Inside The Dark Online Cult Built By A 20-Year-Old Influencer Telling Boys To Smash Their Jaws

Clavicular flew too close to the Sun, he’s crashing down to Earth, and he doesn’t care who gets hurt—him, his fanatic followers, or his haters. Recently, the notorious, self-destructive leader of the looksmaxxing community, who encourages young men to smash their jaws with a hammer, collapsed live on stream after a suspected drug overdose. He was hospitalized and survived. Yet, he went back to clubbing the same day he checked out of the hospital. But his drug use is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the insanity that is his life. Braden Peters, better known as Clavicular or Clav, is dogged by controversy after controversy. From running over a pedestrian with his car and taking part in blatant antisemitism while rubbing shoulders with hardcore far-right figures, to shooting alligators and injecting his teenage girlfriend, who is now suing him, with fat-dissolving peptides live on a stream, he continues to shock the world. Clav inspires socially isolated incels to risk their health and longevity in pursuit of beauty. His promise? Power, success in life, sex with women, and the idea that they will never be rejected by anyone ever again. All you have to do is smash your jaw with a hammer, take illegal drugs, and perform dangerous cosmetic surgeries to look like a Chad. He preaches beauty at any cost so that you can ‘ascend’ above the ‘normies.’ Clavicular For Peters, everything is worth sacrificing on the altar of aesthetics. Not just his health and moral norms, but those of his followers, too. The influencer and streamer built a cult following around the looksmaxxing movement, which he now spearheads as its ambassador. He is raking in six-figure sums every month by exploiting and monetizing the vulnerabilities of chronically online, insecure, desperate, and lonely young men who crave acceptance, female attention, and community. Male influencers like Clavicular hold a lot of sway among young men. The BBC reports that, based on TikTok insight data, 18 to 24-year-old men are the most popular group searching for looksmaxxing hacks. There were over 300k searches on the video-sharing platform in February, peaking at a whopping 1.9 million in late March. Meanwhile, a recent study by Movember found that nearly two-thirds of young men engage with men and masculinity influencers, who went from niche to mainstream. They are driven by topics like fitness, financial success, and relationships. While 43% of young men felt motivated after watching masculinity influencers, 27% reported feeling worthless. Men who consume this type of content are more likely to take risks and do not see their mental health as a priority. valuavitaly / envato (not the actual photo) At 14, Peters began injecting himself with testosterone. His obsession with beauty and aesthetics at any cost grew stronger and stronger as he lurked in and posted on online looksmaxxing forums. He thought that doing things the natural way and letting adolescence take its course was too slow for his liking. So, he opted for brutal efficiency instead. Now, at 20, he is one of the most infamous and powerful influencers online. He is widely criticized across traditional and social media for presenting the most toxic parts of masculinity as worthwhile and the only valid way to go through life. He promises salvation in the form of perfection of the flesh, but his ‘philosophy’ of narcissism, excess, and self-violence is only skin-deep. He doesn’t concern himself with long-term investing in character, charisma, authenticity, longevity, skills, relationships, or the value that people bring to society. He views humankind as fundamentally superficial, so he sees no reason to focus on anything but the surface. The irony is that Peters would have likely grown into a conventionally attractive, intelligent, well-spoken, slightly socially awkward young man if he had the patience to embrace healthy habits. Instead, now, he is infertile due to the testosterone replacement therapy, and he snorts methamphetamines to suppress his appetite and get hollow cheeks. His intelligence is evident (though he arrogantly claims to know more than many doctors), but paradoxically, his book-smartness hasn’t endowed him with much common sense. No matter how good he thinks he looks, Clavicular can’t hide his social awkwardness. It becomes immediately apparent when he does media interviews. Underpinning everything is the sense that Clav will never be satisfied with anything he achieves, no matter how high he soars. At the end of the day, he remains deeply anxious and unhappy, no matter how much he pretends otherwise online. elmizaismagilova / envato (not the actual photo) Within a few short years, Clavicular became the leading voice of the looksmaxxing movement by experimenting on himself, posting snippets of his life online, and later taking up streaming. He, among others, also brought the community's terminology into the public eye. Soon, regular people were bombarded with a strange, niche vernacular that sounded both inane and insane. Softmaxxing, hardmaxxing, mogging, heightmogging, framemogging, bonesmashing, peptides, blackpills, chads, subhumans, normies, PSL ratings, mewing, jawlines, ascending, what have you—it all sounds like some bizarre social parody. Only it isn’t. These days, looksmaxxing is hard to avoid, whether you want to learn about it or not. Looksmaxxers are blackpilled nihilists at heart who think that genetics and looks determine your sexual and other success in life, nothing else. Softmaxxing, for instance, is a bizarre term for what you’d call common-sense self-care and self-improvement, like exercise, dieting, skincare, hair styling, proper posture, etc. This is the kind of thing you’d compliment someone for embracing because it shows they care about their health and happiness. Contrast this with hardmaxxing, where people take extreme measures, such as invasive surgeries and unregulated supplements, to ascend (improve their looks) and look like Chads (ideal, physically attractive