- 4 days ago
From trolling to terrorism, this group has become a lightning rod for controversy. Join us as we examine why the Groypers have alarmed political analysts, journalists, and law enforcement alike. Our breakdown includes white nationalism, antisemitism, Nick Fuentes' leadership, and their strategic use of Christian nationalism as a shield for extremist ideology.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00It is very prescient that last year at our inaugural America First conference we were coming fresh off of the Groyper War.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're breaking down just what makes this controversial alt-right group so newsworthy.
00:15The phrase white Christian nationalism has been in the headlines quite a bit recently, but what does it really mean?
00:21Overt white nationalist ideology.
00:23I realized, and some might try to refute this in the room, but it's all on video, that he has endorsed Jim Crow segregation, he has denied that the Holocaust happened, he has associated himself with fascism openly.
00:38He said if Antifa were fascist, he would be marching alongside them.
00:41Groypers have built their entire identity around an unapologetically white nationalist worldview.
00:46Followers claim that immigration, multiculturalism, and demographic change threaten quote-unquote Western civilization, and they frame racial identity as central to politics.
00:57This rhetoric has made headlines beyond extremist circles, with mainstream outlets reporting on Groyper's growing presence at political events and online forums.
01:06These people are old people. I'm an old person too, quite frankly, and I had to talk to younger people about this.
01:11But younger people who are in the gaming community are saying these are gamer references, this is for the gamers.
01:16And in fact, they're kind of used a lot in the Groyper circles.
01:19While they market themselves as defenders of quote-unquote traditional America, their talking points echo decades-old white supremacist movements, given a facelift for younger audiences.
01:29Their determination to mainstream extremist narratives make them more than a fringe curiosity.
01:35They represent a coordinated effort to bring hate-based ideology into the broader conservative conversation, one event disruption and viral live stream at a time.
01:44Also, we asked Grok about this. It says, yes, Bella Ciao, the iconic Italian anti-fashion, fascist partisan song has been ironically appropriated as a meme or joke within Groyper circles, the far-right online subculture associated with Nick Fuentes and his America First movement.
02:01Rampant anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.
02:04The Holocaust-denying podcaster Fuentes arriving at Mar-a-Lago as a guest of rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, himself engulfed in controversy for past anti-Semitic remarks.
02:16West describing their dinner with Mr. Trump in this since-deleted Twitter video.
02:20So Trump is really impressed with Nick Fuentes.
02:23At the heart of Groyper ideology is an obsession with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
02:29Nick Fuentes, more on him soon, has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the Holocaust, even mocking survivors.
02:36These claims aren't just offhand remarks.
02:38They're central to the movement's worldview, which blames Jewish people for everything from immigration policy to cultural trends.
02:45Infamously anti-Semitic online commentator and once-Trump ally Nick Fuentes earned backlash online when he said that when his America First movement takes power, non-Christians quote, they need to be given the death penalty.
02:59They must absolutely be annihilated when we take power.
03:02Holocaust minimization, paired with coded rhetoric about globalist elites, cements Groyper's place in a long lineage of anti-Semitic hate groups.
03:11What makes them uniquely dangerous is their ability to pair this rhetoric with meme culture, creating a toxic mix of humor and hate that makes Holocaust denial appear edgy and enticing to a younger generation.
03:23So this is someone, look, I don't doubt that he has an online following.
03:27There is, unfortunately, a lot of, you know, there is anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism and Holocaust denial and all other forms of bigotry out there in the world for which he is a vessel.
03:40But he's not, I mean, he's not, I don't even know if giving him enough publicity to denounce him is worth it.
03:47Maybe it is. It's fine.
03:48Nick Fuentes' extreme leadership.
03:49I was supposed to be entering Boston University for my sophomore year, but in response to recent death threats and threats against my physical safety, I decided that that might not be the best idea.
04:01When you start receiving death threats to the extent that I have.
04:04Fuentes is more than the movement's figurehead.
04:07He is its architect.
04:08Media coverage has detailed Fuentes' rise from obscure live streamer to organizer of America First conferences and rallies, turning his personal brand into a pipeline for radicalization.
04:18His ability to fuse internet humor, contrarian politics, and explicit racism makes him an unusually effective recruiter.
04:26There is this pervasive penetration of our society by a fifth column.
04:31And it's so sophisticated and multidimensional and spans many disciplines.
04:37It's such a huge topic that you almost have to be a little bit insane to tackle it and to get to the bottom of it, which is sort of me going through the looking glass over the past eight years.
04:47Fuentes' leadership has attracted attention from watchdog organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, who've labeled him a white supremacist and extremist.
04:56By consolidating Gruyper's around his personality and content, Fuentes ensures their ideology stays consistent and provocative, all while cultivating a veneer of intellectual debate to mask hate speech.
05:08His charisma is the movement's greatest asset and most effective weapon.
05:12They say that we're the hateful ones, we're the bigots, and I get messages all day long from people I've never met telling me what a terrible person I am.
05:19There's no hate on this side, I hate no one.
05:22I would never do anything like that, and so I think it's a little bit upsetting that the political climate is the way it is.
