Bronze Age Pervert

Bronze Age Pervert, also known asBAP or B.A.P.,is a pseudonymousfar-rightInternet personality, associated with themanosphere.The media has identifiedCostin Vlad Alamariu(born May 21, 1980),aRomanian-American, as the person behind the pseudonym.
In his writings onX, his podcastCaribbean Rhythms with Bronze Age Pervertand in his 2018 bookBronze Age Mindset, BAP advancesreactionaryideas influenced byNietzschean philosophy, promoting what he considers the heroic ideals ofclassical antiquityand denouncing modern society as decadent. He has a dedicated cult following in Western right-wing political circles.
In 2023,Politicoidentified the writer Costin Alamariu as the person behind the pseudonym, making reference to other articles and podcasts that had previously identified him.According toPolitico, neither Alamariu nor BAP responded to requests for comment, and Alamariu did not deny being BAP when the association was previously made.Graeme WoodofThe Atlantichas also identified him, claiming he has known Alamariu for many years.
Alamariu was born in Romania in 1980 and immigrated to the U.S. with his family at the age of 10.He attendedNewton South High Schoolnear Boston, majored in mathematics atMIT, and studied philosophy as a graduate student atColumbia University.He graduated with a Ph.D. in political science atYale, with a 2015dissertationtitled "The Problem of Tyranny and Philosophy in the Thought of Plato and Nietzsche".At the universities he attended, he was active in criticizing the perceived left-wing bias of academia.
Alamariu was born to a Romanian mother and aJewishfather, and was baptized as an infant in theRomanian Orthodox Church.
BAP is an active X user but has posted under multiple handles, and on multiple sites. The earliest identified posts by the "Bronze Age Pervert" persona appeared on now-defunctweb forumsin 2010.The Twitter account @bronzeageperv then joined Twitter in November 2013and developed links toCurtis Yarvinbefore the account was banned in February 2017.BAP joined Twitter again in March 2017 under the handle @bronzeagemantis.On August 4, 2021, Twitter suspended BAP again.As a result, BAP switched to usingTelegramuntil he was later reinstated on Twitter. His old account was also unbanned.After the reinstatement of his account byElon Musk, BAP's Twitter following continued to grow and "restored structure to a movement that commonly refers to itself as the 'authentic' right-wing Twitter."A separate account with the handle @costin_eats is used by Costin Alamariu when not writing under the 'BAP' pseudonym.
BAP's original Twitter biography stated: "Steppe barbarian. Nationalist, Fascist, Nudist Bodybuilder! Purification of world. Revolt of the damned. Destruction of the cities!"It later described him as a "Free speech and anti-xenoestrogen activist."The banner above BAP's Twitter profile was a close up photo ofCellini'sPerseus with the Head of Medusa,and his posts are a mix ofpost-ironicfar-right memes with images of bodybuilders.
The account is part of Frogtwitter, a group of pseudonymous online writers with a highly negative view of contemporary American society.This group mythologizes an aristocratic past while engaging in racism andantisemitism, often through memes laden with heavy irony.BAP frequently condemnsalt-rightleadership figures, such asRichard Spencer.BAP and his acolytes are at odds with white nationalistNick Fuentesand hisgroypers, and Fuentes has claimed that Curtis Yarvin and BAP are “at the forefront of a risingThiel-funded faction of the Right.”
A number of right-wing politicians have been criticized for following or interacting with BAP on Twitter, including former White House speechwriterDarren Beattie,Minnesota state senatorRoger Chamberlain,vice president of the United StatesJD Vance,and US Senate candidateLauren Witzke.Technology investorPeter Thielhas on more than one occasion referenced BAP in speeches to conservative audiences.In February 2017, Curtis Yarvin sarcastically claimed toThe Atlanticthat Bronze Age Pervert was his White House "cutout / cell leader".In addition to right wing politicians, the broad group of political influencers, bloggers, and podcasters known as "anti-woke leftists" or"dirtbag leftists"have received criticism in the press for discussing and engaging with BAP and the broader far right on Twitter, most notablyAnna Khachiyanof theRed Scarepodcast.
