As I arrived at New York’s biggest cryptocurrency and art-adjacent edgelord election watch party, a young man in a shaggy blonde wig and suit was pulled past a spread of cold McDonalds to deliver a mediocre Trump impersonation before a set of flash-on iPhones, speaking of how yuge the night was going to be and the certainty of a GOP victory. It marked the sort of casual confidence that defined the evening for Downtown’s dissident right wing—a confidence that ultimately proved warranted.
His was the only obvious wig in the room, but the crowd of the evening can, I think, be fairly described by their headgear. More than half the room were wearing a hat: a mix of MAGA (both the classic red and new “Dark MAGA” varieties), at least one fedora, and dozens of the trucker hats being given away, which read: “I’m immune to propaganda, and the deep state fears my swag.”
J.M. Kettle
The party was at Sovereign House, a subterranean venue on the Lower East Side, right by Chinatown, in the neighborhood sometimes referred to as Dimes Square, a nightlife district that has also become a curious metonymy for heterodox right-leaning scene. One sponsor of the event was Polymarket, an cryptocurrency-based online prediction market where people can bet on anything, including politics. The trucker hats were being given away by Remilia, the other co-host and sponsor, a group described by the magazine Dazed as an “anti-woke crypto community.”
The latter sponsor appeared to be a particularly large draw, dominating the party’s 500-person RSVP list. Remilia attendees were the most online: if you imagine a type of vaguely goth guy who spends a lot of time on 4chan, with an anime profile picture, who would also vote for Trump—you’re probably pretty close. But there were also several cute young women among them, too, still displaying an affinity for e-girl aesthetics: heavy winged eyeliner, choker necklaces, pleated mini skirts.
Few revelers were willing to speak for attribution. Many of those in attendance, Remilia, MAGA, or otherwise, are better (or only) known by their online personas. Some others, whose full names I know, still understandably did not want to be quoted. But several people, when they were told that I was there writing about the event for GQ, asked me if I wanted them to say a slur for the record.
