High School Boys are Trending Conservative

[It’s so Joever]

It should be noted also that the "Andrew Tate" people are not going to grow up and be part of any kind of coherent political movement, just like the people who worshiped alt-right Youtubers several years ago. These are the next generation of rapists and mass shooters. They'll never procreate or have relationships, unless they reform, because it is not possible for these people to appeal to women. It's a very concerning problem, but for reasons much more important than who they will vote for in 2028.

No, the real solution is to even further polarize the situation by spreading rampant misinfo on Instagram/tiktok among predominantly younger game oriented audiences and create a hyper polarized and motivated bloc of voters to combat the alt right.

Bring on the gender war!

[It’s so Joever]

But in all seriousness I alluded to this trend back in early 2021 only to be called a doomer/terminally online, glad (well not really actually) to be proven right once again. Gen Z and the next are polarized beyond belief and it will be a big deal in elections soon.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Doesn't matter until they get to voting age. People can change a lot at the 16-18 mark. Maybe they get more liberal, or even more conservative.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of young men see Biden as weak and fragile

[T'Chenka]

If more and more men want to move further and further right and make dating easier for leftist guys, in terms of women who won't date right wingers, then by all means, go ahead. The dating game is hard out here. I'll gladly take an unforced error from the competition.

I'm not directly competing with younger dudes but I'm assuming this trend is bigger than just high schools and colleges.

[DaleCooper]

It should be noted also that the "Andrew Tate" people are not going to grow up and be part of any kind of coherent political movement, just like the people who worshiped alt-right Youtubers several years ago. These are the next generation of rapists and mass shooters. They'll never procreate or have relationships, unless they reform, because it is not possible for these people to appeal to women. It's a very concerning problem, but for reasons much more important than who they will vote for in 2028.

No, the real solution is to even further polarize the situation by spreading rampant misinfo on Instagram/tiktok among predominantly younger game oriented audiences and create a hyper polarized and motivated bloc of voters to combat the alt right.

Bring on the gender war!

Remember that time you said that you were worried Republicans were going to arrest you for being liberal on Atlas? No one should be taking any of your advice on anything related to the internet.

Not to mention, your post doesn't make much sense. "No, the real solution . . ." implies that you're responding to my solution, but I didn't offer one. I just pointed out the problem as I see it. What are you even addressing here?

[pikachu]

This thread is peak Atlas. I think most people don’t really care about politics as much and this doesn’t correlate with how people vote 18-24.

It really is!

Tbt to this almost 20-year old thread about how millennials are going to be conservative than what came before. (Also based on high school anecdata!)

Or this 11-year old thread about millennials’ fiscal conservatism.

[Roll Roons]

This ties in to what I was theorizing about the "Barstool conservative" demographic - college-educated young men who oppose the woke stuff, but aren't necessarily on board with the most extreme elements of Trumpism and the religious right.

They are not white nationalists, extreme misogynists or hardcore "Stop the Steal" believers.

[OSR stands with Israel]

This thread is peak Atlas. I think most people don’t really care about politics as much and this doesn’t correlate with how people vote 18-24.

It really is!

Tbt to this almost 20-year old thread about how millennials are going to be conservative than what came before. (Also based on high school anecdata!)

Or this 11-year old thread about millennials’ fiscal conservatism.

This post oof

My Poli Sci teacher explained this phenomina.

Basically when we were all kids our first experience with Presidential politics was with Reagan and Bush. Then a lot of us got tired of Clinton (and his scandals). Plus 9/11 has made us more prone to be Republican similar to how the Great Depression made our grandparents more likely to be democrats.

Forgive my use of "we" and "us"

Instead of making millennials Republican, the Bush years is why they became so Democratic to begin with .

[GM Team Member and Acting PPT WB]

This thread is peak Atlas. I think most people don’t really care about politics as much and this doesn’t correlate with how people vote 18-24.

It really is!

Tbt to this almost 20-year old thread about how millennials are going to be conservative than what came before. (Also based on high school anecdata!)

Or this 11-year old thread about millennials’ fiscal conservatism.

And let's see how that went... oh, millennials and gen z helped turn 2022 into a neutral year by voting D? hm.

[It’s so Joever]

It should be noted also that the "Andrew Tate" people are not going to grow up and be part of any kind of coherent political movement, just like the people who worshiped alt-right Youtubers several years ago. These are the next generation of rapists and mass shooters. They'll never procreate or have relationships, unless they reform, because it is not possible for these people to appeal to women. It's a very concerning problem, but for reasons much more important than who they will vote for in 2028.

No, the real solution is to even further polarize the situation by spreading rampant misinfo on Instagram/tiktok among predominantly younger game oriented audiences and create a hyper polarized and motivated bloc of voters to combat the alt right.

Bring on the gender war!