Josh Vandiver ofBall State Universityobserved that Bronze Age Pervert's "cult" following seems to be global in nature with images appearing on social media of "readers holding the book aloft before beaches and mountains across the world".Bronze Age Pervert's followers often imitate elements of his Twitter account, his writing style, and repeat catchphrases such as "SUBMIT!" and "ghey". Vandiver uses the example of the last term to explain "[w]hen accused of being 'ghey,' [BAP's] preferred spelling of 'gay' – one of many insider code words, partly necessitated by social media censors – BAP accuses his accusers of being themselves hopelessly effete, often by way of comparison to imagined forefathers from a more virile,'bronze' age".Additionally, Bronze Age Pervert's Twitter followers will "post images of their own physiques, sometimes under the hashtag '#frogtwitter,' seeking BAP's approval and coveted retweet"as well as self-publish their own 'BAPish' books,memesand writings that BAP will generouslycrosspromoteviaretweets.By 2023 Vandiver notes that "[d]espite multiple instances ofdeplatformingfrom social media, BAP’s following is now large and we can identify 'BAPism' as a masculinist subculture" and that BAP's influence and essays can be found in and on multiple (web)zineswhere "masculinist identitarians move feverishly between high theory and jocular memetics, metapolitical musings and geopolitical ambitions."
Bronze Age Pervert self-published the bookBronze Age Mindsetvia Amazon in June 2018.The 77-chapter "exhortation" is written with intentionally poor grammar, mixingNietzschean philosophywith criticisms of modern society.
The book centers on BAP's ideal vision, the eponymous "Bronze Age Mindset",which he defines as "the secret desire…to be worshiped as a god!"and which he calls a state "of complete power and freedom".The book's main theme argues against the concept ofhuman equality.BAP discusses classical figures, includingAlcibiades,Periander of Corinth, and the heroes of theHomericepics.In particular, BAP argues that the historical figures of the pirate and soldier of fortune are heroic ideals and asserts thatclassical educationis wasted on both (social) liberals and conventional conservatives.Although BAP does not provide sources, notes or formal references in the book, he mentionsNietzsche,Schopenhauerandpre-Socratic thinkerslikeHeraclitusvery frequently.
The New Republicdescribes the book as "rambling", "dizzying", displaying "prose ... artfully penned" but "arguments ... fractured and incoherent".The Economistechoes the "rambling" classifier.Elisabeth Zerofsky in theNew York Timescalls the book "a pseudo Nietzschean critique of modernity" written "in a style that mixe[s] a kind of faux-caveman brutishness and message-board pidgin with classical references".Book reviewer Inga-Lina Lindqvist of SwedishAftonbladetcautions readers that despite the often impenetrable fever-dream style, "to simply dismiss BAP as yet another internet maniac who read Nietzsche and misunderstood Homer'shumanisticintentions does not fly. He's too educated, too funny and too influential for that."BAP's thinking is marked by deep anti-egalitarianism.Andrew Marzoni inAeon Magazineis less impressed and calls the book "Nietzschean pastiche", "a tedious commentary onclassical philosophy", an unoriginal, basic paleoconservative call to action after "100 pages of manipulatingEmpedoclesand Heraclitus into refutations ofevolutionary biology, civilizational progress, the liberation of women and LGBTQ groups, and the contemporary effeminisation of men (much of which omits definite articles in mock imitation of a caveman)".Nathan RobinsonofCurrent Affairsmagazine writes that BAP inBronze Age Mindsetdoes not attempt to make (any) logical arguments, hides behind a mask of irony and compares the book toHitler'sMein Kampfmultiple times, finally concluding that "(...) all of this ultimately does restateMein Kampf, albeit with fewer (not zero) references to Jews and the absence of a particular narrative about avenging Germany’s national humiliation at Versailles."
