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Politigram & the Post-left
What begins as a casual engagement with funny memes can rapidly metastasize. The most common path for this particular group seems to arrive at something called Cyber-nihilism, a blend of Landian techno-pessimism, Primitivist anxiety and Transhumanist detachment. Enough time spent in this space culminates in a type of ideological Stockholm syndrome. Many of these ideas already exist on a continuum tilted towards nihilism; joining a doom cult is not too far a leap.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
134 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 12, 2022
this happened to my buddy eric
November 1, 2024
I'm not going to lie, seeing some of these memes was like being slapped in the face, especially the Deleuze and Guattari stuff (I remember Henry and I trying to parse Anti-Oedipus in junior year, so it would've been 2019...we had a chat called "sunbeams" and my username was Deleuzional).
It was interesting, because the book revolves around Politigram (political Instagram) and yet I didn't have an Instagram until mid-2021 but I was still decently immersed in these subcultures. I think this book--? collection? I'll call it a collection--treats Politigram like its own insular community, interacting mainly with other Instagram accounts and Instagram users, when to me it's obvious there was a significant cross-platform exchange between content on 4Chan, Reddit, Tumblr, etc. and these Instagram accounts. I'm actually going to go out on a limb and say that a lot more "intellectual development" (i.e. reading more about these philosophers and ideas) took place on the other forums, because they were text-based. Instagram's captions were limited word-wise and it was a primarily photo-based exchange, which lends itself well to pithy memes but not really discussion or nuance.
I think Instagram served first as an introduction or a suggestion; i.e. you see a meme with Deleuze or Nick Land or anti-civilizationism and it gives you a place to search or start. It also, I think, was a bit of a gatekeeping method. If you liked a meme it was implied that you understood it, and so this became sort of a pseudo-intellectualism thing, where people could make memes that referenced some decently central concepts of a thinker, and you could like it and be like "oh I know about Stirner and spooks" and feel smart or like you were part of a "smart group". I'm not excusing myself from this, by the way--I named the chat with Henry and I sunbeams because sunbeams was on the first few pages of A-O and that was all I ended up reading.
I think this contributed, along with Instagram, to a sort of essentializing of these philosophers and ideas; again, it wasn't really a nuance-encouraging platform to begin with and you basically had buzzwords that identified a sub-ideology: spooks, union of egoism, accelerationism (literally Sonic lol), etc. I mean, a decent amount of the memes in this collection are just some variation of sad pepe happy pepe with sad-pepe buzzwords of one sub-ideology on one side and happy-pepe buzzwords of another sub-ideology on the other. These weren't like, transformative commentaries in meme form, they were just regurgitations of buzzwords over and over. This is why I think young people kept evolving between niche ideologies (again, myself included), because it wasn't actually based in coherent, well-researched principles but rather an over-specified, over-simplified pseudo-intellectual set of decontextualized ideas.
For example Citarella says this: "My inclination is that many of these young users are drawn to Stirner because his theory allows them to leverage anti-essentialist arguments while also distancing themselves from the type of intersectional postmodernism associated with idpol Tumblr."
Give me one person on Politigram Joshua. Show me one person on Politigram who got into Stirner for the specific reason of leveraging anti-essentialism and not because they saw a meme about spooks or something. Look, I have no doubt that there were people my age who were social media users and who thoroughly read and understood Stirner or Deleuze. I'm just saying that these people probably weren't engaging with the material in the surface-level, oversimplified space of Instagram memes; probably they were seeking it out on Reddit or topical Discord servers or some other discussion-oriented platform to, you know, discuss it. I looked back at a Continental Philosophy server that I joined back then, and there wasn't a meme channel (but the Heidegger group still meets on Thursdays). The Deleuze memes I saw were actually, largely, on Facebook; I didn't really discuss philosophy on Tumblr and Reddit was mostly text-based and the discussions I encountered were largely academic.
Anyway I think that Citarella gives entirely too much credit where it's not due; I think Politigram was more of a buzzword pseudo-intellectual space than one of genuine philosophical engagement, so it doesn't really make sense to make nuanced philosophical critiques of its users. Again, I'm not excusing myself from this criticism, rather it's because I include myself in it that I levy it. My ass did NOT know what was going on with transhumanism.
It was interesting, because the book revolves around Politigram (political Instagram) and yet I didn't have an Instagram until mid-2021 but I was still decently immersed in these subcultures. I think this book--? collection? I'll call it a collection--treats Politigram like its own insular community, interacting mainly with other Instagram accounts and Instagram users, when to me it's obvious there was a significant cross-platform exchange between content on 4Chan, Reddit, Tumblr, etc. and these Instagram accounts. I'm actually going to go out on a limb and say that a lot more "intellectual development" (i.e. reading more about these philosophers and ideas) took place on the other forums, because they were text-based. Instagram's captions were limited word-wise and it was a primarily photo-based exchange, which lends itself well to pithy memes but not really discussion or nuance.
