WEBVTT - DeSantis’ Fashwave Adventure, Part 1 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:11.639 Oh, welcome back to It Could Happen Here, a podcast 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:15.760 about things falling apart and about what we like to 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:18.680 call the crumbles in here. And a key aspect of 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:24.640 the crumbles is the ongoing resurgence of fascist political parties 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.400 and politicians in the United States and elsewhere. And today 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:31.080 we're going to be talking about about one of said fascists, 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:34.440 a fella you might have heard of named Ron DeSantis. 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:41.560 I'm putting Ron, yeah, pudding Ron Old dasanct de aemonious. Now, Garrison, 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:43.720 you've got a banger of an episode written out here. 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:46.280 I'm looking at your script right now. It's beautiful. Right 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:48.080 before we get into it, I do want to give 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.000 an update on a past subject of It Could Happen Here, 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:54.480 Lord Miles Rutledge, for those of you who may not 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:57.240 have caught that episode, Lord Miles is a British Man 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:01.520 who went to Afghanistan to hang out and got caught 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:05.080 up in the Taliban's you know, victory in that war, 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:09.040 and then turned himself into a danger travel influencer, visiting 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:13.800 in dangerous place, going to war zones, going to Ukraine 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:16.959 and like making it about him. He went back to 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:21.039 Afghanistan because it really was better for his social media 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.560 following than any of the other places he went, bragged 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.920 about breaking laws, including faking his visa, and then got 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.880 arrested and has been radio silent for about the last 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:33.880 five months now. A lot of people have wondered is 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.600 Lord Myles dead that he liked die in custody in 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.000 the Taliban are trying to keep it a secret, but 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:44.480 worry no longer. Friends. Today his account posted this is 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:46.959 a friend of Lord Miles to give an update. Four 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.800 months in Taliban custody. He's treated very well, has several servants, 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:53.680 loads of movies on his laptop, goes on picnics and 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.560 as tea with the Taliban cabinet government. He still loves Afghanistan. 0:01:57.840 --> 0:01:59.840 And then there's a photo of him giving the thumbs 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:04.200 up doubt. So he's not He's not dead, guys. He's 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:08.919 in a nice Taliban farm upstate. He gets to run 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:17.200 all he wants, you know, wide open fields. He's super happy. 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.640 It's really funny one of his All of these people 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:23.280 are so fucking brained, poised, brain poisoned, but like a 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:25.280 big part of Miles, he was like trying to also 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.240 be kind of a right wing influencer. He was doing 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.880 this like anti woke. The Taliban is awesome and like 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.640 actually kind of good guys because they they don't like 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:36.799 believe in the woke agenda. And one of his friends, 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.600 after this message got posted, like messaged his account be like, hey, Taliban, 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.120 if you're the guys that have like captured him, we 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:45.120 really want him back. I'll pay a ransom. I'm like, 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.280 I know, this is probably just a misunderstanding because you 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:49.399 guys are on our side on the anti woke war. 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:55.000 Sure, yeah, I'm sure Taliban cares about the woke culture 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:56.280 war facing America. 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:01.200 That's what they're That's what's they're all about. That shit work, guys. 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.600 I'm sure they tuned into shodthead of the Every Night. 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:07.679 So Funny, So funny. Anyway, that dude Debt is dead 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.239 as hell. Look, I'm not saying that to gloat. I'm 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.200 just saying that the motherfucker's dead as hell. I don't 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:15.799 care what a prick he's dead. He deserved. 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.760 Many many people have died in Afghanistan and it's been 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:20.760 a tragedy. 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:25.120 This one less. So anyway, Garrison, please continue. 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.760 All right, So we we we're gonna return to this 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:32.880 podcast being your number one source for slightly homo erotic 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.000 fascist memes. Once again. 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.680 That was how we pitched it to iHeartRadio. 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.160 Explaining the erotic fascist themes. 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:44.920 A lot of people talking about fascists these days, but 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:46.360 none of them are homo erotic. 