05:27Aggressive targeting of mainstream conservatives.
05:29We're talking about Charlie Kirk, the bag man for Trump.
05:34We're talking about the ADL, the SPLC.
05:40Powerful people got me, me, at the time I was a kid.
05:44I was 18.
05:46Powerful people got me destroyed the first time.
05:49Gruyper's aren't content to simply clash with the political left.
05:53They've made a name for themselves attacking fellow conservatives.
05:56This strategy became known as the Gruyper Wars, a campaign to disrupt events hosted by groups like Turning Point USA and figures like Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk.
06:06These confrontations were designed to pressure conservatives into adopting harsher stances on immigration, LGBTQ rights, and race.
06:13And who is their guy?
06:16Elon's guy, Silicon Valley's guy, Wall Street's guy is J.D. Vance.
06:22Now, more on that later.
06:26But that was a big reason.
06:27I said because Vance was the congenital, archetypal, never-Trumper.
06:32By heckling prominent figures and framing them as hacks and sellouts,
06:37Gruyper's positioned themselves as the true defenders of quote-unquote real conservatism.
06:41This tactic has paid off, elevating their visibility and influence.
06:45It's not just a movement of trolls.
06:47It's a coordinated push to drag mainstream conservatism further toward extremism.
06:52I also don't appreciate the lecture.
06:53You don't know me, you know, so I know you're married.
06:57I know you're older than me, but you don't know me.
06:59You don't know my life.
07:01You don't know my situation.
07:02I don't think you're in a position to give me advice, especially as a woman, honestly.
07:06I don't think women, you know, this is something in the right wing.
07:09We say we're anti-feminist.
07:10And then women go around telling men what to do.
07:12We're not their husbands.
07:13Promotion of homophobia and anti-LGBTQIA plus views.
07:17You don't hold your ground against these things.
07:20Like you said, they take it, they take an inch and they go a mile.
07:23And it starts with, you know, like you said, hey, we just don't want to be beat up.
07:27And we just want to get married.
07:28And then it turns into, like you said, drag queen story hour.
07:31And it's, do you see this thing in Texas the other day where they're in this drag bar
07:35and they got these repulsive signs on the wall?
07:37Gruyper's hostility toward LGBTQ rights is not subtle.
07:41Their live streams, rallies, and social media posts are laced with slurs and warnings of
07:46societal collapse, echoing decades-old moral panics.
07:51Media coverage has documented how their rhetoric fuels a toxic environment for queer Americans,
07:56often under the guise of defending quote-unquote traditional family values.
08:00This hatred isn't confined to fringe spaces.
08:03Gruyper's actively pressures conservative politicians to reject LGBTQ rights entirely,
08:08using the same ambush tactics seen in their broader culture war efforts.
08:13Their messaging resonates with radicalized, chronically online young men,
08:17creating a cycle of mockery and vitriol that treats queer people as cultural scapegoats.
08:23For Gruyper's, targeting LGBTQ communities is a core ideological killer, not a side note.
08:29Connection to the January 6th Capitol attack.
08:32America first! America first! America first!
08:36Gruyper's online rhetoric has spilled over into the real world.
08:39Nick Fuentes' presence near the U.S. Capitol during the January 6th insurrection,
08:44with many of his associates participating in or cheering on the violence, is living proof of that.
08:49While the Gruyper's aren't a centralized organization,
08:52their connection to this watershed moment in American extremism
08:55cemented their reputation as more than mere internet trolls.
08:58We've just heard that Mike Pence is not going to reject any fraudulent elect or vote!
09:07No!
09:07No!
09:07No!
09:11That's right!
09:12You've heard it here first!
09:14Mike Pence has betrayed the United States of America!
09:19Their embrace of anti-democratic rhetoric and conspiracies about the 2020 election added fuel to the fire.
09:25Even after January 6th, Fuentes used his platform to defend participants
09:30and spread narratives that justify political violence.
09:33This connection makes it harder to dismiss Gruyper's as an online-only movement
09:37when their highly effective messaging inspires real action.
09:40The Democrats are our enemies!
09:43What we don't expect is that Republicans will betray us at every turn!
09:48No!
09:50I don't know about you, but I will take an enemy any day of the week!
09:54A Lord traitor!
09:56Use of online platforms to spread hate.
09:58Online hate speech is like the wildfire of the internet.
10:01Easy to see, but almost impossible to contain.
10:05Online hate is bigger than any individual platform.
10:07One of the Gruyper's most effective strategies is turning extremism into a joke.
10:12Members of the community rely on memes, gaming culture references, and ironic humor
10:17to make white nationalist talking points seem palatable, even funny.
10:21By cloaking hate in irony, they sidestep mainstream moderation efforts and lure in younger audiences.
10:27The alt-right has predominantly spread through the internet,
10:30which has led it to be most accessible to teenage boys
10:33who can easily access alt-right content through platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, or even TikTok.
10:40New recruits may start by laughing at edgy jokes,
10:44only to be gradually exposed to holocaust denial, racist pseudoscience, and authoritarian propaganda.
10:50The tactic of weaponizing irony, as some media outlets refer to it,
10:54has been perfected in the age of live streams and TikTok clips.
