Bronze Age Pervert | |
|---|---|
| Born | Costin Vlad Alamariu (1980-05-21)21 May 1980 (age 45) |
| Education | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS) Columbia University (MA) Yale University (PhD) |
| Years active | 2013–present |
| Known for | Far-right social media activity |
Bronze Age Pervert, also known asBAP orB.A.P.,[1] is a pseudonymousfar-rightInternet personality, associated with themanosphere.[2] The media has identifiedCostin Vlad Alamariu[3] (born May 21, 1980), aRomanian-American, as the person behind the pseudonym.[4][2]
In his writings onX, his podcastCaribbean Rhythms with Bronze Age Pervert and in his 2018 bookBronze Age Mindset, BAP advancesreactionary ideas influenced byNietzschean philosophy, promoting what he considers the heroic ideals ofclassical antiquity and denouncing modern society as decadent. He has a dedicated cult following in Western right-wing political circles.
In 2023,Politico identified the writer Costin Alamariu as the person behind the pseudonym, making reference to other articles and podcasts that had previously identified him.[4] According toPolitico, neither Alamariu nor BAP responded to requests for comment, and Alamariu did not deny being BAP when the association was previously made.[4]Graeme Wood ofThe Atlantic has also identified him, claiming he has known Alamariu for many years.[2]
Alamariu was born in Romania in 1980 and immigrated to the U.S. with his family at the age of 10.[4] He attendedNewton South High School near Boston, majored in mathematics atMIT, and studied philosophy as a graduate student atColumbia University.[4] He graduated with a Ph.D. in political science fromYale, with a 2015dissertation titled "The Problem of Tyranny and Philosophy in the Thought of Plato and Nietzsche".[4] At the universities he attended, he was active in criticizing the perceived left-wing bias of academia.[4]
Alamariu was born to a Romanian mother and aJewish father, and was baptized as an infant in theRomanian Orthodox Church.[5]
BAP is an active X user but has posted under multiple handles, and on multiple sites. The earliest identified posts by the "Bronze Age Pervert" persona appeared on now-defunctweb forums in 2010.[4] The Twitter account @bronzeageperv then joined Twitter in November 2013[6] and developed links toCurtis Yarvin[7] before the account was banned in February 2017.[8] BAP joined Twitter again in March 2017 under the handle @bronzeagemantis.[4] On August 4, 2021, Twitter suspended BAP again.[9] As a result, BAP switched to usingTelegram[10] until he was later reinstated on Twitter. After the reinstatement of his account byElon Musk, BAP's Twitter following continued to grow and "restored structure to a movement that commonly refers to itself as the 'authentic' right-wing Twitter."[11] A separate account with the handle @costin_eats is used by Costin Alamariu when not writing under the 'BAP' pseudonym.[12]
BAP's original Twitter biography stated: "Steppe barbarian. Nationalist, Fascist, Nudist Bodybuilder! Purification of world. Revolt of the damned. Destruction of the cities!"[6] It later described him as a "Free speech and anti-xenoestrogen activist." The banner above BAP's Twitter profile was a close up photo ofCellini'sPerseus with the Head of Medusa,[13] and his posts are a mix ofpost-ironic far-right memes with images of bodybuilders.[14] The images are often consideredhomoerotic in nature but Josh Vandiver suggests more sinister motivations when describing them: "[BAP] and his followers regularly celebrate images of handsome and muscular young white men. (...) The images depict men in typical ways for Western masculinities: active, in motion, subjects shaping the world, not sexual objects. BAP posts images of virile young men on beaches or surfboards in tropical locales—including the Caribbean and Baja California—with captions stating they are 'conquering' or 'cleansing' such territories. These are geopolitical visions, a form of populargeopolitics calling for expansion and conquest of theglobal South."[15]
The account is part of Frogtwitter, a group of pseudonymous online writers with a highly negative view of contemporary American society.[16][17][18] This group mythologizes an aristocratic past while engaging in racism andantisemitism, often through memes laden with heavy irony.[17] BAP frequently condemnsalt-right leadership figures, such asRichard Spencer.[19] BAP and his acolytes are at odds with white nationalistNick Fuentes and hisgroypers, and Fuentes has claimed that Curtis Yarvin and BAP are "at the forefront of a risingThiel-funded faction of the Right."[20]
