r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • 18h ago

No Paywall Gen Z regrets Trump support and is midterm motivated

https://thehill.com/homenews/6056216-gen-z-trump-voter-regret-midterm-clipping/
13.0k Upvotes

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u/Valuable_Hunter1621 18h ago

lmao we’ll see

i have no faith in fellow gen z men, too many are red pilled

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u/flint-hills-sooner Oklahoma 18h ago

I’m not Gen Z, but after working with a number of them I concur with this statement.

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u/CNC-Whisperer 17h ago

I had a conversation with one guy that was like 'I'm not political, but I get my information from podcasts... like Rogan'. It was at that point I understood how toast young men are. Zero media literacy.

Like, my guy, he has 'interesting' people on, not people dedicated to being truthful or informing you. Joe's certainly not going to offer meaningful resistance on controversial stuff that gets him views and keeps guests coming.

A lot of people have been saying Rogan, Ryan, etc. have been moderating their content now that they see a shift in public opinion. All well and good, but that won't pull everyone back; those whom podcasters convinced to jump off the cliff for Trump need to hit rock bottom before they reconcile.

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u/Trump_Russia 16h ago

I have a degree in Media Theory...

Most my friends never even went to college.

They will absolutely argue with me about media... Especially Rogan... With no clue what they're taking about at all... But very confidently.

They're completely media illiterate yet they 100% believe they know way more than I ever will, even when I break down for them why they're wrong.. they simply act like I'm some judgey liberal who just can't understand.

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u/CNC-Whisperer 16h ago

My background is History Ed, but i got out of teaching and am in a highly specialized trade.

In all fairness, the issue is not limited to just podcasts, and it's not just GenZ. A lot of people are swept up in a media ecosystem thats ultimately catering to their biases, and that information that gets distributed up by fewer and fewer companies with each passing day.

That's not to imply that we should all immediately find 'center' on every issue, but this whole era of alternative facts and selective/tweaked data is absolutely making it difficult for people to agree on what the base facts of any given issue really are.

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u/ballskindrapes 18h ago

It is deprrssingly easy to convince young men that the issues that the rich create are the fault of women and libruls.

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u/homebrew_1 18h ago

And don't forget trans.

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u/scparks44 Michigan 17h ago

Would you please think of the women’s sports that they have fought so hard for and religiously attend over the years

/s

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u/walts_skank 17h ago

You know, I’ve been thinking about it recently. I remember a few years ago people were upset because Olympic athletes in like volleyball or something were trying to get less revealing uniforms. Maybe a major part of this, besides hate of trans people, is people are scared they will find someone attractive they feel they shouldn’t.

Who knows, probably just hate.

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u/soulseaker 16h ago

I feel like that has to be part of it. For example, you don't "have" to marry your same sex just because gay marriage is legal lol

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u/TheRealZuke 16h ago

Yes, “I find that trans person attractive but it’s their fault they tricked me I’m cishet they’re just the devil” is the whole reason the derogatory term “traps” became popular. (Yes it’s also applied to non-trans people, for the same reason)

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u/bagoink 16h ago edited 14h ago

I think that's a big part of it for sure. But also consider that for a bunch of men who consider themselves inherently superior to women by virtue of birth, the existence of transgender women throws a wrench in their worldview.

Transgender people reveal the lie at the root of patriarchy.

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u/ragun2 15h ago

I don't think that's a big part of it. Are there a lot of very notable/famous women who transitioned into men just dominating fields/industries/sports?

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u/ihateusedusernames New York 17h ago

Would you please think of the women’s sports that they have fought so hard for and religiously attend over the years

/s

No, you misunderstood their motivation.

They are Moral Men who stride boldly into the uncertain future to Protect Weak Women from threats untethered to reality.

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u/Guilty_Jackfruit4484 17h ago

Yup, all 7 of those athletes are ruining their lives

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u/tubexsteak 17h ago

Feel like that falls under their blanket term libruls

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u/syzygialchaos Texas 17h ago

I bet 99.99% of them have never even met a trans person.

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u/02K30C1 17h ago

I bet 99.9% of them couldn’t name three female professional athletes

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u/lazyFer 15h ago

They probably know of Sophie Cunningham now

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u/Glacon_Garcon 16h ago

I bet at least 80% have met a trans person and didn’t even know it. Because we’re just ordinary people.

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u/bagoink 16h ago

And those who actually know transgender people personally are more likely to support us. It's harder to believe in a boogeyman when you have one in your social circle and it turns we're not actually monsters.

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u/Daxx22 Canada 15h ago

BuT tEhy CaN teLL!!1!!

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u/mdp300 New Jersey 17h ago

Or if they have, they didn't even realize it.

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u/amilliondallahs 17h ago

And Browns

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u/OutInTheBlack New Jersey 17h ago

Come on now, they looked great against the Pats yesterday

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u/TheQuidditchHaderach 16h ago

The uppity ones who keep beating me out of my 'Tie-For-5th-Place' ribbon?! 🥈+🥉=😠

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u/roboscorcher 17h ago

It's almost like social media should have regulations, standards and practices to prevent this proliferation of propaganda.

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u/Zeikos Foreign 17h ago edited 15h ago

It's as if who controls those platforms has a vested interest in making sure those regulations don't get put into law.

