Poor JD Vance just can’t catch a break! Between the Vance Pants epidemic and Jack Schlossberg’s relentless (and hilarious) trolling campaign, Vance is constantly being overwhelmed with evidence of how much we all hate him. But wait! There’s more!
This summer, various allegations surfaced about Vance being in a groyper chat with young men and boys. Which isn’t exactly surprising, but it is intriguing.
Know Your Meme editor and champion TikToker Aidan Walker pointed out in a recent video about the scandal that: “it’s not illegal for Vance to be in these group chats with boys and young men, I just think it’s kind of strange.”
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Strange it is—especially since Vance can be seen referring to the others in the chat as “simps.”
But why is this raising red flags? What’s wrong with a harmless group chat? Let’s break it down.
As Walker points out in his video, Republicans have seen success with indoctrinating younger people because they go out of their way to build a pipeline to get kids involved. From a very young age, boys are exposed to all kinds of alt-right talking points online without necessarily being aware of this indoctrination. So for Vance to be actively showing up in these spaces (allegedly) does raise some eyebrows, especially knowing what we know about the extremely young men appointed to the DOGE taskforce.
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“If you look at The Heritage Foundation or America First Policy Institute,” Walker says, “these are the organizations that made Project 2025.”
Walker goes onto explain that Republicans go out of their way to groom and mentor young men and connect them to their interests in ways that Democrats haven’t. A dangerous combination, obviously. “Once you’re in the movement,” Walker states, “you’re provided for.”
For kids terrified by the prospect of inflation and a crappy job market, these kinds of opportunities probably feel heaven-sent. Which is exactly why this technique is so dangerous. If Republicans can recruit soldiers to the cause in group chats at a very young age, they can catch people at their most vulnerable and least critically-aware. Which seems to be exactly what’s happened with the Gen Z male Trump vote.
Walker goes on to explain that this very pipeline is responsible for JD Vance in the first place. At Yale Law, Vance met author Amy Chua, who first encouraged him to write Hillbilly Elegy, the book that put him on the map. Vance also got connected to tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who gave Vance his first job after graduating. Thiel has continued to throw his support (and funds) behind Vance as he ventures further into politics.
So what’s the takeaway here? Apart from what we already knew—that the real groomers are often straight—it’s that the disaffected extremely online teen to evil GOP overlord pipeline is real, and terrifying.
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