Summary
In 2024, conservative-leaning online spaces emphasizing traditional masculinity gained mainstream influence, driven by figures like Joe Rogan and trends like the “tradwife” movement.
Platforms like X, under Elon Musk’s ownership, became hubs for anti-“woke” sentiment, while podcasting further amplified right-wing ideas.
This cultural shift mirrored Trump’s election victory and reflected backlash against progressive gender norms.
Though some view these spaces as promoting traditional values, critics warn of growing misogyny and radicalization in the “manosphere.”
The rise of such spaces highlights deepening political polarization online.
Rise? How long ago did they write this? Were a solid decade past rise. It rose.
If they think this started in 2024 the author is wildly behind the curve…
Bannon got involved with WoW gold farming as a money making scheme 20 years ago, and he commented on how impressionable young kids in videogames are, and how they could be influenced in games to agree with conservatives.
Which led to GamerGate.
Like…
It’s good they finally realized it’s happening, but I doubt they have any insights since they still don’t understand
Gamergate is precisely when I noticed the start.
Even then it was peripheral to my interests so I was slow to realize its significance.
I was today years old when I found out Bannon was involved but am 0% surprised to find out. In fact it makes it all make more sense.
Here’s a decent article:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/steve-bannon-world-of-warcraft-gold-farming.html
But the craziest part is what got Bannon the money to farm WoW gold, was he got a good chunk of Seinfeld syndication rights.
He used that money for the gold grift, then after finding:
What Bannon found was a world “populated by millions of intense young men” who may have been socially maladroit, but were “smart, focused, relatively wealthy, and highly motivated about issues that mattered to them.” While these were the same players who destroyed IGE’s business model, Bannon saw something he could use. “These guys,” said Bannon, “these rootless, white males, had monster power. It was the pre-Reddit.”
He then took that money. And that knowledge about that group to:
Bannon would go on to aggressively court this audience when brought on to help Andrew Breitbart build out his ultra-right-wing news-and-entertainment site. It was Bannon who hired Milo Yiannopoulos, recognizing him as someone who could whip up disaffected gamers. (Indeed, Yiannopoulos — who previously had no interest in gaming — rode Gamergate and its attendant rage to fame and page views.)
So basically we could blame trump and everything fucked up on Larry David, and while I’m not a fan of Curb, I feel like I’ve seen enough that Larry would find the humor in it.
The important part though. Is the far right are actually doing the groundwork and trying to get the youth on their side, and have been for decades. Dems just don’t do that as a party.
Bill and Obama had amazing youth outreach, and they easily served two terms despite not delivering on campaign promises.
Biden and Hillary didn’t really put effort into the youth, and we don’t really have a large political machine that runs constantly, just huge pushes every four years of “vote for me or they’ll win!”.
People who are surprised with recent elections are just looking at too small of a timescale.
It’s why I’m so hyped for the chance of Ben Wikler for DNC chair, he understands all that stuff and wants to turn the DNC into something that’s constantly running and working instead of a mad push every four years where no matter how much is raised, the party always ends up bankrupt the day after an election.
We need long term planning and strategy, not treating every election like nothing else matter.
Dems focus on the battle, Republicans focus on the war. And that’s why they keep winning despite most Americans disagreeing with them.
The Seinfeld bit isn’t true. Larry David himself went through the catalog and couldn’t find any funding from him or to him.
They passively call out that it’s been building for years, but give no real history. Seems to me like they were more trying to say how mainstream it’s become. Gamer gate is important to how we got here, but not that widely known about, even when it happened. Everyone knows Joe Rogan.
Either way, larger news outlets like NBC reporting on this is a good thing, even if they are a little late to the party.
Seems to me like they were more trying to say how mainstream it’s become.
Why things happened is often more important than just knowing something happened.
Doubly so when we’re talking about fighting fascism.
It’s mainstream now with people in their 20s, because their entire life online, conservatives have been influencing them in minor ways to groom them.
