This month, for example, the homeland security department recently told John Oliver it was “homelandmaxxing by removing illegal aliens”. As Nitsuh Abebe writes in the Times, many users of the term won’t know its incel associations. But Walker figures Trump’s social media team probably does.
There's a bit of a difference between 'homelandmaxxing' in an english sentence, which is a neologism with a clear problematic origin, and a term like 'Lebensraum' in a german sentence, which is a...
There's a bit of a difference between 'homelandmaxxing' in an english sentence, which is a neologism with a clear problematic origin, and a term like 'Lebensraum' in a german sentence, which is a preexisting term that has been repurposed by Nazis but also persists in its original meanings and thus only becomes problematic in context. For example you will hardly find a german nature documentary not using the word 'Lebensraum', as one of its meanings is simply 'habitat' as in 'the natural habitat of giraffes'.
It's definitely not quite the same as Lebensraum. Since the implication of Lebensraum (in the context of the Nazi usage), was more so about invading other countries for living space. E.g., the...
It's definitely not quite the same as Lebensraum.
Since the implication of Lebensraum (in the context of the Nazi usage), was more so about invading other countries for living space. E.g., the Sudetenland etc.
While homelandmaxxing is just group speak for right-wing adjacent "insiders". (Similar to other things like gigachad having their origins in 4chan).
To me, and Wikipedia, Lebensraum is not largely about invasions, but the intent to implement Generalplan Ost. Which is, primarily, the deportation-extermination slope in order to maximize land for...
To me, and Wikipedia, Lebensraum is not largely about invasions, but the intent to implement Generalplan Ost. Which is, primarily, the deportation-extermination slope in order to maximize land for German use. (And yes, rounding up and transporting an ethnic group somewhere else qualifies as genocide under the UN definition.)
If Germany had just limited themselves to annexing a few countries in their vicinity (not steamrolling all the way to England and France) and hadn't committed genocides, history would have shrugged it off as a regime change. What makes Lebenraum as a proper noun different was the initial goal to exterminate the populations of the land.
Meanwhile, we've heard fairly serious overtures about annexing Greenland and Canada, and two countries have already been invaded and had their leaders murdered or kidnapped. And there's an active campaign of genocide against Latin Americans right now, with mass deportations and a growing number of prison camps.
Incels made their own word originally, then people started using it to mock them (and lots of other people who weren't incels). In my mind there are 2 reasons why 4chan lingo is being used in the...
Incels made their own word originally, then people started using it to mock them (and lots of other people who weren't incels).
In my mind there are 2 reasons why 4chan lingo is being used in the mainstream now - Elon Musk and JD Vance.
Everything’s a remix… I assumed the incels borrowed it from “min-maxxing” which is a gaming thing all about optimizing character builds in spreadsheety ways. I think? That’s not my scene either so...
Everything’s a remix… I assumed the incels borrowed it from “min-maxxing” which is a gaming thing all about optimizing character builds in spreadsheety ways. I think? That’s not my scene either so maybe I just made that up but I thought that was a term in MMO circles.
You're right. That's exactly what min-maxing is and generally where it's found. I wondered if that's where "-maxing" came from. It makes sense, at least with regards to "looksmaxxing." My...
You're right. That's exactly what min-maxing is and generally where it's found.
I wondered if that's where "-maxing" came from. It makes sense, at least with regards to "looksmaxxing." My understanding, which is probably wrong because I'm an old, is that it started with guys who wanted to maximize desirable parts of their face (or overall look/physique), while minimizing parts that aren't. Like emphasizing a jawline.
In games like D&D, you play a character with different stats/traits, like Strength and Constitution, that impact your options and abilities. Strength might increase your damage when using a sword,...
In games like D&D, you play a character with different stats/traits, like Strength and Constitution, that impact your options and abilities. Strength might increase your damage when using a sword, while Constitution determines how much health and endurance you have. At the start you're given some quantity of points to allocate into each of these stats, and receive more upon leveling up. People often allocate points in a semi-balanced way while still favoring the stats that most benefit their play style. Min-Maxing (one x) is the strategy of, essentially, dumping all points into the most beneficial stat or two to maximize their impact, accepting the consequences of the rest being at a minimum. You could end up with a character that deals extremely high damage, but will die if they get hit a single time, for example. Or a character who can pass every strength obstacle with ease, but is dumb as a brick.
I know you say "people" say it, but which groups of people? Where did it slide into broader slang from (and it's not something that say my college students say around me or that my Tiktok feed...
I know you say "people" say it, but which groups of people? Where did it slide into broader slang from (and it's not something that say my college students say around me or that my Tiktok feed gets. Aura farming, yes, maxxing, no) and how broad actually is it?
Because I suspect it's only a moved a relatively few steps away from those incel spaces. Maybe now more broadly but if the WH social media is using it, it's probably still actively used in incel adjacent spaces meaning it hasn't been replaced (like what typically happens when slang gets used too broadly)
I hear it all the time. It's everywhere. It's used by every group, maybe at least under the age of 40. In gaming spaces, there's funmaxxing. There's tastemaxxing in artistic taste There's...
