I’ve seen a lot of questions about why white men—especially young white men—seem so angry, distrustful of the Democratic Party, or drawn to MAGA-ism. I've been studying this issue for awhile now and I wanted to share some thoughts. If we want to make inroads with white dudes, we need to understand what’s happening.
First, economic opportunities are shrinking. Young men are struggling with stagnant wages and fewer job prospects, making it harder for them to gain independence, start families, or even feel secure in adulthood. That instability makes many susceptible to the MAGA whirlpool.
Second, there’s a major education gap. Fewer men are graduating from college compared to women, which has serious consequences for their long-term economic and social stability. Kamala Harris is doing well with educated white men, but not with those who didn’t finish college. That difference impacts their prospects and feeds into larger societal issues, which is why we need to make it a lot easier for people to go to college without racking up debt.
Third, we’re facing a mental health and social isolation crisis. Young men are lonelier and struggling with mental health issues at higher rates, partly fueled by social media and the erosion of traditional community institutions (churches, men’s groups, etc.). White men in America are four times more likely to commit suicide than any other group. This is a national crisis, and we’re barely talking about it.
Fourth, there’s an identity crisis. Gender roles and societal expectations are shifting (which is a good thing!), and young men are left wondering where they fit in. Without positive role models, many gravitate toward toxic figures like Donald Trump, because at least someone is speaking to their frustrations—however inartfully (which is being generous). Democrats haven’t done enough to offer better alternatives, though I think we’re starting to, with people like Tim Walz, Pete Buttigieg, and Doug Emhoff stepping up as strong role models.
Fifth, forming relationships—especially romantic ones—has become harder. Economic pressures and the rise of online dating have created new dynamics that are disincentivizing young men (and women, for that matter) from building meaningful connections. This only adds to their sense of isolation and fuels resentment, particularly toward women and those who are economically better off.
Lastly, there's a deep cynicism and lack of trust in institutions. Many young men no longer believe the American Dream is for them, or that they have a place in a society that’s rapidly changing. The old American mythology is crumbling around them, and with it goes their belief in a stable future. That loss of trust is driving them toward more extreme solutions and making it harder for them to feel invested in collective progress.
All of these factors—along with others I haven’t mentioned—are creating a perfect storm of resentment and frustration among young white men. But these issues are real and addressable. The problem is, for too long, Democrats have retreated from engaging in spaces where these men are, leaving them to only hear from one side.
That’s why I’ve been pushing for @KamalaHarris to go on Joe Rogan and praising @PeteButtigieg for going on Fox News. We need to enter these spaces and have real conversations about the issues white men are facing. Will it win all of them over? No. But if we can win over even a small fraction, it makes it much harder for Trump and MAGAism to win nationally.
We can’t keep acting like white men don’t have real issues. Everyone is suffering from something, and everyone deserves to have that suffering addressed by their government. If we address these issues with the same seriousness we give to other communities, we won’t win them all—but we don’t have to. We’re building a multicultural coalition to move this country forward, but we can’t ignore the real challenges young white men are facing.
Amazing.
It's like Baby's First Redpill. But twenty-five years too late.
The political left simply cannot restrain themselves from talking to white men as if we were five years old.
No, correction: as if we were five years old and exceptionally stupid.
Here, Mike Nellis has correctly identified some of the problems facing white men, even if he hasn't root-caused them, or even fully understood them.
However, he leaves out vital context, context which he may or may not be aware of, but young white men certainly are.
In this country, the left is the deliberate author of every single problem that white men, especially young white men, have.
Mike Nellis says that we have problems, and the left has failed to address them.
We, however, know that the left created those problems.
We know that the left created those problems on purpose.
We know that the left created those problems on purpose because they hate us.
We know the left has no intention of solving those problems. Because they hate us.
Mike Nellis says "economic opportunities are shrinking".
