Bronze Age Mindset
What Nietzsche didn't tell you about pirates, meme cult-building, and Peter Thiel
In the tradition of his spiritual grand-master (Nietzsche), BAP tapped into the male psyche, sparked a counter-cultural movement and achieved digital immortality:
"What Mount Aetna was to Empedocles - is there something like that to you?" - BAP
Origin of the barbarian demigod poster
In the early 2010s, an anon figure, calling himself “Bronze Age Pervert” (BAP) began posting on fringe forums and Twitter. BAP mentioned in one interview that he chose the very name (Bronze Age Pervert) so that the critics who tried to attack him on ideological grounds often ended up sounding ridiculous themselves.
His style was a mix of archaic bravado, Nietzschean epic, and satire. He transformed posting into an avant-garde performance art through broken grammar, surreal metaphors, and irony and the living meme was born.
Bronze Age mindset
In 2018, BAP self-published his manifesto titled Bronze Age Mindset - a PDF that spread like wildfire through Twitter, 4chan, and right-wing Telegram channels.
The central thesis of the book:
Modernity is spiritually dead.
In the book, BAP argues that bureaucrats (“bugmen”) have drained the world of vitality and that the antidote to our nihilism lies in modelling our culture after Ancient Greece - when beauty, strength and courage were prized above all else.
In particular, BAP prizes the classical conception of masculinity. The key relationship that gave a society its strength in civilizations like Ancient Greece, BAP argues, was not that between men and women, or within families, but between bands of young men. In his telling, modern society weakened these bonds because of their threat to the established order:
“Every great thing in the past was done through friendships between two men, or brotherhoods of men... including all great political things, all acts of freedom and power.”
In BAP’s eyes, that’s the seed of revolution.
Influence
Despite its fringe origins (or because of it), Bronze Age Mindset became (in)famous among some of the most powerful men in the world:
Billionaire investor Peter Thiel
U.S. Senator J.D. Vance
A rotating cast of ex-military, think tank staffers, and political operatives (some who are in the White House)
At one point it ranked in the top 150 books on Amazon. “It’s still a cult book,” a former Trump White House official told Politico in 2019.
Whether or not the rumors about Mossad ghostwriters, Peter Thiels’ funds, or a dozen other theories behind BAP’s meteoric rise are true - his ideas bled into tech, politics, and culture.
Bronze Age Pervert became a case study in memetic PSYOP infiltration - from 4chan to the White House.
3x PSYOP writing tools I learned from BAP
1. Mythic language and meaning-making
BAP appeals to the psychological need for meaning and heroic purpose. He frames his movement in epic terms - a return to ancient greatness.
Example: BAP often invokes the rebirth of a lost glory or a “life-affirming ideology” that the modern world lacks. This gives young men in particular a sense that their striving is part of a cosmic drama. The psychological effect is profound: it transforms mundane life into a mythic battlefield.
In essence, he offers an antidote to nihilism.
Example: Nike
A fat kid jogs. The narrator says: “Greatness is not some rare DNA strand. Greatness is no more unique to us than breathing.”
Nike - “Find Your Greatness”
Use it: Use it: Frame your writing as a mission. Give readers an archetype to embody. Create a battle-field for the soul of mankind.
2. Irony
BAP wraps radical ideas in absurdity and memes.
“Perhaps Mitt Romney engineers coup and dies gloriously in mountains of Pakistan.” - BAP
Much of Bronze Age Mindset reads as over-the-top satire. This use of the mask of irony lets him experiment with views that would get others cancelled (back in the dark ages, cha 2015-2024) while playing the joke card - “it’s just a meme”.
Old Spice flipped the men’s grooming category on its head by using irony and absurd humor.
It allowed itself to embody hyper-masculinity by mocking it.
Use it: Irony lets you say the unsayable, without triggering immediate resistance
3. Hot ‘n cold (Problem - Agitation - Solution) a.k.a. PAS
“You see the air-conditioned world has made eunuchs of us all.”
BAP begins by shaming modern man: weak, soft, over-socialized. He calls him bug-man. He creates discomfort and dissonance. But right as the reader feels alienated, BAP offers a solution - a path to rebirth, vitality and freedom.
This taps into the psychology of initiation: first break the ego, then offer the rebirth.
“The gym is one of the last places where the spirit of the ancients still survives.”
This works through the pain-pleasure mechanism: people bond more deeply with someone who causes discomfort and offers relief. It’s how cults, elite clubs, and rites of passage work.
George W. Bush’s response to 9/11 was textbook PAS used to unify a fragmented public and forge national identity around a new myth: The War on Terror.
Use it: Lead with discomfort. Make your readers feel the pain they are in - and then offer the cure.
Bonus: obscure PDF of the week
This study found that just thinking about moving a muscle can significantly increase strength. Over 12 weeks, participants who mentally practiced finger or arm movements (without any physical exercise) gained up to 35% more strength, proving that the brain alone can boost muscle power.
-> Check out my obscure psychology (and other stuff) PDF archive here (it’s free): Cyberbunker
