#talia lavin

[shu-of-the-wind]

The desire for America to be a Christian hegemon, a kingdom that crushes infidels within and without, will not wane or abate until the public at large decides that this movement represents a legitimate threat and works to countermand it. This is difficult, painful work and demands a counterzeal that is not easy to muster in the dull, painful, costly, and challenging world. Nonetheless, it is required of us, in this time and for and of our children, to ensure that the momentum of half a century is stopped by a collective heaving against that mass of kinetic energy. A nation bound by Christian authoritarianism whose mandate is cruelty in private and austerity in public--which claims to love you as it burns you alive--is not to be countenanced; not in our schools, our courts, our cops, our corners. It must be rooted out from the public square and left to rot in ignominy, robbed of its power to hurt and to shame. --Talia Lavin, Wild Faith

[justforbooks]

White supremacists, Incels, White nationalists, National Socialists, Proud Boys, Christian extremists… In order to showcase their behaviour in their natural habitat, Talia Lavin goes undercover online as a blonde Nazi babe, a forlorn incel and a violent Aryan femme fatale.

Lavin is every fascist's worst nightmare. She is loud, Jewish and unapologetically anti-racist, with the investigative skills to expose online hatemongers. While searching the dark web, she discovers a whites-only dating site, a popular extremist YouTube channel run by a teenager, the everyday heroes of the anti-fascist movement and much more. Lavin then turns the lens of anti-Semitism, racism, and white supremacy back on itself in an attempt to dismantle the online hate movement from the inside.

Shocking, humorous, and merciless in equal measure, Culture Warlords explores some of the vilest subcultures on the Web - and shows us how we can fight back.

Perfect for fans of Louis Theroux, Jon Ronson and Michael Moore, Lavin's debut book is a seamless balance of hard-hitting research, humour and shocking stories. It is a fascinating expose of the dark web and how it harbours the rage and views of far-right extremists today.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[brokenhandsmedia]

A long series of book reviews from Edgar, the more thorough of our reviewers, containing six works by Joe Abercrombie, Gravitaty's Rainbow, and sundry other bits.

[selwyngrimm]

Finishing up Talia Lavin's Wild Faith with an afternoon coffee.

[thatwritererinoriordan]

I want to read Talia Lavin's book, but also, American Evangelical Christianity (not the Black church, but the one that descended from slaveholder Baptist Christianity) is literal nightmare fuel. They actually terrify me because they can talk themselves into any wacky thing.

[nando161mando]

"This week on 'Yeah Nah Pasaran!' on 3CR, @sexenheimer & I talk to Talia Lavin about their NEW! book 'Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America'.

4.30pm, Thurs, OCT 10 /// 855AM, digital, streaming, Community Radio+ app, podcats 🐈 "

Via @slackbastard

https://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=52339

[porterdavis]

Quote of the Day

As horrible as it is there's something darkly comic about the Department of Efficiency having 2 chairmen

Talia Lavin

[reylofanfictionanthology]

BURNED SO WITH BLISS: THE 2025 REYLO FANFICTION ANTHOLOGY GIFT FIC EXCHANGE SIGN UPS ARE NOW OPEN

Title inspired by Sophia Parnok’s poem “Kitchen Garden”, as translated by Talia Lavin

As a special way to enjoy some Reylo fanfiction this Valentine’s Day, the Reylo Fanfiction Anthology is hosting a gift fic exchange on AO3!

As a participant, you will offer to write a story of a minimum of 1000 words for someone’s request. You will also be matched with another writer who’ll write a gift fic for you based on your sign up request.

Sign ups open on Sunday, December 1, 2024.

Sign ups will close at midnight EST on Sunday, December 15, 2024.

You will receive your recipient’s request by Wednesday, December 18, 2024.

All fics are due at midnight EST on Sunday, February 2nd, 2025 to give us time for any pinch hit assignments, if necessary.

Fics will be anonymously revealed at 12:01 A.M., February 14th, 2025.

Authors will be revealed on Friday February 21st, 2025.

Please note that that this is an exchange hosted on AO3. In order to participate, you must have an Archive of Our Own account. For questions on how to join AO3, or any other questions, please email us at reyloffanth@gmail.com.

Please indicate at least three prompts for a fic you would like to receive when signing up, as well as anything you do not want in your gift fic.  Additionally, we are asking all participants this year to please include their favorite non-Star Wars book and movie in their sign up.

Example:

Prompt 1: Years after Rey and Kylo are married and trying to live happily ever after, a new Sith Lord rises.

Prompt 2: Domestic fluff - Rey and Ben/Kylo celebrate a holiday.

Prompt 3: Explicit hand holding

I love when Rey and Kylo banter and spar, but I don’t like outright fighting where they hurt each other. Fluff is fine! I really like when they kiss and makeup.

I do not want a gift fic with the following: Extreme violence, blood and gore.

My favorite non-SW book is Neverwhere and movie is Labyrinth!

Click here to sign up for the exchange!

Click here for more details about how the exchange will work!

[shu-of-the-wind]

I believe that evil can come in quiet places; that it is perpetuated by complacency; that complacency might be yours, if you choose, now, not to act on what you know; that no one deserves the kind of pain that makes you perpetuate it from within, that teaches you that you are irredeemable. That kind of pain is passed on, spreads around a country like salt over a crop field, leaving bitter earth. --Talia Lavin, Wild Faith

[hailthecriticalthinking]

All across America, a storm is gathering: from book bans in school libraries to anti-trans laws in state legislatures; firebombings of abortion clinics and protests against gay rights. The Christian Right, a cunning political force in America for more than half a century, has never been more powerful than it is right now--it propelled Donald Trump to power, and it won't stop until it's refashioned America in its own image.

