Bronze Age Pervert

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bronze Age Pervert is a pseudonymous writer who self-published a book called Bronze Age Mindset and hosts a podcast called Caribbean Rhythms. The pseudonym is often shortened to BAP.[1]

Bronze Age Mindset[]

Bronze Age Mindset
AuthorBronze Age Pervert
Cover artist"Owen Cyclops"
LanguageEnglish
SubjectPhilosophy, identity politics, masculinity, far right politics[citation needed]
PublisherAmazon Publishing
Publication date
6 June 2018
Pages198
ISBN978-1983090448

Bronze Age Pervert self-published the book Bronze Age Mindset via Amazon Publishing in June 2018.[2] The 77-chapter "exhortation" is written with intentionally poor grammar, mixing Nietzschean philosophy with criticisms of modern society.[3] Bronze Age Pervert explicitly stated that Bronze Age Mindset is not intended as a political manifesto but was written in a "mood of revelry and laughter." The mainstream media, he claims, deliberately uses "humorlessness as a strategy and pretend to see policy proposals when we engage in fun and trolling."[4]

The book discusses classical figures, including Alcibiades, Periander of Corinth, and the heroes of the Homeric epics.[5][6] In particular BAP elevates and celebrates the pirate and the soldier of fortune as heroic ideals worthy of emulation and asserts that Classical education is completely wasted on both (social) liberals and conventional conservatives.[5] Although BAP does not provide sources, notes or formal references in his book he mentions Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and pre-Socratic thinkers like Heracleitus very frequently.[7] The New Republic describes the book as "rambling", "dizzying", displaying "prose...artfully penned" but "arguments...fractured and incoherent".[8] Despite the often impenetrable, confusing and fever dream style of the writing book reviewer Inga-Lina Lindqvist of Swedish Aftonbladet cautions readers that "to simply dismiss BAP as yet another internet maniac who read Nietzsche and misunderstood Homer's humanistic intentions does not fly. He's too educated, too funny and too influential for that."[9] BAP's thinking is marked by deep anti-egalitarianism[7][4] and Jesse Russell, writing for paleoconservative Chronicles Magazine, praises "self-styled online intellectual pirate" BAP for realizing more acutely than his more libertarian leaning right-wing critics like C. Bradley Thompson of Clemson University's Institute for the Study of Capitalism and "his Straussian friends" that we are currently living in 'Nietzsche's nightmare' of boundless egalitarism.[4] Andrew Marzoni, writing for Aeon Magazine, is less impressed and calls the book "Nietzschean pastiche", "a tedious commentary on classical philosophy" and describes the book as an unoriginal, basic paleoconservative call to action after "100 pages of manipulating Empedocles and Heraclitus into refutations of evolutionary biology, civilisational progress, the liberation of women and LGBTQ groups, and the contemporary effeminisation of men (much of which omits definite articles in mock imitation of a caveman)".[10]

Michael Anton

In 2019, conservative intellectual Michael Anton reviewed Bronze Age Mindset for the Claremont Review of Books in a friendly yet critical manner, thus exposing a more mainstream right wing audience to the thought of BAP.[7][11][12] Anton claims that the book is successful and popular among right wing youths "because it appeals to the young; it appeals to the young in part because it’s outrageous" and its outrageousness makes the book, its author and its readers controversial as "it opens not just the author but his readers to "attaq.""[13] Bronze Age Mindset was first given to Anton by Curtis Yarvin, a major figure in the neoreactionary movement,[14] and political philosopher Darren Beattie encouraged Anton to read it.[7][15][3] According to Anton, as well as Aaron Renn, the key philosophical concept BAP develops in the book is that of 'owned space'.[16] Anton paraphrases BAP's view of 'space' as being 'owned when it is mastered or controlled. This can either be accomplished by you—or your herd or pride or clan or tribe or nation—or by others."[16][7] Renn clarifies further that "if you don’t have owned space, if you live or build on space owned by others, then you are putting yourself in a highly disadvantageous and vulnerable position, subject to cultural eviction and spiritual homelessness."[16] The Straussian Claremont Institute subsequently published a symposium on the review in their online publication The American Mind,[11] including a response essay from BAP in which he compared "the anti-male and anti-white rhetoric of the new left" to anti-Tutsi propaganda before the Rwandan genocide.[17][18] In the same symposium, Anton responded to BAP's response by reiterating his concern about the 'BAPist' wholesale rejection of the equality principle of the American Founding and the philosophical and practical consequences of said rejection.[19]

