While Von might socially caucus with other manosphere figures — they’re all regular presences at Ultimate Fighting Championship events and some of them sat together at Trump’s inauguration — his alignments aren’t terribly political, or even terribly masculinist, at least not by comparison.

He knows what he doesn’t know, and thereby leaves room for chats with unexpected tributaries. His naïveté is both honest and strategic, a carefully laid roadblock protecting Von and forcing everyone else to move at his unlikely rhythm. Through humor, he asserts a quiet dominance over the chats. And sometimes, he’s the butt of the joke. In almost... See more

After the wave of social-media “cancellations” that began in the 2010s, it’s unsurprising that an alternate media universe would emerge to provide safe harbor for actual, alleged or purported transgressors — of social mores or politics or misbehavior — who would have been derided but maybe not disqualified in earlier generations.

In his rangy, vibey conversations, he presents as a proxy for the average American citizen, getting bombarded by opinions at all times and simply trying to forge a coherent path through the competing streams of information and misinformation.