In 2019, conservative essayistMichael AntonreviewedBronze Age Mindsetfor theClaremont Review of Books.Anton claims that the book's provocativeness makes it successful and popular among right wing youths.Bronze Age Mindsetwas first given to Anton byCurtis Yarvin, creator of theneoreactionarymovement,and Darren Beattie encouraged Anton to read it.The StraussianClaremont Institutesubsequently published a symposium on the review in their online publicationThe American Mind,including a response essay from BAP in which he compared "the anti-male and anti-white rhetoric of the new left" to anti-Tutsipropaganda before theRwandan genocide.
Tara Isabella Burton in her discussion ofBronze Age Mindsetin her own bookStrange Riteshighlights BAP's tirades against the "bugman",a concept of a human analogous to Nietzsche's andKojève's idea of the wretched "last man". According to Burton, BAP spends most ofBronze Age Mindsetderiding progressive men of the twenty-first century, whom she describes asbeta malesdenuded of their strength by modernity.
Bronze Age Mindsetgained a cult following in right-wing circles,including staffers of the Trump White House and on Capitol Hill, according to anonymous sources described byPoliticoandHuffington Post.National Reviewwriter Nate Hochman claims that many of his peers who read the book and Anton's review of it ended up interning at the Claremont Institute, and asks, "Why did every junior staffer in theTrump administrationread 'Bronze Age Mindset?' There was something there that was clearly attractive to young conservative elites."In the summer of 2018 it was among the top 150 books sold on Amazon sitewide, which is notable according to Anton and Dan DeCarlo since it was achieved without the aid of a publicist or book deal.In October 2019, it was still ranked third in Ancient Greek History and #174 in Humour on the Amazon best-seller list.
In August 2019, BAP began a political commentary/historypodcastcalledCaribbean Rhythms with Bronze Age Pervert.According to the conservativeNational Review, the podcast uses a narrative style that highlights thegreat man theory.
In September 2023, BAP, under his identity Costin Alamariu, published a book titledSelective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy.The book is a re-release of Alamariu's 2015 doctoral dissertation, originally titled "The Problem of Tyranny and Philosophy in the Thought of Plato and Nietzsche," with the addition of an introduction section.In the book Alamariu makes a case foreugenicsand challenges contemporary Western morality by celebrating Nietzschean ideals of strength, aristocracy, and tyranny over modern constitutionalism and democracy.Upon launch it briefly cracked Amazon's top 25 bestsellers.
EconomistTyler Cowenwrote some brief comments on the book on his blogMarginal Revolutionand questions the premise of Alamariu's book that the sexual marketplace is indeed "the pinnacle of every other market" noting that people spend a lot of time not having sex.Further he notes that socialization and not purely breeding plays an important role in how next generations are constituted.Cowen remarks that the book still very much reads like a dissertation.Julius KreinofAmerican Affairsmagazine reviewed Alamariu's book and notes that despite Alamariu's insistence on not being a Straussian, Alamariu’s work shares significant thematic overlap withLeo Strauss’ philosophy, particularly in its exploration of the tension between philosophy and political authority.Krein also observes that while Alamariu rejects the Straussian approach to political conservatism, his arguments largely restate Straussian ideas, merely adopting a provocative tone to suggest, among other things, that philosophers and tyrants are natural allies in their opposition to egalitarianism.