I hear it all the time. It's everywhere. It's used by every group, maybe at least under the age of 40.
Because I suspect it's only a moved a relatively few steps away from those incel spaces.
People are reading too much into the incel thing. There's no longer any incel connotation to it. It's just contemporary English now. It's a thousand steps away: the internet just accelerates linguistic evolution 100x.
So 6-8 months or so out of subcultures it looks like? I can find articles on cultures like looksmaxxing from 2024, and it hitting niche parts of Tiktok and IG in 2022, which means it was obviously...
So 6-8 months or so out of subcultures it looks like? I can find articles on cultures like looksmaxxing from 2024, and it hitting niche parts of Tiktok and IG in 2022, which means it was obviously in adjacent subcultures for a lot longer. Discussion of the topic of the suffix itself looks like it hit the NYT in late 2025. It seems to have rode along with "-pilled" in some spaces but I'd heard that one a long time ago.
I'm not "reading too much into it" I'm looking at where language comes from and how it got here. It came from incel spaces. It's relatively recent in full leaving them. Probably 2 years or so if we assume old people are just slow at writing articles.
It's still not slang I'm seeing used by college students on Snap, TT or in person which is very interesting to me in who is using it where.
I don't think you're understanding me, nor followed my later comment. It started there, it journeyed to here. It looks like it's a few years out of that subculture but that is where it came from....
I don't think you're understanding me, nor followed my later comment. It started there, it journeyed to here. It looks like it's a few years out of that subculture but that is where it came from.
For example the "wtf is "maxxing"" posts start 2-3 years ago.
No, I see what you are saying. I’m saying, at least where I live, it’s broadly used and it’s more than a few a steps away from incels. I don’t think there’s much signal in seeing the WH use the...
No, I see what you are saying. I’m saying, at least where I live, it’s broadly used and it’s more than a few a steps away from incels. I don’t think there’s much signal in seeing the WH use the terminology. They’re just being “hip” and ”with it”.
The “KHive” — the online grassroots stan-culture army of earnest supporters who fueled online rage and enthusiastic support for Harris when she launched her 2020 run for the presidency — was resurrected overnight. Now Americans are quickly become coconut-pilled, Kamala maxxing, “existing in context” and “unburdened by what has been.”
The term "coconut-pilled" and Kamala-Maxxing coming from "former Bernie Bros" per the X post that seems to be the original reference (the independent isn't quoting anyone so it unclear) tracks...
The term "coconut-pilled" and Kamala-Maxxing coming from "former Bernie Bros" per the X post that seems to be the original reference (the independent isn't quoting anyone so it unclear) tracks tbh. And it's in the past 2 years. I did follow her TT closely and they didn't use KHive and didn't say Kamala-Maxxing that I ever saw. But I don't know what other language was used elsewhere.
The WH posts alt-right memes all the time, I'm not shocked to see them using language aligned with that. It has escaped containment, but my point is that it's not really that far removed from that containment.
I suspect I'm not seeing it (outside mostly of of discussions of said subculture) because I'm a few more steps removed. I've not heard anyone IRL say it and I'm around Gen Z a lot but I acknowledge it's further out than I thought, I just don't think it's as common some people here seem to think. It didn't even come up in my threat assessment training in the past two years, and we talked a lot about various online language and red flags.
But that's just my opinion. I think the defense of it is odder than anything given the context of the white house meme-ing its war crimes and the entire administration being filled with the people, including social media team, who would flag on that same assessment training. Like sure, "everyone" uses it, but I have a strong thought about why they're using it.
As did this article
As Nitsuh Abebe writes in the Times, many users of the term won’t know its incel associations. But Walker figures Trump’s social media team probably does. “A lot of these Trump administration guys, they certainly didn’t learn that word in the past few weeks,” he says. Instead, they are “thirtysomething-year-olds who were those 4chan forum kids back in the early 2010s”.
It's definitely not uncommon online in spaces with any significant concentration of young men ime. I too have encountered it reasonably often (though often used ironically, ofc) and didn't know it...
It's definitely not uncommon online in spaces with any significant concentration of young men ime. I too have encountered it reasonably often (though often used ironically, ofc) and didn't know it originated with incels -- I knew incels used it, but I assumed it was because incels tend to also be young men of the same demographic that widely uses this slang online, not the other way around. It comes across as more "chronically online Gen Z" to me than incel in how I encounter it. I also do get the impression that it's relatively recent slang, at least in terms of its mainstream usage.
