The Shambhala element is absurd, but these editors aren’t totally off-base. Trying to get kids bred on Cocomelon, corecore, and Rizzler clips to read radical literature is a herculean task, so why not meet them where they are in the algorithmic insane asylum? Vril and Agartha have thrived in part because of the way the editors mix brainrot and bigotry, disguising their ideological assaults in the fried fog of GifTok rap gibberish.
The Marxist and Shambhala edits have grown to such a point that there’s now chatter about a so-called “alt-left pipeline,” where jacked dudes with southern accents are talking about how they love “man-to-man” things like working on cars but also fully support abortion and Black liberation and detest United States imperialism. This has rankled some even further-left creators, who see these newcomers as posers with no actual culture outside the party line. “The libs are stealing it,” says leftist0. “It’s annoying seeing libs call themselves alt-left.”
Perhaps the biggest current editor is thomasankarafan, an 18-year-old from Texas who’s hooked on radical politics despite (or because of) his very conservative parents. Since starting channels earlier this year, he’s racked up over 37,000 followers across platforms with education lessons where he has the cossack girlie narrate the greatest achievements of Russian feminist revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai and read chapter one of Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book while Subway Surfer gameplay loops in the backdrop. He’s also raised money for Gazans, shat on lib commander Gavin Newsom, and urged his fellow comrades to ditch Discord and get burner phones. “The feds listening and they finna do a sweep like Future,” the anime girl warns.
The creator told me over Discord that he thinks a lot about the line between parodies and praxis and isn’t entirely sure where he falls, but does feel like he’s fighting a modern infowar. He wants to inspire the brainrot sheeple, galvanize them to care about the world and make leftist TikTok edits. “I’ve given people book recommendations. People need to get back in the library, bro.” He’s incredibly paranoid about Palantir and internet surveillance and owns multiple burner phones. “To a degree it’s like, yo, we’re cooked—but the revolution keeps me optimistic,” he says.