I think Instagram served first as an introduction or a suggestion; i.e. you see a meme with Deleuze or Nick Land or anti-civilizationism and it gives you a place to search or start. It also, I think, was a bit of a gatekeeping method. If you liked a meme it was implied that you understood it, and so this became sort of a pseudo-intellectualism thing, where people could make memes that referenced some decently central concepts of a thinker, and you could like it and be like "oh I know about Stirner and spooks" and feel smart or like you were part of a "smart group". I'm not excusing myself from this, by the way--I named the chat with Henry and I sunbeams because sunbeams was on the first few pages of A-O and that was all I ended up reading.
I think this contributed, along with Instagram, to a sort of essentializing of these philosophers and ideas; again, it wasn't really a nuance-encouraging platform to begin with and you basically had buzzwords that identified a sub-ideology: spooks, union of egoism, accelerationism (literally Sonic lol), etc. I mean, a decent amount of the memes in this collection are just some variation of sad pepe happy pepe with sad-pepe buzzwords of one sub-ideology on one side and happy-pepe buzzwords of another sub-ideology on the other. These weren't like, transformative commentaries in meme form, they were just regurgitations of buzzwords over and over. This is why I think young people kept evolving between niche ideologies (again, myself included), because it wasn't actually based in coherent, well-researched principles but rather an over-specified, over-simplified pseudo-intellectual set of decontextualized ideas.
For example Citarella says this: "My inclination is that many of these young users are drawn to Stirner because his theory allows them to leverage anti-essentialist arguments while also distancing themselves from the type of intersectional postmodernism associated with idpol Tumblr."
Give me one person on Politigram Joshua. Show me one person on Politigram who got into Stirner for the specific reason of leveraging anti-essentialism and not because they saw a meme about spooks or something. Look, I have no doubt that there were people my age who were social media users and who thoroughly read and understood Stirner or Deleuze. I'm just saying that these people probably weren't engaging with the material in the surface-level, oversimplified space of Instagram memes; probably they were seeking it out on Reddit or topical Discord servers or some other discussion-oriented platform to, you know, discuss it. I looked back at a Continental Philosophy server that I joined back then, and there wasn't a meme channel (but the Heidegger group still meets on Thursdays). The Deleuze memes I saw were actually, largely, on Facebook; I didn't really discuss philosophy on Tumblr and Reddit was mostly text-based and the discussions I encountered were largely academic.
Anyway I think that Citarella gives entirely too much credit where it's not due; I think Politigram was more of a buzzword pseudo-intellectual space than one of genuine philosophical engagement, so it doesn't really make sense to make nuanced philosophical critiques of its users. Again, I'm not excusing myself from this criticism, rather it's because I include myself in it that I levy it. My ass did NOT know what was going on with transhumanism.
December 27, 2022
I like Citarella's online presence and am an enthusiastic follower of his Do Not Research community, but I had mixed feelings about this book. Politigram & the Post-left documents the emergence between ~2016 and ~2018 of niche online communities that coalesced around anarcho-primitivist / egoist-anarchist / anti-civ / eco-nihilist ideologies. This is salient for me as around the same time I was ideologically adjacent to some of them, avidly reading Camatte, Endnotes, Bordiga, Tiqqun, Land, and Deleuze.
First, the good: I think that this kind of internet culture research is incredibly important, and Citarella is one of the only ones doing it in an accessible way. Seeing these memes and discord conversations compiled in one place demystifies them and saps some of their subversive power. Moreover, the semi-chronological organization gives clues about the 'media ecology' in which these communities propagated. The book's key insight is that where once young people's political identities were shaped by the relatively unifying forces of mainstream media, institutional politics, and mass movements, now these things are happening in under-observed and poorly understood online networks. And as the Overton window of the former has contracted, that of the latter has widened in both the left and right directions.
With that said, Citarella is not a great writer. Politigram reads as an off-the-cuff unedited stream of consciousness. There are several typos, and a couple times he ends sentences with 'lmao'. The book feels like it can't find a sweet spot between being a quasi-academic research article and an editorializing blog post.
Furthermore, Citarella's engagement with the ideologies being discussed is disappointingly superficial. Maybe I'm just salty because I wasted time Doing the Reading, but many of the mentioned authors are worth taking seriously even if the political communities devoted to them are fringe, cringey and potentially dangerous. I've come around to roughly the same social-democratic orientation as Citarella (for varied reasons of my own), but I don't see this book as something that could reliably de-radicalize anyone.
