FYPod – Young Republican’s Backstabbing Saga EXPOSED (w/ Raven Schwam-Curtis)
Date: October 18, 2025
Hosts: Tim Miller, Cameron Kaskey
Guest: Raven Schwam-Curtis
Podcast: The Bulwark – For You Pod
Overview
This episode tackles two main themes:
- The rightward shift of Gen Z—especially in the wake of Trump’s 2024 campaign—and the challenge for progressive messaging among young voters navigating TikTok, meme culture, and highly shareable political performances online.
- A bombshell exposé on a scandal within the Young Republicans: rampant racism, anti-Semitism, and internal backstabbing revealed through leaked group chats, and the political/human fallout.
Raven Schwam-Curtis (influencer, educator, former PhD-track scholar) joins to share her unconventional path to edutainment stardom, discuss how progressive ideas can still break through, and help analyze what the Young Republicans’ toxic implosion says about the future of American politics.
Meet Raven Schwam-Curtis: Gen Z Edutainer
Background and Approach
- Raven’s upbringing was shaped by mobility and diversity (her mother was a Broadway performer, leading the family to move between New York, Houston, Las Vegas, LA, and ultimately Chicago).
- Academic overachiever: youngest editor-in-chief of her high school paper, president of the National Chinese Honor Society after 7 years of Mandarin study, and theater kid.
- Education: Double major (Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Asian Studies/China focus), two minors (Africana Studies, Inequality Studies) at Cornell, MA in Black Studies from Northwestern.
- She left a PhD track to pursue full-time “edutainment”—explaining politics and social issues through TikTok and Instagram reels, often accompanied by trending dance moves.
How the Edutainment Model Works
- Raven: “At the core of what I do, it's driven by community, care for community, and a desire to educate… I realized very early on that it works: you take the thing that’s already trending, you attach the hard news… and you marry them together and—suddenly—you have ‘edutainment.’” [10:52]
- Her dance videos are sometimes about positive news or overlooked wins, always designed to spark curiosity rather than trivialize heavy subjects.
Cameron: “I actually learn new things from your page… there’s information you share that I am not seeing every other person on the Internet cover.” [12:55]
Raven’s Journey: From Academics to Social Media (Key Segments)
- Raven’s origin story and “nerd crew” [04:14–06:07]
- Mandarin skills and debates on high school newspaper standards [06:07–07:14]
- Her academic path, fields of study, and decision to leave academia [09:39–10:52]
Notable Quotes
“I never thought that I would be doing this as my full-time career… It’s a full 180 in some ways, but… at the core of what I do, it's driven by community.” —Raven [10:52]
“You take the thing that’s already trending, you attach the hard news… and you marry them together and—suddenly—you have edutainment.” —Raven [11:47]
Platform Challenges & Cultural Impact
- Discusses the limits and power of TikTok and Instagram for progressive messaging—especially as these platforms increasingly come under right-wing influence.
Censorship & Platform Control
“It’s always a concern—censorship in these online spaces, especially when the major owners… are in Trump’s back pocket. At any moment, they could just turn off the tap…” —Raven [31:02]
- Stresses importance of building real-world, offline communities and migrating to platforms where creators have more autonomy (e.g., Substack, Patreon) [32:58–34:11]
The “Dancing News” Model and Critiques
- Raven describes how dancing videos bring levity to serious issues, acting as “joy is resistance,” but she’s careful to only pair dance formats with uplifting or positive news—never with tragedy or suffering [20:16].
- Critiques often attack her methods as “not serious enough,” sometimes laced with misogynoir.
“I’ve gotten a lot of misogynoir… people who say this is mismatched, like, why are you talking about the news and dancing at the same time? ...My response is: you’re just mad because I can do it all.” —Raven [20:16]
Defining “Misogynoir”
- Tim: “I learned a new word there: misogynoir. It’s a mismatch… a very cool-sounding word for a very sad topic.” [16:33–17:09]
- Raven: “Misogynoir is a term that describes the intersection of anti-Blackness and misogyny… the intersectional harm that Black women experience.” [16:54]
Reporting From the Ground: Chicago’s ICE Facility
- Raven describes visiting the Broadview ICE Detention Center, a “dystopian experience” with massive police and ICE presence, helicopters, and peaceful protests [21:14, 22:48]:
- Community is “united in our distaste and disdain” for ICE, sharing real-time safety updates.
- Despite ICE’s growing budget and power (nearly $80 billion in new funding), local civil resistance remains strong.
