Nazi Anorexia Cult

Nazi Anorexia Cult Hoax
Type	Performance art operation / Internet hoax
Date	Fall 2021
Location	Social media (Instagram, Twitter)
Organizer	Sonya Qafi Hassan / Charlotte Fang
Participants	Kerosene (DJ/cosplayer), spontaneous online contributors

Nazi Anorexia Cult refers to a fabricated online controversy created in Fall 2021 as a performance art piece and trolling operation. The hoax was conceived by Sonya Qafi (a persona of Charlotte Fang) as a method to deflect an online cancellation campaign targeting London-based cosplay influencer and breakcore DJ known as Kerosene. The elaborate deception revived the KALI/ACC hashtag (#KALIACC) and transformed it from its previous accelerationist theory framework into a fictional "pro-anorexia neonazi cult" narrative that was maintained for approximately two weeks before being revealed as a "sociological study."

According to Fang, the operation represented the final trolling campaign associated with the Miya Black Hearted Cyber Angel Baby project, demonstrating the distributed authorship and performative tactics that would later inform Remilia Corporation's artistic philosophy.

The hoax achieved notoriety both for its immediate success in diverting Kerosene's cancellation and for its subsequent misinterpretation by audiences unfamiliar with its fabricated nature. When Milady Maker faced cancellation attempts in May 2022, critics cited the Nazi Anorexia Cult as evidence of harmful behavior, despite documentation of the reveal being publicly available. Following comprehensive debunking of these allegations, the term "Nazi Anorexia Cult" has been embraced by the Milady community as a symbol of resilience against cancellation—a badge representing survival against the most absurd and extreme allegations possible, positioning the community as effectively "uncancellable."

Background

Context and Catalyst

In Fall 2021, Kerosene, a London-based cosplay influencer and DJ, faced an online cancellation campaign after her private Twitter account's liked content was discovered. The controversy centered on content deemed racist and pro-anorexia, including memes and "thinspo" (thinspiration) posts. Sonya Qafi Hassan, operating as a money Twitter persona focused on what Fang described as "Traditionalist Genomics-Based PUA" (pickup artist) content, proposed a defensive strategy: rather than apologizing, Kerosene would claim her behavior resulted from manipulation by a fictitious online cult.

Relationship to #KALIACC

The operation deliberately incorporated the #KALIACC hashtag, which had previously been associated with the Miya Black Hearted Cyber Angel Baby project and the KALI/ACC movement. When searched, the hashtag revealed discussions of accelerationist philosophy and theoretical explorations, providing pre-existing digital content that added historical weight to the fabricated narrative. This strategic choice created a convincing digital trail that could be discovered by those investigating the claims, lending credibility to the fabricated cult story. As Fang later explained, the existing "esoteric rightwing rabbit hole" associated with the hashtag made it the perfect foundation for constructing a believable hoax about a "digital nazism cult that manipulates teens into anorexia."

The Operation

Implementation

The hoax unfolded across multiple platforms over approximately two weeks through a series of coordinated steps. Kerosene initially shared a statement on Instagram claiming she had been coerced by an online cult called #KALIACC. While her critics initially dismissed this narrative, it gained traction when Sonya Qafi amplified it on Twitter. As awareness spread, multiple participants who recognized the trolling operation spontaneously contributed supporting evidence and fabricated accounts. The most significant development was the creation of a new Instagram account named "hellokittyrazorblade," which presented itself as gathering testimonies from other "victims" escaping the cult. This account became the primary vehicle for distributing the fabricated narrative, sharing manufactured screenshots and testimonies that appeared to validate the cult's existence.

Methodology

The operation employed several methodological strategies characteristic of online performance art. It relied on distributed authorship, with spontaneous, uncoordinated participation from individuals who recognized the trolling methodology. This approach drew from imageboard culture's collaborative deception techniques, where participants intuitively understand how to contribute to an ongoing narrative without explicit coordination. The participants created convincing screenshots and testimonies supporting the cult narrative, demonstrating what Fang described as the community's ability to "recognize the new troll, and spontaneously organized to support the bit, spreading plausible reports, and producing convincing screenshots 'proving' its reality."

