Today I Learned

I spent over a decade thinking “God this sucks, but at least things will get better once the boomers die off.” The worst political blow of my life was realizing that the younger generation also lacked critical thinking skills.

You're making the assumption that these kids had a proper education that taught them critical thinking skills and how to spot propaganda.

My honest opinion. The right pipeline is meeting boys where they are. The left needs to stop pontificating about shit and get on their level.

It's no different than the fact that the education system as it's been designed is easier for girls to navigate than boys. Look at post-secondary attendance by gender over time.

This is a problem that has been brewing for decades and we have done nothing to stop it and the right wing despite all their faults are actually engaging these boys where they are.

If you are a parent. Hell if you are a mother, you should be scared as shit at how your sons are checking out of society writ large.

I'm a 48 year old dude with 3 kids. My daughter will be fine. My boys on the other hand? I'm doing my best to make sure they're adjusted and successful but it's exceedingly hard.

In any age, it didn't make sense. We are strong, united. The elite seek to divide us because it makes us weaker and easier to control. Nobody is born a bigot.

It’s partly because forums aren’t really a thing these days. People tend to spend their time on places like Instagram, twitter, YouTube, etc. All algorithmically feeding them content. And that algorithm isn’t what’s best or most liked, but what is the most engaged with. So anything “controversial”. Which, in the real world, equates to right-wing content.

Seriously, say you go on YouTube and you want to watch a video about a film. Say you liked the most recent Ghostbusters and think it’s underrated. You find a video called something like “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is actually better than you think”. It’s 30 minutes long, which is about the length of time you want to kill. You start watching and you’re agreeing with it. Then it gets to the 20 minute mark and suddenly the video is talking about the woman-led reboot and how bad it is in comparison. The word “woke” starts getting thrown around. Its lack of quality is blamed on women as a whole being incapable of being funny.

Suddenly you realise that the maker of the video is a misogynist and you stop watching.

But you’ve already watched 20 minutes. YouTube now thinks you like content of the kind produced by that channel. So you’ll see a lot more of that kind of thing, because it makes people angry. Either angry because they agree with the author about how wokeness is destroying everything, or angry because they think he’s a misogynist. But either way, they’re upvoting/downvoting and leaving comments.

Now, you’re not interested in that kind of material, but perhaps there’s a video that you wouldn’t have been recommended before which isn’t as extreme, but just has a couple of things you disagree with. Perhaps it’s masked with irony and edgy humour. Watch enough of this new kind of content and you might find yourself being a little more sympathetic to the parts that you would previously have disagreed with.

This is particularly true if you’re someone who doesn’t see themselves as being in a good situation. If you haven’t got a job, then it’s much more palatable to be told that it’s because of those foreigners coming here on small boats than it is that you’re not particularly employable, or there just aren’t very many jobs right now because we’re in an economic downturn, or that the entire system is rigged to take money from the poor and give it to the rich and that you’re on the wrong side of that equation. Those things are emotionally uncomfortable and complex as ideas. The thought “it’s all because of them” feels good, because anger feels good, and it’s simple. Just get rid of “them” and all will be wonderful again.

Same with women. Do you need to work on yourself? Do you need to actually make a conscious effort to examine your attitudes and the attitudes ingrained in society and think before you make an off-hand remark to a woman? Do you need to change your attitude and start thinking of women as complex people with inner lives who don’t owe you anything even if you really, really think they’re very pretty and they smell nice and are a bit gothy and have big tits and even if you’re always polite to them and hold the door open for them and once gave them half of your chocolate bar and she accepted and smiled at you? No! It’s the femoids’ fault for only wanting Chad and Tyrone! Come join US! WE understand you! We’re not going to tell you that you need to take any responsibility for anything! We’ll tell you that you ARE owed sex and that she’s a bitch for witholding it by putting you in the friendzone! It’s not YOU! It’s THEM! It’s all THEIR fault!

There’s a lot of people in bad situations. There’s a lot of people feeling neglected and lost and helpless and hopeless and emotionally disconnected. And the message that the answer is simple and it’s all the fault of [group X] and that if you could just put [group X] in their place then you’d get everything you ever wanted, is a very, very seductive one. “It’s complicated, and will require effort, and even then things may not get much better” is a much less appealing pitch.

Combine those things with engagement-pushing algorithms which favour right-wing content - alongside far-right groups actively trying to recruit people with irony and a “boil the frog” approach, and some platforms (twitter, I’m looking in your direction) actively trying to push a far-right narrative - and it’s not really a surprise that some people, men in particular, are moving to the right.

the incel thing is such a self fulfilling prophecy - they embrace it then can't imagine why women recoil from them. so they further radicalize.

nice job conservatives, you really fucked up an entire generation

And they will never be found because they don't call themselves "entwives"

There's an art to diplomacy, and sometimes it involves omitting truths or carefully framing it, even when dealing with awful people, and compromising or postponing grand strategic goals for short-term gains.

I feel like many young men are being alienated by people pissed off with the status quo that fail at or refuse to engage with them diplomatically. I get it, I don't want to compromise or negotiate on basic human rights and dignity either. I don't want to wait for things to get better. I don't want to coddle the sensitive pride of chauvinistic dickheads.

But reactionary grift thrives on the (negative) reaction to being told your way of life, your habits, your norms are bad and wrong, and particularly to the (exaggerated) impression that you are bad and wrong for reasons beyond you control (like being born with a dick) or that you are irrelevant.

We need to find a way to communicate issues more diplomatically and include these men in the conversation and solution rather than making them "the other".

And we also need to reign in the hardcore misandrists who genuinely do want to turn this into us vs. them.

The flaws in their culture, where they're expected to be invaded by North Korea at anytime, and nearly all the males -- even pop stars -- are also expected to do military service. Of course the men have become deeply reactionary, what with anti-communist propaganda heavily embedded throughout, and they're not happy with South Korean women being more assertive now than 50 years ago.

It's not helping that South Korea is so much of a horrifyingly thinly-disguised corporate dystopia.

From the article:

The #MeToo movement was the key trigger, giving rise to fiercely feminist values among young women who felt empowered to speak out against long-running injustices. That spark found especially dry tinder in South Korea, where gender inequality remains stark, and outright misogyny is common.

In the country’s 2022 presidential election, while older men and women voted in lockstep, young men swung heavily behind the right-wing People Power party, and young women backed the liberal Democratic party in almost equal and opposite numbers.

Korea’s is an extreme situation, but it serves as a warning to other countries of what can happen when young men and women part ways. Its society is riven in two. Its marriage rate has plummeted, and birth rate has fallen precipitously, dropping to 0.78 births per woman in 2022, the lowest of any country in the world.

Seven years on from the initial #MeToo explosion, the gender divergence in attitudes has become self-sustaining. Survey data show that in many countries the ideological differences now extend beyond this issue. The clear progressive-vs-conservative divide on sexual harassment appears to have caused — or at least is part of — a broader realignment of young men and women into conservative and liberal camps respectively on other issues.

The simple answer is people want simple answers. Propaganda, especially that of the right gives them. Sure the answers are wrong, but they are easy to digest in the moment.

It weaponizes self-esteem. Gives you someone to feel better than.

Most queer folks have a darker, edgier, more offensive sense of humor than the average right-winger and they tend to skew left so I don't think it's the humor that's winning them over.