The Story of Italian Brainrot – Collective Musings on a Meme Wave
By Francesco Barchiesi, September 30, 2025
By Francesco Barchiesi & Geert Lovink “The most solid pleasure in this life is the empty pleasure of illusion.” Giacomo Leopardi During the first months of 2025 the meme sphere got taken over by Italian Brainrot. The hype coincided with the beginning of the Trump II presidency, when Elon Musk and his DOGE troops were [...]