men), who then mog (dominate) normies. Meanwhile, the pseudoscientific PSL rating system, adopted by incels and looksmaxxers, rates your attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 8 based on your harmony, dimorphism, angularity, and other facial features. PSL is an acronym for the PUAHate (PUA refers to Pick Up Artists), SlutHate, and Lookism forums, and it speaks volumes about the attitude towards women and other men. Clavicular At the core, there’s a particular obsession with impressive jawlines. Mewing, for example, refers to men attempting to restructure their facial features for the sake of a sharper jawline, better cheekbones, and straighter cheeks, by resting their tongue against the roof of their mouth. But that’s just the start. The most fanatical (or desperate) looksmaxxers try bonesmashing. Looksmaxxers’ fascination with bonesmashing stems from their pseudoscientific misinterpretation of Wolff’s Law, the observation that your bones are constantly undergoing remodeling, and the belief that applying physical stress results in stronger bones. So, looksmaxxers claim that repeatedly tapping your face with a hammer or massage gun can supposedly help you reshape your jawline to look chiseled and Chad-like. The real-life results are different. Bonesmashing can result in fractures, bleeding, lesions, potential infections, scarring, and improper bone healing. Oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Ricardo Grillo, from Brazil, called bonesmashing “a stupid idea,” while facial plastic surgeon Dr. Joshua Rosenberg stressed that these microfractures and trauma are not controlled, so they can end in asymmetry instead of enhancement. “You’re definitely not seeing the daily reality; the bruising, the inflammation, the downtime, the fact that most of this probably just looks bad and feels worse. No one is hopping online to showcase their asymmetry or nerve symptoms. Most of these guys are not advertising the overwhelmingly negative outcomes,” Dr. Rosenberg warns about the proliferation of bonesmashing tutorials and content online. He told GQ that, for current bonesmashers, he would recommend doing “literally anything that doesn’t involve sourcing your medical decision-making from social media.” “Almost anything you do outside of that ecosystem is probably going to be a net positive for your life.” If it’s not blatantly obvious yet, smashing your jaw with a hammer is an unbelievably bad idea. And anyone telling you otherwise probably has something they want to sell you. Like, for example, Clavicular, who is raking in the dough like nobody’s business. The Adam Friedland Show Clavicular has a massive online following. Though he has been banned on YouTube, he has more than 339.8k followers on the live-streaming service Kick and 942.5k+ fans on TikTok. As reported by The New York Times, he earns more than $100,000 every month on Kick. As Clav told journalist Piers Morgan in a recent interview, he is now earning so much money that his parents, who were previously very concerned and critical of his lifestyle, supposedly no longer criticize his choices. Meanwhile, Peters offers paid online courses where he claims to have “evolved looksmaxxing into the clavicular system—a data-driven framework using experimental methods to surpass genetic potential.” In other words, for Clavicular, preying on other men’s insecurities and urging them to “join the transformation” and “unlock the ascension method” is his way of making a juicy profit. Cult much? Research done by Rolling Stone magazine found a community of “self-conscious, vulnerable young men” who are “learning to punish their bodies in the most extreme ways, framing women not as people but objects to ‘slay.’” For these men, the path to romantic success is so narrow and unforgiving that they see extreme forms of self-improvement as “the natural cost of being a modern man.” “This bitterness and vulnerability create the fertile ground for the most chronically online and isolated individuals to buy into grievance and extreme prescriptions, these step-by-step guides that normalize sexual coercion and self-punishment alike. This is the gateway from insecurity to hatred, from frustration to bonesmashing. All for just $49 a month.” And yet, there is also the sobering realization that Clavicular is neither the first to monetize young men’s desperation, nor will he be the last. There will always be someone willing to offer salvation and desirability for cash. westend61 / envato (not the actual photo) The entire world is enamored with beauty. It would be naive to claim that it isn’t. In 2026, the beauty and personal care market is projected to generate a whopping $698.38 billion globally and is predicted to grow at a rate of 3.16% through 2031. According to Statista, the United States leads the global market, with an estimated $107 billion in revenue in 2026, or $88.36 per person. Many of us secretly wish we could look absolutely perfect all the time. Human beings are social animals who want to be loved, adored, and respected. We yearn to be special, to be the protagonists of our own lives. But it is a mistake to focus just on your looks, which fade over time. What looksmaxxers do is take this human yearning to look young, beautiful, and sexually desired, and push it over the edge into harmful obsession. The ‘philosophy’ of their movement is that, supposedly, you can only get success at work, dating, and other parts of life if you look incredibly attractive. They take the so-called halo effect, turn it all the way up to 11, and use it as an excuse to promote radical changes to your body, no matter the consequences. In a nutshell, the halo effect is a cognitive bias in which our perception of a person’s single trait carries over to their other characteristics. For example, we assume that someone who is attractive must be intelligent, kind, sociable, etc. Furthermore, the reverse halo effect, aka the horn effect, refers to people’s tendency to assume that someone who is unattractive is also unkind and lacks smarts. It would be naive to assume that we don’t have a more positive