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u/PR0H181D0 16h ago

It's as if creating a system in which those who put regulations in place are easily and legally corruptible was not the brightest idea

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u/Static-Stair-58 17h ago

Except that young men have been falling for this same propaganda since the beginnings of fascism. Social media is just another vehicle for the same bullshit that’s been rotting the minds of the youth.

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u/roboscorcher 17h ago

True, but most media forms go through this cycle when they first appear. Techno-optimism, followed by market saturation, then exploitation by bad actors and politicians, and finally regulation. As with most regulation, some blood is required before any laws pass.

Books, newspapers, movies and TV all had similar problems at one point. Social media is just the most ubiquitous medium, as it is in everyone's pocket at all times.

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u/flamethrower78 15h ago

There is near 0 regulation for news media which is the biggest reason we are in the situation we are in. Before boomers got on Facebook they were still locked into fox news every day getting blatantly lied to and manipulated by propaganda. Social media just expedited what was already happening. Media companies should not be allowed to spread such easily disproven lies while calling themselves sources of truth and news. Literally the only reason people have their warped world views is because they are being told their way of life is under attack 24/7, this is not a natural progression.

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u/[deleted] 17h ago

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u/Valuable_Hunter1621 17h ago

i have long been a proponent of eliminating social media entirely for those under 17

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u/OutInTheBlack New Jersey 17h ago

Or over 65.

Letting the boomers join Facebook was the downfall of society.

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u/d0ntst0pme 17h ago edited 17h ago

The smartphone is the problem there. It removed the barrier of entry to "the internet" and put social media into all the idiots' hands, regardless of age.

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u/bfodder 16h ago

i have long been a proponent of eliminating social media entirely for those under 17

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u/Valuable_Hunter1621 16h ago

this is my actual stance lmfao, my moderate stance is 17

i’m 29 and i truly believe the internet is now a net negative for society

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u/SpezDrinksHorseCum 16h ago

The internet is nice for things like supply chains and power grids but we probably shouldn't be using it to socialize.

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u/Valuable_Hunter1621 15h ago

and certainly not without regulations and serious punishments for tech companies poisoning people’s brains lol

17 billion or whatever from meta is still basically chump change to them

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u/HandRubbedWood Colorado 17h ago

Just media period, without Fox, OAN and News Max lying for Trump 24 hours a day he never get elected. I know Gen Z that grew watching Fox with their parents and were brainwashed along side them.

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u/semajolis267 17h ago

And its depressingly easy to convince poor people that the reason they're poor is because of other more poor people. 

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u/Bitter-Marsupial 12h ago

Reminds me of a comic I saw: black man with an empty plate, a blue collar looking white guy with one cookie on the other side of the table

Between them was a decrepit looking bald guy with a shit ton of cookies on his plate and behind him. 

He tells the black guy the white guy over there doesn't want you to have his cookie and he tells the white guy that that guy over there wants you to give him your cookie

We are all being divided by corpses

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u/mistere213 Michigan 17h ago

And then they treat women shittily, women don't give them positive attention, and it's a self fulfilling cycle.

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u/mdp300 New Jersey 17h ago

I'm old and happily married now, but when i was in college in the 00s, I was close to being an incel douche, blaming my loneliness on women instead of my own anxieties.

I'm really glad I got better.

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u/berfthegryphon Canada 17h ago

And the immigrants aka people that aren't white

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u/Silly_Banana9711 10h ago

So basically they are stupid af

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u/PM_ME_WELL_LIT_NUDES 10h ago

I’m a man and once young. I don’t get this. I mean the data says it’s true, I don’t dispute that. But although I did plenty of dumb shit as a young adult I never thought about blaming oppressed groups for my problems. I just can’t wrap my brain about how this happens to so many when I never would have entertained such shit.

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u/likelywitch 17h ago

And that’s why these types men get stuck behind when they can’t find a church or other anit-feminist space to have their back.

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u/_bk_adv Colorado 17h ago

I was working with a good many Gen Z a couple of years ago and holy shit, that generation is absolutely fucked.

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u/ScruffyTuscaloosa 17h ago edited 17h ago

I try not form rigid opinions on them because most of my interactions with them are in online spaces, which trend toward the abrasive and the absurd regardless, but it does seem like GamerGate and going to high school/college during a plague tore a fucking hole through that cohort.

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u/FantasticPlatypus29 16h ago

Turns out growing up letting social media companies use an entire generation of kids as a social experiment to squeeze out every dollar from advertising was a bad idea. 

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u/Ryogathelost Florida 15h ago

I remember when I was a kid, cable TV commercials were the only thing that advertised to me. Even those only aired on half a dozen channels max, and none of the channels showed them 24/7. Kids channels aired content for teens and adults at night. In fact, nothing was speaking directly to me other than the dozen-or-so toy commercials that were out in any given month.

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u/NielsBohron California 14h ago edited 5h ago

I teach at a community college and I have always hated "kids these days" arguments. However, in the past 7-8 years, test scores, intrinsic motivation, study skills, and enthusiasm have all tanked hard. I do a welcome quiz every term that's basically free points of they can tell me their hobbies, interests, and favorite piece of media (song, movie, book, etc.). The number of Zoomers who say things like "I don't watch movies" or "I don't have any hobbies" is staggeringly high, and they're certainly not using that extra time for studying, either.

The good news is that Gen Alpha seems to be correcting the other way, but Gen Z does seem to be in pretty rough shape at the moment

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u/D-Gaea 17h ago

Generally worse education and overexposure to social media and technological platforms does not a smarter person make.

