Cool Belongs to the Young Right

In past years, "cool" was synonymous with the left. Progressives, with pockets in the deep state, controlled Hollywood, media, Big Tech, academia, and corporate America. They dictated cultural norms, ridiculed faith, and elevated victimhood over virtue, chaos over order, and self-indulgence over discipline.

But in 2024, the cool kids’ table is the young right’s.

Instead of moving further left, a growing number of young people are rejecting grievance culture, radical gender ideology, and overriding government control. Their focus? Faith, family, and freedom—everything the left told them to abandon.

New York Magazine’s “The Cruel Kids’ Table” was meant to mock the rise of young conservatives. Instead, it unintentionally exposed a truth progressives don’t want to admit: they no longer hold a cultural monopoly.

Brock Colyar, author of NY Mag’s cover piece, describes this new movement’s rising stars as “young, confident, and casually cruel.” But what’s "cruel" about celebrating success, ambition, and self-reliance?

For years, the left taught young people that power structures must always be dismantled, that beauty is oppressive, that faith is ignorance, and that traditional values are relics of the past.

But Gen Z is no longer subscribing.

Colyar insists the young right is predominantly white—but here’s the plot twist:

NY Magazine intentionally cropped out black conservatives from the cover photo.

The same media that lectures “diversity” and “representation” erased minorities to fit the narrative. Party host and co-chair of the Republican National Committee Youth Advisory Council, CJ Pearson, called it out:

Other attendees confirmed: the crowd was diverse—but NY Mag edited reality to make it seem otherwise.

Yet, no DEI checkboxes are required at the cool kids’ table.

At one point, Colyar concedes:

“Conservatism—as a cultural force, not just a political condition—is back in a real way for the first time since the 1980s.”

That’s the real hit piecethe— undeniable shift in mainstream culture away from progressive dominance.

Predictably, Colyar attempts to define the conservative movement as a whole by cherry-picking the most out-of-pocket scenes from inauguration weekend events. He highlights off-color jokes and shock humor, as if that’s what identifies young conservatives.

Yes, there will always be individuals who take things too far. But what truly unites young conservatives is the rejection of a party that has spent the last four years enforcing moral relativism, censorship, and empty activism. It’s a desire for order, meaning, and real achievement.

For years, progressives were convinced young people would always be on their side. And why wouldn’t they? Every major cultural institution reinforced that belief:

• Hollywood glorified moral relativism while mocking Christianity.
• Corporate America prioritized DEI and ESG initiatives over merit and excellence.
• Academia convinced students America was irredeemable and traditional values were oppressive.
• Social media platforms shadowbanned conservative voices to maintain progressive control.

With this level of influence, the left assumed Gen Z was locked in. Their future was supposed to be an even more radical extension of millennial progressivism—more woke, more activist, more revolutionary.

But progressives overplayed their hand.

Young people were told they were "oppressed" by whiteness, capitalism, the patriarchy, and systemic injustice—but grievance politics didn’t empower them. It left them bitter, directionless, and weak. Dems promised a utopia. Instead, they delivered a joyless culture of censorship and resentment.

So, young conservatives opted out of four more years of the left’s social experiment in moral chaos.

What the left continues to miss––Americans truly desire the American dream. And decades of forced secularism failed to recognize that Americans crave a sense of purpose.

And now, the evidence is undeniable.

Gen Z men are attending church at higher rates than expected, rejecting the progressive vision of an atheist, nihilistic society. A recent New York Times report highlights the return to orthodoxy by America’s young men. The same young men that overwhelmingly voted red in the ‘24 presidential election.

At one point, Colyar lets slip:

“Now this set of shitposters is in the same league as an entirely new Establishment, which includes not only the tech overlords (Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos) but also a growing number of celebrities (Carrie Underwood, the Village People, Snoop Dogg, and Jewel). Kim Kardashian is posting photos of the First Lady. Even Spotify hosted an inauguration brunch.”

Even Colyar admits that mainstream culture is shifting. The institutions the left built to sustain their dominance—Hollywood, academia, media—are losing their influence and ownership.

If Colyar’s goal was to discredit young conservatives, he failed. His lengthy opinion piece inadvertently confirms what many already knew: the right is the new counterculture.

The cool kids are back on the hill and their sights are indeed set on America.