While BAP complains that society has become "something approaching [a] mass concentration camp," journalistGraeme Woodnotes that BAP's classmates, many of whom were also fascinated by Nietzsche, have not been spiritually and socially crushed by the concentration camp'smatriarchyand "bug men" but instead have gone on to success, holding "good jobs", and being married with families.Wood also comments on BAP's tendency towardshomophobia(use of "fag" and "facefag" as insults), while at the same time glorifying bodybuilding, posting of "images of half-naked white hunks in the flower of youth," and sending photos of himself shirtless to friends—practices frequently associated with sexual attraction to the same sex.Bryan Garsten points out that Greek heroes were not all focused on male beauty and bonding, or warfare and conquest of inferiors.Odysseus’s "greatness emerged not from his rejection of this world ... He owed myriad debts to those around him: to his men, to his son, to his wife."He also questions the virtue of aristocratic tyranny. "Life in a liberal democracy is full of demanding moments ... As far as I have read, life under tyrants is full oflassitude, selfishness, duplicity, betrayal."William A. Gaston (a political theorist, formerMarine, andBrookings Institutionscholar) asks how the allegedly weak and flabby liberalism of the United States and its allies were able to defeat the virile fascism ofGermanyandJapanin World War II.
Political philosopherJohn Graydismisses BAP's philosophy as juvenile, adolescent and ultimately merely a flash in the pan.Writing inThe New Statesmanthat "BAP’s image of male predation, rapine and pillage is the fantasy of an aspiring teenage gang member in a disintegrating modern city" and "[h]is adolescent philosophy will soon be forgotten."Political scientistMark Lillashares Gray's disdain for BAP's "preposterous" ideas and figure and reiterates that BAP's audience mainly consists of "acned young men".
Political science professorC. Bradley Thompsonhas criticized BAP'silliberal, anti-equality,anti-American, anti-rationaliststances and considers Bronze Age Pervert and his writings to be more or lessfascistin nature.Other (Christian) right-wing critiques, like those of Dan DeCarlo, tend to focus on the "empty aesthetics" of the youthful "BAPist" movement and it being "a deeperrecrudescenceofpaganism", Evan Myers also points out that the brand of'vitalism'that BAP promotes is aneopaganand illiberal ideology.Jesse Russell notes that fundamentally, the right wing critique of "BAPism" differs little from the critique by the conventional right of the alt-right movement during Donald Trump's unlikely2016 presidential campaign.BAP is part of a cohort of right-wing intellectuals radicalizing theAmerican conservative movementand theRepublican Partyaccording to Damon Linker inThe New York Times.Political scientist Matt McManus writes that "BAP is not really a conservative or even a reactionary. In fact, he despises conservatives almost as much as he detests the Left" and argues that BAP's adherence to Nietzsche's "aristocratic radicalism" makes him better understood "as a kind of ultra-fascist of theJulius Evolastripe: someone for whom classical fascism is too democratic, too populist, and too vulgar."An old Yale classmate claims that BAP aspired to become a sort of 'Slavoj Žižekof the Right', meaning a respected and influential intellectual but with a distinct popular appeal.
Left-wing and liberal critics of BAP have identified him as part of themanosphereas an (ultra)masculinistand as part of a wideratavistictrend on thepost-liberalpopulistright wing.Additionally, liberal classics scholars and commentators accuse BAP (and others like him) of misusing, misinterpreting and misappropriating the Classics for their political agendas.BAP has also been identified as a key influencer in an emergent online movement mainstreaming a novel type of right-wing (racial) “gastropolitics”.
Vassar College's Pharos project, whose mission is "to document appropriations of Greco-Roman culture by hate groups online",accuses BAP of providing the "traditionalist right wing" with a tailormade "mythic" narrative that depends "on a toxic blend of misogyny and white supremacy, with the ancient world as its archetype and source of prestige."
Academic Josh Vandiver writes that the broader alt-right and the manosphere, both of which he considers BAP to be a prominent member,"is unique, and a product of its time, in making masculinity an overt discursive subject and a core (if contested) concept in its ideology, a type of masculinism" which should be understood as "reactions to the perceived triumph of feminist and LGBTQ politics", and thus were critical to the creation of the alt-right.Within that so-called manosphere, masculinity in its various forms is explicitly named and its relation to politics, culture, society, sex, and sexuality is vigorously debated. He also notes that BAP, as well as other alt-right platforms, have revived the idea of theMännerbund, which Vandiver describes as "the intensive grouping of male warriors and initiates understood to have dominated pre-ChristianIndo-Europeansocieties, especiallyGermanicones."Vandiver concludes by cautioning that BAP and the rest of the manosphere "will continue to take the [far right] movement into unusual and uncharted territory".