We can’t just copy the mainstream like Rogan and expect it to work, because the reason that works is decades of prep.
And we already have a decent amount of progressive streamers/podcasters/whatever. And progressive policy has that groundwork and its actual grassroots not AstroTurf.
But the party refuses to embrace it, even tho it already exists and people want it.
They want the passion and votes progressive policy gets them, but they don’t want to actually follow thru.
The issue is “moderate” policy isn’t something people get excited about, but the party won’t drop “moderate” policy because their hooked on corpo donations.
I agree with what you are saying. I just thought of the article as more of an entry point. It’s not aimed at you. You obviously know what the manoshpere is and have taken the time to learn more.
The article seems like a good starting point for those who don’t know. Hopefully, the parents of preteens who have never heard of the manoshpere will pick this up, start learning what it is their kids have been listening to, and put a stop to it.
Woah I forgot about the WOW stuff, good point
“News”
Yeah this is like the past decade.
I don’t understand what hawk tuah has to do with this but I haven’t listened to her podcast. Is she pushing right wing ideas or something?
Any desperate meme shit like this circles the bowl and gathers in the gutter. The gutter is a place exclusively run by conservatives so they can catch failed actors/comedians and the latest conservative criminal clown on parade (I.e. Rittenhouse, protest gun couple, etc) She’s probably fine enough, but was likely vulnerable and is now fully surrounded by a grift cocoon (hence the crypto bullshit). She’s also likely drinking her own kool aid by now, getting fed coke and kept on a constant schedule to keep her on the hamster wheel. They’ll milk every drop and especially “spit on that thang” as it all burns out and the grifters infrastructure drastically discounts the condoms with her face on them in the merch store as they move on to the next pray in the headlines. Conservative soccer moms will then buy graphic year with her face on then for $4 after it becomes a bargain basement licensed meme like the grumpy cat.
We live in a cloud of shit.
Wikipedia says she’s from Tennessee. That’s the only thing that hinted at conservatism that I’ve seen
Apparently she got involved in a big crypto scam or something too. Not sure if that makes her explicitly right wing though.
Memecoins aren’t a scam. You can’t say that someone who is selling dog shit is scamming people when they tell you that its dog shit.
They lied and said the dogshit would make them magically rich when they bought it.
It’s a scam
I dont think so. Everyone knows shitcoins are shit gambles and just about timing the dump.
They specifically targeted the naive, knowing that anyone who understood crypto would pass. I’m not joking. Watch the Coffeezilla video on her coin.
No, not everyone.
Why would memecoins generate any money ever if everyone knew it was bs?
Why do some people play the lottery if they know its a scam?
Shitcoins actually have a higher chance of you making money than slot machines. They’re both a game.
Yeah it seems like an unrelated thing that the author is trying to force to fit the trend their article is about.
I mean, she ran a crypto rug pull. If I had to guess…
So I’ve heard but I don’t really see the connection between that and the manosphere stuff the rest of the article is about. Con artists who take advantage of publicity have always been around.
https://www.instagram.com/nowthisimpact/reel/C85UUTExh8P/?hl=en
Well, apparently I was wrong
Did she run it, or did some crypto bros see an opportunity to use a naive person to be the face of something to grain traction, and then cash in because it was shit.
If you thought hawk coin was an investment then you are the problem
You mean shitcoin. You can’t rug pull a solana or ec token
With enough money you can
No, you can’t. A rug pull refers to shutting down the website and taking all of the coins in the service wallet.
You can’t shutdown a token. You’re using the wrong word. Its a dump, not a rug pull
Same scam
Crypto is all a scam because it’s not valid currency, and you give others valid currency to obtain it. But it is talked about like it can be used as currency.
That’s the scam.
I honestly feel bad for that woman’s journey regardless of her politics. She got famous for being open about her sexuality, and then a bunch of old men like Bill Maher slobbered all over her, and then she got suckered in to sponsoring a crypto scam that she obviously had no understanding of, and now she’s facing potential legal trouble for it.