This methodology reflected the post-authorship principles that would later become central to Remilia's artistic philosophy, treating creative work as emerging from network interactions rather than individual genius. The operation also demonstrated defensive cancellation tactics, weaponizing the cancel itself by transforming it into performance art that exposed the credulity of online cancellation campaigns.

Conclusion and Reveal

After approximately two weeks, the hellokittyrazorblade account announced it was operated by Miya, describing the entire operation as a "sociological study" and linking to kaliacc.org, which hosted an archive of Miya's writings. Kerosene's secondary account was renamed "miya.cyber.angel.baby" and shared a summary of the operation. Shortly afterward, the Sonya Qafi account was deleted. As Fang wrote in her April 2022 essay: "No actual cult existed, no victims existed. The curtain comes suddenly down revealing the drama to be staged: a classic troll." Despite this explicit reveal, the operation's success in creating convincing documentation meant that the fabricated narrative would persist beyond its intended lifespan, ultimately resurfacing during the May 2022 Milady Maker controversy.

Theoretical Framework

Philosophical Context

The operation drew from multiple intellectual traditions that informed its approach and execution. It exploited the existing association of the #KALIACC hashtag with Nick Land and accelerationist theory, using this theoretical rabbit hole to add depth to the fabricated cult narrative. Fang has characterized the operation as demonstrating René Girard's theory of the scapegoat mechanism, arguing that cancel culture functions through the selection of arbitrary victims to unify communities through collective condemnation. By fabricating an extreme scapegoat—a "pro-anorexia neonazi cult"—and then revealing its fraudulent nature, the operation aimed to expose what Fang views as the arbitrary and performative mechanics underlying online moral panics.

The work also continued traditions established by artists like Amalia Ulman, whose Instagram performances similarly blurred boundaries between authentic expression and fabricated persona. This approach shared similarities with Situationist International concepts of détournement and constructed situations, repurposing cancellation mechanics into performance art that challenged conventional distinctions between reality and fiction in digital space.

Artistic Intent

Fang has framed the operation as a form of institutional critique targeting cancel culture mechanics. In the Mirror essay, she characterized trolling as "arbitrage on the discrepancy between ego and reality" and "a community service performed towards ego equilibrium." According to Fang, the operation aimed to demonstrate how cancellation campaigns function regardless of factual accuracy, with narratives persisting due to their utility in defining community boundaries rather than their relationship to truth. This theoretical positioning treats the Nazi Anorexia Cult not merely as a successful troll, but as a form of institutional critique targeting the epistemology and social dynamics of cancel culture itself.

Fang's retrospective framed the operation within a broader artistic tradition: "It's an artist's duty to explore and critique the contemporary, even in all its ugliness, and if they determine that critique is best produced in a process of performative embodiment, so be it." This positioning connects the Nazi Anorexia Cult operation to a longer lineage of provocative performance art that uses controversial methods to expose social mechanisms that might otherwise remain invisible.

Aftermath and Legacy

Misinterpretation and Milady Maker Controversy

In May 2022, when Milady Maker and Charlotte Fang faced cancellation attempts, the Nazi Anorexia Cult documentation was cited as evidence of genuine harmful behavior. The operation's subsequent misinterpretation and use as evidence in the May 2022 Milady cancellation arguably validated Fang's critique, demonstrating that cancellation narratives could persist even after being definitively exposed as fabrications. This outcome demonstrated the unpredictable consequences of post-truth performance art and the difficulty of maintaining interpretive control over collaborative, distributed creative work.

According to the miladytruth.org debunking document, the Nazi Anorexia Cult documentation was later misinterpreted by critics who "discovered it after-the-fact" and took the fabricated cult narrative at face value. The document notes: "This was nearly 2 years ago and it wasn't well archived, so people looking back to find information on it discover contemporaneous attempts to investigate the rabbit hole before the troll was revealed, not realizing shortly after it revealed to be faked."

