A Book Talk with Elle Reeve

For many Americans, the events of January 6, 2021, were an unadulterated glimpse into America’s seedy underbelly of far-right movements–a world that award-winning journalist Elle Reeve understood all too well. Having spent the better part of a decade covering the American far-right and its leaders, Reeve took to writing  Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics - a detailed look at how the contemporary American far-right metastasized from a fringe movement on obscure internet forums to the mainstream. Black Pill is available for purchase wherever books are sold.

On Thursday, August 15, 2024, the Program on Extremism Research Fellow Luke Baumgartner had a conversation with Elle Reeve to learn about her journey and what it took to write Black Pill.

On August 15, 2024, the Program on Extremism at The George Washington University hosted a book talk with award-winning journalist and CNN Correspondent Ellie Reeve. Reeve’s book, Black Pill: How I witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics, details her experiences covering alt-right extremism in the past decade, an examination of how white nationalism has shifted from its origins in the dark corners of the internet and into the mainstream.

The title, Black Pill, is a reference to the red pill/blue pill metaphor that is prevalent in alt-right spaces. The metaphor originates from the 1999 film “The Matrix”, in which the characters choose between taking the blue pill to continue their lives, or taking the red pill to understand the harsh reality of the world. The black pill, a concept created in white nationalist online forums, refers to a growing belief that society is collapsing, and that society’s collapse is necessary in order to abolish the unjust systems in place and rampant moral bankruptcy. This theme carries throughout Reeve’s time observing the alt-right spaces, and offers a backdrop for her analysis of far-right movements.

Prior to white nationalism’s current iteration and prevalence in online platforms, white nationalism placed a heavy emphasis on the protection of white women. White nationalists viewed it as their responsibility to protect women, particularly in a racial context. However, as the movement began to manifest primarily in online circles, incel culture brought a new kind of misogyny to the movement that endorsed violence against women, including white women. In today’s iteration of white nationalism, women are seen as objectified wives whose purpose is limited to childrearing and homemaking. While these women portray themselves as proud members of traditional families, Reeve’s journalistic investigations revealed that these women are living in fear of their husbands, boyfriends, and other men in the white nationalist movement.

The white nationalists of Black Pill tend to share certain character traits, most notably, high intellectual capacity. This contrasts sharply with the popular perception of white nationalists as “dumb rednecks”. However, Reeve shared that this notion is dangerous, and that it is dangerous to underestimate this threat. While most accounts connected to white nationalist channels are not propagating violent ideas, Reeve explained that most extremists become violent by first justifying violence as self-defense. From here, it is easier for white nationalists to spiral into more forward facing violence.

As a journalist, Reeve rejects the idea that covering white nationalists grants them a platform. Instead, she acknowledges that they will have a platform online regardless of her coverage, and chooses to cover white nationalists in order to educate the general public on their threat and activities.