Rod Dreher on the American Right's Anti-Semitism Problem

Feb 5, 2026

Rod Dreher, author and cultural commentator known for The Benedict Option, reflects on rising antisemitism among young conservatives after reporting in Washington. He describes Tucker Carlson’s soft platforming of Nick Fuentes, the spectrum of sympathy for Fuentes, online radicalization through memes and grievance narratives, and why churches and institutions have failed to stem this trend.

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INSIGHT

Mainstreaming Through High-Profile Platforms

Tucker Carlson's soft platforming of Nick Fuentes was a Rubicon-crossing moment that normalized extremist views for mainstream conservatives.
Rod Dreher warns that mainstream exposure turned Fuentes from fringe to a figure many normie Americans now view as acceptable.

ANECDOTE

Washington Reporting Finds Widespread Sympathy

In Washington Rod asked young conservative men whether 30–40% sympathy for Fuentes sounded right and they all agreed.
He also met an evangelical official who considered leaving because of the anti-Semitism he encountered.

INSIGHT

Transgression, Rage, And Pre-Totalitarian Signs

Young men are drawn to transgressiveness and rage rather than coherent policy, mirroring pre-totalitarian psychology.
Dreher links a desire to 'tear it all down' to trauma, online culture, and loss of authority.

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In November 2025, Rod Dreher published an essay in the Free Press, based on an earlier Substack post he'd written, about anti-Semitism on the American right. Dreher had just returned from Washington, where he'd spent several days speaking with young conservatives working in think tanks and in government. What he discovered was that a significant portion of young men on the right, perhaps as many as 30 or 40 percent, expressed sympathy for Nick Fuentes, the white-supremacist podcaster who denies the Holocaust and openly attacks Jewish institutions and Jewish people.

The trigger for Dreher's reporting was an interview of Fuentes in late October by another media personality, Tucker Carlson. Having watched that interview, Dreher witnessed what he called a Rubicon-crossing moment: the most influential conservative media figure in America giving a remarkably soft platform to someone who has praised Hitler and has made all manner of psychotic claims about the Jewish people. Dreher had considered Carlson a friend. That friendship ended when he called him out over the Fuentes interview.

Dreher's voice is particularly important because he speaks from deep within the world of American Christian conservatism. He is the author of The Benedict Option, a defining text for thinking about Christian cultural withdrawal, published in 2017. He has also written extensively about his own conversion to Orthodoxy, and has spent much of his career reporting on the institutional health of American Christianity. So when he sounds an alarm, as he does in this conversation with Mosaic's editor Jonathan Silver, about anti-Semitism spreading among young Christian conservatives, Jews should listen.

This conversation was recorded in December, with Dreher in Budapest, where he now lives.

This episode of the Tikvah Podcast is generously sponsored by Ilya Shapiro, constitutional scholar at the Manhattan Institute. If you are interested in sponsoring an episode of the Tikvah Podcast, we invite you to join the Tikvah Ideas Circle. Visit tikvah.org/circle to learn more and join.