Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
The US will get the leader they deserve.
Too bad the rest of the world will feel the consequences as well while they have no say in the matter.
Nor does half the country. I just don't understand why trump appeals to young men at all. He's just some horrifically uncool geezer.
Because all of the aggrieved male content on yt, TikTok, podcasts, etc. There's an entire normie-to-nazi pipeline ffs, and the social media algorithms continually promote stuff that's just slightly more "edgy", and suddenly kids have gone from Joe Rogan to Andrew Tate. Because all of the white males behind social media - spez, Zuckerberg, Musk, etc - agree with that content and continue to find excuses to "free speech" it.
Those boys should put in more work getting laid. And that's only a partial joke.
The incel thing drags them in, step 1 into the pipe. The can't get laid, must be something going on they can't put their finger on, but that thing is damned sure someone else's fault.
"I'm white, OK looking and I'm a nice guy!" The unspoken question, the unthought question, is, "What happened to my privilege?" For past generations, life seemed to work out well enough for white guys, but it sure as hell isn't working out for me!
Demographic shift has been wild in my lifetime. Too young to have experienced this, they get a feeling that something nebulous has changed, for the worse. They see minorities of all stripes stepping onto a more level playing field and then tune into YouTubers saying, "Yes! Now you get it! The other is the thing you didn't realize was holding you down!" Well god damn, now it all makes sense!
Back to getting laid, the fun part. Nothing like a good screw to smooth those rejected feels. You're wanted, wanted as a man. But if they think going hard-right is going to land them some pussy, oh boy... The few women in that scene are strictly for the alphas! Your beta ass won't even get scraps.
Dated quite a bit couple of years back. That was an education. Few women had political statements in their profiles, but many wrote something akin to, "I'm not interested in politics.", often followed by a lovey, flowery sentence to lighten the mood. Men: This is code for, "Don't come at me with your Trump bullshit." Yes, apparently guys often pull that horsepucky on the first date. These woman are screening for conservatives, they ain't gonna hear it. Talking on the phone to a potential date (who I ended up dating for a few months!),
"(laughing) Yeah, I'm a bit of a redneck."
Silence. Wrong thing to say there, buckaroo.
"...uh, just how redneck?"
"I loathe Trump if that's what you're getting at."
"Oh, whew! Just checking, can't be too careful these days."
tl;dr: We need to get the word out to these young men, "This crap you're watching is anathema to getting laid."
They are Nazis, treat them as such.
Look at 99% of media before 2001 AD. White male hero. Star Trek TOS was a giant ground breaker showing Uhura, but all the real critical leaders were males. Think on this; the James Bond movie Thunderball has a scene that's pretty much rape; they were selling little kids' toys based on that movie. There's a John Wayne movie where Wayne throws someone else's kid into a river to teach the boy how to get over his fear of water.
This is what these young men and their fathers consume. And Trump plays to that. He's a macho hero who plays by his own rules and doesn't take crap from anyone.
Muhammed Ali did more in real life than Clint Eastwood ever did in all his movies put together; guess which one these folks admire?
No offense, but I'd safely bet maybe 0.1% of current generation young men have watched any of those movies. This article is primarily talking about younger Gen Z folks (18-30), so people born 1994-2006. These males specifically consume idiot social media personalities vs old school macho man movies from the 50s and 60s.
^ This. I think even older people have scaled back on watching such fare.
This is what these young men and their fathers consume. And Trump plays to that. He’s a macho hero who plays by his own rules and doesn’t take crap from anyone.
How the fuck do they think Trump is macho?
Because he has money, he can say whatever the fuck he wants and no woman can boss him. Kind of like Elon. If you have a broken brain, that is "macho".
I'm a zoomed so I can confirm you completely failed to bring up any media relevant to Gen Z, and Star Trek TOS and Ali are closer than Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, and Bond.
You’re not paying enough attention if you think Trump winning means “too bad the rest of the world will feel the consequences.” Germany just elected their first far right government since WWII, France had a massive right wing that is now in the EU council, Austria… well they keep making shitty right wing choices, down into South America Argentina shifted right, and other countries continue to do so as well. We’re not special or alone in this.
I vote my hardest but my brothers are stupid.
I get this way of thinking, but just to be clear: the US didn't get the leader it deserved when Trump "won" the first time, despite receiving millions of fewer votes than Hilary. And almost certainly here, even if Trump "wins," he will have gotten less votes.
That's because there is a 2-3% bias in the current presidential electoral system, the Electoral College. We're founded under a "1 person, 1 vote" ideology that our elections ignore.
So yes, I get the frustration. But we (the sane people) are all in this together, and the majority of voters in the US appear to still be sane, even if that doesn't win the election by default. Solidarity would be the better move here.
In 2016 voters had the excuse that they didn't know how a Trump presidency would play out. They don't have that same excuse in 2024. Anyone who votes for him knows what they're doing. If he wins, even with electoral college shenanigans, it will be a symptom of a much deeper malaise than just Trump.
Yes, I agree with all of that. But "there's a bigger problem" or "Trump voters know who he is" isn't the same as "the US got what it deserves."
I'm specifically taking issue with "deserves.". "Deserves" implies Trump represents the US, which would only be true if the majority of the US (or US voters) chose Trump. We didn't. That's important because he's not just a dangerous leader, and an autocrat, he's one that does not have a mandate of the people.
Trump did very little for anyone. Unless you’re rich.
Even then it's not like it was intentional. He only did it for himself, it's just that other rich people also coincidentally benefited.