Overall, I appreciate the curated memes and am glad someone is thinking about this, but the insights are limited to online media ecology and stop short of meaningful engagement with the observed ideologies. Lastly, Citarella is a better speaker than writer, so if you are interested in some of these topics but unsure about the book I suggest searching YouTube for his recent talks.
First, the good: I think that this kind of internet culture research is incredibly important, and Citarella is one of the only ones doing it in an accessible way. Seeing these memes and discord conversations compiled in one place demystifies them and saps some of their subversive power. Moreover, the semi-chronological organization gives clues about the 'media ecology' in which these communities propagated. The book's key insight is that where once young people's political identities were shaped by the relatively unifying forces of mainstream media, institutional politics, and mass movements, now these things are happening in under-observed and poorly understood online networks. And as the Overton window of the former has contracted, that of the latter has widened in both the left and right directions.
With that said, Citarella is not a great writer. Politigram reads as an off-the-cuff unedited stream of consciousness. There are several typos, and a couple times he ends sentences with 'lmao'. The book feels like it can't find a sweet spot between being a quasi-academic research article and an editorializing blog post.
Furthermore, Citarella's engagement with the ideologies being discussed is disappointingly superficial. Maybe I'm just salty because I wasted time Doing the Reading, but many of the mentioned authors are worth taking seriously even if the political communities devoted to them are fringe, cringey and potentially dangerous. I've come around to roughly the same social-democratic orientation as Citarella (for varied reasons of my own), but I don't see this book as something that could reliably de-radicalize anyone.
Overall, I appreciate the curated memes and am glad someone is thinking about this, but the insights are limited to online media ecology and stop short of meaningful engagement with the observed ideologies. Lastly, Citarella is a better speaker than writer, so if you are interested in some of these topics but unsure about the book I suggest searching YouTube for his recent talks.
May 15, 2022
The main reason I didn't give this five stars was because I felt that at time Citarella was somewhat condescending to the users depicted when I think the developments outlined in this book are unambiguously good. Still, there's really good stuff here - wonderfully curated posts that give a good idea of the wide spread of ideologies popping up (Citarella correctly points out that the individuated ideologies bear a resemblance to the customisation of gender present in tumblr's heyday), an astute critique of transhumanist ideology and a fairly good history/description of politigram and the emergence of the post-left online (it's not comprehensive but Citarella goes into why a comprehensive history would be impossible due to the nature of instagram as a platform and the method of simply trawling the community serves the subject far better than a bird's eye view accompanied by statistics). In terms of how I feel about the post-left as defined here, I agree with their catastrophising about the future and technology, their critique of traditional leftist organising and their interest in nihilism. However, I don't necessarily know if there's an answer to the problems they raise. They talk of anti-civ and primitivism but honestly, life before civilisation sounds just as horrible and immoral/amoral as what exists now but in a different way. Although, is that reason to take one's foot off the gas and submit to collapse? The collapse is unlikely to be as dramatic as we initially envision. Perhaps those in the imperial core will be just fine. Perhaps life will simply get much, much worse. Not simply be killed off. That may be a scarier outcome than any kind predicted by environmental doomerism.
January 14, 2025
Really great and informative but i wish citarella would just explain things more. Stop saying words. Tell me what they mean. Thank you
July 17, 2025
3.5 stars but I always rate up <3
It was weird to read a book that basically amounts to a study of me and my own process of become socialized politically online mostly through the lens of the lead up to and years following the 2016 presidential primaries and election (given this essay/book focuses on much more extreme political/ideological identities than those I found myself drawn to and identifying with (I have always joked I identify as a European Conservative/Radical American Leftist).
Where I did see myself was the abandonment of any belief/hope in seeing any change come about from the structural left after the collusion between the Clinton campaign and the DNC during the 2016 primaries, and the extreme leftward/anti-liberal radicalization that followed that found me in closer alignment to many on the right when it came to actual realistic policy I believed could be enacted than I ever thought possible.
I think where this piece loses the Star and a half is the hyper-focus on Instagram, and it’s reluctance to explore the radical fringe political views (from the left specifically) that became VERY normalized in the past decade following the 2016 presidential election. I understand that’s not the intention of this, this was about minors on instagram that became obsessed with fringe political theory, but it boils down to me craving more at the end.
I get the podcast/youtube channel is always there but also please do not stop writing mr josh
It was weird to read a book that basically amounts to a study of me and my own process of become socialized politically online mostly through the lens of the lead up to and years following the 2016 presidential primaries and election (given this essay/book focuses on much more extreme political/ideological identities than those I found myself drawn to and identifying with (I have always joked I identify as a European Conservative/Radical American Leftist).
Where I did see myself was the abandonment of any belief/hope in seeing any change come about from the structural left after the collusion between the Clinton campaign and the DNC during the 2016 primaries, and the extreme leftward/anti-liberal radicalization that followed that found me in closer alignment to many on the right when it came to actual realistic policy I believed could be enacted than I ever thought possible.