Community Reclamation as Symbol of Uncancellability

Following comprehensive debunking of the allegations against Milady Maker and Charlotte Fang, the term "Nazi Anorexia Cult" underwent a significant transformation within the Milady and Remilia communities. Rather than distancing themselves from the most extreme allegations leveled against them, community members embraced the term as a powerful symbol representing their resilience against cancellation attempts. The phrase was reclaimed as a badge of honor signifying that the community had survived and disproven allegations combining the most severe possible contemporary taboos—pro-anorexia advocacy and neo-Nazi ideology—positioning them as effectively "uncancellable" against any future attacks.

This strategic reclamation reflects a specific logic: having withstood and ultimately disproved accusations this extreme and absurd, no subsequent cancellation attempt could match its intensity or credibility. Community members' casual reference to the "Nazi Anorexia Cult" now functions as a shibboleth distinguishing insiders familiar with the operation's fabricated nature from outsiders who accept the cult narrative at face value. It simultaneously signals both awareness of its fictional status and rejection of the moral framework that would demand disavowal or apology for association with the concept.

The "Nazi Anorexia Cult" label has thus transformed from an attack vector into a community asset—a shorthand reference to the group's demonstrated ability to withstand extreme allegations through comprehensive debunking rather than apologetic distancing. This reappropriation demonstrates the operation's lasting influence on Remilia's approach to controversy and public relations, treating the most severe possible allegations as paradoxically liberating once they have been thoroughly discredited.

Critical Reception

Support and Defense

Supporters of the operation, including those within the Remilia community, have characterized it as legitimate critique of cancel culture dynamics and media credulity. Defenders argue that the operation's success in exposing how easily fabricated narratives could be accepted demonstrated fundamental flaws in online discourse and cancellation mechanics. They position the project within traditions of institutional critique and tactical media intervention that use provocative methods to expose hidden social mechanisms.

This defense further suggests that the operation's subsequent misinterpretation actually validated its critique of cancel culture, demonstrating how cancellation narratives could persist even after being definitively exposed as fabrications. As Fang wrote in her concluding thoughts: "Cancel culture is dead, disavowal doesn't belong here." This sentiment reflects the operation's lasting influence on how artists in the Remilia milieu approach controversy and cancellation.

The operation highlighted the significant challenges in documenting ephemeral digital works. Fang's Mirror essay noted the archival difficulties demonstrated by the project: "Internet archaeology is extremely ineffective compared to active contemporary archivalism. New scenes grow every day, it's essential that we strive for a conscious effort to self-document what we're doing as we do it, as an on-going part of our practice." This recognition of documentation challenges has informed subsequent approaches to preserving net art projects, particularly those intentionally blurring boundaries between authenticity and fabrication.

Criticism

Critics have argued that fabricating narratives around serious issues like eating disorders and extremism, even as performance art, risks normalizing or trivializing genuine harm. They suggest that regardless of artistic intent or subsequent revelation, creating convincing documentation of harmful activities contributes to an information environment where distinguishing truth from fiction becomes increasingly difficult. The operation's subsequent misinterpretation as evidence of actual harmful behavior has been cited as demonstrating the unpredictable consequences of post-truth performance art.

This criticism positions the Nazi Anorexia Cult operation within broader concerns about the ethics of provocative digital performance art, questioning whether the insights gained through such interventions justify their potential negative impacts. Critics suggest that artists working with sensitive topics in digital space have responsibilities that extend beyond traditional artistic boundaries due to the networked nature of information spread and the difficulty of controlling interpretation.

The operation's legacy extends to ongoing discussions about the tensions between artistic intent and public interpretation in digital performance art. By creating work that was deliberately designed to be misinterpreted, the Nazi Anorexia Cult operation raised important questions about artistic responsibility and the unpredictable consequences of provocative digital interventions.

See also

• Miya Black Hearted Cyber Angel Baby
• Charlotte Fang
• Remilia Corporation
• Milady Maker
• Post-Internet Art