A number of right-wing politicians have been criticized for following or interacting with BAP on Twitter, including former White House speechwriterDarren Beattie,[21] Minnesota state senatorRoger Chamberlain,[22] vice president of the United StatesJD Vance,[23] and US Senate candidateLauren Witzke.[24] Technology investorPeter Thiel has on more than one occasion referenced BAP in speeches to conservative audiences.[25] In February 2017, Curtis Yarvin sarcastically claimed toThe Atlantic that Bronze Age Pervert was his White House "cutout / cell leader".[7][26] 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 press for discussing and engaging with BAP and the broader far right on Twitter, most notablyAnna Khachiyan of theRed Scare podcast.[27]
Josh Vandiver ofBall 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".[28] Bronze Age Pervert's followers often imitate elements of his Twitter account, his writing style, and repeat catchphrases such as "SUBMIT!" 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".[28] 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"[28][29] as well as self-publish their own 'BAPish' books,memes and writings that BAP will generouslycrosspromote viaretweets.[30][29] By 2023 Vandiver notes that "[d]espite multiple instances ofdeplatforming from social media, BAP’s following is now large and we can identify 'BAPism' as a masculinist subculture" and that BAP's influence and essays can be found in and on multiple (web)zines where "masculinist identitarians move feverishly between high theory and jocular memetics, metapolitical musings and geopolitical ambitions."[31]
| Author | Bronze Age Pervert |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Owen Cyclops |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Philosophy,identity politics,masculinity |
| Publisher | Independently published |
Publication date | June 6, 2018 |
| Pages | 198 |
| ISBN | 978-1983090448 |
Bronze Age Pervert self-published the bookBronze Age Mindset via Amazon in June 2018.[32] The 77-chapter "exhortation" is written with intentionally poor grammar, mixingNietzschean philosophy with criticisms of modern society.[17]
The book centers on BAP's ideal vision, the eponymous "Bronze Age Mindset",[33] which he defines as "the secret desire… to be worshiped as a god!"[30] and which he calls a state "of complete power and freedom".[33] The book's main theme argues against the concept ofhuman equality.[30] BAP discusses classical figures, includingAlcibiades,Periander of Corinth, and the heroes of theHomericepics.[34][13] In particular, BAP argues that the historical figures of the pirate and soldier of fortune are heroic ideals and asserts thatclassical education is wasted on both (social) liberals and conventional conservatives.[34] Although BAP does not provide sources, notes or formal references in the book, he mentionsNietzsche,Schopenhauer andpre-Socratic thinkers likeHeraclitus very frequently.[30]
The New Republic describes the book as "rambling", "dizzying", displaying "prose… artfully penned" but "arguments… fractured and incoherent".[14]The Economist echoes the "rambling" classifier.[35] Elisabeth Zerofsky in theNew York Times calls the book "a pseudo Nietzschean critique of modernity" written "in a style that mixe[s] a kind of faux-caveman brutishness and message-board pidgin with classical references".[36] Book reviewer Inga-Lina Lindqvist of SwedishAftonbladet cautions readers that despite the often impenetrable fever-dream style, "to simply dismiss BAP as yet another internet maniac who read Nietzsche and misunderstood Homer'shumanistic intentions does not fly. He's too educated, too funny and too influential for that."[34] BAP's thinking is marked by deep anti-egalitarianism.[30][37] Andrew Marzoni inAeon Magazine is less impressed and calls the book "Nietzschean pastiche", "a tedious commentary onclassical philosophy", an unoriginal, basic paleoconservative call to action after "100 pages of manipulatingEmpedocles and Heraclitus into refutations ofevolutionary biology, civilizational 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)".[38]Nathan Robinson ofCurrent Affairs magazine writes that BAP inBronze Age Mindset does not attempt to make (any) logical arguments, hides behind a mask of irony and compares the book toHitler'sMein Kampf multiple times, finally concluding that "… all of this ultimately does restateMein Kampf, albeit with fewer (not zero) references to Jews and the absence of a particular narrative about avenging Germany’s national humiliation at Versailles."[39]
In 2019, conservative essayistMichael Anton reviewedBronze Age Mindset for theClaremont Review of Books.[30][16] Anton claims that the book's provocativeness makes it successful and popular among right wing youths.[40]Bronze Age Mindset was first given to Anton byCurtis Yarvin, creator of theneoreactionary movement,[41] and Darren Beattie encouraged Anton to read it.[30][17] The StraussianClaremont Institute subsequently published a symposium on the review in their online publicationThe American Mind,[16] 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 theRwandan genocide.[42][43]