Tara Isabella Burton in her discussion of Bronze Age Mindset in her own book Strange Rites highlights BAP's tirades against the 'bugman'[20], a concept of a human that is analogous to Nietzsche's and Kojève's idea of the infamous and ignoble 'last man'. According to Burton BAP spends most of Bronze Age Mindset deriding the progressive, sensitive bugmen of the twenty-first century, whom she describes as being beta males denuded of their strength by the feminizing corruption of politically correct modernity.[20] She reports that the bugman, according to BAP, "pretends to be motivated by compassion, but is instead motivated by a titanic hatred of the well-turned-out and beautiful." Supposedly, the bugman is animated by pure ressentiment, and longs to tear down all that is stronger, more beautiful and more powerful than he is.[20] In BAP's own words: "The bugman seeks to bury beauty under a morass of ubiquitous ugliness and garbage, (...) thus his garbage is flowing out of cities built on piles of unimaginable filth. The waters are polluted with birth control pills and mind-bending drugs emitted by obese high-fructose corn syrup-guzzling beasts."[20]

Bronze Age Mindset gained a cult following in right-wing circles, including staffers of the Trump White House and on Capitol Hill, according to anonymous sources described by Politico and Huffington Post.[3][21] In the summer of 2018 it was among the top 150 books sold on Amazon sitewide, which is notable according to Anton and Dan DeCarlo since it was achieved without the aid of a publicist or book deal.[7][12] In October 2019, it was still ranked third in Ancient Greek History and #174 in Humour on the Amazon best-seller list.[8][12]

Twitter[]

On Twitter, BAP uses a multi-layered style, including post-ironic far-right memes alongside homoerotic images of bodybuilders.[8] The banner above BAP's Twitter profile is a close up photo of Cellini's Perseus with the Head of Medusa and he refers to himself on his Twitter profile as an "Aspiring Nudist Bodybuilder. Free speech and anti-xenoestrogen activist."[6][22] Bronze Age Pervert is very concerned with the aesthetics of the conventionally attractive, classical male physique, and elaborates in Bronze Age Mindset that to him "the universal body, the correct type discovered by ancient Greek science and art" is "not something you will develop by nurturing your own ‘individual’ quirks, doxies, and faggotries".[6] It seems BAP considers Greek thought as the kind of "science" that "can uncover for us…the true hierarchy of biological types". He expresses admiration for Hippocleides for the latter's "display and use [of] his powers and excellences and biological superiority." According to BAP the "Bronze Age Mindset" he advocates and "biological superiority" are inseparable and "the same!".[6] For these reasons Bronze Age Pervert encourages his readers to engage in active cultivation of the body via sports, bodybuilding, martial arts[7][15] – preferably in the nude like the old Greeks[6] and the early 20th century German Wandervogel[23] and Freikörperkultur movements – as well as nude sunbathing.[3] Something BAP refers to as a life of "sun and steel"[3] in reference to the Japanese author Yukio Mishima's Sun and Steel.[24]

Statue featured in the banner of BAP's Twitter account

He comes out of "Frogtwitter," an intellectualized, esoteric group of pseudonymous online writers with a highly negative view of contemporary American society.[11][3][25][12][26] This group mythologizes an aristocratic past while engaging in racism and anti-semitism, often through memes laden with heavy irony.[3] Due to their heretical views the presence of Bronze Age Pervert and other members of Frogtwitter on Twitter is precarious.[26] Will Lloyd of The Spectator describes them as a "relatively non-racist, non-anti-Semitic dissident right movement" separate from the neoreactionary movement.[27] Former Downing Street aide Andrew Sabisky,[28] while writing for International Business Times UK opined that "[t]he magic of frogtwitter lies in the balance between the darkness of their nihilism and the joyous, majestic, life-affirming vitality with which they express it, buttressed by a fierce intelligence."[29] They tend to evoke themes of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory in their opposition to immigration.[3] BAP frequently condemns alt-right leadership figures, such as Richard Spencer.[30]

