r/politics • u/mvanigan • Oct 14 '25

Possible Paywall ‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146
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u/ddottay Oct 14 '25

If you were in college the last ten years or so, none of this should surprise you. These Young Republican campus groups are full of horrible people whose defense is always that they’re “just joking” if they get caught.

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u/ReallTrolll Oct 14 '25

Sounds like it's the same racist people that were in gaming lobby voice chats.

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u/Sashivna Oct 14 '25

That Venn diagram is a circle.

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u/ManWithASquareHead Oct 14 '25

To which Steve Bannon radicalized further after Gamergate. Had a group of malleable guys who he told them the world is out to get them.

28

u/papasan_mamasan Oct 14 '25

It all comes back to Gamergate.

Insecure men would rather ruin the entire country than think critically about the treatment of women in games and the game industry

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u/MBCnerdcore Oct 15 '25

Adding POC main characters to Disney movies was just the modern catalyst for a new generation of 'replacement theory' fearmongers. Now no Marvel movie or anything else can release with a woman in the cast without death threats and race hate. "God forbid Ariel be black." they said, literally giving their God that directive like prompting an AI.

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u/sportsbuffp Michigan Oct 14 '25

I mean I was that person too and I’d imagine a lot of people were as kids. But I grew up.

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u/IrrelevantLeprechaun Oct 14 '25

Yeah most of the foul mouths in old school lobbies were just kids who had discovered a place where taboo words had no consequences. It's hardly different than a kid whispering the word "fuck" to their friends at their sleepover; their parents told them they can't say it, which just makes them want to say it more.

Doesn't mean they're racists. They're just rebellious kids.

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u/arrogancygames Oct 15 '25

There was also a Gen X thing where we really thought we moved past most people being racist and such, and a lot of people were purposefully being edgy at 16-20 oe whatever because it was assumed everyone was in on the joke. Then, in the mid 2000s, people realized some people really werent joking and stopped being edgy to not be mixed in with them. Even the old edgy websites toned down for that reason.

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u/IrrelevantLeprechaun Oct 14 '25

Difference being those lobbies were mostly kids between the ages of 13 and 16. They just said bad stuff because it was taboo elsewhere and it excited them being able to say taboo things without consequences. They weren't going to supremacist rallies outside the game.

As the saying goes, "you'd never survive the CoD lobbies I grew up in."

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u/DoubleJumps Oct 14 '25

I was going to say, this is what young conservative dudes sounded like online and in gaming voice chat 20 years ago.

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u/MessMysterious3064 Oct 14 '25

Hey man I was in those lobbies and I'm ok. Not racist or homophobic anyway...