Tara Isabella Burton in her discussion ofBronze Age Mindset in her own bookStrange Rites highlights BAP's tirades against the "bugman",[44] a concept of a human analogous to Nietzsche's andKojève's idea of the wretched "last man". According to Burton, BAP spends most ofBronze Age Mindset deriding progressive men of the twenty-first century, whom she describes asbeta males denuded of their strength by modernity.[44]
Bronze Age Mindset gained a following in right-wing circles,[35] including staffers of the Trump White House and on Capitol Hill, according to anonymous sources described byPolitico.[17]National Review writer Nate Hochman claims that many of his peers who read the book and Anton's review of it ended up interning at the Claremont Institute, and asks, "Why did every junior staffer in theTrump administration read 'Bronze Age Mindset?' There was something there that was clearly attractive to young conservative elites."[36] 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.[30] In October 2019, it was still ranked third in Ancient Greek History and #174 in Humour on the Amazon best-seller list.[14]
In August 2019, BAP began a political commentary/historypodcast calledCaribbean Rhythms with Bronze Age Pervert.[1] In 2023 it had approximately 6500 paying subscribers.[45] According to the conservativeNational Review, the podcast uses a narrative style that highlights thegreat man theory.[46] Almost every episode starts with an excerpt fromStrauss's "Blue Danube Waltz."[47] Most episodes feature other pieces from theclassical music canon during segment breaks, like works fromBeethoven,Rachmaninoff,Bach and more.[47] James Noel Ward at theAmerican University of Paris describes BAP as "a combination jester, mad prophet, comic character, andRabelaisian oracle" and highlights BAP's frequent use ofslapstick humor (among various other forms) on his podcast: "[BAP] interrupts his podcasts with fantastic pauses as he receives attacks by Israeli commandos, insidious malign agents, exotic carnivorous animals, biting tropical insects, and unseen vampiric forces."[45] Graeme Wood characterizes this more darkly: "[BAP] digresses as if not in control of his own thoughts. He barks insults and orders at subordinates in his recording studio, and one can reasonably wonder whether these figures are comic creations or psychotic delusions".[2]
In September 2023, BAP, under his identity Costin Alamariu, published a book titledSelective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy.[12] The book is a re-release of Alamariu's 2015 doctoral dissertation, originally titled "The Problem of Tyranny and Philosophy in the Thought of Plato and Nietzsche," with the addition of an introduction section.[3] In the book Alamariu makes a case foreugenics[48] and challenges contemporary Western morality by celebrating Nietzschean ideals of strength, aristocracy, and tyranny over modern constitutionalism and democracy.[49] Upon launch it briefly cracked Amazon's top 25 bestsellers.[12]
Political scientist Matthew McManus points out that the work of Alamariu/BAP is influential in, and part of a wider far right philosophical project to reform modern society withnatalist and eugenic ideas and ultimately policy.[50] Which McManus summarizes as: "[t]he idea is essentially that our society has become excessively effeminate, weak, compassionate (...) and what [the hard right] want to do is breed or elevate anaristocratic class that's going to be masculine, violent, not necessarily motivated by, let's call it empathy."[50] As BAP Alamariu proposes rebreeding "the originalAryan race, or as close an approximation as possible, through some kind of aPlatonicLebensborn program".[51]
EconomistTyler Cowen wrote some brief comments on the book on his blogMarginal Revolution and questions the premise of Alamariu's book that the sexual marketplace is indeed "the pinnacle of every other market" noting that people spend a lot of time not having sex.[52] Further he notes that socialization and not purely breeding plays an important role in how next generations are constituted.[52] Cowen remarks that the book still very much reads like a dissertation.[52]Julius Krein ofAmerican Affairs magazine reviewed Alamariu's book and notes that despite Alamariu's insistence on not being a Straussian, Alamariu's work shares significant thematic overlap withLeo Strauss's philosophy, particularly in its exploration of the tension between philosophy and political authority.[49] Krein also observes that while Alamariu rejects the Straussian approach to political conservatism, his arguments largely restate Straussian ideas, merely adopting a provocative tone to suggest, among other things, that philosophers and tyrants are natural allies in their opposition to egalitarianism.[49] Dustin Sebell ofMichigan State University reviewed the book forFirst Things and like Krein he believes that Alamariu's arguments rely too much on shock value.[53] Furthermore he argues that Alamariu's core thesis — that virtue and philosophy arise from hereditary breeding rather than education and socialization — is not sufficiently historically substantiated by Alamariu and internally contradictory.[53] Sebell also thinks that Alamariu misunderstands thephilosophical concept of nature, conflating it withnatural right.[53]
