As far as I can tell the message of the movie is "consumerism is bad because it's emasculating and feminizing, real liberation can be found in ruthless hierarchies of masculine violence"
The only person I know who likes it IRL also has a tendency to complain about the "pussification of modern men"
Discussion of themes, part 1 - :pit:
Okay firstly we need to talk about Fight Club as a discussion on fascist radicalisation.
Let's begin with Tyler Durden/Protagonist, or rather their contrast.
Tyler is deliberately paralleled with Nietzsche's conception of an "Ubermensch", a platonic ideal fascist power, the sort of figure that is viewed as aspirational to the chuds, in a more modern vernacular I suppose you could call him a Chad. Furthering the connection to Nietzsche's philosophy Tyler is obsessed with physical strength and is constantly decrying that men are growing weak and effeminate in a society that has grown soft, if you've read "Thus Spake Zarathustra" it's rather easy to grasp the similarities between Tyler's rants and Nietzsche's own warnings of "removed". It's by no way an unimportant detail that the men he picks to recruit for Project Mayhem are mostly from support groups for erectile dysfunction and testicular cancer, people who are in a sense immasculated by their illness.
The protagonist on the other hand is lonely, isolated, ill both physically and mentally, and feels deeply unfulfilled in his life. He works as an insurance assessor, specifically assessing car crashes, and hates his job but is unable to quit for a variety of reasons.
When he "meets" Tyler, they discuss their mutual dissatisfaction with modernity, the main complaints that they present revolve around the commercialisation of society and alienation within capitalism but lacking any form of systemic critique or material analysis they fail to properly identify the cause of their problems. Instead the protagonist begins to project his insecurities as the root of capitalism's failings, ultimately pinning it all on a supposed weakness in the modern man, a weakness he views within himself.
Tyler Durden then, in a work more sympathetic to fascism would be the protagonist's mentor figure. And TBF that is the role he positions himself as, teaching the protagonist to become an Ubermensch, just like him. Save for a couple of major holes;
Firstly, Tyler isn't real (none of them are, it's a film but you probably get what I mean) he's a projection of the protagonist's insecurities, as an aspirational figure he is unattainable the protagonist made him up.
Secondly, striving for these ideals is killing the protagonist. As the film progresses, Tyler grows fitter as the protagonist begins to wither away (This was portrayed by the actor that played the protagonist (Edward Norton) fasting during the filming of the movie while the actor that played Tyler (Brad Pitt) would exercise at the gym and visit tanning beds when off set). The protagonist's insomnia begins to grow worse as he falls further into his radicalisation.
Thirdly, Tyler's teachings aren't actually making the protagonist's life any better. As the film progresses, he never gains anything and only loses more of himself. He loses his apartment, quits his job, becomes even more isolated and alienated, his relationship with the only person he feels understands him (Marla) crumbles. All this to maintain a project that he's gets no benefit from and is just along for the ride of so to speak. We see this happen with other people such as the man who gets shot by a cop and is promptly martyred for a cause that viewed him only as a tool.
This brings us to the final point that immediately pops up to me, the dehumanisation of Project Mayhem. During the fight clubs, members of Project Mayhem dress the same and gather in the dark to beat on each other while Tyler yells at them down a megaphone. The cinematography of these scenes tends to lend heavily on emphasising (sorry to sound like Gramsci here) on how much like a prison this is and thus the self destructive vision of masculinity they idealise becomes (at least for a short time) a prison of their own creation.
Discussion of themes, part 2 - :joker-dancing:
I'm gonna do something I deeply dislike doing and discuss nihilist philosophy. This means more Nietzsche, sorry.
Nihilism is one of those things at this point. Y'know it's so saturated into the public zeitgeist that you probably have some idea of what it is just via cultural osmosis.
Rather than prattle on like a fool for, like, a couple hundred words I'll spare us both the indignity and link to a video essay that does a better job of summarising nihilism than I possibly could for anyone reading this that legit doesn't know, but at this point you all probably get the gist.
Ok, with all that out of the way, let's talk about Fight Club's connection to nihilism.
Back to "Thus Spake Zarathustra" (listen I read a lot of Nietzsche as a sad and angry teen, let me have this) Nietzsche writes, "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?" Or if you aren't a completely pretentious wanker, our current moral system is built upon layers upon layers of different religious beliefs and as the trend of declining religiosity continues, these morals will need to be evaluated and as people we will need to decide what should be kept and what should be discarded. And more to the point, what defines a meaningful existence in a world deprived of reason behind its presence?
I feel that this same conundrum is one that fight club wrestles with, Tyler Durden exists to present us with what Nietzsche postulated would the the solution to a nihilistic existence (striving to become an Ubermensch) and through the Tyler Durden, Fight Club presents a criticism of this answer.
As discussed in my previous comment, Project Mayhem is formed almost exclusively from those who have been convinced that they are unable to attain a meaningful existence and through Tyler Durden's rhetoric they are convinced that they can reclaim their masculinity and thus meaning through violence and conformity to the goals of Project Mayhem, but ultimately Project Mayhem only serves to destroy them, the one meaning they find in life is but to die as martyrs.