Gen Z seems to think politics is one big joke.
In a recent interview, the social influencer Clavicular announced that — despite being pro-Trump — he would vote for Gavin Newsom over JD Vance in a theoretical presidential election, for a surprising reason.
“JD Vance is subhuman, and Gavin Newsom mogs,” the 20-year-old said on a recent episode of the Michael Knowles show. “Mogging” is slang for being better looking than someone else.
Clavicular, real name Braden Peters, has made a name for himself by promoting “looksmaxxing” — an extreme social-media trend that involves everything from diet and tongue exercises to Botox and plastic surgery to get a chiseled face.
Vance, in Clavicular’s estimation, is “fat” while Newsom is a “6’3” Chad.”
Asked by a baffled Knowles to elaborate, the Miami-based streamer said of the vice president, “He’s got a very short total facial width to height ratio, he’s obese, very recessed side profile.”
Clavicular affirmed he would vote for Newsom “100 times over,” adding of Vance: “Having a president that’s fat and especially that young … it just is embarrassing. How are you fat and you expect to lead a country?”
Choosing a presidential candidate is a right to be taken seriously and a privilege of American citizenship. But, for some digital natives who grew up steeped in memes and internet irony, politics seems to be more of a joke than anything.
Leave it to controversial podcaster Nick Fuentes to pile on “JD Vance = fat subhuman,” he said in response to Clavicular’s comments “Newsom mogs him to death [and] I would vote for him 100x over just because he’s handsome.”
Sneako, a streamer who converted from the far left to the far right, affirmed to his 1 million+ YouTube followers that Newsom is a “total Chad” and called Vance’s wife, Usha, a racial slur.
Newsom, meanwhile, seems to be leaning into this new attention — posting a decades-old photo from his youth, pipe in mouth and basketball spinning on his finger. “Happy new year patriots,” he captioned it, and you could practically hear the ironic wink.
Like anything with these far-right streamers, it’s impossible to tell how serious they are. And that’s precisely the problem. A whole generation is venerating influencers who treat politics with total disregard.
These brain-fried digital natives have grown up on a steady diet of memes and seemingly can’t separate the seriousness of electoral politics from the irony of their edge-lord slop.
Now, they’re coming of voting age.
It seems this attitude has made its way into the government itself. Recently, the official X page of the Department of Homeland Security tweeted out a barrage of memes about the very serious topics of deportation and illegal immigration.
This generational ironic disregard is bipartisan, too.
Former congressman George Santos, who was recently pardoned by President Trump on wire fraud and identity theft charges, had an extremely conservative record before he was expelled from congress. Nonetheless, he told me that he has a large fan base of predominantly left-wing Gen Z women.
“I am more appealing to Democrat youth than I am to conservative youth,” he said. “Why the left seems to be more inclined towards me, I don’t know, maybe the fact that I’m gay makes me more relatable … [and] despite being called a liar and everything, I brought much-needed authenticity and value-add to the mundane nature of Congress, right?”
I’m guessing these young women couldn’t care less about Santos’s extremely conservative views, like calling abortion “barbaric” and likening it to slavery. What matters more to them is the fact that he’s entertaining and eccentric — a ready-made reality show character.
For Gen Z, politics is entertainment. Humor takes precedence over policy. And, apparently for some Zoomers, looks are more important than political acumen.
This is the generation who has the most life to live — and therefore the most to gain or lose based on the direction of this country. They should be the most invested in our political future.
It’s time to grow up and put the memes to bed.
