I’m here talking about something everyone else has already talked about? Great. Way to be original, Blake.
Anyway, let’s just get this over with.
After Charlie Kirk’s assassination, one of the many things people on the Right, including myself, advocated for was a unified front. The sentiment was effectively, “Now is not the time for infighting. Now is the time for rallying together to defeat a common enemy, a deadly enemy.” And in the immediate aftermath, it seemed like we had one, at least to me. But unfortunately, that unified front didn’t last long.
Here we are a month later, already having lived through multiple infighting spats. The most recent spat pertains to a story that Politico broke about a group chat involving Young Republicans. The fallout from that story demonstrates both that the unified front that we had for all of a week is gone, and we’re back to being the normal infighting Right, and that the central theme of my last piece—clarity—is both relevant and needed here.
For those of you who have been living under a rock, Politico broke a story last week about a Young Republicans group chat that revealed some, well, let’s just say spicy messages and comments from the members of the chat. So many people on the Right, mostly politicians but also some commentators, rushed to denounce the comments made in the chat and the people involved. Ben Shapiro notably denounced the whole situation, which actually put him on the opposite side of Matt Walsh, albeit seemingly indirectly—Walsh indicated he’s more concerned with fighting the Left than he is with “punching Right.” But I only mention these two because of their prominence, not because I want to directly attack or ally with either of them. I’m just trying to give you a gist of how much fuel this story got. Okay, now back to business.
Whenever there’s a bombshell story broken by the legacy press that would negatively impact the Right, I have trained myself into one of the first things I do being that of asking myself, “Okay, what are they trying to draw your attention away from?” It’s just a more specific version of “Why are they doing this?” This is where clarity comes in. These are clarity-seeking questions. These are questions that force you to start thinking about what else is going on in the news and seeing if there’s a connection to the story that just broke or the story that’s receiving a ton of coverage. You start thinking about the bigger picture. Now, you do have to be of a sound mental state when asking yourself these questions because, if you’re a real conspiratorial type, you can go off the rails and down some strange rabbit holes. But that’s beside the point; I’m getting off track again.
So, what’s going on in the news right now that the Politico story diverts people’s attention away from? I’ll give you a couple hints. First, there’s another story about leaked messages that broke in the weeks immediately preceding this story, and second, this story is basically an October surprise come early.
Drumroll, please.
Yeah, you got it. There’s an election next month for governor in Virginia. That also means there’s an election next month for attorney general in Virginia. And the Democrat candidate for AG in that race—the candidate doubtlessly preferred by Politico and the rest of the left-wing legacy press—got burned by some leaked messages from 2022 wherein he wishes death upon a Republican he does not like and wished death upon that Republican’s children in a follow-up conversation.
This story is a way bigger deal than the Young Republicans story. And I’ll circle back to why—I’m glad I’ve given you PTSD, Psaki Traumatic Stress Disorder—but I want to first address the Young Republicans story because it is potentially important.
Now, why do I include the word “potentially”? Well, because if the beliefs reflected in this leaked chat are genuine, well, then Houston, we have a problem. Now, fortunately, with the exception of one state senator—who might want to think about stepping down—these are not people who hold political office, although many are close enough through either being staffers of politicians, employees at a three-letter agency, involved in campaigns, or ranking members of prominent organizations. Regardless, it’s still really bad if these comments reflect genuine beliefs. That would be appalling.
But that’s the key, isn’t it? That’s what this entire story, this “bombshell” that Politico broke to the world, hinges upon. So does this chat reflect genuine beliefs? My gut tells me no, and not because these people are on our side. My gut tells me no because I’m a Zoomer, and I think I recognize what this chat is in actuality. I have a feeling that this group chat story is yet another emblematic example demonstrating that those in the legacy press do not understand the behavior of the chronically online generation, the generation raised online, the generation mostly represented in this leaked chat, us Zoomers.
Zoomers s***post and troll. This is what we do; it’s how we were brought up online. We’ve grown up with 4chan and memes. We’re so incredibly desensitized to societal discourse norms, particularly in private, that we are liable to say incredibly offensive things. No, a Holocaust or Hitler joke is not going to be off-limits for us. I know that’s jarring for people that are older. This doesn’t mean that most Zoomers are actually down with the angry mustache man and murdering the Jews. But we know acting like we are will get a reaction, either a recoiling in horror publicly from those who are older or politically correct or laughs from friends in private if the comment or joke was genuinely funny. Newsflash: young people are likely to say or do things, especially unwise or distasteful things, in order to be rebellious, edgy, or to get a reaction. It was sex, drugs, and rock and roll for the kids in the ‘60s; angst, rage, and killing yourself for attention in the early ‘90s; and, now, it’s Hitler jokes, Holocaust jokes, and racial or slavery jokes for Zoomers. We’re the generation of inappropriate dark humor. And that’s what this leaked group chat seems to be: a bunch of mostly young men being edgy with friendly company in private. Distasteful? Sure. Inappropriate? Sure. Worthy of disqualifying someone from holding political office, even if these are mostly meant to be dark jokes expressed by young people, which is a period in life in which we all say not great things? Sure. But something serious? I doubt it. So let’s not lose our minds.
But if this is worthy of disqualifying someone from holding public office, then surely wishing death upon a member of the opposing party and his children surely is too, right? See, I told you I’d circle back—ah, Psaki attack. But, anyways, this is, again, exactly what Jay Jones did. And it’s significantly more important than a leaked chat that is likely just Zoomers being edgy with friends.
Jones, again, is running for attorney general, the highest-ranking law enforcement position in his state. One person in the leaked chat, according to Politico, is a state senator. Here’s a rhetorical question for you: state senator versus attorney general, who has more direct political power? Furthermore, the chat consists of young people. Jones, on the other hand, is in his mid-thirties. If you’re wondering, “Blake, are you basically saying he should’ve known better?” Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m not excusing the young people in the leaked chat, especially if they were being serious and not joking around, but again, young people are liable to say distasteful or inappropriate things in private when around friendly company, so what do you expect? Jones made these remarks about a Republican and his children when he was already an elected official in his thirties. He was a grown man, not some snot-nosed, Zoomer goofball, being edgy to impress his friends or make them laugh. Did he actually want to inflict harm upon this man or his children? Very likely, no, and he was probably just immensely ticked off. But then again, the Politico article indicates that he believed the killing of the children would get this Republican to change his views, so who knows. Either way, it should be totally disqualifying for a guy attempting to be elevated to the second most powerful position in his state. But, no, he’s still in the race, and there’s a solid chance he’ll win.
Look, neither leaked messages story is a glowing reflection upon those involved. But let’s actually recognize what each respective set of leaked messages is and, more importantly, not lose sight of how one story helps suppress the other one.
Sources:
https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/ben-shapiro-takes-torch-to-his-own-colleagues-weird-idea-that-conservatives-must-unify-with-far-right/
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146?fbclid=IwVERDUANb5D5leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHgS3Q0mgYqCpc0R6fCOeeYi3dbpA0bUVbFZglfRABWL4tDMpv_8YXHngio0U_aem_BBjc7XRqNmXILmYMWcLApw&utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/04/virginia-elections-jay-jones-texts-00594261