Vice President JD Vance has been making headlines not only for his busy schedule, which includes traveling to France and Germany, addressing a conservative conference, and visiting the US-Mexico border, but also for his prolific online presence. Despite his packed agenda, Vance seems to always find time to engage in online spats with critics from across the ideological spectrum, raising questions about what exactly he does all day.

Over the past three weeks, Vance has gotten into online feuds with conservative historian Niall Ferguson, Rep. Ro Khanna, and columnist for right-leaning publications Unherd and Compact, among others. He has written lengthy replies to posts about his speech at the Munich Security Conference and the tensions between his own "tech-bro libertarian" and "rightwing religious populist" leanings. Vance's online activity has prompted questions about how he manages his time, with some wondering if he is devoting too much attention to social media.

However, Vance's online presence is not just about killing time. As writer and host of the Know Your Enemy podcast Matthew Sitman recently pointed out, it's an effective articulation of a post-Trump MAGA movement, and a revealing window into the thinkers – highbrow and otherwise – that inform Vance's worldview. Vance has admitted to being "plugged into a lot of weird, right-wing subcultures," and his X following list includes an array of far-right luminaries and pseudonymous right-wing shitposters.

Among those on Vance's following list are geneticist Crémieux Recueil, who writes about the connections between race and IQ; Indian Bronson, whose work often focuses on the perils of mass immigration; and Raw Egg Nationalist, a wellness influencer-slash-bodybuilder. The list also includes Darren Beattie, a former Trump speechwriter who was fired in 2018 after reporters exposed indirect links to white supremacists, and Jonathan Keeperman, founder of the right-wing Passage Publishing, whose releases include works by "neo-reactionary" blogger Curtis Yarvin, accelerationist philosopher Nick Land, and racialist writer Steve Sailer.

While Vance doesn't engage with these accounts, his public X account is used to reply to his critics, many of whom hail from the non-MAGA right. He has called progressive journalist Mehdi Hasan a "dummy" and has reserved some of his harshest comments for members of the staid conservative establishment that rejected Trumpism. To Vance, these globalist conservatives are no better than liberals; both sides, in fact, are members of what his ideological influence Yarvin calls the "Cathedral," the cabal of elite institutions that rule the world.

Vance's online behavior is not an isolated phenomenon. Young conservative staffers are increasingly steeped in similar online subcultures. Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon's new deputy press secretary, is a prolific X user who buys into a number of conspiracy theories, including the Great Replacement. Marko Elez, the 25-year-old DOGE staffer who was linked to an X account whose posts called for repealing the Civil Rights Act and reinstating a "eugenic immigration policy," was defended by Vance after his resignation.

The implications of Vance's online presence and ideological influences are far-reaching. As the vice president, Vance's views and actions have a significant impact on the country's political landscape. His connections to far-right figures and ideologies raise concerns about the potential for extremist views to influence policy decisions. As the public continues to scrutinize Vance's online behavior, it remains to be seen how his actions will shape the country's future.