, it's often by members of the alt-right: the online white nationalists who organized the violent Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville in 2017, and who originated much of today's political rhetoric. How did a bunch of 4chan users feeding Microsoft's Tay chatbot hateful language become such a potent political force?

Elle Reeve joins Endless Thread to discuss her book Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics.

Show notes:

Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics. (Amazon)
Charlottesville: Race and Terror (Vice)

This content was originally created for audio. An auto-generated transcript is available on Apple Podcasts. Heads up that some elements (i.e. music, sound effects, tone) are harder to translate to text.