Across the U.S., a troubling youth movement has emerged in the last few months, targeting teenagers aged 15-18, and mimicking the white supremacist Active Club (AC) movement. This “Youth Clubs” network, consisting of at least 19 chapters representing 42 states, engages in the same real-world activism as the ACs, including MMA training, spreading neo-Nazi propaganda in public spaces, and attempting to recruit members online, including on TikTok.
Emerging in 2022, the Active Club movement is a white supremacist transnational network of “sports clubs” first conceptualized by American neo-Nazi Robert Rundo and Russian neo-Nazi Denis Kapsutin, the latter a key MMA organizer who is banned from the Schengen Area in the European Union for his track record of hate and violence. Active Clubs are small white supremacist cells, operating under Rundo’s “White Nationalism 3.0” model, working at the local level and collaborating with numerous racist groups, including those with a penchant for violence, such as the Proud Boys, White Lives Matter (WLM), and Patriot Front in the United States, Action Française and Identitarian groups in France, and the Hammerskins in Canada, Sweden, and Germany, creating alliances that strengthen the white supremacist movement globally. Shortly before Donald Trump’s inauguration, Active Clubs across the country called on him to follow through on his promise to conduct a mass migrant deportation operation.
Now teenagers are getting in on the act. The majority of Youth Clubs created channels on Telegram between February and June 2025, with a few set up in 2024. According to a post by an umbrella account for Youth Clubs, titled “United Youth,” created on February 24, 2025, Youth Clubs are a “network of pro social young white men nationwide” that act as an “activist,” “nationalist,” and “fraternal and fitness network.” At the time of publishing, Youth Clubs indicate that they only accept members between the ages of 15 and 18, and operate under the belief that “our (white) people are dying off and we are growing up in a world which does not care for us,” referring to the racist, and deadly, “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which, like the regular Active Clubs, serves as an ideological framework for activism. Youth Clubs believe that “Jews,” “liberal sycophants and homosexuals” are all responsible for these supposed problems, and act to “fight back against these great globalist evils.” United Youth also shared a quote by Rundo about starting the Rise Above Movement (RAM), a violent street gang which had members arrested for their actions during the racist Unite the Right riots in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“United Youth,” acting as an umbrella account for teenager-led Youth Clubs across the country, blames “Jews,” “liberal sycophants and homosexuals” for economic and social issues (Source: Telegram).
Local Youth Club chapters, such as the Pacific North West (PNW) Youth Club and New England Youth Club, are explicitly neo-Nazi. The PNW Youth Club, in an introductory post made on June 30, 2024, claimed to be “a National Socialist activist group based in the United States wanting to gain members in the Pacific Northwest.” Under the heading “What do we believe,” PNW Youth said “We must secure a future for the white youth in The Pacific Northwest and bring about a safe future for our children,” which is a modified version of the white supremacist 14 words slogan (“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”), coined by American neo-Nazi terrorist David Lane. The New England Youth Club posted a quote by Adolf Hitler from the annual Nazi party rally in 1935: “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”
PNW Youth describes themselves as a “National Socialist activist group,” and invokes a modified version of the 14 words, coined by American neo-Nazi David Lane, as representative of their beliefs (Source: Telegram).
Youth Club ideology manifests in real-world activism, which mostly consists of stickering and MMA-style training activities. Stickering involves advertising Youth Club chapters and spreading white supremacist propaganda. The Kalifornian Nationalist Youth, a Youth Club chapter spanning California, uses hateful imagery and slogans in their stickering. These symbols include the Black Sun, which was popularized by Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler, and the slogan “conquered, not stolen,” referencing the colonial system and genocide perpetrated by European settlers against Indigenous peoples in North America, which is a slogan commonly used by the white supremacist Patriot Front. The Atlantic Youth Club, the Heartland Youth Club, Chesapeake Youth Club, and the Great Lakes Youth Club are a few others that engage in propaganda tactics like stickering. Heartland Youth Club’s stickering features a poster that reads “It’s our duty to guard against foreign hordes,” which is very similar to a slogan (“For God and Country – It Is Our Holy Duty To Guard Against The Foreign Hordes”) used by a racist fictitious organization dedicated to maintaining “racial purity” in the video game Bioshock Infinite. Far-right extremists have long used gaming, including co-opting gaming culture, to organize and spread hateful beliefs to gaming’s young audiences.
A post by The Kalifornian Nationalist Youth shows several pieces of propaganda showcasing the Black Sun, an explicitly Nazi symbol, and “conquered, not stolen,” a Patriot Front motto (Source: Telegram).
The Active Club movement has seemingly endorsed these Youth Clubs, with an umbrella account representing the movement sharing multiple posts from Youth Clubs. On Telegram, the umbrella account posted “Youth clubs are for those under 18 that still want to get active,” linking to the United Youth Telegram page, and also shared by South Central Tennessee Active Club. The same account has also shared content originating from the Great Lakes Youth Club and the Chesapeake Youth Club. Other Active Clubs, such as the Great Lakes Active Club, shared a post originating from their youth counterparts, the similarly-named Great Lakes Youth Club.
Telegram channels representing the Active Club movement share content posted by their youth counterparts. (Source: Telegram).
While Telegram is an effective means of reaching other extremists, Youth Clubs appear to be trying to reach a mainstream audience, particularly other young people, by posting their propaganda on TikTok. According to Pew Research Center, 63 percent of American teenagers use TikTok, including 16 percent who are on the app “almost constantly.” At the time of publishing, the Midwest Youth Club, Alamo Youth Club, and Great Plains Youth Club are all active on TikTok. Several other Youth Club accounts were previously active, but their channels no longer exist. These accounts are primarily used to spread images of stickering and advertising their chapter’s flag. In the comment section of one TikTok post users are seen telling other commenters to “join up” through the link in the Youth Club’s TikTok “bio.” Using mainstream platforms to recruit teenagers into far-right extremist movements reflects a continuing trend of young people being radicalized online, where extreme and hateful content is not only easily accessible, but tailored to them.
Several Youth Club chapters have accounts on TikTok, which they use to spread their hateful propaganda (Source: TikTok).
Youth groups borrowing from the goals, symbolism, and aesthetics of extremist movements is not a new phenomenon, and unsurprising given the recent “generational shift” of young men to the far right. A previous investigation by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) uncovered a transnational network of young extremists operating on the video game Roblox, including the Patriot Youth, who drew inspiration from the white supremacist Patriot Front in their activism, “Active Club Bloxia,” which endorsed Active Clubs, “Hammerskin Bloxia,” imitating the neo-Nazi Hammerskin nation, and “Vanguard Robloxia,” a play on “Vanguard Britannica,” a fascist group based in the UK. Patriot Youth engaged in several hateful activities online, including the harassment of LGBTQ+ gamers, campaigning in virtual election simulators as fascists, and creating violent Nazi imagery on Roblox. Patriot Youth eventually moved their activism into the real world. They worked with the Tennessee Active Club in October 2023, arranging an interview between the Active Club’s leader and failed Franklin, Tenn., mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson. They later worked together again to harass a book club at Middle Tennessee State University.
The emergence of the Youth Club network serves as a sobering reminder of the ongoing radicalization of young men in the United States, particularly in this volatile political environment. These teenagers are drawing inspiration from violent neo-Nazis like Robert Rundo during a time when the Trump administration is mirroring policies advocated by neo-Nazis and galvanizing the far right to call for violence against their political enemies, making these Youth Clubs the manifestation of a new generation of hate.
