Young men are turning to fascism. I don’t use that word lightly. Hypochondriac leftists apply it to everything they dislike, from farmers’ markets to air travel. Still, when I see the combination of antisemitism, white nationalism, hostility to markets, and apologias for actual, literal Nazism (notably through the elevation of Adolf Hitler’s legal apologist, Carl Schmitt), I don’t know what other word to use.

How to measure the generational shift? Much has been made of Ron Dreher’s claim that 30% to 40% of Republican staffers under 30 are followers of Nick Fuentes, or “Groypers.” In fact, Dreher was quoting a friend’s guesstimate, and the actual number is probably lower. Even so, the direction of travel is alarming.

For anyone unfamiliar with Fuentes, he is a 27-year-old provocateur who enjoys horrifying his audience. As a teenager, he marched at the 2017 Unite the Right rally, reveling in the idea that a “tidal wave of white identity is coming.” He says he loves Hitler, and summarized his worldview as “Jews are running society. Women need to shut the f*** up. Blacks need to be imprisoned.” His X account, reinstated in 2024, has 1.2 million followers, and his America First livestream show........

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