I get this weird feeling that if Phil were born five or ten years earlier, he'd still be an edgelord.
If he didn't have a weeb phase in high school, Phil would probably turn out to be one of those right-winger militia movement sympathizers or paramilitary wannabe types. You know the ones I'm talking about.
I'm talking the kind of guys who would read Soldier of Fortune Magazine and cheap paramilitary paperback novels unironically, sperged endlessly about shit like Ruby Ridge and Waco, and would proudly fly the POW-MIA flag in their yard despite never serving in the military in any capacity.
Sort of like Jace Connors, only a Boomer or Generation X'er and obsessed with Soldier of Fortune Magazine and Red Dawn instead of Call of Duty.
Phil definitely fits the edgy mall ninja wannabe tough guy profile. Honestly, had he been exposed to different media in his formative years, he probably would've been a real life Jace, only a lot less funny or endearing.
Even if you factor the Naruto obsession and his weeb tendencies into account, he only really turned out the way he did because of identity politics and cosplaying as the wrong Hetalia character at the wrong time. Had he cosplayed as Germany or Prussia, he'd probably be one of those Alt-Right Wehraboos instead of an SJW Antifa LARP'er.
And if Phil was born 5-10 years earlier and still had a weeb phase, he'd be one of those guys you saw everywhere back in the 90's and early 2000's.
The kind of guys who unironically wore black dusters, backwards ball caps, fingerless gloves, and mirrored sunglasses and listened to bands like Nine Inch Nails and The Sisters of Mercy.
He'd be the kind of guy who would probably be big into edgy shit like Vampire: The Masquerade (especially the LARP version) and he'd still have a lot of shitty mall ninja blades but less commie sperging.
Also, I could see him probably getting into Satanism, Paganism, or the Occult instead of being fixated on Judaism, Buddhism, and Militant Atheism at random intervals.
Yes, I know of his very short-lived Troon Witch phase when he wore a Wiccan necklace and a Halloween witch hat, but the kind of edgelord I am describing would be fixated on occultism and Neo-Paganism in the same way that Phil is cyclically obsessed with Judaism and Buddhism (despite being a rabid Anti-Semite these days)
Instead of Naruto, Phil would be into old VHS weeb shit like Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D, Angel Cop, and Legend of the Overfiend.
I would normally blame Phil's behavior on his fixation with far-left identity politics, and while that has certainly ruined his life and made an already bad situation exponentially worse, I can't help but think that Phil would've been a whiny edgelord fuck-up no matter what.
If he were born just a few years earlier, he'd still be a friendless edgelord wasting his money on useless shit in a futile attempt to look badass.
The only difference is that he'd be either a Militia Movement edgelord or Trenchcoat Mafia edgelord instead of claiming to be the Prime Minister of Antifa.