Going Dark
The Secret Social Lives of Extremists
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Going Dark
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Narrated by:
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Hera Reed
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By:
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Julia Ebner
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents Going Dark by Julia Ebner, read by Hera Reed.
A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR
'Engaging and visceral ... Reads like a thriller' Financial Times
'Riveting and often deeply disturbing ... A punch to the stomach' Sunday Times
'Ebner has done some gutsy, thought-provoking research' Sunday Telegraph
'Fascinating and important' Spectator
By day, Julia Ebner works at a counter-extremism think tank, monitoring radical groups from the outside. But two years ago, she began to feel she was only seeing half the picture; she needed to get inside the groups to truly understand them. She decided to go undercover in her spare hours – late nights, holidays, weekends – adopting five different identities, and joining a dozen extremist groups from across the ideological spectrum.
Her journey would take her from a Generation Identity global strategy meeting in a pub in Mayfair, to a Neo-Nazi Music Festival on the border of Germany and Poland. She would get relationship advice from ‘Trad Wives’ and Jihadi Brides and hacking lessons from ISIS. She was in the channels when the alt-right began planning the lethal Charlottesville rally, and spent time in the networks that would radicalise the Christchurch terrorist.
In Going Dark, Ebner takes the listener on a deeply compulsive journey into the darkest recesses of extremist thinking, exposing how closely we are surrounded by their fanatical ideology every day, the changing nature and practice of these groups, and what is being done to counter them.
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What listeners say about Going Dark
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Gemma Brady
- 06-04-24
Important analysis of the ever-changing tech landscape.
A engrossing read if an unnerving one. This book explores the ever changing tech landscape and the threat of extremism that spills into the real world. I, personally, find Trad Wives (and their links to the far right), morbidly fascinating. The book doesn’t leave you in a state of hopelessness as it ends with an exploration of solutions, some of which are very creative (I love the idea of elves vs trolls) Well worth a read, the more we understand, the better.
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- Fishforreal
- 21-04-21
Insightful
Really interesting food for thought. Difficult to judge the prevalence of the views in society and the impact of what I feel are minority views with disproportionate impact.
I found the narrator very easy to listen to.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 25-05-20
A gripping, depiction of today's extremism
A fantastic read which adds significant detail and new insight to an increasingly crowded genre of extremism studies. The diversity of extremism forms and modes covered and the links and commonalities between them is impressive. Ebner provides much needed sense-making of what from the outside looks like unstoppable chaos. She shows how we are all much closer to this than we imagine and have a careful role to play.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- J. M. Poulain
- 23-11-21
Very informative about extremist networks
Very informative about the ways in which extremist networks operate with the constant irony of having backwards/ conservative views and a progressive use of technology. It doesn't treat all extremists as stupid or vile and despite a tech focus makes sure that humans and human emotion are the centre of any network or counter extremist policy.
I would have liked more statistical basis for some elements but it is a very up close and personal book.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Mr. T. P. Bedingfield
- 04-03-20
Avoids religion too much
It was okay, it takes out the far right very well. But it stops short on most religious extremism. However, it it well written and well researched.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Adrià
- 26-04-21
Fascinating
So brave the work she's doing. And despite the heavy subject, an easy and enjoyable read. With some of the stories my jaw literally dropped. Fascinating anecdotes, well supported by scientific research. She is clearly such an expert in this field.
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- papapownall
- 10-04-20
Brave story of infiltration of extremist worlds
Julia Ebner is an incredibly brave journalist. In this book she tells the story of how she infiltrated the dangerous worlds of political extremists to tell the inside story of how they recruit, subvert and operate outside the mainstream. Some of the information included in this expose is truly shocking and demonstrates the lengths some of these people will go to attain their political goals. Many of the people the Ebner meets are, at fave value, surprisingly normal, albeit at the edge of society and all seem to want to connect with like minded people who are similarly disillusioned with the mainstream and are hankering for a common identity and a sense of belonging. We meet various right wing extremist groups including people at a rock concern in eastern Germany, an extremist dating site and, strangest of all proponents of the so-called Trade Wives movement who are anti-feminist. The stories have a little of "Louis Theroux" about them but they are more than that as Ebner is able to get deeper inside some of these organisations to discover who controls and drives them. This makes compulsive listening.
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3 people found this helpful
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- An amateur
- 21-08-21
Interesting insights
Most important takeaway for me was how sleek and modern extremist recruiting and network have become. Gamification can apply to many things including extremism/terrorism.
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- Ruth Oswald
- 25-12-22
Eye opening!
Provides a fascinating (& disturbing) insight into the on and offline worlds of extremists, from white supremacists to Islamists, incels to trad wives. Highly recommended.
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- Martin B
- 19-10-24
Concise and brave
I wasn't expecting to hear how much risk the author has taken to research this book. Everyone should read/listen to this book.
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