NYT columnist can't hide alarm after going inside Florida GOP rally

New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg went to a Florida gubernatorial campaign rally expecting fringe politics, but found something far more disturbing: standing-room-only crowds of young men, some still in high school, cheering antisemitic provocations and wearing the caps of a self-described Nazi sympathizer's movement.

The candidate is James Fishback, a 31-year-old longshot running for governor, whose rallies have attracted dubious figures, including white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Goldberg set off a warning flare in her Thursday column.

"Like most political observers, I knew there were lots of frustrated, epistemologically unmoored and extremely online young people out there; it’s why influencers like Fuentes have such significant audiences. Still, it was slightly uncanny to meet so many of them in the flesh, like comment threads come to life," she wrote.

A December survey by the conservative Manhattan Institute found that a majority of Republican men under 50 believe the Holocaust either didn't happen or was exaggerated.

Goldberg found crowds of economically frustrated young people who can't afford homes, can't move out of their parents' houses, and are finding answers in antisemitic conspiracy theories served up via Instagram and TikTok. One attendee told her his political awakening came through Kanye West's antisemitic posts. A registered Democrat said she's considering switching parties to vote for Fishback.

"Of course, these are confusing times, especially if you’re young and have grown up in a country heaving from crisis to crisis, processing national breakdown through the schizoid pulses of social media, understanding that something has gone horribly wrong but not how or why. In this environment of hysteria and decay, a podcaster or a politician can go far by promising to unmask the dark forces responsible for it all," she remarked.