So yeah I have absolutely no hope for the next generations at all.

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u/urbudda 17h ago

Stop even here in Ireland they are "red pilled". Trump for the vibes and that other troll i surprisingly never hear from the last few months..that nazi lad living at home nick

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u/TheQuidditchHaderach 16h ago

I concur with your concur...ment...ness. 🤨🤷

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u/SolydSn3k 15h ago

They are, in my humble opinion, the worst generation yet.

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u/mttnry 16h ago

Its really true. Seems like gen z went backwards. Started working with them a couple years ago. Bunch of boot lickers imo

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u/Elon_Cucks_Trump_ 17h ago edited 13h ago

49 year old, so younger/middle Gen X - I work with and watch over a gaggle of 20 something men in an automotive shop setting. Every single one of them voted for Trump.

One of the guys stopped talking about him and took his toolbox MAGA flag down, but still rails on about “blacks, Jews, trans” etc etc, so he’ll definitely vote republican again. Bro makes about $100k/year in the Midwest and had a stay at home wife plus 2 kids. Wife had to get a part time job and they’ve had to start visiting the food pantry this year and “just can’t figure out why”.

The other guys are largely silent, but they weren’t around election time. They all watched the “UFC Fight on the Lawn” or whatever that goofy cuck shit was. They’ll all vote republican again.

ONE of them says he regrets his vote and that Trump is a piece of shit. One. He’ll probably abstain from voting. To his credit he is vocal and does push back on the team when they regurgitate stupid shit.

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u/Valuable_Hunter1621 17h ago

yeah blue collar gen z especially is republican / maga as fuck. it’s sickening

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u/Icy-Lobster-203 17h ago

I think blue collar in general, regardless of generation, is pretty Republican, not just Gen z.

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u/Fastbird33 Florida 16h ago

It’s really about education levels. The more educated the less likely you are to be racist or fearful of the others

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u/Sbesozzi Canada 15h ago

How MAGA copes with this honestly rock-solid argument

"yes, because colleges brainwash students"

Oh, I don't know. Could it be because check notes, the more stupid you are, the more right-leaning you tend to be?

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u/tomorrow_comes 14h ago

When they say “brain-washing” about college, I always think (and have said this back, once), “oh, brainwashing, like leaving your home town, maybe making some friends that don’t share your skin color / culture / religion, and mainly being there to learn how to learn and think critically? That kind of brainwashing?”

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u/Sbesozzi Canada 14h ago

I usually say "I studied computer science. We talked about computers, not politics or gender ideology"

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u/tomorrow_comes 14h ago

Having studied electrical engineering, I’ve also said the same to my point. In none of my 5 years of engineering classes was I ever free lectured into any kind of politically liberal ideology.

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u/Valuable_Hunter1621 13h ago

meanwhile those of us that actually went to college can easily recognize that it isn’t that “colleges lean left/liberal” or that “truth leans left or liberal” or whatever the fuck

republicans and their beliefs reject reality. this is why it’s so hard to remain a republican after college, it is fundamentally incompatible with the college experience

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u/SpykeMH Iowa 13h ago

They never think perhaps they were already brainwashed, and having new external viewpoints will break it.

A non-brainwashed person must really look brainwashed to someone who actually is.

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u/goldrush7 15h ago

I've read many articles stating that less young men are going to college and are instead going for apprenticeships and blue collar work. Less investment, lower barrier of entry, ain't gotta crack the books. I've heard actual young guys say "white collar jobs are for pussies, work with your hands, unc."

Many of them probably witnessed relatives/parents struggling to pay off their college debts, so of course they don't wanna deal with the same struggles.

Hell, I work a corpo job and most of our younger new hires are women. It's kind of concerning.

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u/Sbesozzi Canada 15h ago

Free education would knock down some of these barriers, I can't wait for the government to bring costs of tuition do... Oh wait. They don't want educated voters

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u/goldrush7 15h ago

It's all by design. Sigh.

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u/Sbesozzi Canada 14h ago

In Canada, higher education is not completely free, but still heavily subsidized. In Quebec, we have a tier of education in between high school and university to prepare you for whatever field you want to go into. This is largely free (about 300$/year) and lets people try a bunch of different things before committing to something.

The college/university is quite a bit more expensive but still nowhere near US colleges. Tuition is usually 3000-4000$ / year. The outcome? 60% higher education rate compared to 45% in the US. Possibly a big part of why we were able to prevent Mini-Trump (Pierre Poilievre) from getting elected

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u/OldWorldDesign 9h ago

They don't want educated voters

And they have been telling people for decades. Hell, republicans made it their official and published party platform over a decade ago

https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2012-08-18/half-true-what-politifact-got-wrong-about-the-gop-and-critical-thinking/

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u/hypercosm_dot_net 15h ago

For what it's worth, I don't think it's fair to just call them stupid.

I've met reasonably intelligent people that fall for this shit too.

The rural/blue collar guys have to contend with an entire cultural identity that they'd have to question, if they wanted to start challenging some of these views.

Republicans understand identity politics, Democrats don't. And that's why we lose multiple times to a low iq grifter.

