From The Atlantic.
On this week’s *Galaxy Brain*, Charlie Warzel takes listeners deep into the internet’s fever swamps to examine how figures who once would’ve stayed on the fringes now dominate mainstream feeds. The episode charts the rise of Clavicular, a young livestreamer who’s gone from an absurdist curiosity to a fixture in the manosphere and its adjacent right-wing influencer culture. Using Clavicular’s as a lens—his extreme body modification, relentless self-documentation, and a willingness to do anything for attention—Charlie discusses the rise of nihilistic Zoomer influencers. Then Charlie is joined by the internet-culture researcher Aidan Walker, who helps situate Clavicular alongside figures such as Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate, revealing how the “looksmaxxing” movement collides with grievance politics and an anti-political, “algorithm-first” ideology. Together they explore what happens when the gatekeepers are gone, and when nihilism becomes a default way for budding attention hijackers to build an audience.
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00:00 Introduction
00:53 Meet Clavicular: The Rise of a Controversial Influencer
05:57 Conversation with Aiden Walker
07:09 What is Looksmaxxing?
13:56 The Intersection of Looks Maxing and Far-Right Ideologies
24:17 Shock Value and Racism
29:29 Algorithmic Ideology
32:21 Nihilism in Gen Z
38:14 Should We Pay Attention?
40:32 The Right-Wing Ecosystem
