A New York Times report on young attendees at last weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference soft-peddled the movement’s antisemitism by describing some right-wingers as “J-pilled” and erroneously defining that term as “far-right slang for skepticism of Israeli influence.”
One indication that definition is inaccurate, as my former colleague Madeline Peltz pointed out in criticizing the article, is that “a few grafs later they quote a groyper who says ‘at least 60 percent of the young people here’ are fans of Nick Fuentes, who wants to deport all Jews from America.”
Another tell, of course, is that “Israel” doesn’t begin with a J — but “Jew” does. “J-pilled,” as should be extremely obvious from the name, is actually far-right slang for skepticism of Jewish influence. Those who claim to be “J-pilled” see the hidden hand of the Jewish people behind every social ill, an adaptation of the gutter antisemitism familiar from the blood-soaked anti-Jewish tome The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
This strain of explicitly anti-Jewish sentiment is a growing problem on the right. Fuentes, a Holocaust-denying white nationalist once barred from the mainstream right, broke that containment in 2025 with a wave of appearances with popular podcasters like Tucker Carlson. He and his allies have tried to use the horrific scenes of devastation the Israeli military perpetuated against Palestinians in Gaza to make inroads with young Republicans and encourage them to adopt virulently antisemitic views — and polling suggests they are succeeding.
If you spend enough time watching the programs of Fuentes and his ilk, you will hear the cohort the Times describes make very clear that when they use the term “J-pilled,” they are talking about Jews, not Israel.
- Here’s a viewer telling Fuentes that his “boomer family” is “being J-pilled” by Candace Owens talking “about the propaganda surrounding Hitler.”
- Here’s one explaining to Hitler-praising manosphere streamer Myron Gaines (real name Amrou Fudl) that he “found out my mom is jew pilled” when he “brought up some things about the jews and she started talking about the red cows and temple.” (While reading this comment, Gaines shortened “jew pilled” to “J-pilled.”)
- Here’s another one telling Gaines, “My sister who is J-pilled thinks the jews want Maduro dead because his politics outlaws jews! no porn, no abortion, no usury!” (When Gaines read the latter comment, he said “J’s” in both places where the text read “jews.”)
Some on the far-right, hoping to avoid being accurately tarred as antisemites, deliberately try to muddy the waters. Gaines, for example, often uses the term “J-pilled” when he is discussing Israel.
But the streamer has also made clear this is a smokescreen. During a March 2025 show, he read a viewer’s claim that “the Disney CEO (Bob Iger) the man who has been destroying movies with bs trans ideology and feminism ideology and funding shitty movies it all makes sense when you check WIKI” — a reference to Iger being Jewish.
In response, Gaines told his livestreaming audience to type “1” into the stream’s chat “if I've J-pilled you,” adding, “I gotta obviously use certain terminology here for obvious reasons, but you guys know what I'm talking about.”
“All right, sweet,” he said as the chat became a stream of people replying with 1s.