Well also weird and memelord and edgy

^

Engaged to a babe.

“Death to all Jews” on a poster board held up by dancing Africans for 5 bucks through a website is not what I’d call normal in today’s society at all. He’s definitely edgy.

Edgy...I wouldn't even call him partially serrated.

You can't win just being just boring conservative guy. Youth culture requires some weirdness

He plays on the edge

This is what subversives did to us in 60s. Hardcore commies larping as hippies and rockstars

Except now it's memes and video games

And liberals are the moral puritans

people are attracted to solidity of personhood and character - if he weren't successful, wealthy, powerful and grounded he would have flopped and ruined his life just as much as an obese racist podcast host.

I agree he is great at playing the edge

He's a savant, really.

Cart before the horse. He became successful because of his personality being a shy weird gamer.

Obviously we can't all be YouTube personas but the point is inside jokes and memes are fun and fun is powerful.

So long as it doesn't become stuffy and self absorbed as you do well to warn us about

If one of your friends from highschool wouldn't be able to digest a line of rhetoric without further explanation - it's simply myopic and ineffective.

and weird.

Wanting to be on the inside of a joke is powerful appeal to curiosity

It's a great tool if used well

The alt-right tried that for over 3 years

how did that work out for them?

With great success I'd argue

The alt right is an utter failure 🤣

The fact they didn't have control over court system doesn't matter

their ideas are far more mainstream than before

This was always a marathon

that is their one success.

opening pandora's box

white identity is in the air

That's huge.

And even though we've made a semantic break with the alt right, it's undeniable that we share common roots. That means everything that's come out since 2016 meme war has been in part due to edgelord meme war spilling into normie space. The fact we don't have space imperium doesn't disprove its effect. When you look, the effect is everywhere and a lot of progress has been made meta politically.

Of course mistakes were made too

One of the worst things I notice is people who use too much internet lingo IRL

Sometimes when I talk to dissident people in real life, it feels like they're reading tweets out loud. Very unnerving

The whole idea of people being "extremely online" is definitely real in any radical political circle

Agreed.

Nothing more cringe inducing.

Think of gaming culture as a microcosm. In 1990 gaming culture was dominated by geeks who sucked at sports. By 2000 gaming was mainstream among youth but carried the stigma culturally. By 2010 gaming was mainstream and non gamers were unusual. Current year there are pro gamers and entire subculture of female chearleader equivalents. Gamers didn't have to go out of their way to become mainstream because what they were doing was inherently fun.

Is the dissident right inherently fun? I think so.

Let's not lose that fun loving spirit.