Remember that time you said that you were worried Republicans were going to arrest you for being liberal on Atlas? No one should be taking any of your advice on anything related to the internet.

Not to mention, your post doesn't make much sense. "No, the real solution . . ." implies that you're responding to my solution, but I didn't offer one. I just pointed out the problem as I see it. What are you even addressing here?

Lighten up man (and no I don’t mean weight wise since you would prolly assume so)

[DaleCooper]

It should be noted also that the "Andrew Tate" people are not going to grow up and be part of any kind of coherent political movement, just like the people who worshiped alt-right Youtubers several years ago. These are the next generation of rapists and mass shooters. They'll never procreate or have relationships, unless they reform, because it is not possible for these people to appeal to women. It's a very concerning problem, but for reasons much more important than who they will vote for in 2028.

No, the real solution is to even further polarize the situation by spreading rampant misinfo on Instagram/tiktok among predominantly younger game oriented audiences and create a hyper polarized and motivated bloc of voters to combat the alt right.

Bring on the gender war!

Remember that time you said that you were worried Republicans were going to arrest you for being liberal on Atlas? No one should be taking any of your advice on anything related to the internet.

Not to mention, your post doesn't make much sense. "No, the real solution . . ." implies that you're responding to my solution, but I didn't offer one. I just pointed out the problem as I see it. What are you even addressing here?

Lighten up man (and no I don’t mean weight wise since you would prolly assume so)

It's impossible to know when you are joking.

[DrScholl]

Not surprising when you consider how personal grievances have become political ones. It used to be that more social awkward boys just retreated into video games or comic books, but now you have a movement that blames not fitting in and having a girlfriend all on politics.

It should be noted also that the "Andrew Tate" people are not going to grow up and be part of any kind of coherent political movement, just like the people who worshiped alt-right Youtubers several years ago. These are the next generation of rapists and mass shooters. They'll never procreate or have relationships, unless they reform, because it is not possible for these people to appeal to women. It's a very concerning problem, but for reasons much more important than who they will vote for in 2028.

I'm inclined to agree with this. The anger and toxicity amongst these people goes beyond political and it's dangerous.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Ignoring the point that 60% answered "moderate", didn't answer either, or don't care about politics

Anecdotally a lot of the high school "conservatives" that I knew mellowed out or switched positions after they stopped being 15.

Well I wasn't able to include every single observation the survey pointed out in the headline due to text limit, so I put the most interesting thing in the headline.

Lmao the study showed that only 23% of high school boys were conservative and that the number had trended left for the last two years.

[Horus]

Seems more like high school girls are trending liberal and high school boys just wanna grill.

Though I agree the Tate demographic is obviously toxic and should it expand, that would be scary.

[Crumpets]

This is just speculation, but I feel like high school guys were a very rapidly leftward-shifting demographic when I was in high school in the early Obama years, so this could be more of a reversion to the norm than a break from it.

[BigZuck08]

Ignoring the point that 60% answered "moderate", didn't answer either, or don't care about politics

Anecdotally a lot of the high school "conservatives" that I knew mellowed out or switched positions after they stopped being 15.

Well I wasn't able to include every single observation the survey pointed out in the headline due to text limit, so I put the most interesting thing in the headline.

Lmao the study showed that only 23% of high school boys were conservative and that the number had trended left for the last two years.

Well the headline said they were trending conservative, so that's a bit weird....

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Though I agree the Tate demographic is obviously toxic and should it expand, that would be scary.

Not enough data to be especially confident, but I suspect there is a hard ceiling on the Tate demographic. There are grifters/fellow hangers-on and a much larger group of people who will occasionally enjoy his content, but in terms of winning over true believers - his mass appeal seems limited to the subset of actual morons who also possess misogynist tendencies.

The culture warriors like Peterson etc. aren't trading in particularly complex ideas and, at the extreme end, far right politics has always prized aesthetic over ideology. However, the aesthetics and the discussions tend to offer a veneer of intellectual/moral/spiritual depth - or an enemy - so that (if you're politically inclined that way) you can support them and feel like you are part of some cause rather than committing only to an aesthetic.

It's much easier to follow one of these people if you've been told that God wills it, or that it is part of an ancient tradition, or that it is Right and eventually inevitable. Failing that, being told that you support Trump in service of banishing Hillary Clinton helps. You don't have to believe very strongly in these claims, but they can be your shield when you are challenged on why you follow those who make them.

What does Tate's pitch offer? He's a pimp with lots of cars, and he talks about "the matrix" - from what little I've seen, he doesn't even pick out designated villains like the World Bank. His appeal is only to the lowest common denominator. It isn't distinct, and because it only offers material gain, most will treat it with the same skepticism reserved for internet scams. His contemporaries - soundcloud rappers - will also never get beyond a certain ceiling, but they at least have an edge from being involved in gang wars.

