In an Instagram video posted to her account last month, former Hype House member and influencer Tayler Holder sits on a stool wearing a T-shirt that reads “Jesus Loves You.” “A lot of you probably don’t know much about me,” he tells the off-screen audience. “You saw a small part of my life on screen and always knew me as the TikTok kid.”
But the comments, as always, tell another story. “Suddenly your accent is showing,” wrote one user. “Wasn’t this dude trying to be a gangster like last year?” he added.
Holder’s rebranding as a country singer has long been a source of confusion and ridicule for viewers. The TikToker underwent an image makeover after he was accused of sexual assault in January 2022 (which he denied) and was subsequently dragged into a high-profile feud with other members of the Hype House. He now posts about Christianity, country music, and his love of assault rifles.
While Holder’s image recovery is jarring, it’s not exactly unique. Faced with controversy, creators find salvation online by embracing right-wing values and aesthetics. After fitness influencer Brittany Dawn was sued by the state of Texas for misleading marketing practices in 2023, she quickly rebranded to become a Christian influencer selling meet-and-greet beliefs on weekends. Similarly, Meredith Foster, who first gained fame as a beauty and lifestyle YouTuber, slowly began to transition into Christianity-focused content as drama between her former creative friends quickly turned into a maelstrom of controversy as she increasingly spread anti-abortion, homophobic, and transphobic information . . (His mother’s appearance at the Jan. 6 Capitol riots didn’t help matters.) By the time she collaborated with Dolce & Gabbana in 2021, she was also a full-fledged Christian influencer, posting sermons and religious literature recommendation videos on her. YouTube and TikTok.
All over the internet, influencers who have faced criticism for their actions have begun to salvage their careers by turning to so-called “traditional values” (or “tradition” in internet parlance). This type of content espouses conservative Christian values, typically marked by feminine modesty and housework, as well as adherence to binary gender. Searches for “traditional woman” continued to rise, peaking at both the beginning and end of last year, according to Google Trends, and hashtags like #christian and #christiansoftiktok attracted billions of views on TikTok.
Brand strategist and cultural theorist Jennifer Chang says facing public criticism means public figures can take only a few paths to bounce back.
“When creators are ‘canceled,’ they have a few options: take charge, double down, or pivot,” says Chang. “Truly apologizing and acknowledging wrongdoing requires a level of introspection and humility that many people are not equipped with, given the cognitive dissonance in their views, and instead doubles down or pivots.”
It has become increasingly common to the point where users are starting to notice patterns of right-wing beliefs nestled among various mainstream trends. Many also pointed out many seemingly unrelated lifestyle trends that connect like rabbit holes to conservative belief systems, like the coquette trend, the soft pink aesthetic of bows and ruffles that went viral on TikTok, Godwin’s Law, and more. Pipeline from crisp to right.
Its influence is then reflected in the beliefs of its audience. The Hill reported in July last year that high school males tend to lean conservative, while young females are moving to the left politically. More 16-year-old boys in England had heard of conservative podcaster and convicted trafficker Andrew Tate than of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, non-profit Hope Not Hate found last year.
Jamie Cohen, an assistant professor of media studies at CUNY Queens College, tells Fast Company that the evolution of online politics since 2016 has allowed conservative, pandering types of influencers to explode.
“There has been a significant normalization of business accounts in general during Trump’s presidency,” Cohen says. “Facebook’s algorithm has shifted to recommending traditional accounts, and coded messages have become the new whistleblower for the far right. “The appeal is that traditional influencers are wildly successful while still playing the ‘taboo’ card and the ‘persecuted’ card.”