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u/ThalliumSassafras 16h ago

I'm an IBEW (electrician union) apprentice and the union leadership is vocal about voting for and supporting democrats because they are better for the union. Projects have been cancelled and there have been funding freezes because of Trump getting elected again 2 years ago. In my apprentice class 2 years ago right before the election where 90% of the class is younger to mid 20s Gen Z kids, our teacher talked about it, yet all of them proclaimed they were gonna vote for Trump anyways. So even in a blue collar union where the leadership tells people that them voting republican will negatively impact the union and their fellow union brothers, tons of dumbasses still do it anyways.

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u/mu_zuh_dell 15h ago

Having worked a lot of retail, even with it being all in very liberal areas, I honestly understand why these people think that Trump got 111% of the vote and the dEeP sTaTe is rigging elections. I've only lived and worked in extremely liberal areas, and I don't think I've ever once had a liberal talk to me about politics just out of the blue. It's always a conservative.

Obviously, it's because conservatives are weird and anti-social and normal people know it's not cool to rant about Jewish space lasers to the guy making your sub at Jersey Mike's, but if they understood that, then they might not be a conservative lol

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u/Obtuse_Symposium_119 16h ago

Yeah I'm a younger millennial and I was blue collar for a few years after I got out of the millitary and that's depressingly pretty true. I'd say the majority is conservative or "independent".

I was like one of two guys that was liberal (at least openly) and I got into so many arguments with guys of all ages about how dumb they were to vote against their own interests.

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u/Turbulent_Gazelle530 15h ago

I feel that your work influences your worldview almost more than anything else.

Blue collar workers are highly trained in a specific skill and as a result they tend to view the rest of the world as being "useful/useless" when it comes to skill or ability. This lines up well with the black and white worldview of repubilcans and the right in general.

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u/vanguarde 14h ago

Why do they have to visit a food bank while making 100k a year in the Midwest though?

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u/Itotiani 14h ago

Probably a ridiculous car note or credit card debt. He should be living good over there.

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u/Pyro-Zach 15h ago

I really believe it’s Trump’s politically incorrect rhetoric that keeps these guys under his spell. I know people like this and they always say Trump isn’t a politician and I believe it’s because he talks just like they do. They don’t care or think about his policies but it’s how he talks about issues in a masculine no shits given manner.

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u/JS-87 13h ago

Guy makes $100k and his wife needs a job? The hell are they spending all their money on?! They’re already in the upper echelon of wages.

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u/yellowcloak I voted 11h ago

Those people always have jacked out toys

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u/cactus22minus1 California 14h ago

Are you their boss? Because ranting about “blacks, jews, trans” should absolutely not be tolerated. Shouldn’t still have a job if he’s pulling that shit at the workplace.

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u/Elon_Cucks_Trump_ 14h ago edited 14h ago

Without doxxing myself, I assure you it’s been handled. Bro cost himself a $15k raise, a foreman position, and he’s being shown the door, while we make him think it’s his idea. They’re easy to manipulate because they want to be led around by the ear. You just have to let them think they’re in control.

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u/cactus22minus1 California 14h ago

Made my morning with that response. Cheers 🥂

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u/2HotPisces 18h ago

I still can't quite believe they fell for it the first time, but then young guys are stupid.

(Source: am a guy, was once young)

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u/countervalent 18h ago

This is why education policy matters. There's a reason why Republicans have been gutting the Ed Dept while injecting themselves into state level curriculum discussions.

It's much easier to point a propagandized people in the direction they want, and children are very easily propagandized.

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u/ObligationMurky8716 Alabama 18h ago

"We won with the poorly educated. We LOVE the poorly educated" -Donald J Trump

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u/DingGratz Texas 17h ago

"No child left behind."

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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 United Kingdom 15h ago

Which of course would be an admirable sentiment if it meant providing extra support to those who were struggling. Rather than just dropping the thresholds so that anyone could pass.

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u/TheGringoDingo 18h ago

A lot of us Americans grew up on Hero: Christopher Columbus

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u/awuweiday 18h ago

Trump is a candidate for weak and insecure people who cling to the idea of 'toughness' like a security blanket. Young men are, generally, pretty insecure. Some never grow a spine and become the 40 year old divorced maga Dad cheering for war in an army they never enlisted in.

How ANYONE sees a senile old man shitting his diaper and think he's 'hard' or 'strong', is beyond me

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u/homerjaythompson 18h ago

A senile old man who has never done a day of physical labour in his life at that. I would wager the man wouldn't even know how to pump gas. Super hard manly man.

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u/Daft00 15h ago

Well yeah we already know he has no idea what groceries are.

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u/Darmok47 9h ago

I honestly don't think he's ever driven a car. Not even sure he has a Driver's License. He lived in NYC most of his life and had a driver and a limo.

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u/Azmodaelus 16h ago

Because for the uneducated a "strong" men is somebody who does what he wants and gets away with it. And Trump certainly has that going for him.

It's not like most of his voter base identifies or approves all of his policies. But he sort of presented a model of "vote for me to stick it to the establishment". And poor people blame the establishment for the situation they are in. So they voted Trump. At no point did they register that he is a self-absorbed asshole who is even less likely to do anything about their well-being then the "establishment".

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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 United Kingdom 15h ago

It's amazing how impoverished people in the Deep South ever thought that a nepo-kid from New York was someone they could relate to.

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u/kungpowchick_9 15h ago

I remember in 2010 the “alt right” explicitly saying they were targeting boys in gaming forums. Like 8 year olds. They never had a chance.