A number of right of center politicians have been criticized for following or interacting with BAP on Twitter, including former White House speechwriter Darren Beattie,[31] Minnesota State Senator Roger Chamberlain,[32] and US Senate candidate Lauren Witzke.[33] In February 2017, Curtis Yarvin sarcastically claimed to The Atlantic that Bronze Age Pervert was his White House "cutout / cell leader".[34][35] In 2021 El País criticised Spanish politician Manuel Mariscal of the right wing populist Vox party for being seen with a mobile phone case donning an image of the Pepe meme and the fact that BAP, among others, endorsed this signal and encouraged other right wing populists to show their support for "Frogtwitter".[36] In addition to right wing politicians, the broad group of political influencers, bloggers, and podcasters known as 'anti-woke leftists' or 'dirtbag leftists' have received criticism in the liberal press for discussing and engaging with BAP and the broader far right on Twitter, most notably Anna Khachiyan of the Red Scare podcast, who called Bronze Age Pervert "the great genius writer/artist of our age" and said that "all of the good fiction writing now is self-published essentially and coming from the so-called 'alt-right,' and my haters can quote me on that."[37]

Michael Anton described the size of BAP's twitter presence as 'largish' (>70K followers as of June 2021[22]) and made note of the viral success of the grass roots Twitter book promotion campaign for Bronze Age Mindset as "[l]egions of eager fans quote the book and/or post pictures of its cover in exotic locations and/or lying atop military uniforms, presumably their own".[7] Josh Vandiver of Ball State University observed that Bronze Age Pervert's "cult" following seems to be global in nature with images appearing on social media of "readers holding the book aloft before beaches and mountains across the world".[38] Bronze Age Pervert's followers' tend to imitate (aesthetic elements) of his Twitter account, ape the writing style, amplify his ideas[7] and repeat his catchphrases such as "SUBMIT!", "wat means?", and "ghey". Vandiver uses the example of the last term to explain "[w]hen accused of being 'ghey,' [BAP's] preferred spelling of 'gay' – one of many insider code words, partly necessitated by social media censors – BAP accuses his accusers of being themselves hopelessly effete, often by way of comparison to imagined forefathers from a more virile, 'bronze' age".[38] Additionally, Bronze Age Pervert's Twitter followers will "post images of their own physiques, sometimes under the hashtag '#frogtwitter,' seeking BAP’s approval and coveted retweet"[38][21] as well as self-publish their own 'BAPish' books, memes and writings that BAP will generously crosspromote via retweets.[7][21]

On 3 or 4 August 2021, Twitter suspended BAP's account[39][40][41] without reporting why[41] and Bronze Age Pervert decamped to Twitter alternative Telegram.[40] BAP was banned before from Twitter in 2017.[26]

Caribbean Rhythms[]

'Caribbean Rhythms'
Presentation
Hosted byBronze Age Pervert
LanguageEnglish
Publication
Original releaseAugust 2019 – present
Websitebronzeagepervert.gumroad.com/l/BronzeAgePervert

In August 2019, BAP began a podcast called Caribbean Rhythms with Bronze Age Pervert, hosted on Gumroad. The show consists of topics ranging from rants on contemporary geopolitics to opposition to journalism and institutions to introductions to classical political theory, punctuated by samples of classical music. The Spectator highlights the highly ironic nature of the podcast: "Listening to an episode of Caribbean Rhythms is a lot like being trapped in a radio version of The Manchurian Candidate: no one is who they seem."[1]

The podcast has covered topics such as Charles of Anjou and the Sicilian Vespers, ancient patterns of migration, and Alexander the Great's colonies in Bactria. According to the conservative National Review, the podcast uses a narrative style of history that highlights the historical drama of great men.[42]

