The insincerity of social media and influencer culture is nothing new. Mr Beast set the supreme standard for success, study algorithms, what appeals to the mob glued to their screens, master thumbnails, edit a shiteating grin and you will be loved. Pewdiepie, Angry Video Game Nerd, Fouseytube, etc pioneered and invented the wheel so to speak when it came to viral and popular content. It was a different world for them, entertainment and genuine reviews were popular, even if at times they were infected with skits, characters and performance ‘reality.’ They became famous, influential and wealthy. The traditional media, and more importantly the government and corporate backers still invested in the orthodox outlets, slowly took notice.
Thereafter the Paul brothers and numerous other influencers clawed their way to prominence. Video game reviews and dancing, silly skits for children were appealing. In the age of kidification, where adults prefer to consume ‘child safe’ content the online importance and status of these content creators rose. To the point that men like Destiny, are considered important minds simply because of social media followers. Debate in itself is now all theatre, it exists for entertainment. More content.
Politics, but above all “pwning” certain groups or drowning oneself in ‘liberal tears’ became a popular past time. Once 4chan defeated Tumblr, the floodgates of dominance reigned supreme. And no amount of screaming pink haired moderators or memers could stop the invasion. Pepe the Frog to taking down Shia LeBeouf’s flag, all moments of triumph for the troll. The genius, whether intentional or accidental, of Donald Trump was in becoming the troll in chief. He mastered inflaming the despised or established. It was in the emotional reaction of his opponents and critics, that his supporters and even non-political, especially for the terminally online enjoyed, relished in.
Milo Yianopolis, Michael Malice, to a degree a younger Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk all indulged in some way with the online theatrics of targeting the low hanging fruit of their political rivals. Burning their strawman and constantly reminding the audience, stereotypes are true. Debates or statements became memes, to be responded to, reacted on and so on. A circular economy of outrage response content. Where viewers, for whatever reason, needed a persons face super imposed over footage, to point and nod. It is the laziest form of content, yet, it’s popular and the ‘creators’ are rewarded.
Adjacent to all of this, emerged the criticverse, in the declining years of the 00s ‘angry’ or ‘irate’ nostalgic movie and game reviewers arose the anti-woke critics. Ghostbusters, 2016 and the films, shows and media thereafter provided online critics with endless content to destroy. It turned out that viewers would rather watch a 5hr long condemnation of a movie made by an account like Mauler, than the property he is dismantling. The Critical Drinker, Nerdrotic, Little Platoon and so on became not only movie reviewers but social critics. A reaction to the social lecturing and propaganda clumsily infused into most media. To react and reject the corporate and government junk was not only entertaining, but profitable. The postmodernist destruction of the past through remakes and unwanted sequels in itself destroyed by the postmodernist emergence of supreme criticism. Nothing is created, only destroyed or adapted into a miserable for money property.
After Covid, the private equity firms and tech bro billionaires reinvented themselves and found new frontiers to invest into. Influencers, and non-woke outlets, became popular. Zuck was rolling on the jiu jitsu mats and suddenly Musk had pissed of the very same, former Tesla drivers who had made him a star. Many in the public had grown tired of the brow beating and aristocratic lectures from government, corporate and Hollywood elites. So, some turned to tech billionaires and influencers who above all else, annoyed or angered them, the despised privileged class. So, they embraced a privileged class of billionaires. The mainstream left, or establishment class are that hated by most outside of government and corporate sectors.
With all of that in mind, and the ever present reality of the online troll. You have the incarnation of Nick Fuentes. Perfectly encapsulating the resurgence of Nazi or Hitler apologists, along with the tankies inclination to praise Stalin in conjunction with the conservative revitalisation of anti-women’s liberation. The many groups hear what they wish to hear, a common phenomena of the ASMR podcast listeners in conjunction with the ‘shorts’ of TikTok, YouTube and Instagram where a selected segment is edited accordingly to invoke engagement. Take the recent end segment of Pete Hegseth doing pull ups to failure. His critics gleefully sharing the last ten seconds of a man who had just pushed through numerous exercises, while in the final stages of failure. To those who don’t train or with disingenuous intent, it’s used as a slur against him. Those making such slop are less inclined to gain support from any critical thinker even if they may politically agree.
But Fuentes is above such a thing, in that he is volatile not because he is a madman or a vile political thinker. He is a content creator. His only stock in trade is to inflame, enrage and engage. And, he is being rewarded for it. Instead of letting him snuff out into irrelevance, he and others like him, and many will emerge, are rewarded. They receive behind the scenes backing and funding, they are pushed into positions where they shake the right hands, constantly validated by gatekeepers and then are invited onto bigger shows who, when he says something obscene or controversial, the statements are dismissed and ignored. He is saying things many now agree with as a reaction to the past decades, status quo. An extreme reaction for extreme arrogance.
You can’t defeat or cancel some one when they stand for nothing. The point is they, don’t have any position other than to shitpost, to incite reaction. The large platforms sit across with a straight face and pretend to be reinvigorating political conversation as though they are the next William F Buckley or even, Dick Cavett. It’s not that we now have trolls like Andy Kaufman, or derailed as a Mayhem Miller. Instead, the point is to have no point and to sow discontent, with adversarial opinions and talking points which are nihilistic contrarian. The new conservatism is not so much to conserve, rather to oppose and embrace a caricature of the past, one that never really existed, only in the television screen. And for those hooked on screens, that’s real enough.