I think you're being kinda uncharitable to the people who have had more exposure to this particular piece of slang, because it is not remotely exclusive to incel or incel-adjacent spaces online anymore, and I don't really think it's fair to accuse anyone who's familiar with it of being adjacent to those spaces (I certainly am not). Slang spreading outside its original group and becoming more mainstream is incredibly common both online and offline, and in both contexts people can pick up new slang from their peers without knowing its etymology. I think "-maxxing" is a lot more "online" than "aura farming" is, but lots of people use it without any incel connection or idea that it happens.
I'm not really clear what you mean by slang "usually getting replaced" when it gets used too broadly. Do you mean the original niche community that used it coming up with different slang to replace it because it's now mainstream? I don't think that's necessarily what always or even most often happens. I suspect that's more often the case if the mainstream meaning had already changed significantly, since that's a source of ambiguity and confusion when using it, which is not the case with "-maxxing" (which, after all, is pretty transparent in terms of its meaning, and has the advantage of being highly productive without changing the meaning). And even if incels were developing new slang now that "-maxxing" has become mainstream (and there's probably some new slang developing in almost any niche community composed of enough younger people tbh -- humans are slang-making machines), it would likely be very new. I doubt either of us is embedded enough into those spaces to have a sense of what the current new incel slang would be.
The DoD response is still awful af ofc, but that has more to do with the lack of seriousness our government is displaying rather than which particular piece of Gen Z online slang they're using.
As I said further down, it has spread beyond where I thought in the past several years. I don't think I'm being uncharitable, as I said, I acknowledged it's "broken containment" but only...
As I said further down, it has spread beyond where I thought in the past several years. I don't think I'm being uncharitable, as I said, I acknowledged it's "broken containment" but only relatively recently. I think I'm several steps further away from toxic spaces dominated by young men, I'm also several steps further away from gamer dominated spaces which historically have had great overlap, but I'm not touting that as superiority or insulting people, just stating a thing. I work in the Midwest, far from tech, in a predominantly woman coded field within another field that's also mostly women up to about VP level. I'm not a dude and no longer much of an online gamer. I think I'm factually several steps further away. I am in Gen Z spaces frequently and don't see that slang used which suggests that even they only really use it online. (Google trends supports my thoughts of it breaking containment in the past two years. Even then looksmaxxing seems to be the most common use)
Afaict "aura farming" emerged around the same time as maxxing was breaking out of those more online only spaces. It went viral later, last year with the Indonesian kid on the boat for the festival races. "Aura" itself is older though.
I do mean that the niche community tends to replace words that the mainstream uses because the mainstream uses them. Not that they always get rid of them, but part of the point of the language is setting one apart. You're right in that I won't know what's new there, but again I already said in another comment that the term has spread beyond where I was aware of. I do get threat assessment training that talks about online communications from extremist groups, part of my surprise was that this didn't even come up. So I may become aware of some new slang because learning what incels say is a tangential part of my job.
As this article notes, and something I agree with, it's unlikely the white house social media team learned these terms in the past year or so. (And despite the claims I see no evidence Kamala's team actually used them at all. They might have, but the article linked in another comment didn't actually support that). The fact they're communicating in memes about war crimes is absolutely a huge problem, but there's also merit in understanding why they're choosing the memes, videos and more broadly the language that they're using.
I don't agree with the "it's not that deep" responses because for the past ten years that's been the response to red flags raised. I'm not saying it's a conspiracy or something or that they're all former incels who worship Elliot Rodger or anything. I am saying it's worth noting and that it's indicative of who is in those spaces. Because we know who is in those spaces.
Whether one of them sent the video that contained the Democrats as animals and the Obamas as apes to Trump or whether that random staffer posted it as they lied claimed later, the whole admin is posting from the same pool of alt-right, racist, often AI generated memes. I believe they're doing so intentionally.
I mean, you inserted the word "toxic" into my assertion that the "-maxxing" is used in spaces that have a considerable number of Gen Z men in them. The spaces I'm in where it's used aren't...
I think I'm several steps further away from toxic spaces dominated by young men, I'm also several steps further away from gamer dominated spaces which historically have had great overlap, but I'm not touting that as superiority or insulting people, just stating a thing.
I mean, you inserted the word "toxic" into my assertion that the "-maxxing" is used in spaces that have a considerable number of Gen Z men in them. The spaces I'm in where it's used aren't particularly toxic, and they certainly aren't toxic just because they have a bunch of younger men in them. Overall your comments come across as insisting that those here who are familiar with this slang, myself included, must be part of "toxic" or "incel-adjacent" spaces simply due to being in spaces where it's used. It comes across as pretty judgmental ngl, and I think that's where people's "it's not that deep" responses to your comment are coming from. I mean, consider this portion of your comment:
I am saying it's worth noting and that it's indicative of who is in those spaces. Because we know who is in those spaces.