Criticism[]

Political science professor C. Bradley Thompson objects to BAP's illiberal, anti-equality, anti-American, anti-rationalist stances and considers Bronze Age Pervert and his writings to be more or less fascist in nature.[43][44] Other (Christian) right wing critiques, like those of Dan DeCarlo, tend to focus on the 'empty aesthetics' of the youthful 'BAPist' movement and it being "a deeper recrudescence of paganism."[12][a] Jesse Russell notes that fundamentally, the right wing critique of 'BAPism' differs little from the critique of the conventional right of the Alt-Right movement during Donald Trump's unlikely 2016 presidential campaign.[4]

Left wing and liberal critics of BAP have identified him as part of the manosphere as an (ultra)masculinist[38][46][47] and as part of a wider atavistic trend on the post-liberal populist right wing.[30][20] Additionally, liberal classics scholars and commentators accuse BAP (and others like him) of misusing, misinterpreting and misappropriating the Classics for their political agendas.[48][49][6]

Vassar College's Pharos project, whose mission is "to document appropriations of Greco-Roman culture by hate groups online",[49] accuses BAP of providing the 'traditionalist right wing' with a tailormade "mythic" narrative that depends "on a toxic blend of misogyny and white supremacy, with the ancient world as its archetype and source of prestige."[6] Pharos is aligned with Donna Zuckerberg's Eidolon project,[50] Zuckerberg dedicated her book Not All Dead White Men[48] to documenting how (alt-right) men's groups are supposedly using ancient sources to give their antifeminism, toxic masculinity and patriarchal white supremacy a "veneer of intellectual authority and ancient wisdom".[48] Michael Anton in turn describes aforementioned movement led by Zuckerberg as "calls (...) to police how the [classical] canon is taught (...) [and] to attack and even censor its "misuse" by "bad actors" who use it to challenge the [liberal] Narrative" in his book The Stakes.[51]

Academic Josh Vandiver writes that the broader alt-right and the manosphere, both of which he considers BAP to be a prominent member,[46] "is unique, and a product of its time, in making masculinity an overt discursive subject and a core (if contested) concept in its ideology, a type of masculinism" which should be understood as "reactions to the perceived triumph of feminist and LGBTQ politics", and thus were critical to the creation of the alt-right.[38][46] Within that so-called manosphere, masculinity in its various forms is explicitly named and its relation to politics, culture, society, sex, and sexuality is vigorously debated. He also notes that BAP, as well as other alt-right platforms, have revived the idea of the Männerbund, which Vandiver describes as "the intensive grouping of male warriors and initiates understood to have dominated pre-Christian Indo-European societies, especially Germanic ones."[38] Vandiver concludes by cautioning that BAP and the rest of the manosphere "will continue to take the [far right] movement into unusual and uncharted territory".[38]

Tara Isabella Burton categorises the 'BAPist' phenomenon as fundamentally an atavist, backward looking one.[30][20][35][52] Modern atavism, according to Burton is "[a]t once a conscious rejection of intuitionalist values and, in many ways, their natural heir, modern atavism promotes a nostalgic, masculinist vision of animal humanity." It is the nostalgic focus on an idealised notion of the past because "[o]nce upon a time, this narrative goes, in a vanished age of gods and heroes, men were men and women were women. Human beings acted in accordance with their biological destiny. Men fought wars. Women had babies."[20] However, in each case, humanity has supposedly fallen away from its inherent nature and intended purpose. Burton argues further that atavism is not a new phenomenon at all: "[f]rom Friedrich Nietzsche onward, modern reactionary culture has fetishized the imagined past and condemned (...) "sclerotic" (to use BAP's word) civilizations of the present."[20] In her book Strange Rites, Burton explains that according to atavists 'real freedom' lies in submission to (biological) hierarchies, nature, strongmen and Nietzschean supermen worth submitting to. Burton adds: "[a]s Bronze Age Pervert is fond of saying: "SUBMIT!"".[20]

