Gender continues to be the defining political chasm as woke dogma and Incel paranoia fuelled by social media outrage olympics and hate algorithms generate an Identity Politics culture war…
1 big thing: Generation-defining split
A flood of data reveals a little-discussed, future-defining trend: Men and women are going separate ways.
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- The split is clear in politics, religion, education and the labor market, Axios’ Erica Pandey reports.
Why it matters: For the next generation, gender is becoming the biggest predictor of how you think, act and vote.
“There’s a much broader story here,” says Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life. “Even after all the votes are tallied and we’ve moved on from the 2024 election, we’re not going to have resolved any of the cultural and relational tension between young men and young women.”
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- You see it in politics: Women are turning left. Men are turning right.
- You see it in religion: For the first time ever recorded in the U.S., young men are more religious than young women.
- You see it in education: There are 2.4 million more women on U.S. college campuses than men, the American Institute for Boys and Men (AIBM) notes. Those degrees are often resulting in higher-wage jobs for women in big cities.
- You see it in the labor market: Wages and labor force participation have increased since the 1980s for college-educated men and women, and for working-class women. But they have stagnated for working-class men, who are also now significantly less likely to be employed than four decades ago, according to AIBM’s analysis.
- You see it in visions for the future: Men are more likely than women to want marriage and kids, according to Pew Research Center.
What we’re watching: The polarization is even stronger among adults under 25, Cox notes. Social media content and algorithms may be one key reason.
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- Men are constantly fed social media content that’s negative toward women, and vice versa. Videos breaking down bad dates from the perspective of either the man or the woman are a viral example of that trend.
- Gen Z-ers are 15 points more likely than other generations to say social media has negatively impacted their outlook on men, and 10 points more likely to say so for women, Morning Consult finds.
The bottom line: “We live in a very individualistic culture, and, for a lot of people, the primary relationship they have is with a partner or a spouse,” says Cox. For heterosexual couples, this polarization is making finding a partner trickier.
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- “This has tremendous implications for how men and women relate to one another in the dating space.”
Diving into the recent Roy Morgan polling numbers the issues are stark for the Left, the simple truth is that Identity Politics has driven men away from us as a movement…
On an overall basis, men heavily favour the National/ ACT/ NZ First coalition government on 56%, well ahead of the opposition Labour/ Greens/ Maori Party on only 38% – a gap of 18% points.
In contrast, a high plurality of women are behind the opposition Labour/ Greens/ Maori on 49.5% – ahead of the governing National/ ACT/ NZ First on 44.5% – a gap of 5% points.
Support for the governing coalition is strongest for older men. For men aged 50+ there are a massive 63.5% supporting National/ ACT/ NZ First almost double the 34.5% supporting the Labour/ Greens/ Maori Party. Support for the governing parties; National (38.5%) and ACT (17%) is stronger amongst this demographic than any other age or gender group analysed.
For younger men aged 18-49 there is an edge for the governing coalition with 47.5% supporting National/ ACT/ NZ First compared to 42% that support the Opposition Labour/ Greens/ Maori – a gap of 5.5% points.
The Holy Trinity of Woke Dogma are:
- ALL White people are irredeemable racists.
- B-E-L-I-E-V-E ALL Women that ALL Men are rapists
- Anyone supporting Free Speech is a uniform wearing Nazi who hates the Trans Community.
Pure Temple Politics demands you accept that Woke Dogma before you can join, using that Identity Filter drives male voters away from the movement.
This is a point I’ve been making for what, 5 years now?
Identity Politics is most dangerous when poor white people start seeing themselves as an identity.
Tell men they are the problem long enough and they become the problem.
Class binds us in solidarity, its pronouns are Us/We.
Middle Class activists posing for the ‘gram using hashtag politics, their pronouns are I/Me.
Alienating male voters is now accepted by actual students of politics and culture as a main problem for the Left.
Don’t believe me?
Here’s some of that evil Patriarchal Right Wing Rag, The Guardian for you..
The ex-president is courting a demographic drifting away from the Democrats. What’s driving the widening gender gap among young people?
…young Men are suffering more mental health issues, education problems and self harm driven by a system that alienates them and then lectures them on privilege creating a deep resentment because identity is the only thing that matters now..
