In 2021, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue published a report on extremist activity on TikTok. It made for thoroughly depressing reading, spiked with moments of incredulity. Chief among the latter was the apparent popularity of the title track of MGMT’s fourth album, 2018’s Little Dark Age, with neo-Nazis: it was “by far the most popular sound among extremist creators on TikTok”, soundtracking videos about the late American white supremacist George Lincoln Rockwell and “esoteric nazism”. The report’s authors seemed baffled as to why. Certainly, its adoption doesn’t say much for your average neo-Nazi’s ability to understand English. Little Dark Age’s lyrics are, fairly obviously, an excoriation of Trump-era America and racist police violence. You could even suggest they weirdly presage the Black Lives Matter protests: “Just know that if you hide, it doesn’t go away,” they warn, before suggesting listeners “get out of bed … bring a stone, all the rage”.