We know that economic opportunities are shrinking, not only because the left has destroyed major portions of the economy, but because the left deliberately took the remaining opportunities away from white men, and gave them to brown people, women, and queers, merely because of their identity and without any regard whatsoever for competence, or fitness for those opportunities.
We know that the left took those opportunities away not only to give to their own voting base, but precisely because they hate us, and don't want us to "gain independence, start families, or even feel secure in adulthood".
Mike Nellis says "there’s a major education gap".
We know that the left created that education gap, on purpose, by infiltrating academia, making it hostile to white men, and then gatekeeping them out in favor of brown people and women.
Obama celebrated it as a great victory when women become a majority at universities. We didn't suddenly become an "underrepresented minority" when we became a minority which was under represented. The left took it as a sign of progress. Because progress, to the left, meant getting rid of us.
We also know that the only reason "educated" men lean left is that college education has been largely replaced, in many fields, with left-wing indoctrination.
Mike Nellis says "we’re facing a mental health and social isolation crisis".
We know that this was a deliberate goal of the left. To socially isolate and demoralize white men. Because, to them, we are the enemy.
It was the left which set out to destroy our churches and traditional community institutions and it did so with glee.
Mike Nellis says "there’s an identity crisis".
This is the first point he's wrong about. There is no identity crisis. We know exactly who we are.
And we know the left hates who we are. They want us to be someone different. Because who we are is cut from the same cloth as the people who built civilization. They hate that. They want civilization to have been built equally, by everyone, and they want to erase history and us, so they can pretend that's the case.
The left has no idea who our role models are. They think it's Donald Trump?
Ha.
Donald Trump is late to the party. Donald Trump didn't come along and speak to us until long after we knew who we were and what we wanted.
The left is pretending there is a masculine identity crisis, because they want to redefine masculinity.
They want to redefine masculinity because they hate it.
They hate it because masculine behavior places men in leadership roles.
They hate men in leadership roles because they want to share leadership roles equally between every demographic except white men.
Because they hate the fact that the majority of people who can actually get shit done are white men.
This messes with their worldview.
And who does Mike Nellis think our role models should be?
Tim Walz, Pete Buttigieg, and Doug Emhoff.
I'll give you a moment to stop laughing.
What the fuck have they accomplished? What is one admirable thing that they have done?
Most of us would rather chew tin foil than be in the same room with them, and if we thought we were anything like them, we'd off ourselves, or seek radical transformation.
But Mike can't name any real male role models, because real men have accomplishments, like building stuff, and the left can't stand men who build stuff.
So they're just going to try to convince us Tim Walz is a real man by posing him in a flannel shirt in front of some straw bales, which he would call "hay bales", because he doesn't know the difference between straw and hay.
Mike Nellis says "forming relationships—especially romantic ones—has become harder."
We know that this is because the left has socially demolished the acceptability of sex roles which are built into the human genome, so that it is no longer socially acceptable, or even, in some cases, legal, for men and women to behave in ways that are attractive to each other.
Then the left taught women, using the media and academia they had infiltrated, that men were stupid and useless and evil.
Mike Nellis says "there's a deep cynicism and lack of trust in institutions".
We know that this is because the left infiltrated them all and turned them to shit, in the process of looting them to line their own pockets.
The old American mythology isn't crumbling. First of all, it's not a mythology, it's the truth. We know that because it worked. And secondly, it's not crumbling, it's being demolished, and the left is having to work very hard at that because it was fundamentally sound and sturdy all along.
The only problem with old America is that it was insufficient fascist and intolerant to laugh off the social engineering attempts of whiny bitches who ruin every institution that listens to them.
Mike Nellis says "All of these factors—along with others I haven’t mentioned—are creating a perfect storm of resentment and frustration among young white men."
The major factor he didn't mention is that the left maliciously created all the factors he did mention.
Mike Nellis says "But these issues are real and addressable."
They certainly are. All we have to do is bring back the custom of stuffing guys like Mike Nellis in lockers where they belong.
