“… Fascism is an act of contempt, in fact. Inversely, every form of contempt, if it intervenes in politics, prepares the way for, or establishes, Fascism. It must be added that Fascism cannot be anything else but an expression of contempt without denying itself. …”
- Albert Camus
Political contempt is a very relatable feeling to the younger generations. The system feels broken and difficult to fix, thanks to the expensiveness of the electoral process.
After generations of being told “mind your business” by the previous generation’s populace who try to control everyone else, the latest generation said “ok,” and fucked off to do their own thing. I don’t blame them. We destroyed the world that had been molded into something kind for us and left them with an oppressive environment; they might produce the last generation or two to enjoy being human before the billionaires and their friends coast on the product of them constantly stirring shit. Good luck to us all.
Upvote for Camus
Yea people just feel hopeless, and I don’t blame them when the system is literally rigged.
Self interest rules here. It is in most young peoples interest to just say fuck it, for their own well being and mental health, head in the sand and try to survive. What else to do? Corporate profit rules, and slavery is written into the constitution.
Through this same path of apathy I was able to find myself, and my own path forward, and here I am posting ramblings on lemmy. But I’m glad I’m not growing up today quite frankly, and im glad i had the people and friends I did. I was raised on punk rock lol.
If there is an uptick in conservatism, and or apathy it’s in large part to the sense of self depreciation that’s instilled in us, as well as that ever present streak of contrarianism in youth coupled with the disaster that is our education system and unhealthy use of social media.
Polarization and Apathy are a feature of the political and economic system it would seem to me. But I’m just a self depreciating uneducated idiot, with my own fair share of apathy.
It’s hopelessness mixed with growing up being told they are bad and the reason the world is bad. I feel genuinely bad for boys growing up now. They don’t have the benefits older men had but they get all of the blame and negativity. I don’t blame them for feeling at least like the right might care about them more because the right doesn’t contain all of the male hate and misandry they face on a daily basis, even if supporting the right is probably causing them more harm in the long run.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Social media was recently abuzz with a survey that shows 12th-grade boys (who are aged 17 or 18) are nearly twice as likely to identify as conservative v liberal.
The numbers showing young men becoming conservative come from the 2022 Monitoring the Future study, a respected annual survey looking at American adolescents that began in 1975.
This got the jubilant attention of a bunch of high-profile rightwingers, such as Steve Bannon and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the conservative media personality and fiancee of Donald Trump Jr.
Some rightwing influencers, such as Charlie Kirk, the founder of conservative youth group Turning Point USA, used the chart as proof that their outreach to high school kids (or, as some might describe it, “brainwashing”) was working.
There is certainly a lot to be said about how young men are drifting to the right – or, in many cases, how they are being pushed there by misogynistic conservative influencers such as Andrew Tate and Ben Shapiro.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
That kid 100% looks like he’d tell me to go frick myself, while “flicking” me off with his ring finger.
When future prospects are dead or fading, people get radicalized. Or I guess reactionary is the more accurate term.
Future prospects are bleak AND you’ve been told by one side of the political aisle that you’re the cause of all of the worlds troubles. The last time that combination happened we had the rise of fascism. Maybe don’t raise boys telling them they are the reason the world sucks and they might not swing to the right.
“It’s okay sweetie, the world is literally burning, drowning, and sometimes both at the same time! But in order to protect you, I’ll just say we have no idea why or how to prevent it! Wouldn’t want to hurt your fefe’s by telling you that humans are the problem!” 🤦🏻♂️
Sorry, OP, but this is a garbage op-ed. It offers very little information about, much less insight into the study in question, meaning mostly the article just serves to give the author a chance to express her political slant via pejorative adjectives towards right-wing groups. The fact that I happen to agree with her slant doesn’t change the fact that it’s not a good article.
I for one think it’s a phenomenon worth investigating further, this question of why young men in particular are saying they feel alienated from both political parties. I don’t know, but I strongly suspect the extent to which Democrats embrace increasingly exclusionary and misandrist slogans created by feminists is part of it.
Feminism is very important for women’s rights, but I’ve realized as I’ve grown up that the movement’s leaders have absolutely zero interest in policing their man-hating radicals. Whenever said radicals are brought up—even when it’s in a mainstream context—feminists are quick to dismiss them and claim it’s unfair to judge the movement by their statements. To which my response is: if you can’t be bothered to keep their misandrist talking points out of your mainstream discourse, then I have no reason to believe they’re as fringe as you say, much less that you actually disagree with them.
To the extent that democrats either embrace or tolerate this kind of talk (and they do), I can easily see how a teenage boy who leans liberal would hesitate to identify as such when they hear liberal mouthpieces pushing language and concepts that either demonize, exclude, or minimize men. It’s a problem the Democrats have not taken seriously, and I sincerely hope they start to, because the Right is eager to capitalize on it.
It’s not an op-ed, it’s just reporting on the study and reactions to it. The whole article is barely six paragraphs long and doesn’t get into any editorializing. The survey also says about a third still haven’t made up their mind.
And if you’re going to spout of reasons why this is the case, it would be great if you would have something concrete to back up your assertion beyond your gut telling you this is the case. Do you have statistics about how much exposure the average teenage boy has to radical feminists?
It’s not an op-ed
It’s literally in the “Opinion” section of the Guardian’s website.
Do you have statistics about how much exposure the average teenage boy has to radical feminists?
No, not on hand. This is just my opinion, but the author of the op-ed above even suggests feminist slogans might be part of the reason why the data from the study looks the way it does. Teenage boys are at least as exposed to social media as the rest of us (or do I need an official study to make that claim too?), so I think it’s safe to assume they’re exposed to posts about “toxic masculinity,” “mansplaining,” “manspreading,” “#yesallmen,” “ironic misandry,” and articles like this and this.
Why did you put quotes around toxic masculinity?
To be pejorative of course, most of those are objectively actual things. It’s like when I say they’re entitled to their “opinion” I’m actually implying they don’t know asshole from elbow.
Well, I’m sure you realize you’ll be taken less seriously when you take such a broadly mocking approach up front and then only temper it when asked. You sound a bit like the feminists you’re criticizing.
Look at usernames, prepare yourself.
Look at usernames,
I really should.
So you’d rather all women spend their time running around shouting “not all women” instead of like…being whole humans with their own interests and personalities? What a creepy take.
This is such a brain dead take on what they said.
I think you will find some articles you like and some that you don’t. Politics is a large umbrella and not everything will be a subject you are interested in.