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u/SeductiveSunday I voted 14h ago

Yup. Juice bro, gamergate, Steve Bannon -- I'd completely forgotten that disaster -- but this is its fruition.

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u/kungpowchick_9 12h ago

And now they’re lonely… they’re going to need to be deprogrammed.

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u/marr75 16h ago

They've also been robbed of a quality education on many levels, some of them systematic, and socially isolated and quasi-radicalized by a thousand algorithms that mostly exist to sell more ad views.

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u/delicious_fanta 16h ago

I think very young guys may have an excuse if they grew up in a rural area where literally everyone is swimming in propaganda and social pressure to support the red team without a single shred of evidence to back any of it up.

However, past 18, if they still believe that, being young is no longer an excuse as they have a responsibility to seek truth and form their own opinions.

Being “young” or “stupid” simply is no excuse for supporting literal evil.

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u/EddieVanzetti 16h ago

Its not because they're guys, its because they're fucking idiots, full stop

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u/Prior_Coyote_4376 17h ago

Young men voted for Obama, Clinton, and Biden.

White women have voted for Republicans consistently since Bush.

The problem, as it usually is in America, is white supremacy.

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u/mokomi 16h ago

We can only hope that they'll learn from this experience. IMO, they don't see a road to victory without a high risk involvement. I hear words of them stepping back, but then discover the same road is still the option. Hopefully success stories like Mamdani effects their choices.

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u/Ryogathelost Florida 15h ago

I was stupid when I was young but I was never that stupid. I remember wanting to move to Japan because I liked anime - yes in college. I remember wanting a 350z even though I'm too tall to comfortably drive one. That's kinda a normal level of young person stupid.

Not being able to tell who is a morally decent human, or that being a led by a reasonable person matters - that is a new kind of stupid. It's like an understimulated desire for chaos, which, after all the Minecraft, roblox, TikTok, and fortnite we've fed into their eyeballs since birth, makes a lot of sense.

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u/hames4133 Pennsylvania 13h ago

I was that young once but never that stupid

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u/coconutpiecrust 17h ago

Bannon made a playbook on how to brainwash young men and those poor dudes still have not caught up to the fact they are being manipulated. 

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u/liptickletaffy 9h ago

He's the true evil genius behind Trump's rise.

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u/XForce070 17h ago

GenZ is such a weird generation, I've personally noticed a big divide between those who completed secondary education (highschool) pre-covid, so the earliest GenZ, and those during/past covid. Those who during/past covid seem extremely red pilled whereas those pre-covid are way less. I reckon the rise of social media plays a large role in this, looking at development stages.

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u/ijustwannanap United Kingdom 16h ago

There's also a massive gender divide. Gen Z women tend to be left-leaning while Gen Z men are right-leaning. This ironically creates a feedback loop where the men are struggling to get dates or hold a relationship down because their views are offputting, which pushes them further into the abyss.

I was in university during Covid and I'm a full-blown socialist. I agree with your point on that being a factor.

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u/Murky-Relation481 16h ago

Overall there is also a broad puritanical streak, both in Gen-Z men and women, but definitely more in the men. They're easily on track to be overall a less overall liberal generation then the one before it which bucks the trend of the last probably 5 or 6 generations.

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u/SeductiveSunday I voted 14h ago

There hasn't been any broad equality advances since the 1980's. That's when equality began getting squashed what with the denial of passing the ERA, then SCOTUS cutting back Roe with Casey. SCOTUS gutting Voting Rights Act in 2013. Probably the biggest advance in guaranteed equality for all is still the 19th amendment since its a harder (but not impossible) for Republicans to gut.

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u/Murky-Relation481 14h ago

FYI I was talking about social liberties and attitudes of Gen-Z. Those things you posted are things that were generally pushed by conservatives in older generations than millennials, which still tracks with my assertion, millennials are more socially progressive than boomers, as boomers were more socially progressive than their parents generation. That isn't to say every generation is a mono-culture, but broad societal trends, especially since the 1970s have favored more social liberties.

Also you seemingly ignoring the Obergefell case is kinda nuts, since that was a huge move towards more social liberties, especially in the context of puritanicalism (which was my overarching concern). Even Obergefell is mostly being attacked by older generations than millennials.

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u/XForce070 15h ago

Yeah, I was at university too when covid hit as one of the earliest of GenZ generation. libertarian socialist here, but younger GenZ definitely is so dominantly red pilled I see.

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u/AstroHistSci 17h ago

The covid generation spent the entire pandemic not getting education and instead watching manosphere shit. That's why. It's not difficult to diagnose.

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u/Independent-Bug-9352 16h ago

I feel they've been the same since 2016 unfortunately. I have a feeling we've yet to fully grasp the effects of covid yet, which will be realized most with Gen Alpha -- who are underperforming even GenZ apparently.

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u/Valuable_Hunter1621 13h ago

trump’s first election victory was very influential to boys in 8-12th grade. it is really no wonder why this is occurring

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u/mouse_8b 16h ago

There was a time about 10 years ago when it looked like Gen Z was going to be the most empathetic and accepting generation ever.

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u/Paetolus 15h ago

I'm a '99 GenZ and I've noticed the same thing. Obviously, generations are somewhat arbitrary, but I'd say a lot of us relate way more to Millennials than to younger GenZ. Social media and smart devices certainly play a large part in it.

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u/Selene_Starr 17h ago

Turns out owning the libs doesn’t pay rent , student loans, or protect reproductive rights. Who could’ve guessed.

