Social media is abuzz with a survey showing 12th-grade boys are twice as likely to identify as conservative. The reality is a little more complicated, writes Arwa Mahdawi
I 100% believe there is a growing segment of the population of young white boys who are becoming radicalized. They see a world that is crumbling just like everyone else, but they have been shunned by the Left, and seemingly every other day the world’s problems are being blamed on them for some reason. Many of these folks feel like society is pushing them out and see that right wing extremist groups are accepting them. They keep hearing that racism and sexism is bad, and yet racism and sexism against white males somehow seems to be perfectly acceptable.
This is the exact type of exclusionary tactics that pushed so many post WW1 Germans into supporting the Nazi party right before WW2.
For years I’ve been hearing that Republicans are only old rich white men and that once they all eventually die, the GOP will be toast. Except that’s not true at all. Google image search the Proud Boys and tell me those guys are old. And there is that other group that wears the tan khakis (can’t think of their name). None of those people look older than 30.
I read a great article a while back about how no one has proposed an alternative to toxic masculinity, except for the far right who reinforces it. The left needs to more firmly speak up here.
Some possible traits to highlight – with the understanding that these traits are a spectrum among men and aren’t exclusionary of women – are the desire to protect and provide. That’s something we can point to.
I 100% believe there is a growing segment of the population of young white boys who are becoming radicalized. They see a world that is crumbling just like everyone else, but they have been shunned by the Left, and seemingly every other day the world’s problems are being blamed on them for some reason. Many of these folks feel like society is pushing them out and see that right wing extremist groups are accepting them. They keep hearing that racism and sexism is bad, and yet racism and sexism against white males somehow seems to be perfectly acceptable.
This is the exact type of exclusionary tactics that pushed so many post WW1 Germans into supporting the Nazi party right before WW2.
For years I’ve been hearing that Republicans are only old rich white men and that once they all eventually die, the GOP will be toast. Except that’s not true at all. Google image search the Proud Boys and tell me those guys are old. And there is that other group that wears the tan khakis (can’t think of their name). None of those people look older than 30.
This is a big problem that will only get worse.
I read a great article a while back about how no one has proposed an alternative to toxic masculinity, except for the far right who reinforces it. The left needs to more firmly speak up here.
Some possible traits to highlight – with the understanding that these traits are a spectrum among men and aren’t exclusionary of women – are the desire to protect and provide. That’s something we can point to.
Not only does the Left not have an answer to this, they actually make things worse by pushing away these folks.