Bronze Age Deviant
 | |
| Era | Tweeter Is Not Real Life (cast) |
|---|---|
| Age | 30-45 |
| Home | undisclosed |
| Demographic | pseudonymous online, white, vitalist |
| Lean | Strong Republican |
| Race | white |
An anonymous account with a bodybuilder's avatar and a classicist's reading list, who posts in deliberate gibberish and is read seriously by young men on the far right. Nobody knows where he lives.
Who they stand for
He stands for the anonymous male online right. This includes the frog-avatar accounts active during the 2016 election campaign, posters who combine bodybuilding with an interest in Greek philosophy, and a self-published manifesto that was passed between junior staffers in Washington during the first Trump administration. Members of this group are young, white, and often underemployed or in entry-level political jobs. They hold mainstream conservatism in contempt, regarding it as a losing kind of respectability. The group cares more about image and style than about specific policies. It admires strength, beauty, hierarchy and conquest, and it regards modern life as too sedentary and too managed. In 2022 a change of ownership at the social media platform X restored many of the group's banned accounts, which gave it a public square again.
He differs from Matt Scots because he is pagan rather than Christian. He differs from Mencius Moldrake because he wants warriors rather than engineers in charge. He differs from Nick Guttierez because he never shows his face. Most of this group vote Republican. Their turnout is low compared with how active they are online.
Playing to them
A president wins his support with spectacle and dominance. He responds to military parades, monumental building projects, contempt for bureaucrats and universities, and a refusal to apologise for anything. Policy detail does not move him. He responds instead to a president who deports people, purges officials, and builds. He opposes any apology or sign of weakness from a president. He also opposes egalitarian language, deference to experts, and presidents who follow the advice of the respectable right. He treats any concession to the left as a sign of decadence.
Winning his support costs the support of most of the left of the cast and most of its centre. Barbara Wise, Ben Shindler, William Maha and Simon Harrisson cannot remain in a coalition with him. Candace Overton keeps her distance from him as well. Nick Guttierez, Mencius Moldrake and Tucker Carlington tend to support the same things he does. Matt Scots supports the same things only as long as the spectacle stays clear of religion.