About

Industrial Society and Its Future, continued by Theodore John Kaczynski, refers to an audiobook reading of Ted Kaczynski's "Unabomber Manifesto" by white nationalist Augustus Sol Invictus. In mid-2020, the audiobook began to see use as an exploitable in ironic video edits and shitposts, attaching it to the end of random clips. The trend grew over the course of the year, increasing in usage in mid-2021.

Origin

On December 16th, 2018, YouTube^[1] channel Philosophy and Esoterica uploaded an audiobook version of Ted Kaczynski's "Unabomber Manifesto," also titled "Industrial Society and Its Future," read by white-nationalist figure Augustus Sol Invictus (shown below). The video gained over 100,000 views in three years.

Throughout 2020, "Industrial Society and Its Future" became the subject of a number of memes online. On YouTube, the YouTube^[2][3] channel Vocal Synthesis began posting a number of synthesized vocal performances of various people reading the manifesto, for example, each garnering tens of thousands of views (most popular examples shown below).

On July 9th, 2020, YouTuber^[4] Unstoppable Gaming posted a video of Peter Griffin and a number of Family Guy characters dancing over the reading (shown below). This is the earliest known upload following the format.

Spread

Over the course of the year, a number of other videos were uploaded following the same format. Most notably, on July 17th, 2020, YouTuber Soup uploaded a video of Dracula from Hotel Transylvania rapping the audiobook (shown below). This video was re-uploaded and recreated a number of times over the following months.

The trend became increasingly popular throughout 2021 as new variations were uploaded. On February 9th, 2021, YouTuber^[5] Your Average Person posted a version of the meme garnering over 15,000 views in four months (shown below, left). On February 23rd, YouTuber^[6] Bangladesh Creations posted one garnering over 9,300 views in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).

On May 17th, YouTuber^[7] Arcade Assassin posted a bait-and-switch video titled, "Is that seat taken?" in which the audiobook begins partway through, garnering over a million views in a month (shown below).

On June 30th, YouTuber^[8] Lessons In Meme Culture posted a video about the trend, garnering over 50,000 views in the first day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References