even though it’s functionally a true crime book,[^1] White Hot Hate: A True Story of Domestic Terrorism in America’s Heartland is probably the book that sucked me in the most this year. the ultimate story being told here is effectively copaganda—almost definitionally it has to be, since it revolves around the FBI successfully navigating an infamous domestic terror plot from the past few years. but in between that story this book also really goes intimate into how such plots manifest and take form. you get a real sense of the sort of person who would follow through with white supremacist terrorism—and, perhaps indirectly, how many of these people are pushed to act (or hasten how willing they are to act) with the cajoling of the FBI. i’m not sure a book has ever felt like a peek behind the curtain for me without just actively being a political tract in the way this one was
[^1]: and i very much dislike true crime as a genre—looking at you I’ll Be Gone In The Dark