Keen On

In the wake of the failed Trump assassination attempt by what seems to be a conventionally lonely and bullied young man, more and more Americans are asking what has gone wrong. According to CNN correspondent Elle Reeve, online Americans - particularly lonely, alienated young men on networks like Discord and 4Chan - have swallowed the Black Pill of QAnon style conspiracy theories, neo-nazi racism & antisemitism, and a fascist celebration of male violence. Reeves interviews many of these online nihilists and argues that they have become prisoners of bullying gangsters like Richard Spencer, the openly neo-nazi activist. What Reeve reports about the 2020s is the next chapter in John Ganz’s argument about how the Clocks Broke in 1990’s America with the mainstreaming of neo-nazis like David Duke. Reeve’s story is particularly chilling because, for all her conversations with these young men, she doesn’t seem to have found an antidote to the Black Pill.Elle Reeve is a CNN correspondent whose work has won numerous