Richard Reeves – whose 2022 book, Of Boys and Men, has become a foundational text on what has gone wrong for young men in the country – is damning of framing that puts young men’s rightward turn in terms of UFC fights and incels, when he believes it’s about deep-seated inequalities of outcome in education, mental health and employment.
“I want to talk about why only 60% of Black boys graduate high school on time in Michigan, or the fact that the share of male teachers has gone from 33% to 23%. Or that we’ve lost more than half the men who work in social work and psychology,” he says. “I’d want to talk about that rather than, for example, whether the Barbie movie was unfair on Ken.”
He says people are misinterpreting the polling. “It’s not enthusiasm for the reactionary right, it’s a sense of being taken for granted by the left. There are more young men shrugging their shoulders than raising their fists.”
It’s true that there is now a growing gender gap in education; for every 100 bachelor’s degrees awarded to women, 74 are awarded to men. In many US cities, young women are earning more than young men and moving out of parents’ homes earlier than them.
Reeves is careful to say that improving conditions for men and boys should not mean slowing down similar efforts for women and girls. But he says that government institutions do have a tendency to purposefully avoid naming the problems young men face. Suicide is one of the clearest areas in which there is a huge gender divide – there’s a fourfold gender gap in rates for young people – and yet, says Reeves, “the CDC website breaks down suicide rates by every demographic except gender. Why? Why don’t the Democrats have a taskforce on male suicide when there are 40,000 deaths a year?”
He gives other compelling examples of how Democrats have failed to signpost their achievements to young men. Biden’s infrastructure bill – his key piece of legislative success – was a huge jobs creator for working-class men, “but the administration tied itself in knots not to say so”. Instead, it focused on the million women in construction initiative to ensure women got some of the funding. “That’s amazing. Now, er, where’s the million men into teaching initiative? … There are so many initiatives for women in Stem; why not one for men in teaching? Who is going to attack that?”
On the Democrats’ own website is a page titled “who we serve” that lists 14 different groups. Men are not among them.
…the article points out that young men are turning Right because they’ve been pushed out of the Left because Identity Politics states the worst human being in the world is a white male who must apologise every 90 minutes for having a Penis, and I’m talking the awful heteronormative penis, not the beautiful amazing non-binary penis so popular in Wellington these days.
The Middle Class Woke Activism may have not been the great tactic so many on the NZ Left thought it was.
The modern Woke Left are great at organising ‘Free-The-Nipple’ protests for vegan cycling mommy bloggers, not so good at deconstructing the Neoliberal Economic Hegemonic structure.
No poor family is sitting around the kitchen table cancelling one another for mis-using pronouns.
If the Left wants to win, it needs to win back male voters.
The true demarcation of power in a Capitalist Democracy is the 1% richest plus their 9% enablers vs the 90% rest of us.
Once you understand power in that framework, we can never lose an election!
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
Good post Martyn, it’s been obvious for a few years here in NZ that the left, greens especially, are anti male….well anti straight white male I mean.
With the current set up, and rhetoric, of the NZ greens, the above post of yours could just be all about them and not the USA in general.
And in my opinion they cannot change anytime soon, if they wanted to which is doubtful as I believe them getting over 5% each election cycle is their main goal, any more than 5% is seen as a bonus.
The problems of spoilt entitled rich white boys.
Cry me a river.
Rich racist sexist Christian right wing straight males have had thousands of years of
privilege and treating everyone else like sh#t.
Now they are bleating because they are being told to pull their heads in.
Pathetic cry baby white snow flake males.
i dont want any of those greedy arrogant white males anywhere near the left.
Go lick the white arse ACT party.
Thats where you White cry babies males belong.
The more cry baby entitled white rich boys who leave the left the better.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Talk about an own goal.
Was this written by a guy who wants to make women look bad by posing as an intolerant hater of men?