But they are not addressable by the left, because they are a load-bearing part of the left's agenda.
Then Mike Nellis hits us with this final knee-slapper:
"for too long, Democrats have retreated from engaging in spaces where these men are, leaving them to only hear from one side"
No, men have retreated from spaces where democrats are.
Because men built those spaces. Then democrats invaded them and turned them to shit. So men left.
Men have heard from the left. We have heard from and heard from and heard from the left.
We have heard from the left how much it hates us.
We have heard from the left how much it wants us to change everything about ourselves, to suit its goals, not ours.
We have heard from the left how much it wants us, the only net taxpayers, to sacrifice our well being for their political constituents, with nothing in return but a lecture about how it's our moral duty to eat shit for them.
We have heard leftists talk, talk, and talk, and get everything about us wrong, because they believe a "conversation" means them talking, and not them listening.
At this point, even listening wouldn't do much good for them, because we've realized there's not much point in talking to a boomer. Or a wall.
Or a fucking communist.
So what we're going to do is keep letting these assholes piss off more and more white men, until we're all angry and unified enough to take charge.
Vote for them?
Hah.
They'll be lucky if we don't decide to repeal the 19th amendment.
Related:
Armand Domalewski on X - "I think the basic problem with “young men are becoming more right wing because they’re freaking out over losing the privileges they’ve had forever” analysis is that they are YOUNG—by definition they haven’t lived long enough for that to be the explanation"
memetic_sisyphus on X - "This is obviously correct. “You’re just afraid of losing power” is a really confusing thing to say to an 18-24 year old. Most young people who hear this assume, I think correctly in most cases, that this is not about historical injustices, but about removing competition for positions of prominence here and tomorrow."
dweeb on X - "Teenage boys in particular live in an environment where most of the authority figures in their lives — teachers, school administrators, guidance counselors — are women Their “lived experience” is that most power over them is held by women"
Beta Intern(🧀,⛓️) on X - "I’ve been hearing this messaging from the left since the start of my adolescence It’s extremely weird to be a 14 year old boy and be told you’re the reason for all the worlds problems"
Thread by @wanyeburkett on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "The deeper point revealed by this obvious truth is that we're all individuals, not avatars for our group identities. "You can't have that job, because people who look like you have dominated in that role for the last 100 years and it's time to give somebody else a chance" is basically incoherent, because I'm just a singular individual and either I get the job or I don't. Whether people like me did or didn't get the job in the past and whether people who look like you did or didn't get the job in the past collapses into a single point where one of us gets the job and one of us doesn't. American individuality is fundamentally at odds with social justice. It's zero sum. They make opposing, incompatible claims about the world. Either you and I are individuals who should be treated as such or we're pawns in a bigger game. You can't have both. In the individualist model you address past wrongs by eliminating unfair rules and practices and treating everybody as equals to the best of your ability going forward. This is maximally respectful of the individual, but obviously, since past wrongs can have lingering effects, it won't immediately generate equal outcomes. In the social justice model you address past wrongs by adjusting the rules of the system to generate equal outcomes, even if that means treating individuals differently on the basis of their position in hierarchies created by those past wrongs. These two models of the world are in opposition to one another. I of course have opinions both about which of these two systems is fundamentally more American and which is already plainly written into the letter and spirit of our founding legal documents."
Wokal Distance on X - "The Democrats message is just this woman saying "Masculinity is toxic and straight men are evil oppressors." There is no way to sell that message to young men."
The Rabbit Hole on X - "Young men are leaving the Democratic Party:
- 2016: 51% of young men identified or leaned Democrat
- 2023: This number dropped to 39%"
Left wingers like to mock poor people for voting against their interests, but they demand all the groups they demonise vote against theirs
i/o on X - ""If you're chasing people out of the party, you can't be mad when they leave. Maybe if we had a different politics, we actually showed dignity for everybody, everybody's respected and we need you, more people might stay." — Van Jones, on white men leaving the Democratic Party"
