Clavicular is a media lolcow

Editor's Note: This story contains a lot of niche internet terminology. We've provided and/or linked to definitions for the more obscure references. Sorry – this is the reality of politics and culture journalism in 2026!

'Looksmaxxing' content creator Clavicular (real name Braden Peters) was hospitalised for a suspected overdose, while livestreaming from a bar in Miami, just a few days after his interview with 60 Minutes in Australia went viral for how dumb it made him look.

While 20-year-old Clavicular has been livestreaming for years, over the past six months the mainstream media has suddenly taken an interest in him. This is an extension of the media's fixation on "What's Wrong With Young Men", tying the supposed loneliness of boys and young men to incel culture and the manosphere (a network of online space and personalities who preach misogyny and rigid gender roles). The practice of men going to extreme lengths to maximise their physical attractiveness (known as looksmaxxing) was born in incel forums. Clavicular's commitment to this is extreme – he hits himself with a hammer so 'micro-injuries' will reshape his jaw, smokes meth to stay lean.

For the teams at large media outlets with little understanding of or real interest in online culture, it's easy to brand Clavicular as the pied piper of frustrated teenage boys, leading them down the alt-right pipeline.

But I have a different view: Clavicular is a lolcow.

The history of lolcows

A 'lolcow' is a person who is trolled, goaded or exploited into strange and extreme behaviour online for the amusement of onlookers. They are "milked" for "laughs", hence the term lolcow.

The term originated on 4chan, as does so much of today's online culture. But the original and most infamous lolcow story originates on Something Awful, a forum website that essentially spawned 4chan. (This is an interesting history of Something Awful). In 2004, Christine Chandler – generally referred to online as Chris Chan – created a webcomic about a Sonic the Hedgehog-Pikachu hybride character called "Sonichu". Users on Something Awful found the comic and started trolling her, leading to increasingly bizarre and disturbing behaviour. The online hate forum Kiwi Farms was originally created in 2013 as a space dedicated to the trolling of Chris Chan. Kiwi Farms is often referred to as the "hate factory" of the internet and one of the main sources of anti-trans hate (Chandler began identifying as female in 2014). Kiwi Farms' intense harassment campaigns caused at least three of the targeted individuals to commit suicide.

For more recent examples you can look to people like 'delusional' TikTok user Molly Rutter, who quit her teaching job to become an 'influencer' despite not having a large enough following to earn brand deals. Or Joshua Block, aka World of T Shirts, an autistic man whose livestreams and daily videos became more erratic and hostile with his escalating alcohol consumption.

Essentially, a lolcow is an online freakshow. They are provoked into reactions that will entertain, fascinate or titillate the audience. The wellbeing of the subject is of no concern.

The political excuse

Back to Clavicular: We're told the media inquiry justified because of the political shift he is leading among young boys and men.

But it's clear in every interview that Clavicular's alt-right views are not very well developed. They don't fit into a neat category. He says he is apolitical and I believe it, in the sense that it means he does not care about politics.

He has spent time with violent and antisemitic figures like Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes – the alt-right is very eager to claim the young, attractive and white Clavicular as their own. But for his part, the interest in them seems to have more to do with wanting to appear edgy and get as much attention and infamy as possible. It's working. Lauren Meisner of the Infinite Scroll podcast recently described Clavicular as a "ragebaiter", which feels closer to the truth than claims that Clavicular himself is an alt-right leader.

You cannot argue that his North Star belief — that life is better if you are as conventionally attractive as possible — is wrong. This kind of undergraduate 'hard truths epiphany' about life is not unusual for someone to come to in their late teens and early 20s. He communicates it apathetically, and doesn't seem interested in convincing people to looksmaxx if they don't want to.

The best assessment of Clavicular's world view is in internet researcher Aidan Walker's substack. He believes in nothing but content, a brand of digital nihilism that resonates with lots of young people who spend too much time on the internet. Whatever gets the most attention is what dictates your behaviour. It is not underpinned by political ideology other than that. "When everything is content, everything is measurement first and meaning second. 'Hitler' is primarily a keyword denoting reliable engagement, not a name denoting immense evil. Hitting yourself in the face with a hammer is rational because it makes more people watch your Kick stream."

To be clear these aren't good or healthy belief systems. Clavicular's perspective is destructive to himself and the other young people who buy into it. But none of this is interrogated in good faith by those who have be lining up to interview Clavicular on camera lately.

The escalation of lols and harm

Instead, we see a clear pattern of escalation with media personalities trying to get Clavicular to say or do something a little bit more odd or angry or ridiculous than the person before. The outcome they're all gunning for? Views and clicks.

It's starts with Clavicular's first major on-camera interview with Michael Knowles of conservative outlet The Daily Wire (home of Ben Shapiro) in December 2025. He does exactly what is expected of him: say weird shit! In this instance, that he would vote for Democrat Gavin Newsom solely because he "outmogs" (is more attractive than) JD Vance. "How are you fat and expected to lead a country?"

What follows is a media blitz. He's the subject of a full feature profile in the New York Times and a run of guest spots on big podcasts. In a February interview, 61-year-old Piers Morgan asks if 20-year-old Clavicular thinks he's better looking than Piers. It's a question that can only be interpreted as provocation. How are you supposed to respond? Even though Clavicular answers the question diplomatically, the clip does the rounds.

Then comes a conversation with Andrew Callaghan on Channel 5. When Callaghan says he is satisfied with his looks, Clavicular calls him "disingenuous" and abruptly ends the interview – it goes properly viral.

And just two weeks later, Clavicular is crashing out on 60 Minutes Australia. Adam Hegarty – again, much older and more experienced – smirks his way through the interview and shakes his head after Clavicular ends the interview, all too aware of the clipping potential.

Three days after the show airs, Clavicular is partying so hard he passess out while livestreaming. Onlookers record on their phones as he's carried out of the bar into an ambulance. The videos are instantly uploaded to social media for all to see.

This is not a young man who is mentally well. The broadcast journalists prodding him on camera about what appears to be significant body dysmorphia know this, because it's all part of his story. This is a young man who was at 14 injecting himself with testosterone ordered online. He is smoking meth to stay slim. He is a young man hitting himself in the face with a hammer. He has injected his 17-year-old girlfriend with fat dissolving peptides. His steroid use has, according to him, already made him infertile.

The more people watching, the more extreme things he will do.

So are these important political interviews, or an episode of Dr Phil (an expert in finding lolcows for TV)?

For me, this is the tell: the clips chosen by media outlets are rarely about the political shift we're told are the reason for these interviews. Instead they document a swift kick, in the hopes we're entertained by the milk that leaks out.