ChatGPT on speed
That’s a big baby cry fest koina. Also suggest you read some history. Most anything will help lift your veil of extreme ignorance about the past.
complete nonsense – being pro is not an attack on the non-marginalised – what a snowflake. Is that you Andrew? You sound like a teenage boy, as do many so called men, who don’t have the fortitude to stand up for others, and then have the temerity to consider their own privilege and entitlement as threatened. aka selfish fuckwits. you’re not like us, I’m Fright(ened)
White males will come back because of batshit policies by rich white chic MPs…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/letters-nationals-ferry-proposal-is-way-off-track-mystery-of-the-mammoth-rates-bill/7IH5BLFH2ZHGBDY465QBJVCW7I/
However the type of white males National and ACT attract they can keep, tighty I’m not righty included…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/aussie-malcolm-sex-abuse-claims-how-allegations-emerged-after-former-cabinet-ministers-death-plea-for-police-to-keep-investigating/SQ2QNAA6YVEILM7AWTYIOPPAOA/
Martyn – Short answer – No….Longer answer – Perhaps, but only if the Left actively lobby for Men, however, this would tear apart the Greens, and much of the Labour Party.
Why would men vote for a faction that wants to criminalize “misogyny” and shift the burden of proof onto the defendant in sexual assault cases, and thinks that “sexism” is the only possible explanation for the so-called gender pay-gap?
No, you’ve successfully burnt that bridge.
Anyone who has marketable skills & is willing to work, and who isn’t already “sorted”, should be on a plane out of here, because there is no future for them in New Zealand.
Yes, the talented, ambitious or simply hard-working young should flee NZ as quickly as possible.
oh the chagrin – you make it sound like this is a new phenomena because it’s finally dawned on you that it isn’t just “the others”, but it’s actually you.
Anyone with a skerrick of self worth would stand up, step off the treadmill, dismantle it and start walking on firm ground, instead of running off to find another one.
The identitarians won’t change from hating on white men, and any others who should be allies but instead betray the cause by speaking up for free speech and free thought.
It is far easier to visibly do performance canceling, de-platforming, doxing, and accusing the people the identitarians resent than it is to do the hard work and economic sacrifice for a class-based struggle.
How else would they get likes, re-tweets and followers?
I’ve often thought that the politics of the left was biased toward emotion and feelings whereas the political thinking in the centre ( there is no right wing in today’s politics) was more to do with rational analysis.
This is why youth tends towards the left
The Left’s dependence on emotions and feelings comes from the Left’s faith-based moral certainty that there are two kinds of people – oppressors and the oppressed, and that every situation or relationship can be analysed using that framework of the oppressed victims and the oppressing evil people.
Also, following the 1990s fall of the Soviet Union, China’s move towards market capitalism, and the clear and obvious failures of central planning everywhere, the Left’s rational or factual argumentation for their economic goals was demolished.
All that was left was cultural issues, where emotions could be used as reasoning.
I think you are confused. Central planning can be a factor of both. As can emotions and feelings and cultural issues. Try being conservative or progressive without the other. The answer isn’t left or right but left and right.
So sick of this dichotomic pseudo-intellectualism which is the real enemy of both the left and right, as is being adversarial instead of cohesive. progressive for good reason and conservative for good reason. Good reason for all and not just some.
We are after all, a collective of individuals (left and right) and not an individual’s collective (right) vs an individual collective (left).
More progressie word-salad
Yes Ada yours is word salad and a limp one at that.
Now about National cancelling the ferries? What an right wing economic clusterfuck that is.
umm no – it’s pretty basic – both conservatives and progressives need to be involved in merit-based decision making to ensure governance is removed from idealists of any persuasion.
it’s our fucking electoral and parliamentary system – banning political parties would be a good place to start. removing donations, private advertising and personal lobbying of or for electoral candidates would be another.
let the system pay for it’s own representatives and provide equity in the selection process
rubbish – quite the contrary if you look at the evidence
Short answer is no because there are too many of them that are red necks living on stolen land and they have no real identity other than being desendants of land thieves.Where as Maori can trace their heritage back to the first arrivals .
Beliefs like this is why the left have lost men.
yep because they cant handle the truth as clearly is your problem as well .
just the dishonest ones who can’t discern between a reason and a belief. You just have to read any commentary on social media to affirm Gordons reasoning.
