Progressive influencer and junior political science major Django Buenz describes her content as an echo chamber of her own timeline. She posts explanations, vlogs and screenshots of communist and leftist memes, among other things.

“It’s kind of like yelling into the void,” Buenz said. “[It’s] most of what I do and what I’m kind of infamous for doing, which is yelling.”

According to an article from NPR, published on Sept. 10, 2023, the Chilean military, with help from the United States, launched a coup to overthrow socialist president Salvador Allende on Sept. 11, 1973. Former President Richard Nixon and his assistant for national security affairs, Henry Kissinger, worried what it would mean for the U.S. if there was a freely elected socialist in the Chilean office. In the years leading up to 1973, the U.S. spent millions of dollars for anti-communist propaganda and covert actions. General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte became Chile’s leader and killed 38,000 of his citizens and 3,000 people disappeared in his 17-year dictatorship.

In 2020, Buenz’s mom told her that her uncle was one of the disappeared. As the black sheep of the family, her uncle was not pro-Pinochet or pro-military. Pinochet targeted people who opposed his rule. Further research, sparked by this newfound knowledge, radicalized Buenz to the political left when she was 15 years old. 

“High school [was] online – which was such a joke; I learned nothing,” Buenz said. “I don’t know how to do chemistry, but I know Nixon’s foreign policy and Kissinger’s foreign policy because that’s what I was fervently reading at home with all my free time in quarantine.”

A few months after Buenz began exploring her political identity, George Floyd tragically lost his life in Minnesota, leading to Black Lives Matter movement protests erupting across the United States and in her home of New York City. Buenz decided to read more information about how “rotted America was on the inside,” Buenz said. 

“I had no idea what to do so I was like, ‘I’m going to study politics. I’m going to make this my life. I’m going to make a change,’” Buenz said. “You know when you’re young and you have all that hope and dream?”

Buenz wanted to attend school in a Republican county because she had grown up around Democrats and desired thoughts from the other side. Now, located in Republican-leaning Nassau County, she’s a progressive influencer with a following of over 85,000 on TikTok and 67,000 on Instagram.

Her teenage fans often ask her for advice regarding social media creation, to which she recommends to not do it. Instead, she encourages them to study what they want and organize and educate themselves on their own time.

“Growing into my social media platform happened at the same time as growing into life at college and expressing myself and finding my people,” Buenz said.

Her social media did not initially reflect her political views as she wanted to gain followers before creating niche content. She posted daily vlogs, mukbangs at Hofstra University’s dining halls and “get-ready-with-me” videos. 

“It wasn’t until I fell out with my freshman year suitemates who had told me never to post about politics that I was like, ‘You know what? Why am I f****** listening to you guys?’” Buenz said. “‘I’m going to post about politics.’”

Buenz was walking around New York in the summer of 2024 when she saw a sticker posted on a piece of scaffolding that read, “Keep Calm and Destroy Hamas.” She turned on her camera and filmed herself ripping off the sticker. She called the sticker disgusting and said, “No one wants your Zionism on the Lower East Side.” Zionism, as explained by Brittanica, is a movement with the goal of establishing a Jewish national state through the colonization of Palestine. 

“You’re not destroying Hamas. You’re destroying hospitals. You’re killing children,” Buenz said in the video. “This is July 2024 so it’s 10 months into the genocide, slaughter [and] destruction – complete rubble turning of Gaza.”

The TikTok video was reposted by an X account called StopAntisemites, amplifying the content to a Zionist audience. Commenters pointed out Hofstra’s large Jewish population and leaked her address and family’s phone numbers. 

“It was a really intense week,” Buenz said. “I was lucky enough to not be in the city and cope with it with my best friend.”

Buenz continued to post political content as normal, until what she refers to as the “Charlie Kirk Incident.”

While sitting in her room with a group of friends on Sept. 10, 2025, the television flashed breaking news that the right-wing political influencer Charlie Kirk had been shot at Utah Valley University. She said the room erupted in cheers. Her boyfriend sent her a video on X of Kirk getting shot and it was clear that he was dead. Kirk founded right-wing activist group Turning Point USA, an organization that visits college campuses to debate students on political issues.

“‘Oh my god, this is massive news everyone’s going to be talking about this,’” Buenz said was her mindset at the time. “‘I need to put something out and say what my opinion is on this.’”

She posted a video on Instagram celebrating his death. By that evening, death threats littered Fizz, an anonymous social media platform for college students. The head of Public Safety encouraged her to stay home if she felt unsafe coming to campus. She met with Dean of Students Chermele Christy. In their conversation, Christy discussed Buenz’s content. 

“My focus in situations like this is on supporting students’ safety and preparedness,” Christy said. “Students are free to express their views yet should understand the potential of highly charged topics for strong reactions.”

After the sticker incident, Buenz felt far more equipped to deal with the “Charlie Kirk Incident.” She maintained her stance.

“[Kirk] was a big propaganda piece for a lot of evil things in the world,” Buenz said. “I don’t regret celebrating his death.”

 Remarks from numerous people saying they were surprised that she was nice in-person lead her to modify her content. She now highlights important economic issues, such as the fact that people should be able to afford a house if they work eight hours a day, finding that even right-wing people agree with her when she does not say Karl Marx or socialism. 

“[My content] definitely changed after Sept. 10 from, ‘Haha dumb conservatives. Got what he deserved. Fascism is so bad’ to ‘Let’s talk about what fascism is. I want to break it down. I want to tell you why you deserve better,’” Buenz said. “[I’m] leading with that revolutionary love.”

Although Buenz said, “nothing about any of those events were easy to digest,” she has a few support systems that keep her going. Some of it comes from direct message requests from followers saying, “She’s their motivation,” and getting paid to post brand offers; however, most of it is her dad who stands as a rock and provides her with everything from mentorship to book suggestions. 

“In the [1970s], he was in college and attending protests and doing all that stuff that people today would call ‘social justice warriors’ online,” Buenz said. “Back then, it was just, ‘You’re human with empathy; you’re going to want to be with fellow humans with empathy and see how far you can go or how much you can change together.’”

Buenz is looking to make a club at Hofstra to unite left-wing people around facts while eating pizza and hosting movie nights. After graduation, she has a plethora of job plans including independent journalism, campaign managing or starting a public relations firm for left-wing people in the U.S. She suspects Generation Z will abandon the democratic party in favor of a further leftist approach and hopes to fill that gap.

Buenz’s views can be described as many things, but it all boils down to one sentence: “It starts with anti-establishment and it ends with you deserve better,” Buenz said. “I believe anyone’s minds can be changed, but the way to change minds is not by making enemies out of each other.” 

Buenz can be found on Instagram at @dj8ngo or on TikTok at @djangita.