Liberty Exposé: Authoritarian Algorithms, Fascist Feeds
“Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.”—Viktor Frankl
Longing is inseparable from the human condition. Our lives are spent searching for something, be it love, success, adventure, or anything in between. The particulars might differ, but a common longing unites us all, and the driving desire for something more remains an everyday affair. We long not only to exist, but to belong. To be a part of something larger than ourselves, and bask in the light allotted to our own place in the collective sun that shines on all humanity.
Across much of the Great American Experiment, those longings have cemented themselves within family, faith, civic associations, patriotism, military service, and active participation in local communities. But these once hallmark institutions of American life have gradually eroded, leaving subsequent generations of citizens to search elsewhere for identity and purpose. For many, that search begins online.
Social media has moved beyond its humble origins as a medium of communication and entertainment. It has evolved into a marketplace of ideas, one where algorithms remain unsurpassed in shaping identities and ideologies throughout an endless stream of content. While its merits and detriments may be debated endlessly (after all, the majority of online content is benign, or mind-numbingly harmless at best), social media has become a cornerstone of daily life. Short of destroying all devices and moving off-grid, there’s little escape from the ceaseless series of reels and posts.
Yet alongside countless TikTok trends and self-improvement sermons, a corruptive and sinister ecosystem lurks across social media. An ecosystem promising certainty in an uncertain age, seemingly tailor-made for a generation of young American men whose cultural landscape has been dominated by identity politics and debates over masculinity and national identity for the better part of a decade. Through polished video edits of military parades, dictatorial directives, idealized utopic cityscapes, and an assortment of historical revisionism, content creators have romanticized authoritarianism and fascism into an alluring aesthetic. An aesthetic many young men are buying into.
It’s bad enough that young men in America are sliding into the far-right embrace of fascism. Arguably worse is how their disillusionment has driven them towards the very ideology many of their forebears sacrificed both life and longing to defeat. How did fascism find such a new and receptive audience, especially amongst the inheritors of its greatest rival?
The Rise of Pop Fascism
Perhaps it starts innocently enough. One reel about Roman history leads to another, followed by short clips from a military documentary or Saving Private Ryan. But before long, the content diverges, delving into a pipeline of soldiers marching in unison to the tune of a triumphant orchestra. Algorithms recommend clips praising “strong men”, videos calling for national rebirth, and media portraying authoritarian and fascist regimes as a rose-colored relic embodying a much-needed alternative to the “chaos” of modern Democracy.
Absent from this content are the real horrors perpetrated by fascist regimes over the past century. Killing fields and concentration camps are conveniently edited out, and secret police or industrial murder aren’t just ignored. They’re questioned and downplayed as misinformation or liberal propaganda meant to dissuade the audience from the real “truth”, a “truth” delivered through the English-translated speeches of monstrous figures such as Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini. Like any advertisement, the product being pushed is devoid of any warning label, historical or otherwise.
Nor is this blatantly fascist content relegated to an isolated corner of the internet. Dubbed ‘pop fascism’ by the joint journalistic efforts of Spanish publication Matilda.es and their Italian colleagues at Facta, the term denotes how the “idolization of dictators and the spread of disinformation are becoming embedded in everyday digital culture.” Data collected from a study undertaken by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found that content praising Hitler “received over 50 million views across X, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram throughout 2024.” A 2026 report from the Anti-Defamation League reported “3.2 million+ views on content from a single extremist merchandise vendor selling apparel with Nazi symbols” across Meta platforms. Moreover, social media algorithms seem to be reinforcing this content, not out of lockstep agreement with fascist ideals, but through algorithmic directives and lax moderation policies, allowing such content to be “especially effective at platformizing fascism.”
But revisionist memes can’t bear all the blame, as alt-right influencers and even establishment Republicans have thrown additional fuel to the signal fire beckoning America’s sons towards fascist shores. Nick Fuentes may have been banned from Instagram, but his misogynistic, anti-Semitic, and openly fascist rhetoric is propagated by acolytes known as ‘groypers’ who have furthered Fuentes’ videos by “blasting them into virality”. The non-profit Young Republicans illustrated the permeating forces of digital fascism after a leaked Telegram chat showed key members glorifying Hitler, fascism, and disgusting displays of racism. Role models indeed.
An Alarming Allure
Fascism should be the least marketable of all political ideologies. Flip open any history book, and the long list of atrocities committed by fascist regimes in the service of a “greater good” is apt to make anyone’s skin crawl. Or at least, it used to. The advent of social media has provided fascism with a rebranding campaign catered to a new generation of American men who, despite having unparalleled and limitless access to history, are nonetheless drawn towards the authoritarian aesthetics being peddled.
It’d be easy to chalk all this up as just another fascist flourishing, another instance of White nationalism rearing its ugly head, or the natural conclusion to a far-right extremism that only appeared the moment President Trump stated there were “some very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville. But there’s rarely ever one blanket answer, and the underlying catalysts drawing young American men towards fascism will never be eliminated by a simple denouncement of something the majority of Americans understand to be abhorrently evil.
Politics detests a vacuum, and widespread political dysfunction, combined with an outright distrust towards government institutions, has seemingly led to the downfall of civic unity and an uncomfortable truth that “millions of Americans have lost confidence in this traditional American brand.” Adrift amidst this sea of political and cultural instability, young American men find themselves increasingly lonely, lost, and without purpose in a nation that has seemingly cast them aside. Charting a course without any clear anchor, they have turned towards an attractive and digitally accessible authoritarian lighthouse. Movements that vow to light the way, replacing alienation with identity and isolation with idealized belonging. Extremist ideologies have thrived, not because of dogmatic adherence to every point of party policy, but because they promise something that is inherently missing. They offer purpose, place, and meaning.
The “America First” and “MAGA” movements found success for the very same reason. These political forces envisioned a brighter future for voters, no small amount being young men, who were tired of the disconnect between themselves and Washington elites. Voters who wholeheartedly believed that Trump was the presidential vehicle necessary to bring about the change they so desired. But campaign slogans and political messaging can only go so far in satisfying these concerns. Failed promises and reversed positions don’t only breed public frustration, they force once zealous adherents to turn elsewhere. To outlets peddling radical and extremist ideologies that swear to succeed where traditional politics failed. Fuentes, who once dined at Mar-a-Lago, has retracted his support from Trump, and as horrible as his association with the Republican Party is, his departure highlights something infinitely worse: that political disillusionment provides fertile soil for the blossoming of fascist and radical ideologies that denounce democracy altogether.
A Fascist Free Future
Young men across America are searching for something. Where they find what they’re looking for remains to be seen, and without a compelling redirection from political leaders and civic institutions, fascism and far-right ideologies will continue to provide easy solutions to complicated problems. Problems that aren’t limited to conservatives or liberals, Democrats or Republicans.
While at the forefront of this discussion, and most susceptible to false fascist futures, the problems that spawned this epidemic corrupting young men must be faced by all Americans. Pure denouncement will no longer suffice, as accusations of fascism have been so commonplace in post-Trump politics that the word has been all but watered down. Neither will education alone snuff out the kindling fire of fascism, given that in 2025, “48% of Americans ages 18-29 could not name a single concentration or death camp”. It’s been said that history is written by the victors, but has our Democratic Republic truly conquered fascism when its horrors have been recast as memes?
History has shown us where the road to fascism leads. It’s our responsibility to provide young men, and all Americans, with the guarantees of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that ensure such a road is never trod upon again. To fulfill a longing that is equitable and inclusive to all. If not, then the valiant sacrifice of those in the European and Pacific Theaters of WWII were lost in vain.