She’s basically been taken advantage of every step of the way because she’s apparently not especially savvy enough to figure that out and really the only reason is that she’s conventionally attractive and frankly sexual. For the Bill Mahers and crypto bros, that was enough to exploit her in every way they could.
She’s a grown adult I’d be with you, but she was defending the coin pretty hard in that Coffeezilla segment, she took advantage of the 15 mins as much as possible and in a lot of ways succeeded. If she didn’t know what crypto was and what happens when influencers get involved with it, she shouldn’t have exposed her fans to it, but she saw the bag and went ahead.
Because, like so many other Americans, she was taught to grab on to that brass ring and don’t let go if people notice you. I don’t blame her for that either.
I’m not suggesting she isn’t still responsible for her actions, and if she is charged in the crypto scam, so be it… but I still feel bad for her.
Your first paragraph feels an awful lot like you are suggesting she isn’t responsible for her actions.
My second paragraph should have led you to the opposite conclusion.
I can pity someone and not blame them for what they did but still feel they should be responsible for their actions when they are bad actions.
Empathy is in extremely short supply these days, at least online.
So I see.
At some point, you need to hold the figurehead accountable for the scam so that other potential future figureheads will know to do some research before putting their name on illegal shit.
I already said if there is found reason to try her for her contribution to the crypto scam, that should happen.
I know. I’m saying that her attaching her name to it and endorsing it should be enough of a reason.
Okay, well I’m not a lawyer so I can’t say if that is enough of a reason, but if it is, so be it. That doesn’t change my empathy toward her.
(I’m not sure why so many people here think “I feel sorry for her” and “she should get tried for her crimes” can’t both be thoughts someone holds without any contradiction.)
running crypto scam in fourth year of our lord covid? she should have know better, could have learned about it at any point during last eight years or so. if it’s something she had no idea about maybe she shouldn’t do it in the first place. she had these 5 min of cringey fame and used it all on grifting
You’re essentially blaming a person who isn’t very bright for not being very bright. I hope you realize that.
That’s not how the law works, you get charged regardless if you’re dumb or smart if you break the law.
You might get a lighter sentence but stupid people doing crime is still crime.
Jesus Christ, how many fucking times?
I’m not suggesting she isn’t still responsible for her actions, and if she is charged in the crypto scam, so be it… but I still feel bad for her.
Sorry, I guess I took your word “blame” to mean it isn’t her fault and hence my comment about legality.
But let me answer from an emotional perspective:
I don’t think people should feel bad for her cause she isn’t a teenager, an adult should know better that there is no free lunch. Trying to get rich off of your 15 mins of fame won’t be honest work.
I don’t think people should feel bad for her cause she isn’t a teenager, an adult should know better that there is no free lunch.
She’s 21. The same age millions of Americans are when they’re tricked into high-interest loans and credit cards with massive APRs. Plus payday lending.
I feel bad for all of them despite them being adults that “should know better that there is no free lunch.” Why wouldn’t I feel bad for her? She’s a victim of the same fucking system that raises every American child to believe that they’ll be rich and successful one day, they just have to do whatever the fuck they can to get there.
She didn’t go to college. She worked in a factory before she got well-known. Since when do we expect people like her to be educated enough to understand a crypto scam just because they’re over 18? She probably didn’t even know what crypto was the day she signed the contract. Why would she? All she knew was people were going to make her rich and when was she ever told to not trust such people? She was told the opposite all of her life just by living in America.
And I am astounded people can’t see that.
Again, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have any responsibility here. Ignorance is no excuse. But that also doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve any sympathy.
And I am astounded people can’t see that.
I do appreciate that you’re coming from a place of empathy.
But since there is a divide in perspective, maybe I can clarify.
Most people draw the line somewhere for agency. By this argument, even evil politicians “deserve empathy”.
Here is an alternative take:
Empathy is an emotion made by evolution for the benefit of society. It’s good to feel empathy because it helps guide people back to good morality.
