On May 15, influencer Brandon Peters, known as Clavicular online, was taken to court over an alligator shooting case. Peters is being charged with unlawfully discharging a firearm in public following a viral livestream where he shot at a dead alligator in the Everglades.
The most popular part of this court case was not the unusually public-facing nature of the crime, nor the controversy surrounding gun laws, but instead the internet has accentuated the judge presiding over the case for “mogging” Clavicular.
“Mogging” is internet slang that means to outclass, outperform or dominate another person, and simply make them look worse by being in their proximity, emphasizing physical size and demeanor.
This is a heavy hit for an influencer who has built his brand around looking traditionally attractive and helping others improve their appearance. A whole community around fixing your appearance according to pseudoscientific standards for attractiveness, called “looksmaxxing,” has been cultivated by Clavicular. People in this community analyze each other’s faces and bodies, building detailed face charts and sharing extreme tips on improving appearances so they can “ascend.”
Research into the “world” of looksmaxxing led to a website called looksmaxx.org. One of the most recent posts by user “zimione” stuck out peculiarly. The title of the post was “Im 15, 5’8 and in 2 weeks my feet have grown by a cm.” Further research revealed that this individual was obsessively keeping track of his height, posting 134 times in less than a month, mostly about his height. Above the obvious body image issues, there resides a deeply disturbing Eurocentric beauty standard and eugenics movement. This specific individual had previously posted saying, “I hate my 6’1 father for marrying my 5’3 mother,” and directly implying that his genetics have been ruined after not getting bright blue eyes or blonde hair from his parents.
While the concept of looksmaxxing already existed within incel and manosphere communities, Clavicular has been the messiah of this movement. He has publicly discussed his methods, which include abusing substances like meth for appetite control, steroid abuse to the point of infertility and “bonesmashing” (which is exactly what it sounds like), in which one takes a hammer to their bones in hopes they restructure into something more aesthetically pleasing. There are almost no boundaries in this community’s path to looking better.
One of the biggest parts of this community is the treatment of women as inferior, describing them as foids, short for “femoid.” This term is used to dehumanize women by implying they are not fully human. Interestingly, Clavicular and his legion of insecure boys suffer from body image issues that are common among young girls and women. However, Clavicular will never admit that his insecurities are shared by women, because he simply doesn’t respect them enough. It’s hard not to see this as ironic, considering a large part of the motivation behind looksmaxxing is to supposedly attract women.
The truth is that Peters felt socially behind in high school and decided to take it out on his appearance. Adolescence is embarrassing and awkward, and beauty is perceived as the opposite of humiliation.
This is very evident when a little bit of Peter’s life and history is revealed. He stated that he is neurodivergent, stating in a post on X, “All of the substances are just a cope trying to feel neurotypical while being in public, but obviously that isn’t a real solution.”
Clavicular is starting to crack with the alligator shooting case being only the most recent incident. Since Dec. 2025 to note, he has run over an individual with a Tesla Cybertruck, suffered an overdose on stream and has been hit with an unapproved injection and sexual abuse lawsuit.
Moving on from this hyperfixation on his appearance will never happen until Clavicular accepts that women are real people, and that he is being guided by the voice inside the head of a deeply insecure 14-year-old.
While everyone feels the sting of adolescence at 14, most people don’t resort to hiding in a niche online community that tells them that looking scientifically perfect will solve their problems, but that’s exactly what happened to Peters.
Internet safety is a highly debated topic, and the rise of the manosphere and looksmaxxing communities is not only in danger of making the growing generation extremely insecure and vain, but simultaneously socially and romantically stunted, and even dangerous to women.