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.680 So on the on the last day of Pride Month, 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:56.960 Desantas's campaign shared a ad that's been described as bizarre 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:02.000 and mystifying. He pedals a whole bunch of pretty pretty 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:07.160 extreme like homophobia. He attacks Trump for for for previous 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:12.960 statements that Trump has made regarding LGBTQ what rights, and 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:16.880 then the video kind of transitions and we see basically 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:21.200 a version of what's what we're gonna call fash wave. 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:23.599 And I'm gonna explain all of these terms here in 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:27.160 this episode, but we're seeing kind of a resurgence of 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.160 a political meme style that was popular years ago. It's 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.919 kind of laid dormant the past year or so for 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:38.360 reasons that we will very soon discuss. But a whole 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.640 bunch of both conservatives and liberals are kind of not 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:44.800 really sure how to take this ad shared by the 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:49.760 DeSantis campaign and are ill equipped to understand what the 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:53.520 fuck is going on. But luckily I am equipped because 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:59.280 I spent my teen years in telegram chats watching this 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:00.479 meme style develop. 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:02.000 So how do you, buddy? 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:02.640 Yeah? 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:09.719 Thanks in the telegram trenches once again. 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:10.520 All right, So. 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:15.359 The first image of DeSantis, when it flashes to this 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.760 other kind of weird, more like bizarre editing style, has 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.360 him with like these these blue or red like glowing eyes. 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.480 And this is gonna be something that is going to 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:27.640 be a recurring trend that we're gonna be talking about 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:29.960 in this episode, these like these like glowing laser eye 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.160 type things. So we're gonna start with this because this 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:35.000 is actually one of the one of the most common 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:37.560 traits of fash wave. And we've seen this be adopted 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:41.719 by multiple politicians in the past, and most people probably 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:43.160 like don't know what the fuck this is? Like, is 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:45.280 this like a Superman thing? Like, what the fuck is this? 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:49.360 So laser eye memes started in the early twenty tens, 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.360 originally referencing video games like Mass Effect two and other 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.400 like sci fi and superhero media people like Superman or 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.200 anyone with like laser eyes. Is also like a it's 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.320 like a cultural touch stone for this sort of thing. 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:06.320 The laser eyes usually represent like a figure growing in power, 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.560 So when when someone has laser eyes and a meme, 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:10.719 it's like they are they are They're gaining power, the 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:15.760 gaining security. The The original caption for the early laser 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.920 eye memes was assuming direct Control, which was also just 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.880 a video game reference. So again I would have someone 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.479 with like glowing, glowing laser eyes and text that says 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:29.720 like assuming control or assuming direct control. So this was 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:31.360 this was this was this was popping off in like 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:35.360 the early twenty tens. Around the same time, synth wave 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.520 and vapor wave were gaining traction as both like nostalgic 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:45.360 musical microgenres and a memetic visual style featuring neon glitchy 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:49.800 kind of eighties retro computer athetics mixed with traditional Greco 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.400 Roman sculpture for a variety of reasons which we'll touch on, 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:58.320 but vapor wave had influences from video games, cyberpunk, anime, 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:01.479 and it was it was relatively popular as in mycer 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:05.120 genre in like the twenty teens and through the twenty teens, 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:09.080 both the laser eye memes were steadily growing in popularity 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.080 on places like Reddit and four chun, alongside the rise 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.880 of a vapor wave and its kind of surrealist, nostalgia 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:20.880 laden aesthetics focused on highlighting the comfort and unfulfilled promises 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:26.280 of the Internet of yester year. And this like nostalgic 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:31.720 surrealist aesthetic was prime bait for easy co option into 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:36.400 the reactionary meme variant dubbed fash wave, which soon became 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.400 kind of the de facto esthetic of the then burgeoning 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:43.880 alt right. Glowing laser eyes on various fascistic political figures 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:46.320 became a staple of fash wave during the rise of 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.880 the alt right around twenty sixteen to twenty eighteen. I 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.280 actually kind of like vapor wave. I think it's maybe 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.880 a bit overplayed now, and it certainly is frustrating how 0:07:55.960 --> 0:08:00.560 much it was kind of taken over by reaction because 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:05.320 actual vapor wave is almost actually like anti capitalistic in 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:07.560 a few ways. It's it's kind of it's kind of 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:14.160 criticizing the disposableness of like modern consumerist culture, using like 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:18.960 forgotten eighties technology and like software and that kind of stuff. 