This is accusing people here who are familiar with this slang of being in those spaces. The history of the slang is interesting and is worth noting when criticizing its use by the US government for sure, but your comments go beyond that and I don't think it's remotely fair to impugn anyone who points out that the term broke containment, as you've yourself noted, a couple years ago, and is now much more mainstream online slang that does not entail someone is a member of incel-adjacent spaces if they use it. And I don't think you should be surprised that people read your comments insisting that people who use this slang must be in those spaces and get defensive, because even if you're not claiming they're full-on incels for using it, you're still definitely impugning their character by saying the online spaces they're in must be toxic and incel-adjacent to contain use of this slang.
the whole admin is posting from the same pool of alt-right, racist, often AI generated memes. I believe they're doing so intentionally.
This is true, but it's true regardless of whether whichever staffed posted "lethalitymaxxing" learned it directly from incel or incel-adjacent spaces or just as general online slang. The sentiment actually expressed is equally abhorrent, and it remains within the pattern of vile behavior from our government. Their use of the term and the optics of using a term that so recently "broke containment" from such spaces merits criticism when done by people whose job it is to choose their words carefully and communicate effectively, but I don't think whether the person who used it themselves directly picked it up in a space like that actually matters at all. It doesn't actually make the statement better if they picked it up somewhere more innocent online, after all. And it doesn't teach us anything we don't already know about what type of person is being put into positions of responsibility within our government, because we already have overwhelming evidence of blasé bigotry, hateful immaturity, and so on from this administration.
Railing against the specific origin of this term, to the extent of criticizing other Tildes users for being familiar with it (which is how your comment comes off whether you intended it that strongly or not), is imo a distraction. I think that the actual problem here is independent of the incel etymology of this slang term, and this would be a disgusting statement that exemplifies the rot at the heart of our government even if the term had no connection with those spaces whatsoever, even historically.
I'm saying the word started in toxic incel spaces and has moved out from there. I didn't add toxic into your assertion, I'm using that to describe incel spaces. Not the multiple steps further away...
I'm saying the word started in toxic incel spaces and has moved out from there. I didn't add toxic into your assertion, I'm using that to describe incel spaces. Not the multiple steps further away from incel spaces that others are gleaning the word from. I'm not saying anyone who uses it now is in incel spaces - it has spread further than I thought and I corrected that initial misconception.
Here's an example of what I'm saying below. Acknowledging of course that these are actually radiating circles and not a straight line.
4chan -> shitty gaming forum-> gaming subreddits -> meme subreddits -> Tumblr
I don't think it's something everyone says regardless, even outside containment. If it were there wouldn't still be "what's this word" articles. But I'm not saying anyone who uses this word is toxic or in toxic, I'm saying the context matters and this use indicates something IMO.
In the second quoted comment I'm referring to the white house with "spaces". I apologize if it was confusing but it doesn't help to pull it out of context. We know the type of people working for this administration
What I'm saying is: This is simply more evidence of who the white house is staffed with. Yeah we already know this, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to point it out.
And I understand your disagreement with whether it matters or not, but that was the point of the article. I think it does matter. It's awful without the connection, it's worse with it.
Oh yea that makes sense. Two little boys that never grew up and are throwing insecure childish fits. The perfect representation and culmination of all that pathetic line of thinking.
Oh yea that makes sense. Two little boys that never grew up and are throwing insecure childish fits. The perfect representation and culmination of all that pathetic line of thinking.
Definitely Elon Musk. Not JD Vance. Musk owning Twitter changed that platform and it seemed like it bled into TikTok where looksmaxxxing became a trend in 2023.
Definitely Elon Musk. Not JD Vance. Musk owning Twitter changed that platform and it seemed like it bled into TikTok where looksmaxxxing became a trend in 2023.
Looks like you quoted it from a paywalled article linked inside. I haven't read that article, but that got me to look up PUAHate/SlutHate. (For the record, "PUA" stands for "Pick-Up Artist".) Some...
Looks like you quoted it from a paywalled article linked inside. I haven't read that article, but that got me to look up PUAHate/SlutHate. (For the record, "PUA" stands for "Pick-Up Artist".)
Some key context: the "negative media attention" was because it was cited by Elliot Rodger in manifesto. The guy who killed a bunch of people in California in 2014, and had a radically misogynistic manifesto that went even more viral. The guy that many radical misogynists still see as an inspiration.
Wow. Just... Wow. I'm not going down this rabbit hole any further.
i read The Game a few years ago. i have no idea how anybody can finish that book and decide that that is a good approach to relationships. it’s so depressing. i have a feeling that it’s like the...
i read The Game a few years ago. i have no idea how anybody can finish that book and decide that that is a good approach to relationships. it’s so depressing.
i have a feeling that it’s like the bible where most of the followers don’t actually reads it the whole way through.
404 Media recently ran an opinion piece called We Have Learned Nothing About Amplifying Morons. I love and endorse the title, but IMHO the article itself is pretty meandering and ineffective....
Of course, the Trump administration isn’t journalists and their fascist agenda is engineered to be at odds with neutral truth-telling. So no one should be surprised they’re gleefully amplifying other fascist brain rot. It’s nothing but a victory for them if American culture is pulled deeper into the vortex of antisocial nihilistic idiocy. That’s brand synergy, baby!