The conclusion of Burton's discussion of the 'BAPist' phenomenon, among various other novel right- and left wing, new age, pagan witchcraft, wellness, techno-utopian and transhumanist ideological communities, is more akin to a religious cult than a traditional political communitiy as observed in the 20th century.[20][30][52] Vandiver concurs with this sentiment and posits that: "[i]f a religion emerges from the Alt-Right, BAP may prove, in retrospect, to have been one of its founders."[38] Thompson is also keen to point out that "BAP devotees treat him as prophet just as the natives first treated Kurtz in The Heart of Darkness" and that his following includes "the most unlikely of groups, namely, graduate students and junior faculty trained in political philosophy, particularly those from the so-called Straussian school of thought."[43]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ BAP adheres to a type of neopaganism he describes as "an innate sensation, a natural animism".[45]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Power, Nina (7 March 2020). "Oracles, perverts and the Dirtbag Left". The Spectator Australia.
  2. ^ Aida, Hirotsugu (23 November 2019). "右翼の新潮流、BAMとは?" [What is BAM, the new right-wing trend?]. Weekly Toyo Keizai (in Japanese).
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Schreckinger, Ben (23 August 2019). "The alt-right manifesto that has Trumpworld talking". Politico.
  4. ^ a b c d Russell, Jesse. "Nietzsche and the American Right". Chronicles. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  5. ^ a b Lindqvist, Inga-Lina (28 September 2019). "Antiken är hetare än någonsin förr" [Antiquity is hotter than ever] (in Swedish).
  6. ^ a b c d e f g "Bronze Age Greeks Inspire Violent White Masculinity". Pharos. 13 August 2020.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Anton, Michael. "Are the Kids Al(t)right?". Claremont Review of Books (Summer 2019).
  8. ^ a b c Allen, Ian (1 October 2019). "The Far Right's Apocalyptic Literary Canon". The New Republic.
  9. ^ Lindqvist, Inga-Lina. "Antiken är hetare än någonsin förr". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 2021-04-11. Att avfärda BAP som ännu en internetgalning som förläst sig på Nietzsche och missförstått Homeros humanistiska intention går inte riktigt. Han är för bildad, för rolig, för inflytelserik för det.
  10. ^ Marzoni, Andrew. "Is there such a thing as far-Right 'literature'? | Aeon Essays". Aeon. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  11. ^ a b c MacDougald, Park (5 February 2020). "The New American Millennial Right". Tablet magazine.
  12. ^ a b c d e DeCarlo, Dan. "An Epic Pervert". The American Mind. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  13. ^ Anton, Michael. "The Art of Spiritual War". The American Mind. Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  14. ^ Doherty, Brian (2 August 2020). "Wait, Wasn't Peter Thiel a Libertarian?". Reason.
  15. ^ a b "Bonus Episode: Bronze Age Decius?". Ricochet. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
  16. ^ a b c Renn, Aaron. "The Struggle for Owned Space". The American Mind. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
  17. ^ Bronze Age Pervert (22 October 2019). "America's Delusional Elite Is Done". The American Mind. Claremont Institute.
  18. ^ Meserve, Jack (10 December 2019). "Beyond Compromise". Democracy Journal.
  19. ^ Anton, Michael. "Which Way, Jester Man?". The American Mind. Retrieved 2021-05-20.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Burton, Tara Isabella (2020). Strange rites : new religions for a godless world (First edtion ed.). New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-5417-6253-4. OCLC 1141019338.
  21. ^ a b c Mathias, Christopher (2021-05-26). "An Elementary School Teacher's Secret Life As A White Nationalist Writer". HuffPost. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
  22. ^ a b "Bronze Age Pervert". Twitter. Retrieved 2021-06-22.
  23. ^ "The Alt-Right as Counterculture: Memes, Video Games and Violence". Harvard Politics.
  24. ^ Del Medigo, Elijah. "Wat iz Bronze Age Mindset?". The American Mind. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