That becomes ineffective when they refuse to listen. Imo that’s where society correctly draws the line on agency and empathy.
If people tell you, hey, what your doing is not right but you want your payday anyway, it benefits society more to put social pressure on the individual (judge them) instead of empathize with them.
So right now, she is so far gone that having empathy is not gonna change her, collectively disapproving of her has a better chance, hence the judgement.
So I don’t disagree with empathy, I just think you got to draw the line somewhere.
if you don’t know what are you doing, maybe you shouldn’t until you know, or at least do a double take
Again, you’re blaming someone who isn’t very bright for not being very bright.
Half of humanity is of below average intelligence.
shoulda talked tuah lawyer, reinventing 100 year old crimes doesn’t come with a get free out of jail card if you think you’ve figured it out for the first time
I already said that if she is found to be liable for her part in the crypto scam, she should be tried for it.
Is the concept of feeling pity for someone even if they commit a crime so foreign to so many people here?
cryptobros (gender nonspecific) burn our collective future for a quick buck, why tf should feel anyone feel pity for them
You’re getting downvoted, but you’re speaking straight facts. The average Lemming is smug about their perceived above average intelligence and believes anyone below that to be deserving of less. The comment you responded to gives off “If you’re homeless just rent a house” vibes.
Speak your truth brother 🗣️
Seems like calling her not very bright WAS an average lemming being smug about their perceived intelligence.
It really bothers me that many people here seem to think that either not being smart or committing crimes means no one should feel bad for you for any reason.
It’s the sort of total lack of recognition of humanity I have come to expect from the right, but it seems to be spilling over.
Unfortunately this isn’t a partisan thing. Dispassionate people exist on both sides of the spectrum. You’d at least think the left would be more considerate about this issue though
Don’t need to be very bright to agree to x amount of money in exchange for putting your name on something
And yet people get scammed every single day in just that manner.
Tbh isn’t all memecoin a scam? There’s potential to make money sure, but only if you’re an insider.
The far right has been there from the jump. The
KKKOrder used to pull armored truck heists and use the proceeds to buy computers so they could collaborate on the early internet.I haven’t heard this before. Source?
They were called The Order, and I misremembered their constituency: more neo-nazi than KKK, although one of their goals was to be a bridge between the two groups.
Apparently they made a movie about them recently, of the same name, so I’m finding it hard to search for info about the group itself, but I recall hearing the computer-buying tidbit from Behind The Bastards and being able to find a source for it online.
In case you wanna continue the hunt: I believe it had a sepia-tone picture or illustration at the top of the article and it was a long-form story not a current event piece. I also recall they were specifically Apple II computers, but searching podcast transcripts for the word “apple” yields a flood of results for “apple podcasts”, so not much help there.
This tool seemed promising, but didn’t quite get me there: https://podscripts.co/podcasts/behind-the-bastards/
Wikipedia can at least corroborate the armored car bit:
Their later robberies were more effective, including a bank robbery, followed by a series of three armored car robberies. In the armored car robberies, they took a total of $4.1 million, including their final armored car robbery near Ukiah, California that netted them $3.8 million.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_(white_supremacist_group)
Edit: Part of the problem with the podscripts approach may be that the transcripts are far from perfect:
Beam admitted that he had set up computer billet and boards for different fascist groups around the country,but denied that these boards were used for any illicit communication.
“Billet and boards” instead of “bulletin boards”
Edit 2: Ooh, I think I posted the source on Reddit at one point, and I haven’t scorched-earth’d my comments. I wasn’t able to find it doing
site:reddit.com “kibiz0r” armored trucksbut you might find it that way if you experiment a bit.
The fact that I have no idea what “Hawk Tuah” is means I’m doing something right.
Being unaware of popular culture isn’t a badge of honor. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing what Hawk Tuah is but don’t pat yourself on the back for it lol
I disagree. Fucking skibidi toilet living rent free in my head.
And I don’t know what that is, circle of life.
