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BEST OF Vermont Conversation: CNN's Elle Reeve on how far-right extremism became the Republican mainstream
https://vtdigger.org/2025/06/18/best-of-vermont-conversation-cnns-elle-reeve-on-how-far-right-extremism-became-the-republican-mainstream/Reeve’s recent book is “Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics.”
What do Nazis, fascists, incels, skinheads, misogynists, insurrectionists and Proud Boys all have in common? Many of them confide in reporter Elle Reeve.
It was around 2015 and Reeve was reporting for Vice News about the rise of the “alt right,” a term coined by its leader, Richard Spencer. She spent time on internet message boards like 4chan and 8chan where far right activists communicated, trolled liberals, and began to coalesce as a movement. These were often ordinary people who increasingly embraced conspiracy theories and violence.
This was during the presidency of Barack Obama, when many people were imagining that the U.S. was in the glow of a “post-racial” era. Reeve knew better.
“Racism wasn’t dying off with an older generation,” she told the Vermont Conversation. “There was a strong beating heart right there on the internet.”
. . .
Reeve’s recent book is “Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics.” The title refers to how far right activists speak of taking the “black pill” of nihilism to justify their cruelty and violence. “It’s this dark nihilism that the world is doomed. There’s nothing you can do to change it, and you at best, can hope for it to collapse.”
Reeve traces how far-right rhetoric has moved from the fringes to the mainstream, with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance channeling extremist ideas and language.
. . .
It was around 2015 and Reeve was reporting for Vice News about the rise of the “alt right,” a term coined by its leader, Richard Spencer. She spent time on internet message boards like 4chan and 8chan where far right activists communicated, trolled liberals, and began to coalesce as a movement. These were often ordinary people who increasingly embraced conspiracy theories and violence.
This was during the presidency of Barack Obama, when many people were imagining that the U.S. was in the glow of a “post-racial” era. Reeve knew better.
“Racism wasn’t dying off with an older generation,” she told the Vermont Conversation. “There was a strong beating heart right there on the internet.”
. . .
Reeve’s recent book is “Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics.” The title refers to how far right activists speak of taking the “black pill” of nihilism to justify their cruelty and violence. “It’s this dark nihilism that the world is doomed. There’s nothing you can do to change it, and you at best, can hope for it to collapse.”
Reeve traces how far-right rhetoric has moved from the fringes to the mainstream, with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance channeling extremist ideas and language.
. . .