I have been very fascinated with this form of slang/brainrot, especially since reading the NYT's profile of Clavicular last month. The broad strokes are covered in this article, but it's still a...
I have been very fascinated with this form of slang/brainrot, especially since reading the NYT's profile of Clavicular last month. The broad strokes are covered in this article, but it's still a pretty wild read. As an old, I am constantly in awe at the evolution of slang and the bizarre figures who usher certain terms into the mainstream. It's really something else. What form of cultural appropriation is more problematic: adopting AAVE, or Incel terminology?
Last I heard, Clavicular had pivoted to full-time jestermaxxing, though I cannot confirm if the allegations are true.
The goon-max paradigm entering mainstream slang isn't really all that surprising given how the internet has evolved. It's caught on because everything is hyperbolic and whether it's designed to...
The goon-max paradigm entering mainstream slang isn't really all that surprising given how the internet has evolved. It's caught on because everything is hyperbolic and whether it's designed to simply be consumed (the goon side being primarily brainrot) or to enrich in some fashion (intent is important for this paradigm, clear intent is what defines maxxing) is a fight we've been seeing on a broad/global scale. The major platforms naturally goonify because it's driven by enshittification, whereas there's still a significant amount of content from individual creators on the internet designed to deep dive on subjects or otherwise enrich or maxx individuals. Of note in the context of this article, maxxing doesn't have to be enriching, or at least enrichment could exist across different axes - the "enrichment" could be in reference to the financial wealth of the US, the health of the US army, the number of foreigners killed and so on.
I think there's an interesting conversation to be had about who's perspective is taken into consideration when we consider something to be either gooning or maxxing, as one could easily argue this is either lethalitygooning or lethalitymaxxing, depending on your view of the US military's recent actions involving foreign governments under the direction of president orangeman.
Sounds like lebensraum.
There's a bit of a difference between 'homelandmaxxing' in an english sentence, which is a neologism with a clear problematic origin, and a term like 'Lebensraum' in a german sentence, which is a preexisting term that has been repurposed by Nazis but also persists in its original meanings and thus only becomes problematic in context. For example you will hardly find a german nature documentary not using the word 'Lebensraum', as one of its meanings is simply 'habitat' as in 'the natural habitat of giraffes'.
It's definitely not quite the same as Lebensraum.
Since the implication of Lebensraum (in the context of the Nazi usage), was more so about invading other countries for living space. E.g., the Sudetenland etc.
While homelandmaxxing is just group speak for right-wing adjacent "insiders". (Similar to other things like gigachad having their origins in 4chan).
To me, and Wikipedia, Lebensraum is not largely about invasions, but the intent to implement Generalplan Ost. Which is, primarily, the deportation-extermination slope in order to maximize land for German use. (And yes, rounding up and transporting an ethnic group somewhere else qualifies as genocide under the UN definition.)
If Germany had just limited themselves to annexing a few countries in their vicinity (not steamrolling all the way to England and France) and hadn't committed genocides, history would have shrugged it off as a regime change. What makes Lebenraum as a proper noun different was the initial goal to exterminate the populations of the land.
Meanwhile, we've heard fairly serious overtures about annexing Greenland and Canada, and two countries have already been invaded and had their leaders murdered or kidnapped. And there's an active campaign of genocide against Latin Americans right now, with mass deportations and a growing number of prison camps.
Incels made their own word originally, then people started using it to mock them (and lots of other people who weren't incels).
In my mind there are 2 reasons why 4chan lingo is being used in the mainstream now - Elon Musk and JD Vance.
I didn't know that -maxxing was incel. I figured it's just mainstream lingo now. ~shrug~ People say like, auramaxxing.
Everything’s a remix… I assumed the incels borrowed it from “min-maxxing” which is a gaming thing all about optimizing character builds in spreadsheety ways. I think? That’s not my scene either so maybe I just made that up but I thought that was a term in MMO circles.
You're right. That's exactly what min-maxing is and generally where it's found.
I wondered if that's where "-maxing" came from. It makes sense, at least with regards to "looksmaxxing." My understanding, which is probably wrong because I'm an old, is that it started with guys who wanted to maximize desirable parts of their face (or overall look/physique), while minimizing parts that aren't. Like emphasizing a jawline.
No you're right old timer. An example is having to do some "mewing" to lookmaxx your jawline.
In games like D&D, you play a character with different stats/traits, like Strength and Constitution, that impact your options and abilities. Strength might increase your damage when using a sword, while Constitution determines how much health and endurance you have. At the start you're given some quantity of points to allocate into each of these stats, and receive more upon leveling up. People often allocate points in a semi-balanced way while still favoring the stats that most benefit their play style. Min-Maxing (one x) is the strategy of, essentially, dumping all points into the most beneficial stat or two to maximize their impact, accepting the consequences of the rest being at a minimum. You could end up with a character that deals extremely high damage, but will die if they get hit a single time, for example. Or a character who can pass every strength obstacle with ease, but is dumb as a brick.