I think where this piece loses the Star and a half is the hyper-focus on Instagram, and it’s reluctance to explore the radical fringe political views (from the left specifically) that became VERY normalized in the past decade following the 2016 presidential election. I understand that’s not the intention of this, this was about minors on instagram that became obsessed with fringe political theory, but it boils down to me craving more at the end.
I get the podcast/youtube channel is always there but also please do not stop writing mr josh
December 29, 2024
A fascinating millennial voice.
January 8, 2023
I discovered Joshua Citarella's artwork through an exhibition curated by Aaron Moulton at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Poland (which I reviewed for The Critic, titled The Art of Influence). Joshua's work among other contemporary, social media-youtube-meme-internet-art-tech artists piqued my curiosity with regards to how it split the atom of capitalism into an explosion of infinite shards of manifestations of what could simply be described as post-capitalist/post-modernist radicalism. We all know, or think we know about, alt-right activism, incels (do we?), but this excellent book is an excellent introduction to post-left social media culture, and what probably manifests on the streets as Antifa, Transactivism, Eco-activism. Citeralla's book, full of examples from Instagram gives a bewildering insight into the keyboard activism, which spills out into real direct, and sometimes, violent action. Key figures of inspiration in this nihilist continuum include the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and the 19th century anarchist philosopher Max Stirner. What Citarella reveals is the culture of #Politigram...search it out on Instagram. In short, the binding view is that capitalism in all its form, infrastructure/superstructure and virtual manifestations must be destroyed, completely. So, where's the art? It's in the memes, a post-9/11 situationist style e-deology where the boundaries between life and art collapses, where aesthetics and radical action merge.
November 5, 2025
Quick interesting read. So few of these words are in the bible. A dozen pages in I realized how lucky I am to not be disgustingly online and to have not fallen down wild political rabbit holes in my youth.
This analysis of online left politics both helped me understand fringe ideas while also exposing me to wild fringe-ier ideas. The fact these posts come from young people — people who were around the same age as me in 2016 — is eye opening. Some of their ideas are interesting and thought provoking while others are… doomer craziness. Citarella’s mostly unbiased approach feels fresh despite what is on the pages.
I wish there was a “where are they now?” section at the end.
This analysis of online left politics both helped me understand fringe ideas while also exposing me to wild fringe-ier ideas. The fact these posts come from young people — people who were around the same age as me in 2016 — is eye opening. Some of their ideas are interesting and thought provoking while others are… doomer craziness. Citarella’s mostly unbiased approach feels fresh despite what is on the pages.
I wish there was a “where are they now?” section at the end.
August 20, 2022
Interesting attempt to map certain online communities as a contribution to the history books as an account of weird online era, where young open minded teenagers with random, but mostly tolerant worldviews can transform into alt-right or far right beasts. I love the way the author describes them in detail as it gives certain pattern ideas of how people radicalize. It is not a thorough psychological evaluation of multiple reasons that lie behind every person, it rather observes the surface patterns, nevertheless the patterns are interesting.
August 26, 2025
Una auténtica pasada, una entrada muy buena a ideologías posmodernas a través de los memes. Transhumanismo vs Anarcoprimitivismo, o quien lleva mas tiempo sin salir de casa. Es flipante la capacidad que tienen los memes para influir en la sociedad, que también tiene mucho que ver con cultura y simulacro la hiperstition y esas movidas. No se siento que aún hay mucho donde rascar, os contaré cosas en breves.
June 7, 2023
Great start/attempt to canonize the phenomenon of Politigram and Post-Left with some very useful threads to follow further, especially with regards to where Post-Left and Alt-Right converge and paths to radicalisation, albeit on opposite spectrums.
A super curation of memes - another useful "in" to the very specific visual language and symbology of the Post-Left.
A super curation of memes - another useful "in" to the very specific visual language and symbology of the Post-Left.
September 29, 2024
I wish this had gone into more depth and detail. A lot of references were not explained or left to be gleaned from context clues. This was a brief overview, I get it, but a book delving more into theory and analysis of these niche subgroups and of the readers/thinkers/ideas they’re using to build/explain/support their beliefs would be beneficial.
March 10, 2023
A very interesting and accurate reflection on an odd corner of the internet. Logging off is the answer, folks
February 18, 2024
Interesting investigation and essay. Find this topic interesting.
Read
December 10, 2024Parasocial boyfriend
August 16, 2025
Help I'm being compartmentalized
September 15, 2022
does this book cater to my niche online experience and therefore bias me heavily towards liking it? hell yeah and it slaps severely, the author put out like an hour long audiobook on Spotify so no reason not to enjoy this fantastic book :)
September 30, 2025
pretty chill vibes
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