Hegelian Egirl Council

About

The Hegelian Egirl Council or Hegelian E-Girl Council, often abbreviated as HEC, is a group of e-girls who subscribe to the Hegelian school of philosophy and look to spread the concept of dialectics online. The three most well-known core members of the so-called Hegelian E-Girl Council are Anna (@tenshi_anna), Sanje (@sanjehorah) and Nikki (@returntohegel), who began spreading Hegelianism on X / Twitter as early as May 2024, with the group purportedly starting sometime before this on Discord. There are more than three core members. The group became the subject of memes and discussions throughout mid-2024 for a variety of reasons, including the group's in-drama, the vagueness surrounding what exactly the Hegelian E-Girl Council stands for and does and the absurdity behind the idea of a "Hegelian e-girl" in general. By August 18th, 2024, three of the core members of the group announced their departures from the HEC, criticizing the group for not genuinely engaging in political mediation, but rather, platforming extremists from the left and right to lend themselves intellectual legitimacy.

Online History

The earliest known post to use the term "Hegelian e-girl" was posted on X^[1] by @tenshi_anna, one of the core members of the group, on May 27th, 2024, reading, "2024 is the Year of Binah. Hegelian egirl takeover is imminent/immanent," garnering over 90 likes in three months. Later that day, the same X^[2] user posted, "Be on the lookout for a new political and intellectual project called Ultraviolet conceived by the Hegelian egirl council as an answer to Infrared."

On May 29th, the same X^[3] user posted a photo of herself with @sanjehorah, another of the group's core members, captioned, "The Hegelian egirl Enlightenment is upon us," garnering over 1,100 likes in two months (shown below). In the photo, both women are wearing shirts with the cover of Hegel's work The Phenomenology of Spirit on them. X^[4] user @returntohegel is the third core member of the group.

August 2024 Hegelian E-Girl Symposium / Sanje's Departure Post

On August 3rd, 2024, the Hegelian E-Girl symposium was held in Brooklyn, New York, with X^[5] user @returntohegel sharing a poster advertising the event that day (shown below).

On August 4th, X^[6] user @matthdonovan (Matthew Donovan), made a post about the party, writing, "Hegelian e-girl party was cool. An unusual mix of platypus socialists, maga communists, jreg, Joshua Citarella, Jamie Peck, theorycels, guy who officiated Curtis Yarvin’s wedding who is homosexual but not gay, tech bros, and a pro-gamer named Rod who hated the party," garnering over 500 likes in two weeks (shown below).

Later that day, one of the group's core members, X^[7] user @sanjehorah, made a post claiming she left the council a week prior, writing, "my concern is that the HEC project claims to do be doing political mediation but is effectively platforming the worst of both sides and lending them intellectual legitimacy." She posted numerous additions to the thread in which she calls the movement "sub Hegelian," relying on a "vulgar understanding of dialectics," and criticizes the other members for straying from their promises of "political mediation" by propping up potentially problematic people and ideas (shown below, click to expand).

Anna's Departure from the Hegelian E-Girl Council Project

On August 17th, 2024, X^[10] user and core member Anna made a post announcing her departure from the Hegelian E-Girl Council, garnering over 480 likes in two days (shown below). In the post, she writes that the project "was based on the naive idea of the possibility of brute force convertibility between metaphysics and culture."

In response to the post, Sanje, who announced her departure from the group on August 4th, made a comment on Anna's X^[11] post about how she tried to warn her of the group's downfalls, writing, "I hope destroying our friendship was worth it" (shown below).

Online Presence

On August 6th, 2024, Matthew Donovan published an article on Medium^[8] about the party, titled, "I Hosted the Hegelian E-Girl Party and All I Got Was Called a Fascist." The article focuses on the reactions he received to his post about the party to X, with many calling him a fascist and denouncing the HEC as a fascist movement, which they have denied.

On August 9th, Ross Wolfe then published an article on the symposium to TheCharnelHouse,^[9] titled, "Preliminary materials for a theory of the Young-Hegelian E-Girl."

Appearance On the Horseshoe Theory Podcast

On August 13th, 2024, the three core members of the Hegelian E-Girl Council appeared on an episode of the YouTube^[12] podcast Horseshoe Theory, co-hosted by content creator and YouTuber Jreg, during which they explained Hegel's philosophy, the origin of their group and their aims, garnering over 12,500 views in six days (shown below).

The podcast was likely filmed prior to July 28th, 2024, the day that Sanje purportedly left the HEC, according to her announcement of leaving made on August 4th, although the date of filming is unclear.

Hegelian E-Girl Council Project Ideals / Philosophy

During an interview on the Horseshow Theory podcast, Nikki, Sanje and Anna attempted to explain Hegelian thinking and the ideas behind their group. The group seems to have a focus on spreading Hegel's philosophies relating to dialectical thinking, which centers on understanding change and development in ideas and reality with an ongoing three-step process: a thesis (an idea), an antithesis (a conflicting idea) and synthesis (a resolution combining aspects of both).^[13]

Nikki says during the show, "Hegel is more of a signifier for dialectical thinking […] One of the major problems in society today is black and white thinking and the ability to resolve contradiction […] Dialectical thinking helps resolve contradictions."

Anna explains that the goal behind the Hegelian E-Girl Project is to "Introduce Hegelian dialectical thinking into popular conversations outside of academia, and intervene in the existing culture in social media." She explains that on social media, people face an "abyss of freedom" on social media that makes everyone very aware of divisions. The project looks to give people a way of improving their lives and interactions.

According to the core members, the movement is described as having anti-centrist ideals and leans more on the side of "left-Hegelians" than "right-Hegelians." Throughout the podcast, they criticize both members and ideas from the left and right. They refer to themselves as "Hegel-pilled" throughout the appearance.

During the podcast, they refer to Slavoj Žižek as someone who has displayed a good understanding and implementation of dialectical thinking.

Search Interest

External References