I know you say "people" say it, but which groups of people? Where did it slide into broader slang from (and it's not something that say my college students say around me or that my Tiktok feed gets. Aura farming, yes, maxxing, no) and how broad actually is it?
Because I suspect it's only a moved a relatively few steps away from those incel spaces. Maybe now more broadly but if the WH social media is using it, it's probably still actively used in incel adjacent spaces meaning it hasn't been replaced (like what typically happens when slang gets used too broadly)
I hear it all the time. It's everywhere. It's used by every group, maybe at least under the age of 40.
In gaming spaces, there's funmaxxing.
There's tastemaxxing in artistic taste
There's flavormaxxing in cooking
There's frictionmaxxing which is about embracing friction in process
There's cosymaxxing/hyggemaxxing
There's femmaxxing for transfem and femboys.
People are reading too much into the incel thing. There's no longer any incel connotation to it. It's just contemporary English now. It's a thousand steps away: the internet just accelerates linguistic evolution 100x.
It's simply [thing you want]+maxxing. That's it.
Damn, six links to six different sites using six different forms of -maxxing.
Receiptsmaxxing
So 6-8 months or so out of subcultures it looks like? I can find articles on cultures like looksmaxxing from 2024, and it hitting niche parts of Tiktok and IG in 2022, which means it was obviously in adjacent subcultures for a lot longer. Discussion of the topic of the suffix itself looks like it hit the NYT in late 2025. It seems to have rode along with "-pilled" in some spaces but I'd heard that one a long time ago.
I'm not "reading too much into it" I'm looking at where language comes from and how it got here. It came from incel spaces. It's relatively recent in full leaving them. Probably 2 years or so if we assume old people are just slow at writing articles.
It's still not slang I'm seeing used by college students on Snap, TT or in person which is very interesting to me in who is using it where.
This is standard terminology for my kids who are high school and college age in Canada. There’s no way they have any association with incel culture.
I don't think you're understanding me, nor followed my later comment. It started there, it journeyed to here. It looks like it's a few years out of that subculture but that is where it came from.
For example the "wtf is "maxxing"" posts start 2-3 years ago.
No, I see what you are saying. I’m saying, at least where I live, it’s broadly used and it’s more than a few a steps away from incels. I don’t think there’s much signal in seeing the WH use the terminology. They’re just being “hip” and ”with it”.
See: Kamala maxxing
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kamala-harris-coconut-khive-biden-b2573625.html
It’s Pokémon GO to the polls all over again. cringe
The term "coconut-pilled" and Kamala-Maxxing coming from "former Bernie Bros" per the X post that seems to be the original reference (the independent isn't quoting anyone so it unclear) tracks tbh. And it's in the past 2 years. I did follow her TT closely and they didn't use KHive and didn't say Kamala-Maxxing that I ever saw. But I don't know what other language was used elsewhere.
The WH posts alt-right memes all the time, I'm not shocked to see them using language aligned with that. It has escaped containment, but my point is that it's not really that far removed from that containment.
I suspect I'm not seeing it (outside mostly of of discussions of said subculture) because I'm a few more steps removed. I've not heard anyone IRL say it and I'm around Gen Z a lot but I acknowledge it's further out than I thought, I just don't think it's as common some people here seem to think. It didn't even come up in my threat assessment training in the past two years, and we talked a lot about various online language and red flags.
But that's just my opinion. I think the defense of it is odder than anything given the context of the white house meme-ing its war crimes and the entire administration being filled with the people, including social media team, who would flag on that same assessment training. Like sure, "everyone" uses it, but I have a strong thought about why they're using it.
As did this article
It's definitely not uncommon online in spaces with any significant concentration of young men ime. I too have encountered it reasonably often (though often used ironically, ofc) and didn't know it originated with incels -- I knew incels used it, but I assumed it was because incels tend to also be young men of the same demographic that widely uses this slang online, not the other way around. It comes across as more "chronically online Gen Z" to me than incel in how I encounter it. I also do get the impression that it's relatively recent slang, at least in terms of its mainstream usage.
I think you're being kinda uncharitable to the people who have had more exposure to this particular piece of slang, because it is not remotely exclusive to incel or incel-adjacent spaces online anymore, and I don't really think it's fair to accuse anyone who's familiar with it of being adjacent to those spaces (I certainly am not). Slang spreading outside its original group and becoming more mainstream is incredibly common both online and offline, and in both contexts people can pick up new slang from their peers without knowing its etymology. I think "-maxxing" is a lot more "online" than "aura farming" is, but lots of people use it without any incel connection or idea that it happens.
