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In late 2018, I began a secret 18 month long project to infiltrate and positively influence radical online Gen Z communities. After publishing Politigram and the Post-left, I spoke with many of the users profiled. Through these conversations, I realized that little (if any) positive messaging would be able to penetrate unless that signal came from inside their trusted communities. So I started several anonymous meme accounts across various social media platforms. I will do my best to tell this story in a way that does not identify anyone. When I speak with radical young people, I always try to affirm their political anxieties but redirect their interests and activities toward more productive ends. The group profiled in Politigram & the Post-left was a uniquely at-risk demographic that had fallen through the cracks of conventional counter-messaging. An essential part of today’s info-echo chambers is building up resistance to counter-narratives. These teens had embraced an extreme form o

In late 2018, I began a secret 18 month long project to infiltrate and positively influence radical online Gen Z communities. After publishing Politigram and the Post-left, I spoke with many of the users profiled. Through these conversations, I realized that little (if any) positive messaging would be able to penetrate unless that signal came from inside their trusted communities. So I started several anonymous meme accounts across various social media platforms. I will do my best to tell this story in a way that does not identify anyone. When I speak with radical young people, I always try to