[RINO Tom]

There is honestly an easy way for progressives to fix this. If they emphasize the ways traditional gender roles hurt males, more males would be inclined to support feminist causes and thus identify as "liberal" without any loss of female support.

This is so tone deaf.  It starts from the perspective that liberals are 100% correct about these issues, and everyone is just a blank slate that needs to be properly ~educated~ and then they’ll come around to the liberal point of view.  Unless they’re bad actors, of course, as that’s the only reason this education wouldn’t accomplish its goal!

“Gender roles” developed for many reasons that you can’t just chalk up to “patriarchy!  oppression!” and young men will not respond positively to the message that they just need to stop acting like men.

[Ferguson97]

There is honestly an easy way for progressives to fix this. If they emphasize the ways traditional gender roles hurt males, more males would be inclined to support feminist causes and thus identify as "liberal" without any loss of female support.

This is so tone deaf.  It starts from the perspective that liberals are 100% correct about these issues, and everyone is just a blank slate that needs to be properly ~educated~ and then they’ll come around to the liberal point of view.  Unless they’re bad actors, of course, as that’s the only reason this education wouldn’t accomplish its goal!

“Gender roles” developed for many reasons that you can’t just chalk up to “patriarchy!  oppression!” and young men will not respond positively to the message that they just need to stop acting like men.

But liberals are 100% correct about these issues. None of the grievances that young men have with feminism are legitimate. None of them.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Ignoring the point that 60% answered "moderate", didn't answer either, or don't care about politics

Anecdotally a lot of the high school "conservatives" that I knew mellowed out or switched positions after they stopped being 15.

Well I wasn't able to include every single observation the survey pointed out in the headline due to text limit, so I put the most interesting thing in the headline.

Lmao the study showed that only 23% of high school boys were conservative and that the number had trended left for the last two years.

Well the headline said they were trending conservative, so that's a bit weird....

Oh no! Why would a headline be an inaccurate, absolute statement that isn't reflected in the data?

[WalterWhite]

Part of me thinks the #MeToo movement might have caused a surge of high school boys to start identifying as conservative. In some of their eyes, the movement might have been "anti-male". This might also explain why that number is decreasing as of late; with #MeToo dying, high school boys have fewer perceived gender-based reasons to oppose being "liberal".

[Badger]

Gee I wonder why. Are you going to vote for the side that thinks you should be taken down a peg (especially if you are white) despite the fact that young men are objectively doing worse than young women?

Anyone who believes that feminism is trying to " take men down a peg" is indeed either still an immature high schooler, or needs to go touch grass.

[DaleCooper]

Part of me thinks the #MeToo movement might have caused a surge of high school boys to start identifying as conservative. In some of their eyes, the movement might have been "anti-male". This might also explain why that number is decreasing as of late; with #MeToo dying, high school boys have fewer perceived gender-based reasons to oppose being "liberal".

Most of the 2010s was dominated by catastrophically terrible feminist messaging that was pushed heavily by the entertainment industry and most left-of-center political parties in the west. It was a big mistake.

[WalterWhite]

Part of me thinks the #MeToo movement might have caused a surge of high school boys to start identifying as conservative. In some of their eyes, the movement might have been "anti-male". This might also explain why that number is decreasing as of late; with #MeToo dying, high school boys have fewer perceived gender-based reasons to oppose being "liberal".

Most of the 2010s was dominated by catastrophically terrible feminist messaging that was pushed heavily by the entertainment industry and most left-of-center political parties in the west. It was a big mistake.

I say specifically the #MeToo movement because the data indicate there was a sharp decline of support for liberalism amongst high school boys from 2016 to 2018. The #MeToo movement started in 2017.

[Skill and Chance]

There is honestly an easy way for progressives to fix this. If they emphasize the ways traditional gender roles hurt males, more males would be inclined to support feminist causes and thus identify as "liberal" without any loss of female support.

This is so tone deaf.  It starts from the perspective that liberals are 100% correct about these issues, and everyone is just a blank slate that needs to be properly ~educated~ and then they’ll come around to the liberal point of view.  Unless they’re bad actors, of course, as that’s the only reason this education wouldn’t accomplish its goal!

“Gender roles” developed for many reasons that you can’t just chalk up to “patriarchy!  oppression!” and young men will not respond positively to the message that they just need to stop acting like men.

There's also the very natural presumption that gains in status/income for Group A must necessarily come at the expense of some Group B.  Unfortunately, this was how the world worked for the first 99% of human history- your family/tribe either controls this land or someone else takes it from you, so it's pretty ingrained in us.  So far, the only way to reliably overcome this is when real economic growth is going absolutely gangbusters, like doubling every decade or so.  We haven't had that in a long time.