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“Red Dawn,” January 27–February 9
For New York’s latest cover story, Brock Colyar wrote about affluent young Trump supporters gleefully welcoming the new administration, generating an outsize response. Calling it a “fascinating almost anthropological study of a growing group of young Americans who really don’t get enough attention in the media,” journalist Don Lemon said on his YouTube channel that “they are people who don’t believe in good-faith arguments, they don’t believe in the truth, they are here to mock, to discredit, and to revel in the downfall of institutions they claim to despise but secretly need to maintain their own power and their own relevance.” Jezebel’s Kylie Cheung tweeted, “The GOP has devoted massive effort to infiltrating the media ecosystems young people consume to court them … you can see it’s effective.” Conservative activist Christopher Rufo noted, “the Right is ascendant for the moment, but long term, we cannot delegate the function of cultural legitimation to outlets like New York Magazine. We need to invest heavily in aesthetics, design, and prestige media, so that we can rival, rather than require, these outlets.” Also on the right, Vice-President J.D. Vance said, “It’s like they’re trying to make us look cool,” while Ashley Reese called the photography “purposefully mocking,” adding, “if conservatives actually cared about art they would know this lol.” The cover image, cropped from a photograph published in full online, attracted outrage from conservatives who accused the magazine of being intentionally misleading. Karen Barton emailed, “you should be ashamed of yourself for peddling such divisive content. To crop out all of the people of color in the photo to frame a story that Republicans are only white. It’s a wonder that republicans and democrats can get along when you are constantly demonizing one party.” Black pro-Trump influencer CJ Pearson wrote, “This is insane. I hosted this event and @NYMag intentionally left me out of their story because it would have undermined their narrative that maga is some racist cult.” Said Semafor’s Max Tani, “Can’t remember the last time a magazine cover generated multiple days of conversation … Impressive feat in 2025!”
Of Colyar’s narration, novelist Davey Davis tweeted, “reading about them cozying up to racists and giggling while being misgendered took me aback,” to which Charlie Markbreiter replied, “It’s using the scene report genre to party with bigots without taking a clear moral or political stance since parties can’t be judged objectively. But, on the other hand, Brock’s stance is also fairly clear!!” @ratboyratboyrat added, “the central argument of this piece is really effective: the modern republican coalition has even less ideological cohesion than the modern democratic coalition; it’s more or less just built on podcast bro brainrot & vague platitudes of ‘anti-wokeness.’ ”
Broadcaster Megyn Kelly called out Colyar’s use of the phrase “casual cruelty,” noting that “every young, angry lib looking at these gorgeous, happy, have-it-all 20 & 30 smthgs is secretly wishing they could be more like the stunners shown here,” while venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said, “New York Magazine accusing others of cruelty is like Stalin accusing others of running poorly maintained jails.” On Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime, conservative Gen-Z commentator Brett Cooper said, “For the first time in like ten years, the culture has shifted in a way to where young people on the right now are edgy; they’re the rebels.” On Slate’s Culture Gabfest podcast, Stephen Metcalf compared this “unapologetic fascist decadence” unfavorably with a more enduring Zeitgeist: “It’s like a miniaturized, intensified version of that Reaganistic backlash … I don’t think … very much exists downstream from this phenomenon.” Commenter landsurveyork agreed: “As a Gen X-er who lived through the Reagan era, I know not to panic about ugly people with bad taste ‘getting their moment’ … I take pleasure in the knowledge that they’ll all soon become disgusted with each other.”
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In Other News:
New York’s recent cover story about multiple allegations of sexual assault against fantasy writer Neil Gaiman (“There Is No Safe Word,” January 13–26) marked the first time one of his accusers, Scarlett Pavlovich, detailed her experiences, alleging Gaiman had assaulted her while she was employed as his family’s nanny. On February 3, Pavlovich filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming Gaiman had assaulted, battered, and inflicted emotional distress upon her. The lawsuit also names Gaiman’s estranged wife, Amanda Palmer, and alleges the couple human-trafficked Pavlovich. Gaiman previously denied all allegations of nonconsensual sexual activity.
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