In certain corners of the internet — and inside middle school classrooms — the worst thing that can happen to you in 2026 isn’t being called “cringe” or getting “owned.” It’s getting “mogged.”Derived from the manosphere acronym “AMOG,” or “Alpha Male of the Group,” to “mog” someone means to visibly outshine them: to have a sharper jawline, a better outfit, a stronger presence in a group photo, or more “rizz” (charisma). Whether it’s delivered as an insult or intended as praise, the message behind the word is always the same: achieving dominance over someone else.It’s the latest component of a linguistic style that has circulated online for years, particularly among certain right-wing circles and young men focused on self-improvement and appearance. Going to the extreme is “maxxing,” while boosting your own charisma is “aura farming.”What started as jargon in online communities and gym culture has now become mainstream vernacular for describing almost anything. And this widespread usage has intensified in recent weeks, following a series of posts that drew attention with phrases like “jestermaxxing” and “framemogging.”On Thursday, a campaign account for North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who is running for Senate, posted that the Democrat was seen “VOTEMAXXING” near North Carolina State University. One day prior, the Republican National Committee released a statement praising President Donald Trump for “jobsmaxxing” the economy. Betr, a sportsbetting company, wrote that NBA superstar LeBron James, seen horsing around before a game, was “jestermaxxing.”Teachers are posting TikTok videos explaining the word, while influencers are posting hundreds of tutorials on the same app for mogging hairstyles. The memecoin $MOG is now the “first culture coin on the internet.” There is even a Clavicryption language translator, a nod to the 20-year-old “Looksmaxxer” livestreamer Clavicular, whose videos often invite viewers to compare appearances in real time. “I see how adolescents are growing up in a culture of constant comparison shaped by social media metrics like likes, views and followers,” said Jonathan Alpert, a psychotherapist and author of “Therapy Nation.” “Terms like ‘mogging’ and ‘maxxing’ give language to a ranking system many teens already feel they are living inside every day.”The words have been most recently boosted by a series of clips from Clavicular’s livestreams. In one particularly popular video, Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, confronted a larger, significantly more muscular Arizona State University student, spurring jokes that he was “frame-mogged” by an “ASU frat leader.” (In the same episode, Clavicular was described as “jestermaxxing,” or trying to be silly.)That same week, the livestreamer was arrested in Arizona for using a fake ID to enter a bar underage. On Thursday night, the day after authorities dropped the charges against him, he walked the runway at New York Fashion Week.“You just gotta mog,” he wrote on X about the dropped charges alongside a screenshot of a 2017 story about the link between the severity of criminal punishment and a man’s facial features.In the manosphere, where a host of streamers and podcasters have encouraged “looksmaxxing” and over-the-top self-improvement, “mogging” represents an end-stage goal. Being able to “mog” someone else means your social presence dominates others. In those spaces, being “mogged” means losing status within a fixed hierarchy — particularly with respect to attractiveness and masculinity.The idea of “looksmaxxing” has taken off in the last six years. It’s essentially the belief that appearance can be deliberately optimized through fitness, grooming and style. Meaning that if someone is having a good hair day, they are “hairmogging.” “Psychologically, both terms frame identity as something to upgrade and compete with rather than something to develop over time,” Alpert explained that the words “mog” and “maxxing.” From a mental health perspective, he added, the rise of these terms reflects a shift from self-development to self-optimization. “Self-improvement can be healthy, but when self-worth becomes tied to endlessly ‘maxxing,’ confidence becomes fragile because there is always another standard to meet,” he added.However, these words are now ingrained in internet culture to the point that they are used ironically and genuinely. Friction-maxxing, originally coined to describe a parenting strategy that resists using a screen to address a child’s behavior, is now used to push back against the culture of convenience. The phrase can apply to anything, exaggerating ordinary habits into a performance strategy: water-maxxing for staying hydrated, sunlight-maxxing for going outside and touching grass, productivity-maxxing for finishing your assignments. “Mogging” followed a similar trajectory. Now, height-mogged means someone else is taller, or fame-mogged means someone is more famous. For some folks in the manosphere, it is also an explanation for political success. In a December interview with The Daily Wire, a conservative media outlet, Clavicular predicted California Gov. Gavin Newsom would defeat Vice President JD Vance in the 2028 presidential election, criticizing Vance’s physical features. (It’s a sentiment echoed by far-right commentator Nick Fuentes, with whom Clavicular was seen in Miami partying with alongside Andrew Tate last month.)Of Newsom, Clavicular said he “mogs,” adding the Democrat is a “six-foot-three chad.”