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.760 So I'm looking at two of my little vapor wave 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:25.600 images here in the script, and it does some of 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:27.640 some of the little like ways that the images are 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:30.360 broken up makes it look kind of like like old 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.400 Internet pop up ads back when they had like clearly 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.520 defined borders and x's and weren't just like overtaking your 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:38.560 entire screen and you had no way to close them. 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.040 But you know what does kind of overtake your entire 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:47.000 viewing experience via an ad? It's it's podcast advertising. Because 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:48.839 it's going to go straight into your ears, and there's 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.160 no way to X out. You have to you have 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:54.040 to suffer through the ad unless you unless you figure 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.080 it out that you can press a button that makes 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.600 you go forward thirty seconds. Anyway, anyway, here is Here 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:03.800 is our beloved are beloved sponsors who fund such vital 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:18.600 research that I'm doing for this episode. Anyway, the rise 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.160 of the Alright. This is kind of where fashwave is, 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:23.679 both like getting the name fashwave and also you know, 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.880 it's becoming a larger problem because there's more Nazis walking around. 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:30.800 So after the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.280 the Alright went through a sort of split between the 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.880 more Trumpian adherents who made up large parts of the 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.320 then dubbed all to Light, a term we don't really 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:43.439 use it very much anymore. And then this this kind 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:47.440 of other section which had more of the accelerationist to 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.480 neo Nazis who were starting to congregate on the messaging 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:52.760 app Telegram. And then we have groups kind of like 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:54.560 the Proud Boys that are like in between. They're kind 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:58.440 of Trumpian. They're also also like more fascy, but they're 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:02.200 not like really full skull ask. Usually some would adopt 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:04.240 that esthetic later on, but that's kind of due to 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.319 this cultic milieu that's starting to develop on Telegram. So 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:12.040 a fast wave largely followed the self proclaimed fascists, so 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:16.040 it too became the central visual style of the of 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:20.640 the burgeoning network of militant accelerationist Telegram channels, which would 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:24.800 eventually be dubbed terror Gram Terror as in terrorist. And 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.480 this was combining with a whole bunch of weird factors 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.160 around twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, including the Boogloo Boys, which 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:34.959 Robert has written about at length before It's and it 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:38.079 was also influenced by the Iron March Forums, and like 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.079 the skull Mask network with groups like Adam Waffen and 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:42.760 the Bass, they were all kind of the. 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:47.400 Iron March Forums are like the Boomers of Nazi Internet people, 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:49.640 not quite the boomers, maybe the gen X. 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:54.240 The jed X, Yeah, very much, the XE Forum generation. 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:58.199 There's a generation of people. Yeah, before social media it's 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.480 Nazi something awful, right, It's we're not quite into the 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:02.160 Chans yet. 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:05.800 Yeah. And after Iron March kind of collapsed, a whole 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:08.680 bunch of these weird accelerationists, we're starting to all congregate 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:12.199 on Telegram. And this is where we see kind of 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:16.480 fash wave develop into a much more overt apocalyptic and 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:21.839 a doumer focus. The the hontology inspired and nostalgic reflections 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.480 on the false promises of techno capitalism that were already 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.480 present in vapor Wave were ripe ground for the addition 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:31.200 of like return to tradition style reactionary fascism. 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.280 Do you want to explain horntology if people are familiar. 