I just find the different humor of each generation really interesting. I also love using “Ohio” as a pejorative descriptor.
Last night I said that Pennsylvania is like a slightly less Ohio Ohio and it amused people.
Being unaware of popular culture isn’t a badge of honor.
It can be, but Hawk Tuah isn’t popular culture. They are part of a political culture and they shouldn’t be proud of being ignorant about.
Not knowing about Skibidi is fine, as it’s a senseless new fad that doesn’t set out to change public policy and/or views. Not knowing about Hawk Tuah isn’t on the same level as being ignorant of it can be a very bad thing due to its attempts at subverting public policy and views.
Nice bait
Sorry if reality triggers
Please, tell me more about my values.
No. I’m telling you you’re reading the situation wrong if you think not knowing what Hawk Tuah is means you’re “doing something right”
Being aware of a cultural phenomenon, however fleeting it is, does not mean you’re doing something wrong. So maybe step down off that high horse.
But it does mean I’m doing something right, as not knowing about things like this is exactly what I aim for. Not knowing what “Hawk Tuah” is means I’ve successfully excluded the kinds of things from my media diet that I intended to avoid. I’m not making any universal moral judgments here - these are my values. You’re free to value different things, but don’t waste your time telling me I’m valuing the wrong ones.
What you’re saying is you’d think less of yourself if someone in the circles you run in exposed you to a simple piece of information?
“Hawk Tuah” is how a girl described spitting on a dick in a stupid viral video. She used her 15 minutes of fame to promote a crypto scam.
Now you know…tragic.
That’s why I’m saying it’s stupid to be proud of not knowing. You’re exposed to pop culture at random.
What you’re saying is you’d think less of yourself if someone in the circles you run in exposed you to a simple piece of information?
That’s not even remotely what I’m saying.
Did you not say you place value on not knowing? Now that you know, you must have less value than before…
How do you know it’s something you’d want to avoid if you have no idea what it is? If you know it’s something to avoid, then wouldn’t you have to know what it is?
Take this at its most extreme.
So, for instance, I have to watch scat porn to avoid it? I don’t have permission from you to say I want to avoid watching people eating shit until I’ve personally watched people eating shit regardless of my preference?
You understand how stupid you sound?
What does having my permission have to do with anything? I’m assuming many people who haven’t watched scat porn knows what it is. The person I replied to claims to have no idea what hawk tuah is. You should try to do better understanding the context of the previous discussion before you feel the need to say anyone else sounds stupid
It’s not this specific thing I try to avoid. It’s this category of things. The vast vajority of it I’m not interested in so if I lose few gems with it then that’s a price I’m willing to know. By definition it cannot bother me when I don’t even know what I’m missing.
I feel they respect the fact you keep these things out of your life, but as an outside voice, your original comment read similar to the classic “I don’t have a tv in my house.” I’m glad you clarified!
It is though. There’s a finite amount of things you can know in life. Knowing anything else will be more useful.
This and the comment I replied to remind me of thinking I was so cool as a teenager for not listening to popular music.
In other words, both comments wear fedoras
This comment is a ruler on the back of the hand
No, it’s the guy telling the preacher on the street corner that his “REPENT NOW” sign is really corny
More than a little bit dramatic, I would say. I would translate their intent to “anyone else like not knowing about this shit?”
That seems like a you problem, bud.
Knowing nonsense vs knowing useful info, I’ll pick useful any day of the week. But, you do you.
You might not hear it (because it’s not useful info!) but everyone in the world is clapping and cheering for you :)
A new level of cool has finally been achieved!
Tai Lopez in training over here.
Exactly. There’s a limited amount of things I can pay attention over the week. The fact that I don’t know about some completely trivial cultural thing means I’ve paid attention to something else instead. That something else may very well be equally trivial but it also might not.
You say you agree but then you kind of admit it’s a bullshit premise…
That something else may very well be equally trivial but it also might not.
Therefore there is no shame in knowing something trivial and no pride in not knowing that specific trivial thing.
Tf is hawk tuah?