While BAP complains that society has become "something approaching [a] mass concentration camp," journalistGraeme Wood notes that BAP's classmates, many of whom were also fascinated by Nietzsche, have not been spiritually and socially crushed by the concentration camp'smatriarchy and "bug men" but instead have gone on to success, holding "good jobs", and being married with families.[2] Wood also comments on BAP's tendency towardshomophobia (use of "fag" and "facefag" as insults), while at the same time glorifying bodybuilding, posting of "images of half-naked white hunks in the flower of youth," and sending photos of himself shirtless to friends—practices frequently associated with sexual attraction to the same sex.[2] Bryan Garsten points out that Greek heroes were not all focused on male beauty and bonding, or warfare and conquest of inferiors.Odysseus's "greatness emerged not from his rejection of this world ... He owed myriad debts to those around him: to his men, to his son, to his wife."[2] He also questions the virtue of aristocratic tyranny. "Life in a liberal democracy is full of demanding moments ... As far as I have read, life under tyrants is full oflassitude, selfishness, duplicity, betrayal."[2] William A. Gaston (a political theorist, formerMarine, andBrookings Institution scholar) asks how the allegedly weak and flabby liberalism of the United States and its allies was able to defeat the virile fascism ofGermany andJapan in World War II.[2]
Political philosopherJohn Gray dismisses BAP's philosophy as juvenile, adolescent and ultimately merely a flash in the pan,[54] writing inThe New Statesman that "BAP's image of male predation, rapine and pillage is the fantasy of an aspiring teenage gang member in a disintegrating modern city" and "[h]is adolescent philosophy will soon be forgotten."[54] Political scientistMark Lilla shares Gray's disdain for BAP's "preposterous" ideas and figure and reiterates that BAP's audience mainly consists of "acned young men".[55]
Political science professorC. Bradley Thompson has criticized BAP'silliberal, anti-equality,anti-American, anti-rationalist stances and considers Bronze Age Pervert and his writings to be more or lessfascist in nature.[56][57] 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 deeperrecrudescence ofpaganism"[a], Evan Myers also points out that the brand of'vitalism' that BAP promotes is aneopagan and illiberal ideology.[59]Robert P. George names BAP as a noteworthy example of a novel trend of "conservative neopagan decadence" on the American right-wing.[60]Jesse Russell notes that fundamentally, the right wing critique of "BAPism" differs little from the critique by the conventional right of the alt-right movement during Donald Trump's2016 presidential campaign.[37] BAP is part of a cohort of right-wing intellectuals radicalizing theAmerican conservative movement and theRepublican Party according to Damon Linker inThe New York Times.[61] Political scientist Matt McManus writes that "BAP is not really a conservative or even a reactionary. In fact, he despises conservatives almost as much as he detests the Left" and argues that BAP's adherence to Nietzsche's "aristocratic radicalism" makes him better understood "as a kind of ultra-fascist of theJulius Evola stripe: someone for whom classical fascism is too democratic, too populist, and too vulgar."[62] An old Yale classmate claims that BAP aspired to become a sort of 'Slavoj Žižek of the Right', meaning a respected and influential intellectual but with a distinct popular appeal.[63] Blake Smith of theUniversity of Chicago points out the strong influence of conservative political philosopherLeo Strauss on BAP's thinking.[64] JournalistKatherine Stewart documents the StraussianClaremont Institute's ongoing intellectual flirtation with BAP and broader New Right ideology inMoney, Lies, and God.[65] Nicolas Truong inLe Monde and Octave Larmagnac-Matheron inPhilosophie Magazine make note of the close ideological proximity between BAP and theneoreactionary movement (NRx) led by Curtis Yarvin andNick Land.[66][67] Nicholas Low ofHarvard Divinity School connects "BAP'simpious brand ofpseudo-philosophy" andeffective accelerationism (e/acc) as ascendant strains of reactionary pseudo-Nietzschean thought that "enshrine visions ofsuperhumanity at the heart of their worldviews: both revolve around outlandish dreams of superhuman life".[68]