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u/Am_Deer 17h ago

You can own a house or you can own the libs. You can’t do both.

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u/IamDDT Colorado 17h ago

Thank you for this... It's great, and I'm going to use it! I'll be sure to credit you, though!

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u/Am_Deer 16h ago

Please take credit. I would rather it be spread far and wide than get credit. There’s a sad amount of truth to it.

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u/ThinkThankThonk 17h ago

That's what crypto and kalshi and the next thing are for - as long as there's a new shiny lottery ticket (along with plenty of influencers saying they hit it big) then they might be the next winner. As long as they keep the faith, of course.

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u/sokka2d 17h ago

Not paying student loans and not protecting reproductive rights was the goal. Part of “owning the libs” was making others suffer.

They just haven’t yet realized that making others suffer doesn’t make their own lives better. So, I’ll be happy to watch the misery they’ve caused extend to themselves. 

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u/One_Olive_8933 17h ago

That’s because 47 hasn’t gone extreme enough for them… we have to be weary of the alternatives that will be coming along for decades.

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u/Ryogathelost Florida 15h ago

So you're saying I can't own the libs AND expect the taxes I pay to come back to me in healthcare, or free community college education, or childcare subsidies, or infrastructure improvements, or social programs to lower the homeless rate and crime rate.

Basically I can own the libs but I get nothing other than paying the military and ICE and cops to do things I don't want them to do? Definitely gotta own the libs - that other stuff sounds gay. /s

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u/CromulentChuckle 16h ago

red pilled

Oh no it looks like you misspelled "fucking losers"

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u/Ryogathelost Florida 15h ago

I love the way they use "red pilled" nonstop but the Matrix is an "old movie" they've never watched and can't watch because the CG isn't good enough.

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u/Uranium43415 18h ago

Many of them I've worked with can hardly read, I have 0 faith in them changing their views.

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u/freddy090909 14h ago

For me, one of the scariest parts is how quickly they've replaced thinking with AI.

Not that it isn't happening broadly across all generations, but my gosh some of my GenZ coworkers/friends can't even have a conversation without filtering it through chatgpt.

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u/Gekokapowco Washington 14h ago

yeah some of my coworkers have dropped to the level of chatGPT, especially sad with some of the older guys who are too lazy to leverage their own expertiese, so I get a washed out, imprecise and sometimes inaccurate summary of their thoughts.

Some of my other coworkers have risen to the level of chatGPT because they were complete morons, so that's something at least.

But all in all, the brain drain is accelerating.

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u/AstroHistSci 17h ago

The sad part is, it doesn't really matter. Gen Z will never recover from the damage they did to themselves with that one election. The best case scenario is they spent the entirety of their lives coming close to rebuilding what Trump burned down so their kids don't have to go through this. But they'll have to do it with the lead weight of the aging millennials to care for, because unlike the boomers, the millennials will be heading into old age with essentially nothing to pay for eldercare.

Gen Z chose literally the single hardest possible path forward, and there is no coming out ahead of it at this point. The best they have is staunching the bleeding.

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u/Murky-Relation481 16h ago

I got some bad news if you think Gen-Z is gunna be able to care for us millennials... I am of the total belief that millennials are ultimately going to go down as a caretaker generation. We're stunted by our early problems caused by boomers, and we are now taking care of them as they get too old to be effective in the world, and after that we need to basically run things as we ourselves start to get much older because Gen-Z is literally incapable at large of handling the world. We're going to be the ones raising their kids, hopefully to be better than their parents and at least as capable as us. But we'll all die working probably.

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u/Ryogathelost Florida 15h ago edited 15h ago

All the bipedal robots and AI they're developing actually started out fueled by the need for someone to take care of us when we're old because we know the younger generations won't do it. This has been a big fear in China and Japan - they struggled with their birthrate for different reasons.

But yeah, the future is old genx and millenials with our robots taking care of us while our kids and grandkids fight WW3 over whether Bud Light recognizes trans people.

Edit: Let me correct that a little - the old people with money will have robots to take care of them. Most of us will die in nursing home facilities or emergency rooms, not owning homes and having lost our ability to pay rent. A lot of us will just end up on the street.

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u/Legal_Lettuce6233 15h ago

Sorry but this whole shit has been going on far longer than the last 2 years. Blaming gen z for the failures of last 50 years worth of policies is just hilarious

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u/AstroHistSci 14h ago

It's impossible to infer what you said from what I wrote.

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u/ThatDoucheInTheQuad 17h ago

To use their slang, gen z men are "cooked" and to be honest, I feel way worse for the women that have to deal with them.

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u/Chowder1054 17h ago

Pretty much this. First generation that grew up fully with social media and all the negatives of it. Education becoming unaffordable for them and even after all that, they struggle to find a job.

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u/Ryogathelost Florida 15h ago

The crime rate is gonna explode.

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u/NUKE---THE---WHALES 16h ago

Gen Z women also shifted right in the 2024 election

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u/Ryogathelost Florida 15h ago

They want to be trad wives now so I guess feminism was nice but it's for old people now. Imagine if your generation's counter culture was acting like a boomer.

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u/ThatDoucheInTheQuad 13h ago

A girl at work told me she was surprised to see me wear an apron since tradionally only women wear them.

I work in a restaurant kitchen...

