Ever since the election, there seems to be a torrent of polling that shows Americans in their late teens and early twenties are fairly reactionary (young men overwhelmingly so). I’m old so I don’t know anyone IRL in that age bracket. But something about what the media has been claiming for months now doesn’t seem to sound right. Idk maybe it’s 100% true but it’s something I have a hard time taking the media’s word for. I know we have quite a few users here in that age bracket. What are your real-life experiences (i.e. not online) with this? Do you think this age demographic is actually trending reactionary?
(I do remember digging into the details of one poll, and while it seemed there was more affiliation with Republicans than previous, it also seemed like there were an also very large segment that were openly showing to be further left than the democrats? So maybe more reactionary sentiment but also more genuinely leftish sentiment?)
I’m very early gen z so a long time out of school so I can’t say, but I sort of can’t see how they aren’t. Increasing corporate control over the internet where people increasingly spend their time and get their info from, all pushing a right wing agenda, the meteoric rise of a whole ecosystem of right wing grifters with easier ways to reach the youth, 4chan lingo entering not only political discourse but everyday language, including on this site, which is based on a right wing understanding of society. Obviously the youth are diverse and I’m not suggesting they’re all in the hitler youth, but with the rising tide of fascism across the globe I don’t see how the youth is going to be insulated from that and not move right. The political gender gap is ime real, literally every male leftist friend I had has become right wing to some degree over the past few years. Can’t say the same of the women.
I do think these people forget though how right wing the youth was in their day. Things were just less extreme back then. The right wingers today are quite shocking when I remember the “fiscally conservative socially liberal” folks who sucked, but they were atheists who would smoke weed with me. Now we got sedevacantist Catholics eating raw organ meat talking about repealing the nineteenth amendment. Obviously the youth isn’t really full on like that, but you get my drift. The stories I hear from teachers about some kids are horrifying.