10:58Their online culture is a sophisticated recruitment machine,
11:02designed to radicalize while deflecting criticism.
11:04The problem with this is you can get stuck in a digital echo chamber
11:08where you are only exposed to content that reinforces the beliefs previously put in your head.
11:14This can feel like a new exclusive club or community for these boys,
11:18but all it does is encourage the offensive behavior they might be showing.
11:23By ingraining in susceptible teenage minds, these ideas can really last into adulthood.
11:29Normalizing alt-right ideals.
11:3010 o'clock Friday night, hundreds of white nationalists storming the University of Virginia,
11:36protesting plans to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
11:40Groypers learned from the fall of the alt-right after 2017's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
11:46Rather than marching with tiki torches, they branded themselves as clean-cut Christian nationalists.
11:52Nick Fuentes' America First Political Action Conference, or AFPAC,
11:56serves as a counter to CPAC, presenting Groypers as a polished intellectual movement
12:00rather than an angry, hateful mob.
12:03The point of my talk tonight is to talk about how this moment in history
12:07is the moment of America First.
12:13Some have said in history that there is nothing that can stop an idea whose time has come.
12:19This calculated rebrand has allowed them to infiltrate mainstream conservative spaces
12:24without immediately raising alarms.
12:26Critics note that this strategy makes them uniquely dangerous.
12:30Their rhetoric hasn't changed, but their optics have.
12:32By presenting themselves as reasonable patriots,
12:35Groypers are shifting the Overton window to their considerable advantage,
12:39making the far-right ideas seem almost mainstream.
12:42And you remember, when I traveled the country and stopped the steal,
12:46I said that it doesn't stop with stop the steal.
12:50That if Joe Biden is inaugurated, we don't stop after January 20th.
12:56We just shift focus.
12:58America First, no exceptions.
13:00From this day forward, it's going to be only America First.
13:08America First.
13:10The phrase America First is heavily loaded.
13:14With a long history dating back to isolationist and xenophobic movements of the 20th century,
13:19Grypers have revived it, using the slogan to cloak ethno-nationalist beliefs under patriotic language.
13:26Axios and the New York Times have reported that Fuentes' rendition
13:29is designed to attract conservatives frustrated with traditional party politics,
13:33while pushing them toward increasingly extreme positions on race and immigration.
13:38The Trump revolution is over.
13:41It's dead.
13:42You know, totally gone.
13:44What Trump was about in 2016 was America First.
13:47America First in foreign policy.
13:50America First in labor, in economics, in trade, and everywhere else.
13:54This branding makes Grypers harder to challenge.
13:57Opposing them can be spun as opposing patriotism.
14:01The slogan simplicity also makes it an effective recruitment tool, bridging the gap between mainstream
14:06conservatism and far-right extremism.
14:09For Grypers, America First isn't a call for national pride.
14:13It's a radical manifesto in disguise.
14:15It's wrong.
14:16It's unacceptable.
14:17It's a betrayal of everything that he ran on in 2016, everything that he stood for.
14:22He's got to put his foot down, because at a certain point, you know, you get a little tired of the cheerleading here.
14:28I'll always respect what he did for the country.
14:30I'll always, I think he's a funny and a good man.
14:33Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
14:39You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
14:43If you're on your phone, make sure you go into settings and switch on your notifications.
14:49Using Christian nationalism as a shield for extremism.
14:52Christian nationalism is an ideology that is based around the idea that this is a Christian nation.
14:58Grypers frequently employ Christian rhetoric to justify their ideology,
15:02framing themselves as moral crusaders defending faith against so-called modern decay.
15:08Outlets like Salon and the Washington Post have documented how Fuentes and his followers use religion strategically,
15:15often conflating Christian values with ethno-nationalism.
15:18They also are deeply invested in the notion of spiritual warfare.
15:22The idea that we are called as Christians to fight a cosmic battle between good and evil,
15:30and that it's our duty to be boots on the ground for God in that conflict.
15:36While not all Grypers are devout or even Christian,
15:39the branding gives their movement a veneer of righteousness,
15:42helping them appeal to religious conservatives wary of secular politics.
15:46This tactic isn't new, but Grypers have modernized it for the digital age.
15:51Merging live stream sermons with culture war talking points.
15:54By hiding extremism behind faith, they attempt to deflect criticism,
15:59while building credibility among audiences already primed to see themselves as defenders of Western culture.
16:05Christian nationalists understand themselves to be playing a character.
16:08They are drawn into a narrative that says,
16:11you are at the last battle.
16:14You have a chance to do something that is much bigger than you.
16:17Will you answer that call?
16:19Will you come to D.C. on January 6th?
16:22Will you ride with us to the southern border?
16:24What do you think of Grypers?
16:26Is there anything we missed?
16:28Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
16:30I know that a lot of people may not understand what a Gryper is.
16:33Representative King and Representative Gosar,
16:36I'm not sure if they've been initiated into the Gryper subculture.
Recommended
1:40:06
|
Up next
1:16
2:05
3:21
1:08
25:00
1:55
15:22
Be the first to comment