Hawk tuah (/ˌhɔːk ˈtuːə/ ⓘ HAWK TOO-ə)[a] is an internet meme originating from a viral YouTube video posted in 2024. During a street interview, Haliey Welch used the catchphrase hawk tuah, an onomatopoeia for spitting or expectoration on a penis during oral sex, specifically, fellatio.
Haliey Welch
Did her parents spell her name wrong on the birth certificate and then just run with it?
She is young enough to have been part of the normal name spelled stupid trend that was common in the 90s and 2000s. Which as an aside whoever started that trend needs to be set on fire, if only for the misery they inflicted upon bureaucrats.
I’d let her hawk my tua
I thought Hawk Tuah was a nick name. Nope.
What a scoop NBC!
Hey have you checked out this whole hydroxychloriquine thing? I think there’s something to that! Check it out NBC!
Joe rogan the conservative who was and is a strong supporter of bernie sanders? That joe?
Joe rogan the conservative who
was andis a strong supporter ofbernie sandersDonald Trump, Elon Musk, Alex Jones, and Jordan Peterson? That joe?Fixed it for you.
His “support” for Bernie was only ever performative and opportunistic.
He’s VERY far from the “Not me, us” mindset that is the basis on which Bernie has built his entire political ideology.
Son his support for bernie is performative but its not performative for trump?
That seems like an extremely biased way to judge?
Yeah, his support for Trump is sincere at worst, naive at best, but honest either way.
Thoughtful people who honestly believe in the ideas of Bernie wouldn’t fall for the toxic lies and scapegoating of a literal fascist.
Neither my obvious bias in favor of Bernie nor the fact that I detest Rogan with plenty of good reasons is the reason why I trust the honesty of his support for Trump more. My bias towards the obviously true versus the obviously false is.
His credulous support of all the satellite grifters in Trump’s orbit coupled with the fact that he didn’t ever support anyone else with similar ideologies and ideas to Bernie is the main thing making it obvious.
Literally every celebrity, news anchor, commentator is performative and opportunistic. That’s how you get ahead in that world.
I can already see the responses:
“But not the ones that I agree with tho!!”
Literally every celebrity, news anchor, commentator is performative and opportunistic.
Literally every PERSON is. It varies widely from person to person and situation to situation and by degree, though.
-
Some people will support a political candidate only because they believe in their policies.
-
Some people will support a political candidate mostly because of political ideology and ideas but also because it makes them look good or otherwise benefits them
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With some, it’s about equal
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Some are mostly in it for themselves but also a little because they honestly believe
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Some are in it ONLY for how it makes them look/what opportunities it gives them.
Rogan’s “support” was strictly of the latter kind. He was in it for the anti-establishment cred, the attention, and the increase in listeners his masturbatory podcast got as a result.
Did OTHER people, including famous people, also belong to other categories than the first one? Of course!
That’s irrelevant, though, since we’re talking about the fact that the walking public awareness campaign for the side effects of being hit in the head too many times known as Joe Rogan was feeling himself, not the Bern.
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Saying you support someone but then going on to act in many ways that that person finds detestable doesn’t seem like the best support. Maybe someone’s politics and throwing their support only has to be about helping other people better their situation by way of them also supporting the same person, making use of your endorsement. But, to be Joe Rogan and also say you support Bernie seems like a wild contradiction! I’ll admit I’m not really a Rogan follower, so maybe somebody will correct me, but he doesn’t seem like he walks the walk.
He turned the whole “whoa dude” stoner stereotype into a career. He’s amused by any idea that sounds good on the surface. He’s not that deep.
Broken clocks, and all that.
Looks like Bernie last ran in 2020. How is your statement even remotely relevant now?
Im so glad to hear nothing that happened in 2020 is relevent. I tend to judge people by more than one action but i guess ur metrics arent that deep.
Lmao Just more current I guess, because Joe Rogan isn’t out there supporting Bernie. Shit’s moving like molasses,try to keep up bud.