I'm not really clear what you mean by slang "usually getting replaced" when it gets used too broadly. Do you mean the original niche community that used it coming up with different slang to replace it because it's now mainstream? I don't think that's necessarily what always or even most often happens. I suspect that's more often the case if the mainstream meaning had already changed significantly, since that's a source of ambiguity and confusion when using it, which is not the case with "-maxxing" (which, after all, is pretty transparent in terms of its meaning, and has the advantage of being highly productive without changing the meaning). And even if incels were developing new slang now that "-maxxing" has become mainstream (and there's probably some new slang developing in almost any niche community composed of enough younger people tbh -- humans are slang-making machines), it would likely be very new. I doubt either of us is embedded enough into those spaces to have a sense of what the current new incel slang would be.
The DoD response is still awful af ofc, but that has more to do with the lack of seriousness our government is displaying rather than which particular piece of Gen Z online slang they're using.
As I said further down, it has spread beyond where I thought in the past several years. I don't think I'm being uncharitable, as I said, I acknowledged it's "broken containment" but only relatively recently. I think I'm several steps further away from toxic spaces dominated by young men, I'm also several steps further away from gamer dominated spaces which historically have had great overlap, but I'm not touting that as superiority or insulting people, just stating a thing. I work in the Midwest, far from tech, in a predominantly woman coded field within another field that's also mostly women up to about VP level. I'm not a dude and no longer much of an online gamer. I think I'm factually several steps further away. I am in Gen Z spaces frequently and don't see that slang used which suggests that even they only really use it online. (Google trends supports my thoughts of it breaking containment in the past two years. Even then looksmaxxing seems to be the most common use)
Afaict "aura farming" emerged around the same time as maxxing was breaking out of those more online only spaces. It went viral later, last year with the Indonesian kid on the boat for the festival races. "Aura" itself is older though.
I do mean that the niche community tends to replace words that the mainstream uses because the mainstream uses them. Not that they always get rid of them, but part of the point of the language is setting one apart. You're right in that I won't know what's new there, but again I already said in another comment that the term has spread beyond where I was aware of. I do get threat assessment training that talks about online communications from extremist groups, part of my surprise was that this didn't even come up. So I may become aware of some new slang because learning what incels say is a tangential part of my job.
As this article notes, and something I agree with, it's unlikely the white house social media team learned these terms in the past year or so. (And despite the claims I see no evidence Kamala's team actually used them at all. They might have, but the article linked in another comment didn't actually support that). The fact they're communicating in memes about war crimes is absolutely a huge problem, but there's also merit in understanding why they're choosing the memes, videos and more broadly the language that they're using.
I don't agree with the "it's not that deep" responses because for the past ten years that's been the response to red flags raised. I'm not saying it's a conspiracy or something or that they're all former incels who worship Elliot Rodger or anything. I am saying it's worth noting and that it's indicative of who is in those spaces. Because we know who is in those spaces.
Whether one of them sent the video that contained the Democrats as animals and the Obamas as apes to Trump or whether that random staffer posted it as they
liedclaimed later, the whole admin is posting from the same pool of alt-right, racist, often AI generated memes. I believe they're doing so intentionally.I mean, you inserted the word "toxic" into my assertion that the "-maxxing" is used in spaces that have a considerable number of Gen Z men in them. The spaces I'm in where it's used aren't particularly toxic, and they certainly aren't toxic just because they have a bunch of younger men in them. Overall your comments come across as insisting that those here who are familiar with this slang, myself included, must be part of "toxic" or "incel-adjacent" spaces simply due to being in spaces where it's used. It comes across as pretty judgmental ngl, and I think that's where people's "it's not that deep" responses to your comment are coming from. I mean, consider this portion of your comment:
This is accusing people here who are familiar with this slang of being in those spaces. The history of the slang is interesting and is worth noting when criticizing its use by the US government for sure, but your comments go beyond that and I don't think it's remotely fair to impugn anyone who points out that the term broke containment, as you've yourself noted, a couple years ago, and is now much more mainstream online slang that does not entail someone is a member of incel-adjacent spaces if they use it. And I don't think you should be surprised that people read your comments insisting that people who use this slang must be in those spaces and get defensive, because even if you're not claiming they're full-on incels for using it, you're still definitely impugning their character by saying the online spaces they're in must be toxic and incel-adjacent to contain use of this slang.
This is true, but it's true regardless of whether whichever staffed posted "lethalitymaxxing" learned it directly from incel or incel-adjacent spaces or just as general online slang. The sentiment actually expressed is equally abhorrent, and it remains within the pattern of vile behavior from our government. Their use of the term and the optics of using a term that so recently "broke containment" from such spaces merits criticism when done by people whose job it is to choose their words carefully and communicate effectively, but I don't think whether the person who used it themselves directly picked it up in a space like that actually matters at all. It doesn't actually make the statement better if they picked it up somewhere more innocent online, after all. And it doesn't teach us anything we don't already know about what type of person is being put into positions of responsibility within our government, because we already have overwhelming evidence of blasé bigotry, hateful immaturity, and so on from this administration.