I went back to my British homeland and it was all burned out cars and boarded up windows. A lovely old distillery though. Nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live there. Enjoy my polynesian paradise too much – pity about the polynesians though eh? How dare they demand the place doesn’t turn into another Incorporated shithole.
What is a man ??????
My grandsons mates actually told me boomer men had it good and we are to blame for letting feminists walk all over men. Said as banter but it’s an insight to the feelings of 20 year old guys.
Not just among 20 year old guys.
Yes and a manager 30 years my junior blamed us boomer for allowing his generation to become entitled spoilt brats .
lol – teenage boys don’t have a very developed pre-frontal cortex and are very suggestable. They’ve probably been listening to misanthropes like Andrew Tate. I bet they love Trump too right? They feel powerless and it’s always someone else’s fault. Our youth have a very distorted view of the world and most of it comes from social media, the epitome of shallow minded gratuitousness.
But don’t you want the youth to vote? Oh only the youth who have taken in their indoctrination of left wing teachers, the rest shouldn’t be allowed to vote, of that correct?
who the hell are you talking to about youth voting? some imaginary boogey man? as far as I’m concerned the legal voting age is 18. The only indoctrination I’m aware of schools representing is that of industrialists. the only indoctrination I’m aware of teachers representing is the pursuit of knowledge.
If you want private teachers, knock your self out – no one is stopping you using a private school. Whereas State schools are exactly that, lobby your MP to make your views on the curriculum known. The current lot are throwing their 2 cents in with regards to youth indoctrination. (despite being completely out-of-touch)
Making disparaging and blinkered comments based on bitter assumption isn’t really much of anything. Does BG stand for Blowing Gas?
Also there is a trend for divorced pakeha men to look for Asian wives who respect men.
@ Joseph. Are a moron? Or are you merely making a point. It pays to be clear on that.
Asian women marry ‘pakeha’ men because they’re desperate and if it means they must fuck a fat, ugly old sweaty man to keep herself and her kids alive then that’s what she’ll do. Female single parent K Road hookers will know what I mean. Also @ banter. A bit of banter… wasn’t that what jonky said was harmless between two adults when he was busy trying to humiliate a waitress in front of her customers and her fellow employees? ” Just a bit of banter” Out of respect for my mum and had I been there I’d have punched jonky into the carpet. But hey! It would have been just a bit of banter…
On the LEFT debate. When is the penny going to drop? WE HAVE NO LEFT LEFT. NOT SINCE PIG FONDLER DOUGLAS SUNK IT BACK IN 1984. You think the week, pathetic little pink cheeked left we have under the steerage of a pathetic little pink cheeked man is The Labour Party?
The Daily Blog! Stop it! It doesn’t help that TDB doesn’t haul that particular dead rat up out of your craw and show it for what it is. A dead red rat.
Normal, usual, working people of AO/NZ? You have no politic. At all. You have no power to negotiate, you have no power to arbitrate, you have no power to shit straight if it doesn’t benefit your circus ring master. But do know what would fuck your masters? The ones like dodgy little baldylocks? Meet with our farmers then go on strike. That, would fuck them big time.
Waiting for the NZ Reasonable Party. Neither Left or Right, Center, Up, Down or anything else, and sadly this would not be populated by any of the current crop. There are too many basic problems that need fixing that ideology only makes worse. Fix the basic problem, rebalance for natural development, and leave it alone for a bit. Is it really that difficult? In a climate of total greed it’s demonstrably near impossible. National: pushing for absolute control by eliminating the power of the Treaty. Labour: pushing for absolute control by trying to steal sovereignty from maori via social/cultural initiatives. Absolute control, how delightfully “democratic”! And in the middle? The farmers who just want to be able to do whatever is most profitable, at any cost.
Sometimes people say that the economy isn’t like a family budget, but our governments have a trend to govern as if NZ is a dysfunctional family. There is the Golden Child/ren, the Scapegoat/s and Blacksheep, the Narcissist parent, the playing of favourites and gas lighting, the abuse and blame games. Gimme a freekin break already. Boring. Old. News. How do people find these hobbyist policies interesting enough to vote for? Till reasonable turns up (not to be confused with ‘reason’) I’ll be voting for whatever obscure party looks harmless… NZ Knitting… Pavlova Research Alliance… Tyre Recycling for Good Party, anything will do that keeps alive the ideal of democracy via voting without imagining any of our mainstream FPP masquerading as MMP parties have any interest in democracy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a brick wall to shout at.