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:37.760 Yeah, Uh, Hontology is a I mean, it started as 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.160 a term which then developed into a musical genre, but 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.280 it's it's similar to vapor wave. It's about kind of 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.439 looking back on the unfulfilled promises of the past that 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:50.000 we were like promised as a culture that then never 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.200 came to place, but these promises still kind of follow us. 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.240 They kind of like haunt us in hoontology is a 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.280 big reason why liminal spaces got popular because of early 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.760 nineties and uh and two thousands, like aesthetics of like 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:05.040 big office buildings that are now left empty. 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.920 Office buildings, like schools, like particularly like the you know, 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.160 like the doors to a school or whatever. You get 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:15.160 a lot of like photos of that. Yeah, so stuff 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.480 that makes people feel a longing for a past that 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:19.400 was never really real. 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:22.560 Yeah, and like like a longing for like this sense 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:24.760 of home and this sense of like a safe home 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:26.800 which you maybe that you never actually really had. 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.559 Yeah, Yeah, because she hated being in school. You just 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:31.120 have forgot. 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:35.439 Yeah, you've kind of been aathologized, like pers calls it 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.640 post memory, when you re remember things based on you know, 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:40.360 you're sort of standpoint. 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:41.120 Yeah. 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.400 So the the sort of doomer accelerationism of this of 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:47.959 this kind of variant of fashwap or this like evolution 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:50.880 of fash wave was was also accompanied by by groups 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:52.480 like the Boogler Boys who were strying to make their 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.839 memes in this in this style as well. I have 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.679 I have a few examples of fashwave here showing to 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:01.080 to Robert and James Son and Rad's pretty We're pretty popular. 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.360 It's like the sun wheel version of the swastika essentially, 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:08.240 But a lot of these are like remember tradition, embrace 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:12.199 your race with like Nazi figures in like this monochrome 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:15.800 style over over like scan lines like you would see 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:17.839 on like a like an old like arcade video game 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:20.439 that has like that has like a horizon, but you know, 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.720 all like neon colors kind of kind of like glitchy 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:27.400 type stuff. There's there's one Trump one here from from 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.679 like twenty eighteen where he has a glowing yellow eyes, 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:35.280 also in the fashwave style. So this was kind of 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:40.679 the the aesthetic around around twenty nineteen here, and like 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.880 fashwave was definitely still common on imageboards like four chan, 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:47.040 eight chan, and eight kune, but the but the ever 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.040 pressened kind of hitler particles and poor web design on 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.480 those sites drove away most of the mega conservatives who 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:57.480 might try to stumble on to four chan or or 0:13:57.520 --> 0:13:59.760 to eight chan to like watch qan on stuff. It 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:01.920 was it was just the site was too hostile to 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:06.760 them and then circled like twenty twenty among waves of 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:11.320 Twitter and Facebook suspensions Trump supporters and high profile far 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:15.320 right figures started congregating on other platforms. A few Twitter 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.800 clones popped off, like Parlor and eventually Trump's Own Truth 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.360 Social but a number of mega conservatives also ended up 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:26.920 on Telegram, in part due to Telegram's largely hands off 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:30.960 approach to moderation. So around this twenty twenty and like 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:35.160 just post twenty twenty time period is when Telegram began 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.120 functioning as the far right's very own cultic milieu, a 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.040 sort of like shared online space where various memes, ideologies, 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:47.040 conspiracy theories, and propaganda could all intermingle with each other 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:50.440 and spread. Now, part of this is how Telegram operates 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:52.840 as a platform. I'm going to quote from an article 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:57.360 about Telegram and the cultic milieu from logically quote, Telegram 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.880 offers features that straddle the line in between social media 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:05.080 and messaging app. Users can create channels, which function as 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:07.520 one way message channels that allow someone to send a 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:11.120 feed of messages available to all of their subscribers. Public 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.840 channels and group chats are searchable by name, allowing anyone 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:16.520 to subscribe to a public channel or join a public group. 