For many years now, a dark question has haunted parents, teachers, the internet, and media institutions: What’s wrong with young men?
Why, people ask, are boys so politically extreme, spouting misogynist rhetoric, and increasingly drawn into risky crypto schemes and online gambling? How did they become so lonely, with their depression symptoms often overlooked? The male youth vote broke for Trump in the 2024 election following a GOP campaign built on naked appeals to meathead machismo. Yet there are signs that his second term in office has done little to stem the anger of Gen Z men, whose support for the president is now plummeting.
The most common explanation of these interrelated phenomena is that younger men have banded together online under the umbrella of something known as the “manosphere,” usually conceived as an organic right-wing rebellion driving the culture wars. A new study, however, suggests that this is entirely backward: The digital ecosystem that produces red-pilled men is less of a movement than it is a pyramid scheme.
But we still must account for those of us who don’t have them, whether because of lack of will like you experienced or inability.
I was very fortunate, despite not having parents anymore after by early 20s, I found community who were able to help me continue to grow and mature. We need to build community and partake in it so we can be people like I had. In my 30s I know I’m looking for opportunities to pay it forward as I see it in similar communities.
the fuck you mean lack of will? my mothers lack of will? My mom didnt raise me. I knew her, and after 18 saught out her support, but I was orphaned at 4 and turned 18 as a ward of the state
Never found a crowd for support. Never liked putting that shit on my friends anyway. Two my siblings and I grew up close, and even tried, subconsciously, to parent eachother, or support one another in the way a parent would. Its not the same.
The trauma of having your parents not give a fuck about you, is the worst of it. No friend can fix that. Best parents love thier kids right.
Pay it forward is a good value. I try n do the same, first and foremost, by loving my kid properly.
I apologize if I wasn’t clear that I meant the parents’ lack of will. It’s never a child’s fault that they don’t have support. And even when the child is an adult, so long as they ask they should receive it.
I’m very sorry your parents did all that to you.
Yeah, it’s a sensitive subject, Im sorry too. Only the first sentence was with fire in my heart, but I def spiked there, Im sorry.