Railing against the specific origin of this term, to the extent of criticizing other Tildes users for being familiar with it (which is how your comment comes off whether you intended it that strongly or not), is imo a distraction. I think that the actual problem here is independent of the incel etymology of this slang term, and this would be a disgusting statement that exemplifies the rot at the heart of our government even if the term had no connection with those spaces whatsoever, even historically.
I'm saying the word started in toxic incel spaces and has moved out from there. I didn't add toxic into your assertion, I'm using that to describe incel spaces. Not the multiple steps further away from incel spaces that others are gleaning the word from. I'm not saying anyone who uses it now is in incel spaces - it has spread further than I thought and I corrected that initial misconception.
Here's an example of what I'm saying below. Acknowledging of course that these are actually radiating circles and not a straight line.
4chan -> shitty gaming forum-> gaming subreddits -> meme subreddits -> Tumblr
I don't think it's something everyone says regardless, even outside containment. If it were there wouldn't still be "what's this word" articles. But I'm not saying anyone who uses this word is toxic or in toxic, I'm saying the context matters and this use indicates something IMO.
In the second quoted comment I'm referring to the white house with "spaces". I apologize if it was confusing but it doesn't help to pull it out of context. We know the type of people working for this administration
What I'm saying is: This is simply more evidence of who the white house is staffed with. Yeah we already know this, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to point it out.
And I understand your disagreement with whether it matters or not, but that was the point of the article. I think it does matter. It's awful without the connection, it's worse with it.
Damn kids these days
Oh yea that makes sense. Two little boys that never grew up and are throwing insecure childish fits. The perfect representation and culmination of all that pathetic line of thinking.
Definitely Elon Musk. Not JD Vance. Musk owning Twitter changed that platform and it seemed like it bled into TikTok where looksmaxxxing became a trend in 2023.
what a world…
Looks like you quoted it from a paywalled article linked inside. I haven't read that article, but that got me to look up PUAHate/SlutHate. (For the record, "PUA" stands for "Pick-Up Artist".)
Some key context: the "negative media attention" was because it was cited by Elliot Rodger in manifesto. The guy who killed a bunch of people in California in 2014, and had a radically misogynistic manifesto that went even more viral. The guy that many radical misogynists still see as an inspiration.
Wow. Just... Wow. I'm not going down this rabbit hole any further.
i read The Game a few years ago. i have no idea how anybody can finish that book and decide that that is a good approach to relationships. it’s so depressing.
i have a feeling that it’s like the bible where most of the followers don’t actually reads it the whole way through.
what a gross scene.
404 Media recently ran an opinion piece called We Have Learned Nothing About Amplifying Morons. I love and endorse the title, but IMHO the article itself is pretty meandering and ineffective. Still, it does refer back to Whitney Phillips’ groundbreaking 2018 report The Oxygen of Amplification: Better Practices for Reporting on Extremists, Antagonists, and Manipulators. Journalists today, including those from The Guardian, would do well to review the lessons from that.
Of course, the Trump administration isn’t journalists and their fascist agenda is engineered to be at odds with neutral truth-telling. So no one should be surprised they’re gleefully amplifying other fascist brain rot. It’s nothing but a victory for them if American culture is pulled deeper into the vortex of antisocial nihilistic idiocy. That’s brand synergy, baby!
I thought the bite would be taken out of incel language after it was mainstreamed about a year or two ago. But, no, I was sorely mistaken.
I have been very fascinated with this form of slang/brainrot, especially since reading the NYT's profile of Clavicular last month. The broad strokes are covered in this article, but it's still a pretty wild read. As an old, I am constantly in awe at the evolution of slang and the bizarre figures who usher certain terms into the mainstream. It's really something else. What form of cultural appropriation is more problematic: adopting AAVE, or Incel terminology?
Last I heard, Clavicular had pivoted to full-time jestermaxxing, though I cannot confirm if the allegations are true.
The goon-max paradigm entering mainstream slang isn't really all that surprising given how the internet has evolved. It's caught on because everything is hyperbolic and whether it's designed to simply be consumed (the goon side being primarily brainrot) or to enrich in some fashion (intent is important for this paradigm, clear intent is what defines maxxing) is a fight we've been seeing on a broad/global scale. The major platforms naturally goonify because it's driven by enshittification, whereas there's still a significant amount of content from individual creators on the internet designed to deep dive on subjects or otherwise enrich or maxx individuals. Of note in the context of this article, maxxing doesn't have to be enriching, or at least enrichment could exist across different axes - the "enrichment" could be in reference to the financial wealth of the US, the health of the US army, the number of foreigners killed and so on.
I think there's an interesting conversation to be had about who's perspective is taken into consideration when we consider something to be either gooning or maxxing, as one could easily argue this is either lethalitygooning or lethalitymaxxing, depending on your view of the US military's recent actions involving foreign governments under the direction of president orangeman.