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.400 Channels and groups are uniquely connected on Telegram when a 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.960 message is forwarded from a public channel into another channel 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.400 or group, it links back to the original group, creating 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.160 a chain in between different channels and groups. Another common 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.200 feature is for users to advertise for channels and groups 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:38.000 in other channels and groups, with some users creating directories 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.000 of these channels and these big group chats that have 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:45.680 extremest content. So this kind of interconnected nature that allows 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:49.240 this chain link of being able toward a message. Like 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:51.200 you have a Telegram channel with like three thousand people 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:53.600 in it, and you post fashay memes. You can make 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:56.560 some fashave memes in the style of like Trump, and 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.720 then you can forward this message to a Trump channel 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:02.840 that has forty five thousand members in it. They see 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.040 this meme, they might like it, they click the meme, 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.920 it sends them back into your three thousand person channel. 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:09.560 So now they're going to get exposed to all of 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:11.680 the other weird shit you have going on. So it 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:13.920 became a really easy way to kind of make a 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:16.760 rabbit hole and like a pipeline for people to get 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:21.000 exposed to new aesthetics, new ideologies, and especially conspiracy theories. 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:23.880 I think we should have an ad break now and 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:28.360 we will return to talk about the increased Trumpian focus 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.640 on fash wave that happened as a result of this 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:33.800 kind of telegram cross proliferation. 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:38.680 That's right, everybody, We're gonna break for ads from our sponsors, 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.760 who also sponsor Lord Miles Rutledge. So you know, let's 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:55.160 hear it up for these ads from the Taliban. Ah, 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.400 we're back. And I don't know about you guys, but 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.600 Taliban's making a lot of sense these days to me. 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:07.159 Good pinks, really good. Yeah. I like their war on wokeness. 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:12.680 Yeah, speaking speaking speaking of a war on wokeness. 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.560 Keats us right back to oron. Well, meetball ron. 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.600 So to understand what the fuck is going on in 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:25.840 that Rohnda Santis video. This is probably one of the 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.400 most important, important little tidbits of knowledge that some people 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:32.080 may be overlooking. Is this brief fever dream known as 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:33.040 dark Mega. 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:39.359 Oh god, no, I know. I'm just glad. Yeah, I'm glad. 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:41.200 This one didn't work out the way they'd hope. 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:41.760 No, it did. 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:44.159 It did not work out, so the opposite of the 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:44.879 they hoped. 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:45.600 Yeah. 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.879 So, because of this kind of telegram cross proliferation, the 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.360 far rights memetic aesthetic went through a sort of coagulation 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:58.120 after twenty twenty, which eventually resulted in the upsetting, albeit 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:03.000 short lived Dark Camega, also known as Ultra Mega, both 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:04.439 of which are horrible names. 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.800 Yeah yeah, yeah, I remember Ultra Mega being big and 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.760 like people putting their Twitter handles along with like an eagle. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:12.840 And a flag. Yeah. 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:13.600 So. 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:18.720 The dark Mega trend started around a year after the 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.280 January sixth capital attack and steadily grew in popularity for 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:24.159 the next few months during the lead up to the 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:28.719 twenty twenty two midterm elections. After two years of right 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:33.080 wing influencers and politicians operating in Telegram's cultic milieu, the 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:37.240 influence of militant accelerationist propaganda is immediately apparent in this 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.720 new stylistic iteration, which is basically downstream from fash wave. 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:48.040 Dark Mega promoted a form of dystopian inspired overt authoritarianism, 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:52.399 with the assumed direct control laser eyes front and center, 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:57.800 and for emphasizing militaristic domestic connotations, dimlylit images were usually 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:01.840 edited in red or blue monocro. Dramatic images of Trump 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:04.639 are fairly prominent, as is the presence of weapons and 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:08.280 the occasional Nazi symbol I have a two examples of 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.680 fashwave here for for for the for the gallery. James, 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:16.159 what do you what do you think of this of 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:17.680 these of these two pictures. 