Vassar College's Pharos project, whose mission is "to document appropriations of Greco-Roman culture by hate groups online",[69] claims that BAP is providing the "traditionalist right wing" with a tailor-made "mythic" narrative that depends "on a toxic blend ofmisogyny andwhite supremacy, with the ancient world as its archetype and source of prestige."[13]
BAP is considered to be an (ultra)masculinist.[28][70][71] Political scientist Josh Vandiver writes that the broaderalt-right and themanosphere, both of which he considers BAP to be a prominent member of,[70] "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.[28][70] 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 theMännerbund, which Vandiver describes as "the intensive grouping of male warriors and initiates understood to have dominated pre-ChristianIndo-European societies, especiallyGermanic ones."[28] 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".[28]
Researchers Joshua Molloy and Eviane Leidig of theGlobal Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET) have identified BAP as a key influencer in a right-wingraw food movement.[72][73] According to BAP, as a self-described 'anti-xenoestrogen activist', the modern food industry is "full of harmful chemicals" that "slowly destroy your essence".[72] In particular BAP and other right-wing food influencers are very concerned about the supposed pollution of modern food withseed oils,polyunsaturated fat and soy products.[72] Central to the far right's extreme rejection of soy products are "fears of internal weakness, and a distrust of the food supply and the rest of the modern world" according to journalistWill Sommer.[72] To counter these supposed dietary ills BAP and others promote diets which tend to be heavy on meat and dairy consumption.[73] Molloy and Leidig note that anti-modern ideas concerning food and diet are not new, and mass consumption of raw meat and dairy is linked to the work of alternative nutritionistAajonus Vonderplanitz, while 'anti-xenoestrogen activism' also precedes adoption by far-right activists as it was first championed by alternative nutritionist Ray Peat, whose works are often cited and shared by BAP.[72] According to Molloy and Leidig, the further mainstreaming of a "right-wing racialgastropolitics" when linked with further conspiracy theories about "post-Covid food supply sabotage byglobalist elites" may "present the potential for violent consequences"[73] and offers the far right further possibilities for radicalisation and retention for broader appeal.[72] In addition to the obsession with dietHari Kunzru inThe New York Review of Books mentions BAP's promotion of "an aristocratic lifestyle of 'sun and steel'" as part of "the faddishfitness culture promoted by the contemporary right-wing 'manosphere'",[74] which refers to a lifestyle centered around nude sunbathing and weightlifting.[17] Kunzru notes that the "raw-meat-eating, perineum-tanning, sperm-retaining 'high-T' influencers" spreading this doctrine are "recognizably indebted to the antimodernistVölkisch movement of the early twentieth century".[74]
Tara Isabella Burton categorizes the "BAPist" phenomenon as fundamentally anatavist, backward-looking one,[19][44][26][75] which is a broader trend on thepost-liberalpopulist right wing.[19][44] According to Burton, "at once a conscious rejection of intuitionalist values and, in many ways, their natural heir, modern atavism promotes a nostalgic, masculinist vision ofanimal humanity." It is the nostalgic focus on an idealized notion of the past because "once 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 theirbiological destiny. Men fought wars. Women had babies."[44] 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: "from Friedrich Nietzsche onward, modern reactionary culture has fetishized the imagined past and condemned (...) 'sclerotic' (to use BAP's word) civilizations of the present."[44] In her bookStrange Rites, Burton explains that according to atavists, "real freedom" lies insubmission to (biological) hierarchies, nature,strongmen and Nietzscheansupermen worth submitting to. Burton adds: "as Bronze Age Pervert is fond of saying: 'SUBMIT!'".[44]
The conclusion of Burton's discussion of the "BAPist" phenomenon is that it is more akin to a religiouscult than a traditional political community as observed in the 20th century.[44][19][75] Vandiver concurs with this sentiment and posits that "if a religion emerges from the Alt-Right, BAP may prove, in retrospect, to have been one of its founders."[28] Thompson is also keen to point out that "BAP devotees treat him as prophet just as the natives first treatedKurtz inThe 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."[56]
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.[Dismissing the BAP as yet another internet madman who read Nietzsche and misunderstood the humanistic intent of Homer doesn't really work. He is too educated, too funny, too influential for that.]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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