The revealing truths is not in those who do this for the sake of the laughs or as an inner joke. But, the people taking them seriously. The media and influencers interviewing them who don’t challenge the statements or push back. In turn revealing a desire to ride the fame, or perhaps enjoy the wealth and attention such a personality has or brings with them. Or, to claim such a person is funny or charming. John Wayne Gacy dressed as a clown and made children laugh, Ted Bundy’s charm was his edge. These are not moral indicators.
Fuentes has also come about at a key social moment for some Western nations. And, especially for those constantly on social media. The war on Gaza has revealed the malicious nature of the State of Israel, even those who otherwise are not antiwar, are witnessing an active genocide. Because Israel is a theological state, it’s associated with world Judaism. Antisemitic Jew hatred is a constant sentiment and trait that is never far from the surface in many Western cultures. The actions of Israel and the establishment blindness, tolerance and enabling of these actions have in turn invoked bigoted hatred of all Jews. In turn any criticism of Israel is construed as anti-Jewish which has further allied affairs.
This in turn reinvigorates the Holocaust denialism or, “Hitler did not know” or “is not that bad”, revisionism found in the pages of David Irving, but also common in the online history community such as channels like Zoomer Historian, who delicately weave racialist, fascist and pro-Nazi sentiment in well crafted documentaries. As Irving did, they ensure omissions, admissions and the editing of facts are placed and timed accordingly. And then you have the outright denialism which uses simplistic and idiotic methods, such assuming all of those murdered were gassed in the chambers, and not shot, hung, burned in synagogues, starved, gassed in mobile kill vans and so on. Or that the numbers were invented to push a Zionist project. What was once a running joke on Norm McDonald Live, is now a serious talking point among memescholars.
Distrust and hatred of migrants is ever common and a constant for most nations. There is a love-hate for most migrants and even as one may walk through China town, a nationalist will go on about other migrants not assimilating, or bringing their culture with them. The labour market is both full of cheap, slave labourers from overseas but when those migrants are not in abundance, the jobs are then exported overseas anyhow. Instead of considering taxes and regulations killing and destroying the economy and industry, the cry is, “de took aur jobs!” Not to mention to destruction of sound money which is now just inflationary debt bucks and the damage this has done to nations and communities.
The hatred of gays, trans and all the other colours of the rainbow is a popular position among conservatives and anyone who has had woke identity politics pushed onto them. It turns out many individuals inside the above mentioned demographics also don’t like being turned into a political token. The hetero-normative outlook assumes a particular perspective when it comes to sex and sexuality. If a persons religion governs this outlook, they should understand that is their own choice, not for the world to be forced to embrace. If one has insecurities, bigoted, or perhaps even closet confusion when it comes to people who are different, that is an internal conversation for them to have. To hate, and claim all have a mental illness who do not fit the parameters of a certain sexual spectrum is deranged and stands against individual choice and rights.
Coercion is the issue, ie forcing either, or any world view onto others. To hate people from this group has become easy and popular do. Mostly in part as a reaction to the woke pollution into the kink, gay and trans scene. From within these communities there is a need to conceal ones beliefs and identify, should it not fall in line with the approved ideology imposed of kink-gender, inc. It’s safe to say, “it’s not for me,” unfortunately we now live in a world of narcissistic views, the disdain for the different. In all things.
Which brings us to the hatred of women. The belief women are emotional and need to be governed by men. Is an interesting statement coming from an online community of males who are emotionally charged when it comes to expressing their entitled views. Not to mention, should we look at demographics, it’s among males who are reading less, losing critically thinking, avoiding toil and spending more time gaming, gambling and on social media. Now, this does not mean that from within the female demographic there are not issues, generally in a higher level. The point being is that as individuals we should be responsible for our own actions and treated accordingly.
To claim women must be breeding cows, wives to be taken and had. Or, that any woman who is over a certain age, childless and unmarried has no value, or should be discarded, is obscene. The issue is not with men like Fuentes, who I suspect like the Tate brothers, spits out words with the intention of angering and upsetting people. While, signaling to those who agree with him. But, also those who just want to laugh and see the world burn. Identity politics, has in itself created a class of political supremacy, whether through DEI or claiming all white men are devils, etc, it will invoke reactions and rejections, Which will become extreme. The blatant bias of Israel first in US politics has exposed hypocrisy to be rejected. In turn the America first or even West first hypocrisy tends to be less apparent, except for the planets other 7 billion people. There is fuel in all forms of collectivism, to hate groups and in turn seek to protect other groups. To ignore individuals.
The critics of Fuentes will have as much success as parents and teachers trying to rationalist and figure out, ‘6 7.’ The point is in the reaction, the lack of meaning and for many who have grown up watching a depiction of unreality through the screens, nothing has any meaning and meaningless humour or stirring a response, any response is the point. If there is even a point at all. We live in a world of simulacra of simulacra ad-nauseam and where the meta is in the micro meaning of meta references that in the end are a meaningless meme, whereby the meaning is in the reference to the meme itself. If you add in hate, bigotry and insecurities you will have a world where such content thrives.
This is the key point. In the age of slop and insincerity, everything now exists with the disposable short term intent of entertainment, and to make money. Fuentes, is likely not as serious with most of the things he says. Which is why it’s easy to find contradictions. That’s the point. He has no position. It is like grabbing steam. Those who do believe in him, or sit across from him and take him, or make him serious, they are more problematic. Even if unknowingly they are legitimising the illegitimate and are ruining whatever ideology or political philosophy they themselves claim to champion. I don’t think shitposters should be censored, banned or cancelled. I think we, as viewers on the other hand need to be and do better. If we live in an age where status is a spiraling race down the drain, then that’s on all of us. If we don’t take the world serious and reward those who do anything for engagement or are screen creatures, then maybe the jokes on us all.
