If you’ve ever wondered what the whole deal with Nick Fuentes and the groypers is, this is your episode. NRP Cub Reporter Ace, who’s been helping out with the Reads for the last month, joins us to discuss — in addition to the week’s big news stories — who these young radicals are, what they want, and the trollish nature of their activism. There was too much to talk about in one episode, so Ace also wrote up a post-mortem on AFPAC IV, a doomed groyper gathering he attended last weekend. Read it below!
NRP Radio is a weekly podcast that captures the new right zeitgeist. We discuss the week’s happenings, memes and controversies: All the Shit that’s Fit to Poast. We’re also on Spotify.
A gonzo adventure at AFPAC IV
Since the last AFPAC in 2022, more Gen Zers are openly identifying as reactionaries in physical space, and with the new young right splintering into several subcultures, the groypers have somehow managed to weather censorship and deplatformings with a rabid and growing audience. You thought these edgelords were a lost cause. How have they maintained their momentum?
After looking behind the curtain at America First’s AFPAC IV conference, a groyper gathering in Detroit, it became clear that these guys aren’t just younger copies of MAGA or the Tea Party. It’s true counterculture from the pages of New York Magazine; a phenomenon that would’ve received respectful analysis from academia in the ‘60s. But today, legacy media can only wag their fingers. Despite this publicity obstacle and targeted censorship, groypers have maintained their physical presence. AFPAC IV was anticipated for two years, and everything from America First’s infamous Trump dinner at Mar-A-Lago to their brief involvement in the Ye24 campaign has led up to this moment.
When I arrived in Detroit, there was no set schedule known to the attendees. The spontaneous flexibility allows groypers to segregate themselves from events hosted by the more buttoned-up TPUSA (held simultaneously in Detroit) and favor late-night Airbnb parties. However, the exuberant minute-by-minute schedule of their shenanigans benefited them on the weekend.
On Saturday, Fuentes announced that the venue had canceled their event due to controversy and police arrived to remove him from the property. There’s different interpretations as to why they weren’t notified prior. The equipment, attendees, and backup location all hung in the balance, a disaster for many supporters, who took to the streets as if youth demonstrations were still effective . The mobilized fans demanded compensation as their TPUSA rivals enjoyed professional security, bougie attendees, and posh accommodations across the street.
Before long, Groyper godfather Nick Fuentes emerged with a coterie of e-celebs. This was a display of dominance against establishment conservatives aiming to reach the same audience demographic. The viral videos may cause critics to wonder whether this coalition/movement has any parallel with recent dissident factions. Run by a 24-year-old, this social gathering stood out as a rare and impressive independent accomplishment that came from a genuine place.
When Fuentes left, the crowd dissipated. I bumped into one of the few journalists to put AFPAC into context with dissident right lore: Cyan Quinn, a Counter-Currents contributor. Our brief interaction was intercepted by a French journalist who spoke with us about a story she was working on about Gen Z trends in America, an angle often missed concerning this movement due to the hyperpartisan style found in American commentary and Nick’s own brash missives. Even less conventional, the movement arose out of fringe social media among a very young demographic; many participants are still in high school.
If the photo posted by Fuentes was anything to go off of, AFPAC 4 was meant to embody an arena rock set up – a backdrop that could’ve paralleled the LA Forum. But this grand setting was not to be. Fuentes, understandably, gets most of the flak and the articles from legacy media make denouncing him a priority. What that does is minimize the aesthetic side of these events.
The backup venue selected was a nightclub called “Lounge.” When I walked in, the curtains welcoming me in were beamed with a purple haze (coincidence?). Zoomers swarmed the bar, and club music blasted as Twitter e-celebs, high and low, mingled with ease. It was a beautiful sight, a genuine social scene blooming among previously disconnected anons, and one that seemed to legitimize Gen Z’s role within the dissident right. In contrast to the presidential tone of AFPAC 3 or deep red curtains that looked right out of Twin Peaks at AFPAC 2, this backup event felt more like an underground rave for Zoomers who’d just finished marching the streets. It was time to party, and time to find our frens.
With Jared Taylor and Kevin DeAnna as speakers, it was effectively a mini-American Renaissance conference for those too young to have been to the real thing. Paleocon lore, IQ debates, and boomers mingling between display tables? How about we take the figures from that crowd and drop them into a club surrounded by black party girls? That’s what happened, and things escalated quickly.
When Taylor took to the stage, he glazed Fuentes with no uncertain intention. The torch was being passed. The legacy of the alt-right was hitching its legitimacy to the groypers. DeAnna, who doesn't need to step outside his clique for clout, went for it with a quick rundown of paleocon lore. He listed the ancestors of The America First movement including Pat Buchanan, Joe Sobran, and Russell Kirk, who didn’t get red-carpet treatment despite their conservative credentials. So, why should we have to mimic the TPUSA establishment types, even in far-right spheres? After all, only those with nothing to lose could host mini-AmRen at the Robocop nightclub and get the Zoomers clapping along.
After the intellectual substance was established on stage, it appeared that the women attending the club as its usual customers had noticed that this wasn’t a typical conservative event. The boys were going off and the ladies were getting the ick. The platform above me filled up with women disrupting the speech. Then, the black security guards, who perhaps didn’t appreciate the race realism talk, rushed the stage and DeAnna was removed like Jim Morrison in Miami. A viral video captured the disagreement.
An unseen DJ blasted music to counteract the harsh rhetoric. The event was about to be canceled again, but the groypers couldn’t have been happier; this was the most participatory AFPAC yet. The opposition served our narrative on a silver platter. The “dangerous youth” had to leave the establishment for being too edgy. The naysayers weren’t wrong. Who could have expected a crowd of clubgoers to deal with Taylor saying “negro” to a live audience?
We were told to leave the lounge, and that was fine because we’d just done the lounge. The rest of the night was a trip to Airbnb, where memories were retold with joy.
It’s understandable why the groypers get so much criticism. This was not how any DC insider type would do activism. The amount of alt-right figures finding refuge in a nightclub with e-girls and race realists after doing street activism seems like a dream from Rachel Haywires’ Substack. We lost our venue and had to rely on each other to find the afterparty. Fine by us. The theme of the weekend was taking failure as an opportunity to let the good times roll. It may not have been a smooth vacation, but it evoked the chaotic Twitter Spaces where most of these attendees dwell the rest of the year. We online rabble-rousers brought our insanity to Detroit, and our controversial way of conducting business had found a place to blossom outside the internet. A gonzo adventure for the groypers.
NRP Radio: Meet the Groypers (ep. 15 with Ace)