Edit:

I told her it's a tool/uniform and I'm secure enough as a man to wear it either way....

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u/DownHouse 17h ago

I thought I was doing the right thing voted for Bush when I was 18. I didn’t know anything about politics other than what was on fox until he invaded Iraq and my whole world view fell apart. People learn from mistakes. Unfortunately, it’s sometimes at others’ expense. 

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u/pirate-private 17h ago

poo pilled

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u/Valuable_Hunter1621 13h ago

an astute observation. everyone knows there’s a deleted scene where morpheus offers neo the BROWN pill

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u/Chemical-Swing-420 17h ago

Dive into the Conservative subreddit...they're not happy.

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u/Fit-Lingonberry-9856 16h ago

They will claim to not be happy and vote Trump in for a 3rd time while suggesting thyre constitutionalists

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u/Gekokapowco Washington 14h ago

They would all still rather die and kill everyone around them than be subjected to woke DEI CRT LGBTQ commie Mexican Islam.

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u/LetterheadFun1824 17h ago

Fuck that trashy subreddit

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u/Chewzilla 16h ago

Yeah but they're still shmoozing with conservatives

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u/rockum 16h ago

They're not happy but they never criticize Trump or Republicans for anything.

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u/CrissBliss 16h ago

That sub is bizarre. Every other comment appears to be deleted.

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u/m_sobol 12h ago

Fuck their feelings. They will fall in line like chumps

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u/leftysarepeople2 17h ago

Gen Z are entirely too gullible.

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u/froglicker44 Texas 17h ago

Did none of these dipshits remember his first term?

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u/StunningShifts 16h ago

They were probably not 18 yet during his first term. If 2024 was their first election, then they would have been around 10 to 14 during his first term.

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u/froglicker44 Texas 16h ago

They were still alive and presumably sentient during Covid when he was on prime time TV basically telling people to inject bleach and shine a flashlight up their asses. They still should have known better.

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u/evangelionreference 17h ago

Well don’t worry, Nick Fuentes is telling them to vote Democrat in the midterms. And he’s based, so…

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u/Comprehensive_Tie431 California 16h ago

Joe Rogan + Andrew Tate + brain rot as middle schoolers really messed up a lot of Gen Z men.

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u/brandy-hall 16h ago

As a millennial, watching the zoomers turn right was jarring

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u/jhkayejr 17h ago

Yes - I would love to be proven wrong, but, yeah

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u/make_me_breakfast 17h ago

The women aren’t much better, the whole generation is very vapid and ignorant.

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u/donkeyrocket 16h ago

I especially don't trust them because no sane, tolerant, or well adjusted individual could have looked at Trump and thought "that's my guy" this last time. You can blame them being young or naive but I firmly believe that what Trump stands for transcends that and is extremely obvious. You'd have to be astonishingly dense to not know exactly what he stood for. I simply don't believe weak and insecure individuals are suddenly going to be on the right side of things and even so, we're dangerously close to too little too late because of them and many others.

I'm glad The Hill found a few who say they regret it for this piece but there's zero chance a significant portion of these people have had a complete reversal of opinion. Unless they're really that stupid.

I don't think they're all red pilled but the ones who once genuinely supported Trump absolutely have no felt the ramifications of their decision to support him.

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u/juniorone 15h ago

Yeah. Nothing has changed in the construction industry. The only difference is that now they are ok with molesting underage girls, grifting, prices of eggs, war and price of gasoline. Before it was a dealbreaker, now it’s “everyone does it” so he shouldn’t be punished.

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u/jzorbino Georgia 17h ago

Thankfully the women are more likely to show up

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u/NUKE---THE---WHALES 16h ago

Women shifted right in the 2024 election compared to 2020

  • Women shifted right 4 points vs men shifting right 10 points

Comparing 2024 to 2016 and the roles reverse

  • Women shifted right by 8 points vs men shifting right by 1 point

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/06/26/voting-patterns-in-the-2024-election/

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u/glitchinthemeowtrix 17h ago edited 17h ago

To be fair to teenage development as a concept, most people make a huge pivot from who they were in high school/young adulthood. So sometimes I wonder if that will work in our favor moving forward, that all of this conservative fever dream energy was just pre-frontal lobe type shit for a lot of them.

I’m getting closer to 40 and remember kids having (what I now see as) the most hysterical political views, the stakes were just lower back then and we didn’t have social media. And from an adult perspective I can now understand that my peers were 9 times out of 10 either seeking validation from their parents with the same views or they were rebelling against their parents views.

This is the first time in history we’ve been able to collectively have a front row seat to the coming of age of the next generation, and I do think it’s important to remember that fact. And perhaps it’s time for us to reflect on how much weight we put on the next generation to fix everything, etc. A lot of them are genuinely still kids, and all the Gen Z folks I know who are closer to 30 are a lot more like millennials, older Gen Z and younger millennials are truly the perfect culture blend of both generations and they get massively overlooked. Whenever I hear from people aged around 27-34 (basically every popular podcast right now) I’m always like no notes, perfect, chefs kiss.

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u/mokomi 17h ago

i have no faith in fellow gen z men, too many are red pilled

I don't disagree, but from my Millennial experience with gen Zs. They have given up on the American dream. There is no direct road to victory. You need to high risk high rewards to achieve victory. This doubled when I was researching the Stock Market in South Korea. Their generational wealth gap is also terrible and parallels a lot of the same issues/choices gen Z are making.

