Society/Culture Why are young males now more right wing then older males?

[RedStarUncle]

Im not aware of that gen x and millenials have not trended towards conservatism. Have you seen any data on that?

A quick bit of googling and the news stories seem to more specifically identify the trend with Gen Y rather than Gen X. I won't post the links because I'm sure you can search "are Gen Y becoming less conservative with age" and pick whichever articles you do and don't want to read.

I think the anecdotal explanation is that increasing conservatism with age comes with having more to protect so being less likely to want to see change to institutions. Millennials have had a harder time acquiring property, more senior jobs, wealth generally, and slower to start families and having smaller families... hence not making that shift.

I guess you could say with Gen X example that maybe the shift still occurs it just comes later in life than in the past.

All it comes down to... in any sense... is whether there is a real shift to left-wing politics leading to young males moving to the far-right as an act of rebellion, or whether young males are just being sold that message without there being any truth to it at all.

 

[RedStarUncle]

Way over valuing Sky News reach and underestimating social media

Agree... the right-shift of traditional media that is encapsulated by Murdoch occurred decades ago and it's effect is clear to see; the shift of traditional centre-left parties like ALP, Democrats, UK Lab, etc. so they basically now occupy the centre or centre-right at their core. Murdoch's agenda was basically a conservative one (with a neoliberal capitalist bent).

Social Media has been the tool by which extremist fringe views have been allowed to thrive. Various contributing factors have given a much bigger overflow of the right-fringe views into mainstream political discourse.

Murdoch has chased those fringe views rather than drive them.

 

[kickazz]

Usually young people are less conservative then older people

They still are.

It is the right that has the radicals now. Just look at what most conservatives (Brandis, Cheney, Howard) say about Trump

Conservatism, among other things, aims to conserve what we have, our institutions, values, etc.

A lot of the "economically left" things we have built up as part of the welfare state are accepted as the norm now and the Right want to smash it.

 

[kickazz]

Entitlement.

Fair opportunities for women and immigrants are making them work harder than previous generations of white men had to in order to get similar jobs.

They might just be the first generation to take a serious hit to the privilege/entitlement.


But to be fair, they may also be paying for the sins of the father. Being told how privileged you are whilst girls get more opportunities in certain areas (this does happen) probably pisses a lot of them off.


Also general ignorance about politics and the world. Tik tok generation is easily manipulated

 

[Ghost Patrol]

Microplastics

 

[QuietB]

The left is fixated on identity politics which doesn't make young men feel represented at all. If you're a young white cis hetero male with 'privilege', what does the left do for you?

Not much actually

My answer would be that young men have been seduced by the right wing persecution complex which frankly is running rampant.

Can anyone name a right wing figure who is not a perennial sook?

 

[QuietB]

Micropenis'

EFA

 

[StingBitten]

I believe these issues transcend age and are far more environmental, underpinned by an echo chamber of lopsided perspectives.

As a social worker in a Child Protection office with 100 females to every 1 male employee, I encountered narratives about men that were frankly alarming - understandably the work was incredibly challenging and staff were removing kids into care, mostly from men perpetrating severe DV against their partners. But many female workers views became collectively more extreme.. such as narratives formed that 'all men are evil', every Father is guilty/useless/liars, boys are poisoned, Tate and alt-right and should be partitioned from society. These views spilled into some fairly alarming toxic behaviour in the office.

I then moved to a Prison setting where most of the staff were Men, and it was similar yet different. The men believed women were given a leg-up into roles they weren't qualified for, suggested women were entitled, likely to make complaints at the drop of a hat, severely hypocritical, gossipy and not to be trusted.

Both groups operated in this echo chamber of perspectives- and paradoxically both groups had very little interaction with staff members of the opposite sex.

Fast forward to now, I run my own thing and have 10 female staff and 10 male staff. Relationships are strong and built on trust, completely balanced. It's not easy and we all have to work on it, try and walk a mile in someone else's shoes etc.

I think our micro-communities or lack thereof inform much or this stuff. The media machine feeds into the extremes because it suits itself financially to do so.