Tim and Raven Contextualize:
“…the amount of money going into ICE is only increasing… They have the resources… they’re opening new facilities, they have all the fancy weaponry… in Chicago they have the damn helicopter.” —Tim [25:34] “…so many of our civil rights movements are built on the political will of the people, not necessarily being as well resourced, but being extremely well organized and cohesive…” —Raven [27:01]
- Lively banter on the idea of “infiltrating” ICE with “twink strike forces” for subversion—a lighthearted aside, underscoring desperation for creative strategies [28:02–28:54].
Breaking Down the Young Republican Scandal (Main Segment)
The Explosive Leaked Group Chats [35:00–47:48]
- Context: Leaked group chats from official Young Republicans circles—not fringe groups—show rampant use of slurs (N-word, F-slur, etc.), rape jokes, anti-Semitism, and references to Hitler and gas chambers.
Key Players & Factions:
- Peter Giunta: Former NY State Young Republicans chair, made explicit gas chamber and Holocaust jokes, fellow members joked along.
- William Hendricks, Bobby Walker, Samuel Douglas: All implicated in the racist/sexist/ableist leaking.
- Gavin Wax: Master "ratfucker," rumored as the orchestrator of leaks to sabotage rivals and extend his influence. Now a State Department aide, previously led NYC Young Republicans.
- Hayden Padgett: Rival faction leader, embroiled in internal backstabbing.
- Aiden: MAGA loyalist, defending friends and attacking “traitors” in a viral thread.
Media and Political Reactions:
- JD Vance: Refuses to condemn, dismisses as “boys being boys.”
- Cameron: “It’s not the boys private group chat... It is an official channel for the Young Republicans.”
- Raven: “It’s unsurprising but completely foul… This is a supposedly safe space where they were saying the quiet part out loud.” [47:48]
Scandal Contextualized
- Not just personal “lapses” or private jokes, but a systemic culture in an influential youth wing—reflecting what now passes for normal discourse in parts of the GOP.
- The “ratfucking” isn’t rooted in principle: leaking offensive material is a power play, not a genuine desire to purge toxicity.
Tim: “I don’t suspect Gavin was actually offended by any of this… This is ratfucking, they’re doing leaks. Not principled cancellations.” [42:48]
Raven: “If anyone is reading this and is surprised, you have not been paying attention.” [47:48]
Bigger Picture: What This Means for American Politics
- The scandal exposes the normalization of “replacement theory” and other far-right tropes now mainstream within the official machinery—not just Internet fringe groups.
- Host disgust at not only racism but also the lack of institutional pushback against anti-Semitism and misogyny.
Cameron: “This is… the people… officially involved with the party. This isn’t just… a fun little MAGA civil war… The next Republican nominee is going to be somebody who is way more like this than even Trump.” [52:24]
Should Democrats/Progressives Reach Out?
- Tim: “It’s a flaw… for the left to not try to reach people with lesser problematic views and bring them into the tent… given the scale of the danger.” [53:55]
- Raven: “There has to be a baseline of repair and trust… as a pundit, it’s not my job to reach across the aisle. That’s the politician’s job.” [55:35]
AOC Reference:
- Cameron: “AOC made a great point… It’s the Democrats’ responsibility to go to the MAGA people… That doesn’t mean you don’t deserve healthcare.”
Notable Quotes & Moments
- Raven, on media autonomy: “It is so paramount in this moment that Black media comes to the fore and that we take autonomy over our stories and how we tell our stories… so I feel really, really energized by people… who are taking back the narrative.” [29:20]
- Tim, on internet organizing: “Discoverability is the challenge… you need to be in a place where your stuff is being delivered to folks that might not have otherwise seen it.” [33:44]
- On the Young Republicans:
- “The F slur was used, the R slur was used, the N slur was used… 251 times.” —Cameron [36:28]
- “J.D. Vance… you have a brown wife and brown children. You think there's room in this party for you when daddy goes away?” —Cameron [52:24]
- “Let’s not infantilize grown people… It’s those kinds of sentiments that make more mainstream and palatable extremist culture that genuinely harms people who are most vulnerable.” —Raven [51:37]
Conclusion
- The episode exposes the dangerous normalization of hate speech and exclusionary policies in mainstream Republican youth circles, not simply edges of the party.
- Raven provides actionable hope and resilience: building Black-led independent media, grassroots offline communities, and persistent public education—even in the face of platform censorship and rightward lurch.