Researchers Joshua Molloy and Eviane Leidig of the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET) have identified BAP as a key figure in an emerging right wing raw food movement.According to BAP, as a self-described 'anti-xenoestrogenactivist', the modern food industry is "full of harmful chemicals" that “slowly destroy your essence”.In particular BAP and other (far) right food influencers are very paranoid about the supposed pollution of the food supply withseed oils,PUFAsand soy products, the latter of "which are said to increase men’s estrogen levels and decrease testosterone (although scientific studies reportedly dispute this)."Central to the far right's paranoia over soy are “fears of internal weakness, and a distrust of the food supply and the rest of the modern world” according to journalistWill Sommer.To counter these supposed dietary ills BAP and others promote raw food diets which tend to be heavy on (raw) meat and dairy consumption.Molloy and Leidig note that anti-modern ideas concerning food and diet are not exactly new, mass consumption of raw meat and dairy are linked to the work of alternative nutritionistAajonus Vonderplanitz, while 'anti-xenoestrogen activism' also precedes adoption by far-right activists as it was first championed by alternative nutritionist Ray Peat, whose works are often cited and shared by BAP.According to Molloy and Leidig the further mainstreaming of a "right-wing racial gastropolitics" when linked with further conspiracy theories about "post-Covid food supply sabotage by globalist elites" may "present the potential for violent consequences"and offers the far right further possibilities for radicalisation and retention for broader appeal.
Tara Isabella Burton categorizes the "BAPist" phenomenon as fundamentally anatavist, backward-looking one.According to Burton, "at once a conscious rejection of intuitionalist values and, in many ways, their natural heir, modern atavism promotes a nostalgic, masculinist vision of animal humanity." It is the nostalgic focus on an idealized notion of the past because "once upon a time, this narrative goes, in a vanished age of gods and heroes, men were men and women were women. Human beings acted in accordance with their biological destiny. Men fought wars. Women had babies."However, in each case, humanity has supposedly fallen away from its inherent nature and intended purpose. Burton argues further that atavism is not a new phenomenon at all: "from Friedrich Nietzsche onward, modern reactionary culture has fetishized the imagined past and condemned (...) 'sclerotic' (to use BAP's word) civilizations of the present."In her bookStrange Rites, Burton explains that according to atavists, "real freedom" lies in submission to (biological) hierarchies, nature,strongmenand Nietzscheansupermenworth submitting to. Burton adds: "as Bronze Age Pervert is fond of saying: 'SUBMIT!'".
The conclusion of Burton's discussion of the "BAPist" phenomenon is that it is more akin to a religious cult than a traditional political community as observed in the 20th century.Vandiver concurs with this sentiment and posits that "if a religion emerges from the Alt-Right, BAP may prove, in retrospect, to have been one of its founders."Thompson is also keen to point out that "BAP devotees treat him as prophet just as the natives first treatedKurtzinThe Heart of Darkness" and that his following includes "the most unlikely of groups, namely, graduate students and junior faculty trained in political philosophy, particularly those from the so-called Straussian school of thought."
SinceOctober 2023, a micro-community of far-right Jews espousing views such asKahanismwhile mimicking Bronze Age Pervert's imagery has emerged among social media users. Dubbing them "Bronze Age Zionists", Ben Lorber points out that they frequently find themselves spurned by other segments of the dissident right for being Jewish, leaving them "in an awkward position". Bronze Age Pervert has praised Israel for being "national socialistthrough and through" while arguing that Western nationalists should be indifferent to it.