Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism

Written by Christian Picciolini

Narrated by Christian Picciolini

From a onetime white-supremacist leader now working to disengage people from extremist movements, Breaking Hate is a "riveting" (James Clapper), "groundbreaking" (Malcolm Nance), "horrifying [but] hopeful" (S.E. Cupp) exploration of how to heal a nation reeling from hate and violence.

Today's extremist violence surges into our lives from what seems like every direction -- vehicles hurtling down city sidewalks; cyber-threats levied against political leaders and backed up with violence; automatic weapons unleashed on mall shoppers, students, and the faithful in houses of worship. As varied as the violent acts are the attackers themselves -- neo-Nazis, white nationalists, the alt-right, InCels, and Islamist jihadists, to name just a few. In a world where hate has united communities that traffic in radical doctrines and rationalize their use of violence to rally the disaffected, the fear of losing a loved one to extremism or falling victim to terrorism has become almost universal.

Told with startling honesty and intimacy, Breaking Hate is both the inside story of how extremists lure the unwitting to their causes and a guide for how everyday Americans can win them-and our civil democracy-back. Former extremist Christian Picciolini unravels this sobering narrative from the frontlines, where he has worked for two decades as a peace advocate and "hate breaker." He draws from the firsthand experiences of extremists he has helped to disengage, revealing how violent movements target the vulnerable and exploit their essential human desires, and how the right interventions can save lives.

Along the way, Picciolini solves the puzzle of why extremism has come to define our era, laying bare the ways in which modern society-from "fake news" and social media propaganda to coded language and a White House that inflames rather than heals-has polarized and radicalized an entire generation.

Piercing, empathetic, and unrestrained, Breaking Hate tells the sweeping story of the challenge of our time and provides a roadmap to overcoming it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Feb 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781549171475

Christian Picciolini

Christian Picciolini is an award-winning television producer, a visual artist, and a reformed extremist. His work and life purpose are born of an ongoing and profound need to atone for a grisly past, and to make something of his time on this planet by contributing to the greater good. After leaving the violent hate movement he was part of during his youth, he began the painstaking process of rebuilding his life. Picciolini earned a degree in International Business and International Relations from DePaul University, began his own global entertainment and media firm, and was appointed a member of the Chicago Grammy Rock Music Committee and the Chicago International Movies and Music Festival. In 2010 and 2011, he was nominated for three regional Emmy Awards for his role as executive producer of JBTV, one of America’s longest-running nationally broadcast music television programs. He has worked as an adjunct professor at the college level, and as the community partnerships manager for Threadless, a company that combines a thriving online art community with a highly successful e-commerce business model. Additionally, in 2013, he contributed to Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s and Director of Google Ideas Jared Cohen's New York Times best seller, The New Digital Age. Most notably, in 2010 he co-founded Life After Hate, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping communities and organizations gain the knowledge necessary to implement long-term solutions that counter all types of racism and violent extremism. An explorer by nature, Picciolini loves to learn new things and thrives on challenging himself with “positive disruptive thinking.” He values kindness, unselfishness, sincerity, and respect for all people, and believes that small ideas can change the world.

Reviews for Breaking Hate

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Picciolini is a former white power extremist himself—his music was on Dylann Roof’s playlist—and he writes about trying to repair the damage he’s done by reaching out to other extremists who may sense there’s something wrong but be afraid of whether they can leave. He contends that extremist ideology is often a cover for pain and fear, making it much easier to radicalize a person than deradicalize them. He tells a truly terrifying story of a Russian-backed operation to radicalize young white women, which of course the FBI ignored. In fact, as he says, Russian involvement actually resembles the complicated, conspiratorial narratives he used to believe, making it harder for ordinary people to understand and fight. Trump’s government revoked his nonprofit’s grant for helping white extremists disengage.

What is to be done? Picciolini says that no one is required to engage with or forgive anyone who’s done this kind of harm, but he tries to create links to them. He doesn’t “shame or engage them in debate. Arguing never works.” He listens to their personal stories, trying to find the sources of pain and insecurity that led them to extremism. He asks members of hated groups who are willing to do so to meet with the person—Heather Heyer’s mom and an imam are his examples in the book—and connect with them as people, not as objects of hatred. While “violent or hateful people should not fully enjoy the benefits of a peaceful society until they are accountable for their damage,” he wants to “allow space for rehabilitation and growth to occur,” or else violent extremists won’t see any way out and are more likely to retreat into the perceived acceptance of extremism. I definitely couldn’t do that work, but I’m glad he has committed to doing it.