Since February 2023, artist, university lecturer, and internet culture writer Joshua Citarella has been interviewing a wide range of subjects who have shaped politics from internet subcultures. It would be a gross oversimplification to say that their so-called “e-theology” spans a wide swath of the “political realm.” For the real characteristic of e-deology is not so much that it is left or right, but rather its tendency. Collect the peculiarities and qualifications of each baroque. They are not just Republicans and Democrats, or conservatives and liberals, or even socialists and liberals. These are self-proclaimed “pan-constitutional monarchists,” “anti-democratic transhumanists,” “anarcho-primitivist electoralists,” “Islamic nationalists,” “agricultural voluntarists,” “ecofascists,” and and many other seemingly endless permutations of boutique ideas. .
The following is an excerpt from one of our interviewees, a “Third Standlist”, aka “Fascist”, who has been anonymized by the screen name “Papa Coomer”.
How would you describe your politics and ideology?
third position.
How would you describe your politics and ideology?
third position.
Who has been your biggest influence?
Hans Hermann Hoppe, James Mason, William Luther Pierce, Mencius Moldbug.
When did you first learn about or start visiting online political communities?
2017.
Another interviewee, a 16-year-old from Texas, told Citarella that his future job in the not-too-distant future would be “guerrilla fighter, neoliberal slave, neoliberal master.” It explains why you can say with a straight face that you are deaf. This person told Citarella that he has been accessing the online community since 2016. If this word is to be believed, this means they were nine years old at the time. And if what they say is to be believed, they have also been “politically active” offline, although this is not explained in detail. They did not say whether their mother drove them there.
To say that right-wing extremism, reactionary radicalization, and yes, even fascism are “on the rise” among America’s youth requires some context. Is it bothersome? surely. Am I scared of Gen Z brownshirts knocking on my door in the middle of the night and forcing me into a Bitcoin server camp? Actually not. There are several reasons.
Comment from our Sweet 16 year old Texan:
How would you describe your politics and ideology?
Ideology is dead. All I am working on is destroying the current system and allowing the old system to rise from the ashes of the new system.
How would you describe your politics and ideology?
third position.
Who has been your biggest influence?
Ted Kaczynski, Nick Rand, James Mason.
And there are predictions that can be conveyed with the utmost confidence.
What changes do you think we’ll see in the next 10 years?
The collapse of the United States, the public’s perception of the current world situation, and the rejection of neoliberalism and the ideals of the Enlightenment.
What changes do you think we’ll see over the next 40 years?
Earth system collapse, a return to agrarian lifestyles, and viable solutions to climate change.
Whether you find these replies funny or sad, I don’t have much confidence in their longevity.
Our junior accelerationists were not adherents of what they called “anti-establishment ideology.” They identified themselves as Marxist-Leninists in 2016 at the age of eight. They have bounced back and forth over and over again saying, “I was an anarchist, a fascist, a communist, etc.”
It’s highly unlikely that what you believed when you were 16 years old will hold true as an adult. Young people are very capricious and there is no way to predict where their impulsive passion will fall. They not only change their thoughts, but also dramatically, which is no surprise to those who remember their teenage years, when capriciousness was a characteristic of youth. Take “J,” a 22-year-old self-proclaimed “reactionary,” for example. He was a supporter of Bernie Sanders in 2016. Alternatively, “R” is a self-proclaimed anarcho-communist, but in 2019, when she was 11 years old, she was an eco-fascist.
Children and young people are always putting their hats on and testing their beliefs and identities by cultivating a kind of narcissism over the small differences that young people have always built up for themselves. It is often done by becoming antisocial and even more often by becoming selectively sociable. After all, these online sub-subcultures are a way for kids to feel unique, as well as a way to find friends.
Still, they are unlikely to engage in organizing, even within their own ranks. There’s a big difference between how Zoomers go about their “self-discovery” and how those who came of age before them did it. They do it online, anonymously and secretly, with no physical space or dangerous hazards to gather them. Encounter someone you don’t want to talk to. Going online is the norm. It’s a little difficult to do Kristallnacht if you don’t go out together.
Even if they actively participate in social situations and try to evangelize their fellow fascists, these highly literate theoretical young fascists have some problems when trying to recruit. You will encounter obstacles. Whether we are jocks, punk rockers, valedictorian candidates, theater brats, stoners, or any other John Hughes cliche, we never come close to actually expressing how we see ourselves and each other. Even if it wasn’t there, the young man would be confused, roll his eyes, or at least grin. You rarely meet such people. This is not to say that there were no serious and motivated intellectuals in every school, but there were very few. They have always reached their limits and most of the time they have grown and grown from there.
Sure, things have changed since the days of Myspace, but it’s still hard to imagine Citarella’s 16-year-old e-deologue being surrounded by people at skate parks, parties, sporting events, or any other situation. Comrades, crazy street preachers, peddling very specific and incredibly niche political beliefs, with quotes from dead German theorists, and engaging their fellow young men in serious discussions. is bringing together.
