Is The Online Right Eating Itself? The Free Press’s River Page deconstructs the trolls

The Unspeakable Podcast

Meghan Daum

Society & Culture

4.8 • 784 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For the last several years, we yelled about the left eating itself. Is the right now feasting on the same poisonous meal? This week Meghan is joined by Free Press reporter River Page, whose February 19 article The Online Right Is Building A Monster, articulated a phenomenon she’d long observed but could never quite parse; the phenomenon of right-wing trolls making antisemitic and misogynist memes as well as other forms of rage bait in order to own the libs. River explains the origins and effects of this rising movement, dispelling Meghan's preconceptions that most of these trolls are bots or teenagers (alas, many are grown men). Speaking of grown men, the conversation wanders into an exploration of why young males are so obsessed with their bodies and physical appearance. Should we blame Instagram and TikTok? Maybe. But River thinks there’s a connection between income inequality and male vanity. When you believe you’ll never be able to afford a house or a middle-class family life, controlling your own body may be the only control you have.

Guest Bio:

River Page is a reporter at The Free Press. Previously, he worked as a staff writer at Pirate Wires, covering technology, politics, and culture. His work has also appeared in Compact, American Affairs, and the Washington Examiner, among other publications.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You know, that's something I've seen a lot in my generation is, you know, people becoming
0:06.8	obsessed with their own health and their own bodies, I think, in a way because you can have
0:11.4	a certain degree of control over like how you look and how fit you are and like how well you eat
0:19.1	and how much you go to the gym and this sort of discipline,
0:22.0	because you don't actually have control over your life.
0:24.9	You can't buy a house.
0:26.5	You can't find somebody to settle down with, but at least you can have a six-pack.
0:35.8	Hi, it's Megan.
0:37.1	The podcast is back. I am slowly recovering from losing my house and the fires out here in Los Angeles. So thank you for your patience. I just want to say something quickly about this conversation. This is an interview with River Page. This is a reporter at the free press. Initially, I asked him to come on to talk about a piece he recently wrote about
0:54.7	the online right and what's going on with all those crazy anti-Semitic, misogynist, everything
1:01.9	horrible and disgusting memes and whether or not that's going to ruin the party or conservatism
1:08.3	or MAGA or whatever. We do talk about that, but the conversation really wandered in some unexpected directions.
1:14.3	And we talked about what's going on with young people more generally.
1:19.2	Like, what's going on with men?
1:20.4	Why are they so obsessed with fitness and, like, living till their 200 and just bizarre kind of health rituals and just kind of what's
1:31.4	going on with people's dating lives and sexual lives and all of that. So it's a great
1:36.4	conversation. It's not just about the online right. And I hope you enjoy it. Thanks again for
1:43.3	your patience.
1:44.7	We are back.
1:49.5	Welcome to the unspeakable podcast.
1:52.0	I am your host, Megan Dowm.
1:54.4	This is my first interview post-Wildfire.
	...

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