first impression of beautiful people. We do. But this is not the full picture. Looks fade, and first impressions certainly aren’t everything. Looking gorgeous means nothing if you push friends and dates away with your nasty behavior, unsavory temperament, and toxic habits (like overdosing on drugs live on stream). And looking attractive doesn’t translate into real-world skills that help you get results and build a lasting career. Gerain0812 / Envato (not the actual photo) In many ways, looksmaxxing is toxic masculinity with a different coat of paint. Masculinity in itself is not the issue, but when taken to its stereotypical extreme, it harms both men and the people around them. In brief, toxic masculinity encourages men to dominate, take risks, always be in control, act aggressively, get rich, act tough, be stoic, and be physically strong. What’s more, the stereotype pushes men to reject ‘feminine’ behaviors like showing emotion, doing chores, or asking for help—including from doctors and mental health professionals. Meanwhile, toxic men believe that they are entitled to women’s bodies. These men are pushed to be promiscuous while criticizing women for the very same behavior. Some of the main factors that contribute to the risk of violence and toxic masculinity include growing up in a dysfunctional family environment, being exposed to social norms that encourage male dominance and violence in relationships, a lack of access to mental health services, and social rejection. There are no easy fixes here. What young men—and, to be fair, all human beings—need is more compassion, connection, and kindness from their peers, authority figures, and society as a whole. On a societal level, parents need to be educated about creating safe and nurturing environments, teaching their children to regulate their emotions, and avoiding physical punishment and humiliation techniques. Furthermore, marketing campaigns can help change the social and cultural norms surrounding masculinity. Meanwhile, society needs to offer programs that positively integrate boys and men into society, while also identifying and treating psychological distress. Better education, moving society toward healthy relationships without abuse or violence, is a part of the solution. The other part is deeply subjective and personal: what we all do to support the people in our lives, without judgment. Looksmaxxing under the reign of Clavicular, who feels like he holds the answers to every young man’s problems, neatly overlaps with cult-like activity. Cult leaders tend to be entitled, arrogant, boastful, and don’t believe that rules or laws apply to them. They demand obedience, offer fantasies of unlimited success, and have grandiose visions of power. What’s more, these personalities tend to be manipulative, superficially charming, hypersensitive to how others perceive them, and see others as inferior. Cult leaders are absolute authoritarians. They avoid accountability, have no tolerance for criticism, and feel perpetually persecuted. Meanwhile, they make their followers feel like they will never be good enough, while the leaders themselves are always right. Truth, in the leaders’ eyes, is their exclusive domain, and they dole it out to validate their cultists whenever they feel like it. Clav’s character mirrors that of cult leaders to a great extent. He is consumed by the idea of dedicating himself to one idea—in this case, looksmaxxing—so fully and obsessively that, no matter the outcome, he can say that he is proud that he at least tried his best. It is this fanaticism that he bottles and sells to his followers. He has a death wish that he is chasing by worshipping aesthetics. Clavicular Some controversies won’t stop following Peters, no matter how he tries to shake them. His callousness and lack of empathy are clearly on display. Despite claiming that he doesn’t want to get involved in politics, Clavicular’s actions speak for themselves. He has been spending time with far-right figures. Recently, he went viral for singing along to Ye’s track ‘Heil Hitler’ with—among others—white nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes and influencer Andrew Tate, who is facing charges of rape and human trafficking. In the meantime, Clav constantly uses the N-word because he thinks it’s ‘fun.’ At the same time, Clavicular claims that he doesn’t think looksmaxxing is inherently right-wing or related to incels. From his perspective, he is now such an influential figure in the movement that he could “bring it in any direction” that he wants. His association with controversial, toxic figures continues to haunt him. Recently, he walked out of an interview with ‘60 Minutes Australia’ when correspondent Adam Hegarty asked him about his links to Tate and “people like that.” Right before a flustered Clav exited the interview, he implied that Hegarty, who is not married, might have been cuckolded by his wife. When challenged and held accountable in public, Clavicular tries to deflect, avoids taking responsibility, and, when unsuccessful, cuts and runs. Clavicular What happens next? If Clavicular’s track record is anything to go by, we can all probably expect more of the same: shocking headlines, unhappiness, and worsening health. Clav will never be satisfied with what he achieves because there will always be someone more handsome, stronger, wealthier, more charismatic, and more successful than him. Moreover, ‘perfect’ beauty standards are unattainable and always just out of reach. So he will entangle himself in increasingly shocking (yet not really surprising) controversies, tap-dance on the line between immorality and illegality, and make even more outrageous moves for greater profit. Though you have to wonder, how far does he have to fall for the scales to fall from his enraptured followers’ eyes? Does the Messiah of looksmaxxing need to end up in a body bag for everyone to finally stop, look around, and ask themselves what the hell they’re chasing? But if Clav does finally watch his health and cult crumble around him, is there room for redemption? We’ll have to wait and see.