Eco-Fascism, Accelerationism, and Schizoposting: A Merger of Extremist Aesthetics
By Dr. Logan Macnair, research associate at Simon Fraser University’s International CyberCrime Research Centre
Introduction
There remains a noticeable overlap in the iconography and aesthetics of various eco-fascist and accelerationist movements within the Terrorgram network. More recently, these aesthetic signifiers have been combined with the emergent internet trend of “schizoposting” in ways that, in addition to creating a unique visual style, may potentially benefit militant accelerationist movements that view acts of violence as necessary tools toward hastening societal collapse.
Aesthetics of Eco-Fascism, Green Accelerationism, and Kaczynski Posting
Simply summarized, eco-fascism is an ideological strain of the modern far-right which presupposes not only that climate change and environmental degradation are among the most pressing issues facing Western civilization, but also that such issues can effectively be countered or solved via the creation and implementation of a fascistic, White Supremacist state. Eco-fascists are typically reverent of nature. They see modern society—Western, liberal, consumerist, multicultural society in particular—as not only incapable of preserving or protecting “blood and soil” (both literally and metaphorically) but as an active agent in their destruction that must therefore be resisted with violence.
So-called “green accelerationists” are a subset of militant accelerationists who have adopted this explicitly climate-or environmental-centered approach to hastening societal collapse. Green accelerationists believe that as there is no perceived political or gradual solution to reversing the environmental destruction initiated by modern, Western civilization, the dismantling of this very system is a necessity, one they prefer happens sooner rather than later. In this sense, there is large overlap between the ideology and likely the membership of eco-fascist and militant accelerationist groups and movements.
Image 1: An eco-fascist/green accelerationist image suggesting violence against a corporate figurehead thought to be responsible for environmental destruction.
A notable and recurrent figure within shared eco-fascist and green accelerationist ideology and iconography is the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Even though “Uncle Ted,” as his far-right admirers affectionately call him, was himself critical of eco-fascism, White supremacy, and Neo-Nazism, he nevertheless remains a venerated and important ideological influencer for these movements. Kaczynski’s writings and ideas have been quoted and paraphrased by several notable far-right extremists and mass-murderers, including Payton Gendron, Anders Brevik, and Brenton Tarrant, and he is often included on accelerationist lists of “saints.”
Kaczynski has been influential within Terrorgram for some time, but, following his death in June of 2023, there seems to have been a renewed and more mainstream uptake of his life, legacy, and ideals. This was particularly true among younger generations who were born after Kaczynski’s actions and had not previously learned about him or his terrorist bombing campaign. The result has been an uptick in the amount of “Kaczynski posting”— posting memes and images that sincerely, ironically, or humorously feature Kacynski’s likeness and promote his ideals. Such posting has increased not just on the “dark fandoms” of niche spheres like Terrorgram, but also on more accessible platforms such as iFunny, Reddit, TikTok, and X.
Image 2: Kaczynski posting from iFunny suggesting increasing radicalization as one further engages with his writing.
Kaczynski’s anti-modernist and anti-technological stances especially seem to resonate with a certain portion of young people who feel alienated, threatened, or otherwise negatively impacted by the dominant technologies of the current day such as smartphones, social media or the internet more broadly, and artificial intelligence. Kaczynski posting reflects these anxieties even as posters rely on that same technology to communicate their fears.
Image 3: An example of Kaczynski posting that is tacitly critical of developing AI trends and their perceived implications.
Aesthetics of Schizoposting
Schizoposting is an emergent internet trend and aesthetic style involving the creation of images, memes, and textual content that are meant to emulate, exaggerate, or appropriate mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Put simply, these posts reflect the stereotypical (and often misrepresented) understanding these posting communities have of someone in the throes of a mental breakdown or severe schizophrenic episode. Such depictions specifically tend to exaggerate the connections between mental illness and criminal violence, suicidal ideation, paranoia, and conspiratorial thinking by emphasizing blood, gore, psychological horror, and illegible or unhinged textual descriptions of violence or intrusive thoughts. Intentionally glitchy visual effects and disturbing audio often amplify the imagery’s thematic content. Some imagery is also juxtaposed with cartoonish characters and images—Shrek and SpongeBob SquarePants remain perennial favorites—to further unnerve the viewer by mutating benign content designed for children into something disturbing and nefarious.
Image 4: An example of schizoposting that combines an image from a children’s cartoon with a textual description of violence.
Image 5: An example of schizoposting that incorporates seemingly random or unconnected imagery to suggest a break from reality.
Schizoposting content, after originating on more niche spaces such as 4chan, has since attained notable levels of popularity on mainstream platforms such as TikTok and Reddit, where the r/schizoposters subreddit currently has just shy of 60k subscribers. However, it is worth clarifying that the majority of those who are engaged in schizoposting communities, whether as creators or consumers, are themselves likely not afflicted with the mental illnesses their memes supposedly reflect, rather, they are attempting to adopt and mimic (often erroneously) these conditions in ways that are performative, satirical, ”artistic,” or otherwise in service of a larger aesthetic style that fetishizes violence and emphasizes violent impulses and psychological derangement.
Image 6: An example of schizoposting that implies the creator is isolated, mentally unwell, and physically threatened.
