Paul Gosar, U.S. Republican representative from the state of Arizona who has been called a friend to white nationalists, recently posted a picture of himself on Twitter that appears to show a long green arrow pointed at his penis.
The rightwing congressman, who has never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t like and is a big-time Trump fan, also has a healthy track record of posting weird stuff online. He’s a fan of memes and gifs and, in general, isn’t afraid to do stuff like sprinkle “Epstein didn’t kill himself” blurbs into the odd twitter thread.
So it wasn’t totally out of character for him when, on Monday, he tweeted out a weird picture of himself standing in the desert in front of a bunch of cactuses with a green arrow pointed at his dick. Upon first glance, the cryptic image resembled the cover of, say, a bad indie-rock album, or maybe some sort of coded QAnon imagery.
Not long afterward, he tweeted more pictures: The first shows him and former President Trump in the oval office with straight green lines superimposed over their bodies. Meanwhile, another shows current President Joe Biden, leaning down to talk to a young girl. Here, Biden has a slanted green line superimposed over him.
In case you’re confused, they looked like this:
https://t.co/GJjdC62PhZ pic.twitter.com/qnnGTJCncB
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) August 30, 2021
Understandably, a lot of people were left wondering just what the hell that was all about.
The mysterious symbology appears to have actually originated from an online personality known as “Rivelino the Artist” — a kind of red pill activist who expounds an absurd theory about standing up straight to appeal to women. According to Rivelino, if you literally lean into your girlfriend when a photo is being taken (you know, to give her a hug or something) you are a weak man and she will find you unattractive. For context, Rivelino tweets stuff like this:
WHY CAN’T A MAN LEAN IN? When a man leans into his girl, he reveals that he feels needy & lower value. He reveals that he has a weak mindset, and that he feels dependent on her
Or this:
ASK RIVELINO “Why do so many guys lean into photos with their girls?” Partially, it’s because we’ve lost touch with masculinity and don’t know how to be men anymore. But sometimes, the men are actually strong and just misguided. They believe leaning in is “protective”. It’s not
See example:
Winner vs Loser pic.twitter.com/rVlU6W9XIn
— Rivelino the Artist (@alpharivelino) July 15, 2021
Rivelino posts countless pictures of men and women standing next to each other, with their weakness or strength symbolized by straight or slanted green lines — just like the kind that showed up in Gosar’s tweets on Monday.
The ridiculousness of this is such that, as Mel Magazine has pointed out, it’s difficult to tell whether Rivelino’s content is legitimate or pure online satire. Case in point, his other major piece of advice for men is that you should never cover your crotch with your hands because it means you’re ashamed of your dick. Is it possible that’s somehow not a joke?
It’s unclear who “Rivelino” actually is. Aside from a Twitter account, he also apparently has a YouTube channel and an Instagram — both of which are filled with similarly ridiculous material. However, there’s nothing that amounts to a bio or a backstory to explain who exactly is behind these unhinged ideas.
All this aside, probably the biggest puzzle is not who created the theory of the green lines, but why Gosar felt it necessary to tweet about it. We might be able to assume that by giving Biden a slanted line he’s basically calling him a cuck. Meanwhile, Gosar and Trump get the coveted straight lines and are therefore alpha He-Men. Aside from that, though, there’s just so many questions. Like…
- Why did Gosar choose a picture of himself standing next to three cactuses?
- Why are the cacti given feminine, slanted lines, while he is given a straight, masculine line?
- Is the GOP Representative proving his dominance over the cacti? Do they represent his political enemies? Is Biden a cactus?
I can’t make heads or tails of it. We reached out to Gosar’s office to try to get some help interpreting these coded images. Anyway, there may not have been any real intent, since, even bereft of coherence, the tweets have already served their purpose — which was to get everybody talking about Gosar.