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:21.240 First of all, they look like somebody used like a 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:24.760 MS paint Like it's kind of that. Yeah, that's the 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:25.720 tear of work. 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.080 When none of these are well edited. 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:32.879 No, they're not nineties horror. Yeah it is yet it 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:35.000 is one of them, the one on the left. He 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:39.840 looks like it's like like the eighth movie in like 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:43.000 a Jason or Freddy type series, right where it's like 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.800 straight to DVD, Like they're moving that ship right into 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:48.879 the red box and they just paid a guy forty 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:50.480 five dollars to mock up a cover. 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:52.879 He is it is it is it is. 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:57.000 It is a two B and direct to digital remake. 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:00.240 I didn't. He's like, it looks like it. It's like 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:02.480 like being developed in a dock room. It's like red 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:02.920 and black. 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.520 It's like all red and black. His eyes are glowing blue. 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:08.520 He's skit. It appears to be like a long a 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.159 springfield long rifle or something like that. I couldn't tell 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:13.879 you the exact type, but that does I am now 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:17.320 thinking about like So if you've ever loaded black powder, 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.160 you tend to like have you know, like a wrapped 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:22.639 you know cartridge that's got the ball and the powder 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:24.240 and you rip it in half in your mouth and 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:26.840 you pour the powder and then you like expect the Anyway, 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:29.560 Trump is such a germophobe, I just desperately want to 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.439 see him try to like manage a black powder rifle. 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:36.520 I would, I would really deeply enjoy that. It's as 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:40.280 good as a Tucker Carlson shooting. They like the sec 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.760 fire rifle was a very funny moment. Yeah, guys who 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:43.760 pretend to light guns. 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:48.400 So and then the the other more horror inspired one 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.320 has has text at the bottom that says it's time 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.960 to just kill them with again with Trump and red 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:55.680 laser eyes. 0:20:56.760 --> 0:20:57.159 I was. 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.359 I was upset to find out that the original person, 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.440 like the original like Nazi who coined the term dark Mega, 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.240 which which which kind of started this trend. Uh followed 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:13.920 me on Twitter, which wasn't wasn't coreast Oh no? Oh no, yeah, yeah, 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:17.240 so that was that was a fun thing I discovered 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:21.080 over the course of researching this episode. So one pro 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.800 trumpan neo Nazi, described dark Mega as such, quote dark 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:28.000 Mega is the aesthetic demand that Trump embrace a harder 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:31.160 and more focused approach in the role only he can fill. 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:36.000 He was too kind hearted, too forgiving Dark Mega demands 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:41.119 he learned from his mistakes. Another another Dark Mega propelled 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:44.280 It just described, uh, described the intentionality behind the movement 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:47.280 of being quote, if you want to win, if you 0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:50.440 don't want to repeat the past, you have to get mean. 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:53.920 You have to almost embrace the villain role that they're 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:59.639 bringing you with. So that's fun. But uh, but like 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:01.960 dark Mega's ambitions were to be more than just a 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.240 meme but instead kind of be the first real attempt 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.480 at a coherent post all right aesthetic that was being 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:12.480 pushed by mainstream of political actors. And included in this 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:17.679 push was kind of a pressuring back toward militant posturing 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:22.000 after the failed pseudo coup on January sixth, because in 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:24.400 those first few months after j six everyone was like, oh, 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:28.240 you know, we probably shouldn't be doing super overt like 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:31.560 violent propaganda if we're if we're like on the right, 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:34.400 and then over over time, and I think Dark Mega 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:37.679 was part of this, was the right realizing that maybe 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:40.520 they should just keep going and like go back to 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:43.760 that much more kind of like militant posturing that they 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:47.240 were doing beforehand. I have, I've I have a few 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:50.920