Mike Crumplar

About

Mike Crumplar, also known as Crumps, is an American writer and cultural critic well-known for his work on incels and on the New York City Dimes Square art scene. His Substack blog, called Crumpstack, documents his research and personal interests.

Career

Crumps first came to attention in online circles around 2018-2019 for his work on the Isla Vista mass shooter Elliot Rodger’s manifesto, which he argued should be read seriously and required an informed critical approach. Crumps analyzed incels from a “Freudo-Marxist” perspective, arguing the incel phenomenon expressed American society’s troubles with race, class and gender and that the concerns of incels should be read seriously as representing a real problem with modern society.^[1]

Following a conversation with "a mysterious Twitter bodhisattva," begun in DMs from an anonymous account with two followers, Crumplar re-assessed his writing and his involvement with incels and “frogtwitter,” seeing that he had gone too far into that world and become a "character."^[2]

Crumplar went on to start Crumpstack, his Substack, with a renewed leftist critical approach. He moved to New York City and began writing commentary on the emerging Dimes Square art scene that revolved around cultural products like the podcast Red Scare and blog angelicism01, which adopted alt-left aesthetics and cultural mannerisms while pushing an anti-identity politics and anti-liberal agenda.

In 2022, his pieces about the personalities and parties of the Dimes Square scene started to gain attention online. On June 1st, 2022, influencer Caroline Calloway posted a since-deleted review (seen below) of Crumplar’s work on her Instagram Story.^[3]

As Crumps continued to cover the Dimes Square social scene, writing posts on the Planet Urbit and the proselytizing of Peter Thiel-funded pundits like Curtis Yarvin,^[4] he gained more notoriety around the summer of 2022.

On August 3rd, 2022, Crumps published an article titled "My Own Dimes Square Fascist Humiliation Ritual," his first Substack post to receive over 50 likes (381 in two days).^[5] The tweet announcing it earned over 3,000 likes in two days. The post described Crumps going to an avant-garde filming run by Peter Vack and Betsey Brown, who purportedly wanted to portray the energy of a 4chan thread. Crumps was then allegedly cornered by the crowd and forced to explain a negative review he’d written of Brown’s film Actors, which he’d claimed was transphobic and fascist.

The article stated Crumps was "ritually humiliated" and harassed by Vack, Brown and their cohorts who accused him of careerism, misdefining fascism and overall cringe behavior. Crumplar's post became a "takedown" of them and their scene, dismissing Dimes Square as "a network of fragile New York City rich kid internet brands bringing their pitiful followers down with them." His description and this story went viral, garnering numerous reactions and increasing his Twitter following by over 3,000 people in the course of two days.^[6]

Auto Cancellation

On September 4th, 2023, Crumplar posted an Instagram story (seen below) announcing that he would retire from writing about the Dimes Square scene, after realizing that he had become complicit in its problematic politics.^[8] Users swiftly started making fun of the words he chose, including @truth_enjoyer (seen below right) who mocked Crumplar with a "They don't know" meme which earned over 150 likes over the course of a day.^[9]

Online, meme accounts and scene-adjacent influencers referred to Crumplar's actions as an auto-cancellation. For example, Dasha Nekrasova (seen below) jokingly admitted her fascism on September 4th in an X^[10] post earning almost 1,200 likes in just under a day.

Online History

Crumplar maintained a personal blog from 2018 onwards and a Substack blog called Approaches since 2020. His Twitter account, active since March 2009, is active as of February 2023.

Crumplar renamed his Substack "Crumpstack" on November 25th, 2022, a term that the Instagram^[7] account @rachelormont.comcellectuals coined in the aftermath of the fascist humiliation ritual.

Related Memes

External References