Are Those Young Men Gone Forever?

Ilyse Hogue wrote for Democracy Journal on the radicalization of young men in the recent election.

The Trump campaign deeply internalized the seismic shift going on among men under 30. While young men are historically irreverent and comfortable with chaos, Gen Z cut its political teeth on endless wars punctuated by a global pandemic and racial justice uprisings that rocked the country. Millennial and Gen Z men went into COVID experiencing declines in educational outcomes, upended social status, and high rates of depression. They emerged from quarantine to record-high inflation, a bleak jobs outlook, and a vast surplus of time banked in online forums. There they discussed a liberal culture that had embraced an identity-based hierarchy of oppression that left them at the bottom and a #MeToo movement that many felt made them guilty until proven innocent.

Donald Trump offered a ready-made answer, blaming woke politics for their woes and recasting freedom as a fight for traditional masculinity and against a cancel culture that squashed free speech, and fun. These were familiar refrains for a generation raised on Barstool Sports. And pretty soon the campaign was powered by some of this generation’s biggest stars. In June 2024, Trump launched a full-court press into male-heavy digital media starting with Logan Paul’s show. He had the NELK Boys on stage at a rally; he played with a Cybertruck with Adin Ross on Kick, all with flags flying and anthems blaring. Democrats were bewildered, unfamiliar with most of these characters, and they dismissed these appearances as the fantastical flailings of a failing campaign.