In Wild Faith, critically acclaimed author Talia Lavin goes deep into what motivates the Christian Right, from its segregationist past to a future riddled with apocalyptic ideology.

Using primary sources and firsthand accounts, Lavin introduces you to "deliverance ministers" who carry out exorcisms by the hundreds; modern-day, self-proclaimed prophets and apostles; Christian militias, cults, zealots, and showmen; and the people in power who are aiding them to achieve their goals.

Along the way, she explores anti-abortion terrorists, the Christian Patriarchy movement, with its desire to place all women under absolute male control; the twisted theology that leads to rampant child abuse; and the ways conspiracy theorists and extremist Christians influence each other to mutual political benefit.

From school boards to the Supreme Court, Christian theocracy is ascendant in America--and only through exploring its motivations and impacts can we understand the crisis we face. In Wild Faith, Lavin fearlessly confronts whether our democracy can survive an organized, fervent theocratic movement, one that seeks to impose its religious beliefs on American citizens.

[florals-cardigan]

List of bway celebs you should not support bc they're Zionist or "neutral" on genocide

Kristin Chenoweth

Idina Menzel

Jeremy Jordan

Jonathan Groff

Andrew Rannells

Ariana Debose

Josh Gad

Annaleigh Ashford

Julie Benko

Sierra Boggess

Carolee Carmello

Victoria Clark

Micaela Diamond

Tovah Feldshuh

Wilson Jermaine Heredia

Derek Klena

Linda Lavin

Raymond J. Lee

Caissie Levy

Jose Llana

Terrence Mann

Debra Messing

Jessie Mueller

Alex Newell

Kelli O’Hara

Benjamin Pajak

Billy Porter

Seth Rudetsky

James Wesley

Ben Platt

Mike Faist

Noah Galvin

Lea Michelle

Andrew Scott

Olga Merediz,

Betty Buckley

Alexandra Billings

Talia Suskauer

Ali Ewoldt

Wilson Cruz

Dylan Mulvaney

Josh Groban

Seth Rudesky

If I missed anyone on that list, let me know so I'll add them on the list

Patti LePone

Christy Altomare

Anyways, theater kids for Palestine 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

[selwyngrimm]

You should check out Talia Lavin's new book. It's fascinating (of course) and absolutely horrifying.

[thatstormygeek]

To create a blood libel is to invite violence. There is no other consequence. To wield this sort of calumny is to ready the ground for the destruction of innocents, and there is no escaping the moral stain of its promulgation. A third term for this evil is “pogrom”, which itself comes from the Russian verb pogromit—to destroy through violence—and its root, grom, is “thunder.” The terrifying crack precedes the catastrophe. The lie booms before the strike. ... Later that year, the Yiddish Forverts, in New York, called Kishinev and St. Louis “twin sisters.” United by pogrom, and its consistent anatomy: the drumroll of the lie, the buildup of pressure, the storm. It is happening now, that terrible static electricity, the boots on the march like a hard rain. Only through a relentless solidarity—as strong as a wind to sweep thunderheads away—can we keep this well-known and relentless beat at bay, avoid being sisters of the storm, and instead earth and disperse its cruel lightning.

Miguel’s company is regulated by the SEC, and has to take a nonpartisan approach on political issues, he said, and that extends to employees. Staying neutral about political issues may be a common rule for many American workers, but it’s more complicated when an issue is a part of your core identity, Miguel said. “I think that’s been a huge conflicting area in my professional journey,” he said. “It’s the separation and compartmentalization that I have to do to separate my identity — given that it is a very politicized experience — with my actual career and company affiliation.”

[queerpyracy]

i was tagged by @marypsue to share some books on my 2025 to-read list!

this is more weighted toward nonfiction than i would have expected but i'm embarking on a couple of series which will get shoutouts below and otherwise i'm tending to try new authors and genres in my fiction reading recently.

Uncultured by Daniella Mestyanek Young (a leaving-a-cult memoir is always gonna make it onto my reading list)

Our Moon by Rebecca Boyle (i love these kinds of interconnected histories, and being the person that i am Of Course i was going to jump at the one about the moon)

Beaverland by Leila Philip (guess which book forced me to turn safesearch on. appeals for similar reasons as the last book, and beaver reintroduction being of particular interest to me)

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy (i'm familiar with her podcast but haven't dived into her fiction yet and in 2025 i am changing that)

The Resurrectionist by A. Rae Dunlap (i think we can all clock why this one caught my eye)

The Hades Calculus by Maria Ying (saw this one recommended on bluesky)

Right Story, Wrong Story by Tyson Yunkaporta (loved Sand Talk so this was a natural purchase and has been waiting on my TBR pile)

Wild Faith by Talia Lavin (i could have put multiple books in this slot because it is apparently my year of reading up on christian nationalism, but i've already read two of them so this is the one i'm most anticipating)

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow (this one is cheating a little bit as i already read most of it in 2024, but it is a big meaty book and my goal is to Finish it in the first half of 2025. incredibly valuable examination of our common cultural narratives about the history of humanity imo)

special shoutouts to:

the Guardians of Ga'hoole series by Kathryn Lasky which i loved as a kid and am revisiting now. this was Thee talking animal series of choice for me but i never actually finished the series because i was aging out of the demographic, so i'm hoping to do that now (and maybe complete my set because, well, i still have those books and i already have Most of them).

the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, which i am reading for the first time. i watched the PBS cartoon as a kid pretty regularly i couldn't really tell you why i never picked up the books, other than that i might have found their comparative length a bit imposing at the time.

gonna broadly tag my followers, tell me what you're planning to read!!