Yeah Trump is very simple - he punishes anyone who doesn't actively support him and rewards anyone who does. Anything he does for anybody is simply to show others that if you're good to Trump, he'll throw you a bone too.
He spends so much time performing for his base to ensure he has enough political power for that system to work. Once his base gets bored of him he'll be nothing.
Every gen Z kid I know is having an issue trying to pick a pro-Palestine candidate. They seem to dislike Biden more than Harris, but I have never heard of trump support. I'm sure some amount of gen Z are trumpers but they are a minority, saying young male voters are "flocking" to trump is pretty silly. "There are literally dozens of us!"
You should educate them on the dangers of single-issue voting. Pro-life has kept the Republican Party afloat for decades.
I hate to say this, but you're probably living in a bit of a bubble. I know I was.
A lot of men, across all age ranges, tend to lean fascist. There's a lot of reasons for this, but the core problem is that progressive neoliberalism does a terrible job speaking to cis-het male anxieties, while fascism welcomes them with open arms.
It's all bullshit, of course, but at least they're being heard.
Progressive politicians really need to let the 1990s go. Third-way triangulation worked great then, but it's ineffective now.
This exactly. The destruction of third spaces under Reagan was either a genius move to radicalize lonely, isolated Americans or a hell of a coincidence that ended up helping the right.
I say it could be a coincidence because idk if Reagan's administration was looking quite that far ahead but... They were crafty and very intelligent people.
progressive neoliberalism does a terrible job speaking to cis-het male anxieties
Terrible is a bit of an understatement. Men complain about bleak social and economic prospects only to be meet with insults that go right to the metaphorical jugular of every mans ego.
I don't think Trump has the interest of literally any of his voters at heart. He's only interested in helping himself and he legally can't even vote for himself.
Edit: TIL Trump can still vote.
Florida (Trump's home state) Law:
a felony conviction in another state makes a person ineligible to vote in Florida only if the conviction would make the person ineligible to vote in the state where the person was convicted.
New York (State of felony convictions) Law:
a person convicted of a felony is disenfranchised only while incarcerated for that felony.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/can-trump-vote-now-he-has-felony-convictions
Yeah people are too uneducated to vote what is actually good for them, but that is unfortunately by design nowadays.
It's not just the uneducated. There are many young men who want women to become property because they're too goony to find one.
The article completely missed the core reason for young men to vote for Trump. It's ending DEI initiatives.
That's a single issue for some of my conservative friends. The D's will never get their vote.
A spectacular victory for the billionaire class that your friends are focused on the one black kid who gets a leg up and not the legions of white kids who got ahead through their parents' donations and legacy admissions.
LBJ once said: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." Clearly, 60 years on, it's still true.
In the UK the Conservative party decided to get rid of DEI initiatives in education. When?
When the minority specifically recommended to be targeted for support became poor/working class white boys.
Conservatives will go out of their way to harm the working class because as long as things are going badly for them they'll be angry enough to vote for the ones with dog whistles pretending it's someone else's fault.
I guess they are just going to have to accept that diversity equity and inclusion are a part of our lives now, and that they don’t get to make decisions about who is included, and that diverse opinions really are valuable, and that we are going to continue spending our public resources to ensure we all have equitable opportunity.
I guess what I mean is, too bad for your conservative friends?
My take is that they vote for him because he is angry. These young men are largely angry and have had media of all sorts telling them that they should be. They don't want someone telling them how they will boost the middle class and have equitable tax. They want someone who says they will burn every problem to the ground and break things. They want someone screaming at someone to blame.
Why we have a huge chunk of young men desperatly angry is a choose your own adventure of societal issues where we have provided almost no healthy outlet for healthy aggression or the physicality that comes with being a young man. Everyone is free to come up with their own reasons, but for me it is the lack of outlet or the feeling of societial participation for young men.
Whatever the reason, a culture who sweeps the problems of frustrated young men under the rug for long enough I feel will live to regret it.
Right-wing incels, hot off their carnivore diet, roids, and worship of Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson wondering why women flee from them and yet continue to double-down on the likes of worshiping shitheads like Trump and Andrew Tate.
It's the exploitation of the ignorant and vulnerable; naturally, right-wing puppeteers are telling them it's everyone else who is the problem.
I think a lot of it is because there's so many more well-funded right-wing influencers/grifters than genuine liberal or left-wing influencers. It's much more profitable to take advantage of young men's anxieties and insecurities (to sell fungus pills, get-rich-quick plans, or whatever), than to genuinely discuss things from a liberal or especially left-wing perspective.
Its a cliche but they also promise easy answers to hard questions, blame others for problems they caused themselves or at least did nothing to get out of. The old tell 'em what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear.
Don’t forget the E-girls, Trump is also aiming for the E-girls since the loser Gooner boys who are basically privileged Republikids oogle over them constantly.
Losers all of them but they got voting power.
He isn't even masculine. Like not even close.
yeah im like. positive maculinity? I mean im positive that is not masculinity.
He does have an interest in young girls at heart though... Just like his good friend Jeff Epstein, “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy, He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
This seems like the education gap rather than a gender gap. Women have been going to college in greater numbers for a couple of decades.
Scared little boys need a daddy
And somebody to hate. It's so ugly how young men easily come together to hate a person or group. It gives them a sense of togetherness and 'not it' at the same time.
He's masculine?
He's the most masculine. Many have said that he is the most masculine, ever. He has some friends that also consider themselves to be the most masculine, but secretly they all agree that he is in fact the most masculine, ever.