It is also worth noting that the aesthetic style of schizoposting, while certainly intended to be transgressive and disturbing, is not one that was originally or inherently linked to extremist ideology or any specific ideology at all. In fact, schizoposting has been described as post-ideological because its emphasis is on the nonsensical and bizarre rather than the political, and because the violence it invokes is celebrated for its own sake rather than being presented as a means toward some ideological goal. However, there has been notable overlap between eco-fascists, accelerationists, and the schizoposting community; it is this union and the subsequent merging of aesthetic styles that is worthy of concern with respect to potential extremist violence.
The Merging of Aesthetics
Visual aesthetics, especially when presented in meme form, have previously served as an effective catalyst for disparate groups to combine and promote or commit violence. Schizoposting itself draws somewhat from earlier fashwave aesthetics, as both use glitchy, chopped, and transgressive visuals, but they differ in how violence is presented. Within fashwave art, violence is glorified via images of militarism, masculinity, and conquest, and is viewed primarily as a necessary tool to be wielded against political enemies. With schizoposting, violence and violent fantasies are celebrated for their own sake rather than as something tied to any specific ideology.
The crux of the union between eco-fascists, accelerationists, and schizoposters seems to be commonly shared beliefs regarding the perils of modernity (i.e., environmental degradation, the dehumanizing and alienating influence of technology, etc.) and of the subsequent need to counter, overthrow, and ultimately collapse modern society. Specifically, the resulting aesthetic style is one that incorporates eco-fascist sentiments of getting back to nature, the traditional accelerationist narrative of hastening societal destruction, and schizoposting’s fetishization of violence and societal transgression. Some conventional fashwave imagery and a touch of chan culture’s anti-social irony are included for good measure. In particular, the anti-technological nature of Kaczynksi’s writing seems to resonate strongly across these communities, resulting in a proliferation of memes and other images that highlight the detrimental or degrading impacts of the internet and modern technology and giving community members one common thread around which to coalesce.
Image 7: A merger of Kaczynski posting that draws on the chaotic and seemingly-random aesthetic of schizoposting while glamorizing violent actors
This new aesthetic style glorifies and normalizes violence, while at the same time potentially desensitizing viewers to violent acts and creating a dehumanizing effect on portrayed victims of such violence.
Aesthetic styles of extremist movements are often violent and dehumanizing even as they change and evolve. What potentially presents a novel risk here is the merger between the conventionally non-ideological sphere of schizoposting and the more explicitly extremist worldview of eco-fascist and accelerationist movements. Specifically, the fetishization and glorification of violence that is emblematic of much terrorwave content, when presented as compatible with the violent ideation of schizoposting, may create a bridge for others in the schizoposting community to see violence and horror not just as artistic aesthetics, but as action worthy pursuing offline.
Image 8: A merger of Kaczynski Posting and schizoposting that implies violence as a means of resistance to modern society.
Eco-fascist and accelerationist movements view violence as a means of manifesting and hastening societal collapse; however, it does not necessarily matter to these movements who is committing this violence or for what reasons, so long as it has a potentially destabilizing effect. This means that people involved in the schizoposting community, particularly the likely minority of them who may hold desires to act out violent impulses in the offline world, may be viewed as unlikely but welcome allies to extremist movements regardless of whether they are true believers in the accelerationist or eco-fascist ideology.
Concerns and Conclusions
Schizoposting remains widespread on popular platforms such as Reddit and, most notably, TikTok, as does ecofascist and accelerationist content more generally, despite measures enacted to remove or otherwise censor such material. All exemplar images examples used in this paper were specifically chosen from accessible spaces, specifically iFunny, Reddit, TikTok, and X.
Yet, as with many similar online spaces and subcultures of the past ten years, the line between what is a sincere expression of extremist ideology or a call to violent action versus what is merely a form of irony, shitposting, or artistic expression can be blurred to an extent where it is rendered wholly invisible. This makes distinguishing between those who may be legitimate security risks and those who are simply engaging with the aesthetic as a form of entertainment or expression especially difficult.
It is not the case that those who merely engage in schizoposting as either creators or consumers are inherently at risk of violent radicalization; that is, they should not be viewed as immediate security threats. On the contrary, it is likely that the vast majority of people involved in the schizoposting community are participating in an aesthetic hobby that, while transgressive and perhaps disturbing, is not likely to lead toward radicalization or offline violence.
The risk, however, presents itself when extremist movements attempt to coopt, infiltrate, or otherwise influence these spaces with more direct ideological goals and calls to action. As the merging of aesthetic styles across eco-fascism, accelerationism, and schizoposting within certain online spaces and communities has noticeably increased in recent years, their violence potential has increased as well. By engaging with those in the schizoposting community, particularly those who exhibit the strongest fascinations with and attractions toward violence, collapse, or disorder, accelerationists may be able to court and siphon users from mainstream platforms into less moderated spaces and networks where they can then be encouraged to pursue violent impulses in the interest of hastening societal collapse.
Accelerationists typically view acts of mass violence, even those committed for supposedly random or non-ideological purposes, as helpful to the larger goal of societal destabilization and eventual collapse and will thus encourage such acts. Therefore, if they are able to influence, radicalize, or otherwise entice some individuals in schizoposting communities to engage in and enact their violent impulses, they are likely to do just so. By building inroads to spaces like TikTok and its predominantly younger-skewing userbase and influencing those users, extremist movements may find allies, actors, or agents in these communities that, regardless of their ideological purity or commitment, may prove useful for pursuing their extremist agenda. This merger of aesthetic styles represents how extremist movements co-opt or combine memes and other aspects of online culture in ways that are often unexpected and difficult to predict.
