Something weird is happening on the internet, and no, I’m not talking about another AI chatbot going rogue or crypto crashing again. I’m talking about the parts of the internet that have historically stayed far, far away from anything resembling politics. The duck painters. The bourbon reviewers. The people who film themselves playing cats like percussion instruments.
They’re all speaking out now. And when r/catbongos has had enough of your administration, you’ve probably lost the plot.
The Breaking Point
It’s not surprising when your perpetually angry Instagram activist who’s been screaming about capitalism since 2019 decides to sound off about ICE. That’s literally their brand. But when accounts dedicated to New England gravestones and quilting patterns start posting about federal agents shooting civilians, something fundamental has shifted in the collective consciousness.
The catalyst was the killing of Alex Pretti by ICE. Following that incident, the moderator of r/catbongos, a subreddit that describes itself as a place “Where gentlemen, gentlewomen, and gentlethems of quality gather to watch cats being played like bongos,” posted a declaration that Trump/ICE supporters weren’t welcome anymore.
Think about that for a second. A community built around the absurdist joy of watching people drum on their pets has drawn a line in the sand.
When The Military Turns
Here’s where it gets really interesting. r/military, a subreddit you’d expect to be at least somewhat supportive of federal authority, is absolutely lit up with criticism. Active duty members are calling this “exactly what tyranny looks like.” Someone claiming to be a 21-year Army veteran called ICE agents “modern day brownshirts” and said they’re “against all we stand for as Americans.”
The memes mocking Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are everywhere. And this isn’t coming from the usual suspects on the left. This is coming from within the military community itself.
Even r/conservative is showing cracks. Some members are pushing back against Kristi Noem’s description of Alexi Pretti as a “domestic terrorist,” telling her to “just be quiet for a while.” There are arguments breaking out about Second Amendment hypocrisy. When your own base starts eating itself over inconsistencies, that’s a business problem for any administration.
The Podcast Bros and Influencers Join In
Joe Santagato from The Basement Yard podcast called what’s happening in Minneapolis “legit horrifying.” When someone told him to stick to his usual content of “spitting water out of your mouth and de-jumbling words with your idiot friends,” he clapped back with “De-jumble this: ksuc ym slalb.”
That’s the energy we’re seeing across the board. People who built entire careers on being aggressively apolitical are done pretending they don’t see what’s happening.
Canadian musicians and social media personalities Chris and Patrick Vörös chimed in. Thoren Bradley, the Axe Man with 10.7 million followers whose whole thing is being a buff rural guy who chops wood, is calling out Christian conservative hypocrisy. When the guy who literally just chops wood for a living decides it’s time to speak up, maybe that says something about how bad things have gotten.
The Niche Communities Rise Up
The spread across Reddit has been particularly wild. r/Fauxmoi (celebrity gossip), r/NFCNorthMemeWar (football memes), r/DungeonCrawlerCarl (a subreddit about a specific sci-fi book series). None of these are technology platforms or political forums. They’re hobby communities. Entertainment spaces. Places people go to escape the news cycle.
And they’re all flooded with anti-ICE content.
YouTube’s educational channel Primer posted on X that this isn’t about politics anymore, it’s about the “fabric of society.” Music gear YouTubers like Benn Jordan, Randall Taylor, Bad Snacks, and Jason Mays have all spoken out. Even manufacturers like Drolo, Chase Bliss, and Hungry Robot have thrown their support behind Minneapolis, fully aware they might lose customers over it.
Canadian musician bbno$ broke his silence despite the risk to his visa and current U.S. tour. The National Basketball Players Association released a statement standing “in solidarity with the people of Minnesota protesting and risking their lives to demand justice.”
What This Actually Means
The government’s losing control of the narrative, and it’s not because CNN or The New York Times said so. It’s because the duck painters and bourbon reviewers and cat bongo enthusiasts have decided they can’t stay quiet anymore. These aren’t professional activists or career politicians. They’re regular people who built audiences around niche interests and hobbies.
When fitness influencers and Second Amendment advocates and football meme subreddits all arrive at the same conclusion independently, that’s not coordination. That’s consensus. That’s the kind of organic, ground-up rejection of authority that governments actually need to worry about.
The updates from January 25th show this movement only growing. More Reddit communities. More music gear manufacturers. The NBPA statement. Each addition might seem small on its own, but together they paint a picture of something unprecedented in the social media age.
The real question isn’t whether apolitical creators are speaking out anymore, because clearly they are, it’s what happens when the people who just wanted to share their love of bourbon or football memes or cats being played like drums decide that silence isn’t an option anymore.