  25. ^ Burton, Tara Isabella (2019-07-16). "Rise of the Titans: Fascism, Christianity, and the Seduction of the Brutal". Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  26. ^ a b c Sabisky, Andrew (2017-02-27). "Silence of the Frogs: Why is Twitter censoring harmless Pepe accounts?". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
  27. ^ Lloyd, Will (28 September 2019). "Is this Mencius Moldbug's moment?". Spectator USA.
  28. ^ Cruse, Ellena (2020-02-18). "Who is Andrew Sabisky? Why Boris Johnson's adviser resigned from No 10". www.standard.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
  29. ^ Sabisky, Andrew (2017-05-12). "Inside frogtwitter's dark artistic mind". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
  30. ^ a b c d Burton, Tara Isabella (1 June 2018). "The religious hunger that drives Jordan Peterson's fandom". Vox.
  31. ^ "Republicans Embrace Fascist and Antisemitic "Alt-Right" Manifesto, Bronze Age Mindset". Bend the Arc: Jewish Action. 11 September 2020.
  32. ^ Carroll, Logan (24 August 2020). "A fascist manifesto is gaining fans on the right, including state Sen. Roger Chamberlain". Minnesota Reformer.
  33. ^ Neiwert, David (16 September 2020). "Delaware GOP nominates QAnon cultist with white nationalist ties for seat in U.S. Senate". Daily Kos.
  34. ^ Gray, Rosie (10 February 2017). "Behind the Internet's Anti-Democracy Movement". The Atlantic.
  35. ^ a b Burton, Tara Isabella (2019-07-30). "The Neo-Paganism of Jordan Peterson". The American Interest. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  36. ^ Colomé, Jordi Pérez (2021-06-12). "Así llegó la rana Pepe al Congreso de los Diputados" [This is how Pepe the Frog arrived at the Congress of Deputies]. El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  37. ^ Ross, Alexander Reid (2021-03-08). "These 'Dirtbag Left' Stars Are Flirting With the Far Right". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2021-04-20.
  38. ^ a b c d e f g h Vandiver, Josh (2018). The Radical Roots of the Alt-Right. Cengage Learning (EMEA) Ltd. pp. 6–7.
  39. ^ "Bronze Age Pervert (@bronzeagemantis) | Twitter". Twitter. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  40. ^ a b Lendrum, Eric (2021-08-06). "Twitter Bans Acclaimed Author and Commentator Known as 'Bronze Age Pervert' › American Greatness". American Greatness. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  41. ^ a b "What Happened: August 11, 2021". Tablet Magazine. 2021-08-11. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  42. ^ Collins, Will (3 January 2020). "No Time for Heroes". National Review.
  43. ^ a b Thompson, C. Bradley. "Bronze Age Pervert and the Fascist New Frontier". cbradleythompson.substack.com. Retrieved 2021-06-11.
  44. ^ Thompson, C. Bradley. "The Rise and Fall of the Pajama-Boy Nietzscheans". The American Mind. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  45. ^ Bronze Age Pervert (25 March 2019). "Old And New Paganism". The American Sun. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  46. ^ a b c Vandiver, Josh (2020-04-02). "Alt-Virilities: Masculinism, Rhizomatics, and the Contradictions of the American Alt-Right". Politics, Religion & Ideology. 21 (2): 153–176. doi:10.1080/21567689.2020.1763319. ISSN 2156-7689. S2CID 219454752.
  47. ^ Shullenberger, Geoff. "Redpilling and the Regime". The New Atlantis. Retrieved 2021-10-09.
  48. ^ a b c Zuckerberg, Donna (2018-10-08). Not All Dead White Men. Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674989801. ISBN 978-0-674-98980-1.
  49. ^ a b "Introduction to Pharos". Pharos. Retrieved 2021-07-20.
  50. ^ Dozier, Curtis (2021-06-15). "Doing Justice to the Classics". Eidolon. Retrieved 2021-07-20.
  51. ^ Anton, Michael (2020). The stakes : America at the point of no return. Washington, DC. ISBN 978-1-68451-073-3. OCLC 1162420553.
  52. ^ a b Burton, Tara Isabella. "Perspective | A notorious pickup artist found God. Lots of angry white radicals do". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
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