You see, these kids are nerds.
That’s not to say geeks aren’t dangerous. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have concentrated wealth more greedily and effectively than any robber before them. Even liberal nerds like George Soros and Bill Gates have promoted some truly heinous neoliberal policies around the world. But these kids can’t even vote yet, so if any of them even wanted to, or even if they wanted to by the time they got the funding, they wouldn’t have the technology to do it right away. The chances of deposing the ruler of and ascending the throne are very low. This is to devise highly insidious apps.
The problem with being a fascist in America is that we have never had a strongly project-oriented state. In essence, they face the same obstacle of capital as socialists.
We are not actually building the political institutions and instruments for an ambitious planned economy, much less one as ordered as a nation-state. Modern America has always preferred exploitation to genocide and outright authoritarianism. And we tend to be passive actors in the genocides of other countries. Certainly, we can do it to proxy states by sabotaging left-wing movements, for example by arming Latin America or Israel during the Cold War, or by making deals with the Nazis, as Prescott Bush did. However, the truth remains that whoever claims to be sabotaging the leftist movement remains the same. American fascists are weird Europhiles, mentally ill, or 15 year olds.
The idea of American fascism is antithetical to capitalism. Don’t get me wrong. As far as modern states are concerned, our country is perhaps the first in enabling fascism abroad, and as far as developed countries are concerned, our neoliberal structure is uniquely and exceptionally cruel and repressive. , exploitative of Americans themselves. But if you’ll forgive me for being pedantic, we’re not rolling out fascism in the good old United States any time soon for the same reason we’re not rolling out socialism. It has no system or foundation to counter capitalism. Our “evil elite” is another beast, and those who seek to overthrow it have no means of overthrowing it. We have no combatant workforce or stormtroopers. Instead, we have the Deep State and Amazon, and Republican and Democratic “political parties,” neither of which are actual political parties with citizen members exercising democratic control.
Whether it’s the Hitler Youth or the Young Communist League, the situation looks pretty bleak, which explains the nihilistic, if not entirely millenarian, tendencies of these child radicals. It helps a lot. They really don’t seem to have much hope in politics. There are preludes to revolution, but it tends to reverse and you really have to question its follow-through. Accelerationism seems to be pretty popular this season, but it’s not really political. They are a diminution of expectations and a diminution of dreams, a hope that perhaps some kind of inevitable deus ex machina might save us from this mess. Some people forego it as they get older.
Let’s go back to J. At nearly 22 years old, Bernie Bro became a self-described “reactionary.”
Of course, he’s posting anonymously because he has a job, and in case he gets flagged for what the algorithm recognizes as hate speech (such as the popular Nazi symbol “black sun”) He maintains multiple Instagram accounts to share his personal content. white supremacist.
J is not white, he is Hindu. So how does one connect Black Sun with his own religion and racial designation? He isn’t. He hardly seems to think it matters. Like ex-military men turned American bikers, the Sex Pistols, and Siouxsie Sioux, he seems drawn to subversiveness.
He is quick to say that he also follows other online content, including fitness and exercise forums and cute animal videos on YouTube. So when he says, “If I wanted to describe myself as someone online, I’d say I’m a reactionary,” he means that he forms his identity based on the social media he consumes, not his actions. I am saying that it is. Reactionary friends online who have no interest in condemning their non-white fellow citizens. He says the reactionary internet (and the political science classes he took in college) may change his worldview, but he has no intention of doing anything about it, especially when it has serious ties to ideology. It clearly states that there is no. The tenuous and fickle part of his overall identity begs the question, “If cute animal videos equate to your politics, are you really a Nazi?” And if you don’t even go out and march, are you really a Nazi movement?
J is smart and thoughtful, so he knows that “discourse” is a hobby. It doesn’t require real-world involvement, activity, or even fervent belief. he’s not serious about it. He grew from there.
Even if they stick to it, even if the capital stumbles enough and the conditions are ripe, these kids are not real fascists. They are bored, lonely, scared, and hopeless. They have nowhere to go, no one to be with, and nothing to do politically and, increasingly, socially. It’s always worth bearing in mind that most zoomers don’t think about ideology at all. Why is this so? As if the timeless and universal turmoil of growing up wasn’t enough, there are also things like failing a test, struggling with your first breakup, learning to drive, trying to fit in while trying to stand out. The internet has always been a blessing, providing a distraction from feelings of scarcity. The probability they are certain of is certain.
That’s the real danger here and the real tragedy. It is the discontent and fragmentation that prevents the political engagement needed for a better world. All they can do is wear stupid, ugly hats.
fascist? not much. Just as their counterparts are Maoists, syndicalists, accelerationists, anarchists, and Catholic traditionalists. But the kids are clearly not okay. It’s up to us to give them something more than just something to believe in. I admit that’s a pretty tall order these days, but I still have hope. What should I say? I’m an old romantic.