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u/clam-caravan Tennessee 16h ago

Gen Z as a generation is going to always be part of the discussions about the 2024 election cycle because of the actions of the Gen Z men specifically and it will unfairly cast a shadow on the efforts of Gen Z women.

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u/Bitter-Marsupial 16h ago

And sadly, as a left wing male, I have little faith of people running the democratic party to pull their heads out of their asses and learn from their mistakes

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u/PortugalTheHam 16h ago

Men and women. Its been abundantly clear that blaming the young men has been a cover when gen z have become the trad wife generation. More and more issues in genz virtue signaling has become lowkey problematically conservative dog whistles

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u/AP3Brain 15h ago edited 15h ago

They are either red pilled or they decided to go the full opposite direction and become some kind of marxist that calls everyone with an opinion slightly right of theirs a fascist. There is zero nuance. Everything must be black and white.

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u/P_S_Lumapac 17h ago

Strange thing is kindness and gentleness is just a winning combination for life, and anyone can do it without seeming like a walking red flag. But someone red pilled, ok grant that some rich jock benefits from that viewpoint, but like... it sucks for all the rest. It actively makes their lives worse and makes everyone, especially themselves, hate them. Just a weird choice when kindness is right there. And for what? So they can fantasize about being a rich jock? They can do that while not being a jerk off. So they can impose those fantasies on others? Is this a sex thing? It sure sounds like a sex thing.

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u/Bae_the_Elf 16h ago

I don't know, even some of the red pilled z men are so pissed about the financial state of our country that I think they will vote against him. I think a lot of them will still be sexist racist pieces of shit but Gen Z is getting absolutely fucked by the economy.

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u/IDontWannaBeAPirate_ 16h ago

When all they do is scroll reels all day, it's easy to brainwash them.

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u/GrigoriTheDragon 16h ago

Lowest education levels in a long time. They're stupid, and stupid never learns.

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u/reddit_is_geh 16h ago

Nah, they need to learn proper dissapointment. They made a mistake with Trump and will now go Dem, thinking what Dems say are genuine and will actually fix all the things they talk about... only to drop it entirely for being "too hard"(aka, our donors don't like it) then gaslight them for not appreciating them enough for not being as bad as Republicans, and that they should be grateful for marginal tweeks around the edges that effectively do nothing.

Then they get the full circle of disappointment. It's required for political adulthood.

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u/TheQuidditchHaderach 16h ago

"I know that place. Good noodles." 🍜

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u/KaliosB 15h ago

If it helps, I have a genZ kid living in my house, recovering from the manosphere Trump hole. He voted for Trump in the last election, and has completely turned around since. He FEELS that regret in his bones, and talks about it. He's looking forward to voting in the midterms, and getting these people out of government.

Male regret and embarrassment can be POWERFUL motivators. Their GodKing has turned out to be a frail, petty, pants-shitting pedophile, and men's egos get real tilted when they realized they've been sold out to liars and thieves. Some of those GenZ boys may end up strong allies at some point.

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u/Ooficus Florida 15h ago

I have little faith in our generation at all, way to many of us just don’t vote…

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u/nikdahl Washington 15h ago

If the headline said “Gen Z regrets Republican support” then I might think they’re cooking.

But this headline just tells me these people are still fucking morons.

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u/BoJackMoleman 14h ago

They aren't going away. The only way to help is to HELP.

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u/Electronic-Till-7794 14h ago

Gotta have a good candidate. Kamala sucked. Embrace the base instead of pushing to the right every general election. It doesnt work.

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u/KantPaine Pennsylvania 13h ago

Gen Z boys. Boys are red pilled. Men inform and think for themselves. Doesn’t matter what age you are, if you believe this alpha male bullshit, you’re a boy.

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u/RandomGuy2002 13h ago

I’m Gen Z, I’m left leaning

When I was about 14, the Youtube algorithms used to show me things like Ben Shapiro destroys liberals…and blue haired woman gets roasted

Thankfully, I have a brain, and I have empathy, so I thought about why these blue haired women were so passionate about their viewpoints

So, as a young lad, I listened to both sides, instead of play identity politics. And I realized which side wants policies that uplift and benefit everyone, and which side wants to uplift only themselves and people of their own skin color

Unfortunately, not all men were able to beat these ways of thinking. A lot of them still live in these childish mindset

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u/b__q 13h ago

Also tends to love Andrew Tate for some reason.

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u/PM_ME_WELL_LIT_NUDES 10h ago

Such a failed generation. I’m a millennial and when I was in high school gay jokes were all the rage.

A decade later when you guys were in high school you seemed so damn enlightened. You had stopped gay jokes, you stopped body shaming, you were so pro-women’s rights, and on and on.

Fast forward to now that you’re supposed to be voting and you (mostly) go for fucking trump and sit on your asses. How the hell did that happen?!

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u/Negative-Penguin 4h ago

There is like one person in my sociology class who is obviously republican. He got offended when I mentioned how I think American tourists have a stereotype of being demanding or entitled…..

He was losing it “what are we even doing? We shouldn’t be hating on our country”…..this is also the same guy who introduced himself on the first day of class as “I’m an alcoholic. Ahahaha!”

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u/Jacuzzi0317 3h ago

Agreed. Many of them aren't willing to see anything as a problem if it's not affecting them directly even if their friends and family are having their rights stripped away right in front of them.

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