An anonymous post appeared in late September on Reddit’s “QAnonCasualties” forum, an online space designed to support those desperate to extricate their loved ones from the grip of all-consuming conspiracy theories. A 17-year-old wrote: “I think my brother is a white supremacist and I don’t know what to do.” She continued that she became concerned after her 13-year-old brother started saying things like “gays are disgusting.”
She did some digging and discovered her younger brother’s anonymous account on the alternative social media platform Telegram, with a username boasting support for white Christian nationalist Nick Fuentes and an avatar showing alt-right icon Pepe the Frog framed by an America First flag. She soon discovered that her brother had become a loyal follower of Fuentes.
Fuentes — who recently referred to Hitler as “really great” and declared “We need to eliminate the Jewish stranglehold on the United States of America” — leads the America First/Gruber movement, a network of disaffected generals who have reached the point of online despair . The Z-Men are animated by a toxic mix of misogyny, anti-Semitism, and white rage. (Groyper is a variation of the Pepe meme in far-right online spaces.) [is] “It is very difficult,” the sister admitted to those providing support. “I love my family very much and [it] It hurts me to see it turn into this.”
Although Fuentes’ overt Hitlerism made him a pariah in the eyes of most conservative leaders, it is difficult to dismiss him as marginal. Over the past two years, Fuentes has hosted leading MAGA representatives Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) at Gruber conferences and dined closely with former President Donald Trump as a surprise guest at Mar-a-Lago. Most of the once-fringe positions that Fuentes has championed for years — such as the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, Christian nationalism, and militant homophobia — are now standard conservative tendencies. And it’s all by design.
On high school and college campuses across the country, many right-wing youth are rallying behind MAGA elders in an enthusiastic embrace of anti-democratic, exclusionary, and radically bigoted politics. Granted, most of Generation Z leans liberal. But those who buck the trend proudly cling to their “maverick” status, redoubling their efforts to rigorously reaffirm the race, gender, and other hierarchies that their peers seek to dismantle.
These young right-wingers are often – as with the younger brother above – first radicalized by online influencers like Fuentes or Andrew Tate, a misogynistic streamer. On fan forums and online message boards, they find camaraderie and community, circulating a range of racist memes, anti-feminist articles, bodybuilding videos, Bible verses, and other content steeped in the isolation of incel culture and the critique of white grievance. As they mature, many of them turn their politics into real-world activism. While this milieu produces no shortage of mass shootings, many of them wear suits and ties and find welcome and livelihood in youth-focused MAGA institutions — meme-laden cellphones in their pockets, intent on dragging the right even further into the right.
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Perhaps the largest such organization, Turning Point USA (TPUSA), has long operated, as its founder Charlie Kirk once said, like a “battle tank” on college campuses, attacking student activists and progressive professors across the country with a barrage From the culture war. and harassment campaigns tailored to the spread of social media. In recent years, it has pushed its policies to the outer limits of mainstream acceptance. TPUSA events now show Greene declaring: “We must be Christian nationalists,” pastors proposing to execute political opponents, and alt-right mainstays like Steve Bannon and Alex Jones promoting the “Great Reset” conspiracy theory that posits “globalist” elites have used force. The Covid-19 pandemic to establish evil domination over the world.
It wasn’t always this extreme. In the fall of 2019, the Groyper movement first captured the spotlight with a national campaign targeting TPUSA, which they viewed as a symbol of the ultra-conservative establishment that has stymied the white nationalist cause. But today, Fuentes changed his tune. In a 2023 speech, he said TPUSA “is coming further and further… They look more like me today than they did four years ago” and “we’re fighting a guerrilla war, but in many ways, we’ve already won.”
While Kirk once claimed that the United States should “put green cards on diplomas,” today he, like much of the right, regularly calls for a halt to immigration. He indulged in overt white nationalism, calling for the protection of “America’s white demographics” and insisting that “whiteness is great. Be proud of who you are.” Several TPUSA chapters have hosted Groyper speakers, and Groypers have been exposed as chapter leaders on high school and college campuses—enacting a long-standing white nationalist infiltration strategy to transform conservative institutions from within.
TPUSA isn’t the only Gen Z political organization rife with white nationalists. Chapters of the College Republican Union (CRU), a national network closely associated with the Grueber movement, hosted white nationalist leaders such as Jared Taylor and Vincent James Fox to speak on campus. “[Fuentes] He has a large fan base among young conservatives.[and] A message that resonates with many college-age students to publish on X (formerly Twitter) in July, defending her decision to make Fuentes headline her national convention amid national opposition.
Students for Yee was a national network created in 2022 after Yee (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) launched an anti-Semitic, pro-Hitler tirade, and an alleged presidential campaign, with Fuentes at his side. Students for Ye claimed the support of 1,000 students, and several colleges and high schools were tagged with “Ye is Right” graffiti, amid other acts of harassment by Grueber’s instigators. Students for Yi President Daniel Schmidt, a first-year student at the University of Chicago, has railed against “Jewish bigots” online, and continues to appear as a guest on Fox News, where he cites a central slogan of the white nationalist movement in criticizing “anti-Jewish bigots.” eggs”. Genocide discourse.” If the TPUSA branch is “not pro-Lee,” he told a Groyper broadcaster in January, “we will send our guys there and do whatever it takes” to “put the pro-Lee people in.”
Conservative groups on campus serve as pipelines for future conservative leadership. “Anyone who spends any time in conservative circles in D.C. knows that there is a particularly strong hard-line mood on the younger end of the conservative spectrum,” 25-year-old conservative thinker Nate Hochman explained at a panel in February. Five months later, Hochman was fired from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign after joining the party Sun equipment The sun wheel, a Nazi symbol, in the campaign video.
Across the ecosystem of Republican Youth clubs, GOP affiliated committees and MAGA advocacy organizations, it’s also easy to find adherents of the aberrant Bronze Age fascist influencer (BAP) and self-proclaimed “neo-reactionary” thinkers like Curtis Yarvin — ideologues committed to liquidating democracy and replacing it with feudal monarchy New, tyranny or fascism.
“We want all-out war,” Gavin Wax, leader of the Young Republican Club of New York, shouted at the group’s 2022 gala, embodying this glove-less approach. “This is the only language the left understands. The language of pure, unadulterated power.
From campuses to communities, for every Gen Z conservative activist exposed as a Grueber or populist, there are many others whose ideological affiliations and anonymous accounts never see the light of day. An August poll by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that 69% of 13- to 17-year-olds with a high degree of social media use agreed with four or more conspiracy statements, with more than 50% agreeing with anti-Semitism. And a great replacement. Conspiracy theories in particular. 2022 study published by Political Research Quarterlybased on a survey of 3,500 American adults, found that “the center of anti-Semitic attitudes is young people on the far right.”
These are the rising leaders of the right. Regardless of the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, the exclusionary, anti-democratic policies exacerbated and amplified by Trumpism are not going away anytime soon.
In recent years, colleges and universities have become more than just institutions for higher education. They have evolved into employment hubs for the tech-savvy Generation Z. With a focus on offering practical skills and real-world experience, these institutions now serve as key players in preparing young adults for the workforce. From career fairs and internships to specialized programs and on-campus job opportunities, colleges are playing a crucial role in shaping the career paths of the next generation. This trend reflects a shift in the priorities of both students and educational institutions, as they work together to adapt to the changing demands of the modern job market.