Couldn't have put it better.Political correctness is only "hardly mentioned" because woke has taken it's place as a more emotive descriptor of the right's great boogie-man.
Post after post is pushing that young men are moving right in rebellion against wokeness... but I really, really, really, just don't get it. Having grown up in the 90s, "political correctness gone mad" was all exactly the same rage. Christmas was getting cancelled. Gays were taking over the world. Environmentalists were a risk to our way of life due to their alarmism.
30 years later... the world isn't that different and all the claims are the same.
So what is different?
- Social Media has replaced traditional media, and created cultural silos or echo chambers greatly reducing the percentage of a person's interactions with a broad base of different opinions... that pushes people naturally to more extreme views and a greater engagement with their politics
- Fascism has lost its taboo... it's inherently labelled as ridiculous or extremist to label Trump type politics as fascist; deemed as "likening it to Nazism". Yet many of the political messaging and ideals behind the movement are objectively fascist. It feels like fascism was long enough ago that we no longer recognise it for what it is, but still write-off the naming of it as ridiculous hyperbole
- The traditional bastions of right wing politics... economic liberalism and religious conservatism... have faded as a foundation. The centre-left parties have adopted more or less equivalent economic positions, and religiousness has declined. That's left the more active rather than conservative aspects of right wing politics i.e. the drive towards fascism and the railing against the "wokeness", "socialists", "environmentalists", etc. as the primary purpose of right-wing parties. And that rebellious and anti-status quo aspect appeals primarily to young men... they're replacing rich old people as the core of that side of politics.
The western world's not that different. A little bit less religious. A little bit older. And a lot more economically unequal. But it plays into all the narratives above to say we're somehow in this topsy-turvy world of wokeness and oppression, and young men need to rebel against it. So not only are they leaning right, they're leaning into a modern fascist right that's very different to anything we've had in many decades.
Like I said, the bolded is an example of msm hyperbolising what is probably a reflection of minority thought, at both ends of the spectrum. And by extension is sprouted in social media.
Jan and Joe public are hoodwinked into believing this is widespread sentiment as a result, when Jan and Joe probably don't agree with the 'narrative', but because of the flooding of click bait msm and follow on social media, they think they're in the minority of thinking. When they're probably not.
I don't get the impression from the public, when out in public, that they're hard core tree hugging sjw's or far right 'the world is against me' types when interacting with them. The odd occasion you'll run into fringe mind set nutters, but not often.
The problem is that gullible young males that feel alienated by what they think is the 'narrative' gobble up what's displayed to them. In saying that I don't think this is widespread among young males, a lot of them? Sure, but I think we'd see a lot more 'rebellion' and disassociation from society if it was widespread among the young males.
Not convinced, I think the majority of young people have more progressive views than in any time in history, if we're talking about liberal democratic societies. Young white males included.
Perspective, I grew up in the 70's and 80's when 'irrational political correctness' and 'far right fascism' were rarely if ever discussed. Certainly not like it is now.