"A new trend has emerged in American politics: The very youngest voters — 18-to-24-year-olds — say they’re more conservative than the cohort that’s just older,” according to the latest Harvard Youth Poll.
“This new trend — which is true for both genders and emerged only in the last few years — is especially pronounced with men.”
If you didn’t know this, you haven’t been paying attention. Right wing voices have gone hard at the young male demographic for years now. They’ve targeted kids in online games and social media, and groomed them for years all with the goal of shaping their world view and by extension, their politics. Lonely young guys looking at people who present themselves as successful, rich, and rolling in women, not giving a fuck about anyone but themselves, telling young boys that they just need to be more sexist and racist and that’ll get them laid and make them feel fulfilled. Telling them that the world is wrong and they’re not. It’s been extremely successful, and all wide out in the open. That’s why voices like Andrew Tate made it into the public zeitgeist.
Frankly, it’s an absolute failing on all of the left for being completely unable or unwilling to see this or show an alternative world view. Too often, when I hear people talk about young white men’s issues, I get crocodile tears from everyone who can’t separate them from actual right wing provocateurs.
You’ve identified the problem many see, but what is the solution?
This demographic is notoriously hard to reach and the nature of its age and inexperience leads to having their priorities woefully out of whack and susceptible to shit like Joe Rogan and Andrew Tate to Jordan Peterson. Asking or forcing them to watch Mr. Rogers isn’t going to cut it, if you know what I mean.
I may get downvoted for this but I tend to downvote comments that lay everything right wing on boomers/olds. I’m nearly one myself, and most of my RL friends are boomer age lefties. Is Vance old? Is Loomer a boomer? Maga Mike, MTG, Boebert, at most Gen X, are leading the charge, and all the Patriot Front dudes are millennials and gen Z. If it were all boomers only we could just wait for them to die off, but it isn’t.
I didn’t know I accused boomers, or older people specifically, of anything. Did I do that? Or am I misunderstanding what you mean?
I’m agreeing with you
No, u/dirthawker0 is supporting your point.
Don’t forget Gamergate.
I think the reason the left doesn’t hit back as hard is because it feels sort of strange to do so. It’s difficult to acknowledge at the emotional level that we’re really back to just fighting for the most fundamental basics of liberty, equality and pursuit of happiness. Especially given how the right co-opted talking about freedom in general a number of years ago. Do we really need to rewind our level of discourse all the way back to the 18th century though?
Well, if those are the principles that are under attack, perhaps we do.
All of this began with Steve Bannon and his WoW guild. I can’t believe how far they’ve taken it.
https://www.thewrap.com/how-world-of-warcraft-propelled-steve-bannon-to-the-white-house/
Saying the world is wrong is a very easy sell because a ton of society is wrong about a ton of things. Covid, minimum wage, appropriate level of corporate dark pattern prosecution (shoutout to world famous breath of fresh air lina khan).
The normal people need to be more proactive about starting with conservative grievances and exploring them more, because the trail leads straight to the billionaires symbolically, and a captured, subjugated set of laws, protections, and institutions that allow them to ever exist.
Systems thinking with as few big words as possible is good for everybody.
It doesn’t help that men literally cannot complain about their issues online without being called an incel. It’s so overused that it’s lost all meaning. The left needs to do better for young men than “Shut up women have it worse”
*Obviously women DO have it worse, we just need to work on the messaging.
In what ways? That’s important.
For example, we’re WAY better at killing ourselves.
It literally couldn’t be less important. We shouldn’t be fighting about what makes us different or run the Oppression Olympics. That’s literally what the ‘elite’ want cause it stops organization against them.
Far better use of everyones’ time would be find a cause that helps everyone, not just themselves.
That’s the wrong question, and that’s why they’re all turning to right wing but jobs.
Boy kid gets online and says, I have X problem…he’s immediately downvoted to oblivion and a deluge of “but women have it worse.”
But there’s one dude in that noise that says, I have that problem too…have you heard of Andrew Tate (or whoever the hot grifter is).
We need to take these kids seriously if you want them to be well rounded adults. Otherwise they’re just going to keep leaking out to the extremists.
Men don’t need to fight legal battles for basic bodily autonomy, for example.
Of course not, that’s because babies can’t file lawsuits for having their foreskins cut off.
Well…try getting a vasectomy when you’re under 30. It’s possible, but it isn’t easy.
In my 40s I had to have a signed document from my wife giving me permission.
I had mine at 26 and wasn’t even married. No kids. Had one interview where the doctor made sure I was properly informed, had the procedure done like the next week or something when the schedule had an opening.
In a very conservative state too. Not Missouri conservative… But definitely not California either. Lol This was nearly 10 years ago. No regrets.
I got one easily
Also there’s no laws being passed to make it illegal.
That is a good example and heavily informs my voting habits.