Yes, Joseph and why do some of our Pakeha men do that? and why do so many of them call 2ZB talking a load of bollocks. As for our older Pakeha men they grew up in patriarchal societies so what do you expect. They come from a generation where women belonged to them (their property) and women were expected to be subservient, cook the tea, look after the kids, get into that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans mentality.
Times have changed now women have to work for families to survive.
And every happiness index has shown women (with all their new power) less happier than ever.
Notice how no women calls for equality of oil riggers, garbage collectors or deep sea divers?
Every happiness index has shown that EVERYONE is less happier than before, you dickhead.
Notice how no men call for equality of midwives, teachers, housewives or sex workers?
Labour’s coalition partners hate males. So unless Labour appeals to the ‘ working man’ & govern by themselves, then no chance.
Reacting to title. Paraphrasing from memory, when privilege is removed it rather feels like discrimination.
I always resent experts reaching out to males. My people. We can look after ourselves. We respond to reason, it’s that simple. Don’t treat me like an idiot to be fished up by the right mesh net.
The New Zealand left is dead and if it was alive as a movement promoting real left solutions and a plan moving forward it would never have lost its once powerful working mans vote and support.
You alienate your grassroots supporters at your peril.
Begging and hoping male voters will come out and support you at the election when you spend the three years in government or opposition taking their vote for granted and shitting all over them is totally unproductive.
The New Zealand left is dead and if it was alive as a movement promoting real left solutions and a plan moving forward it would never have lost its once powerful working mans vote and support.
You alienate your grassroots supporters at your peril.
Begging and hoping male voters will come out and support LINO at the election when you spend the three years in government or opposition taking their vote for granted and shitting all over them is totally unproductive.
In NZ politics men may be turning right; there are less factories and group male jobs to enable solidarity of workers to the left as happened previously. Women may think they are turning left, but it seems to me that their idea of ‘left’ doesn’t include concern for large numbers of their own gender, with betterment and increasing respect for all women. The concern shows itself rather in a sensitivity to female vulnerabilities in life that are axiomatic.
The knowledge of life’s problems that can arise for women and girls, does not seem to extend out to an understanding of the difficulties and unfairness that men can face. Women’s arousal as to wrongs against them personally or arising against women in distant countries seem to come more from irascible middle-class women in self-interest, such as the Greens campaign against coarse language, as ‘cunt’, not a wish to better women’s lot.
It could have been expected that well-educated and wise women would have pressed for recognition of both their maternal role and collective tendencies. Instead they are pushed to paid work of lesser importance whether they are solo parents, or in partnerships and marriage, through low wages requiring two incomes.
Young women especially, are now observed to be turning in circles taking over-sentimental, or casuistic attitudes that require thought, discussion, and argument not black or white absolutes with women being in a favoured position.
This is where you and I differ Martyn. You have an obsession about this. Must be hanging out with that Damien Grant too much! This fear that one group might be getting a bit more than the others is rife and leads to organisations like the Proud Boys. If you want to talk about class, how about talking about privilege too. And for the record, all the white men I know (and there are many) are Labour supporters, not always uncritical, but thinking decent human beings.
I think the establishment Left are deeply embarrassed by how far the woke went with their cancel culture and how alienating their woke dogma has become so that when you bring it up they try to ignore the reality. I have linked to many articles looking at the impact of social media driving these messages into men and pushing them away from the left – how do you think the left should win those male voters back?
Do you Darien think Broadchurch is better than pure temple politics when it comes to winning the 2026 election?
How many voters do you think the left gains when the starting point is ‘all Men are rapists”?
I don’t know anyone on the Left or in Labour who has said or thinks all men are rapists. That is just hyperbole. There are some people (men and women) who will never vote for us. I support and recognise Labour as a broad church but people have different experiences and issues which they are entitled to push in a democratic society. Men can do it too! Years ago, when we had our first women’s committee in the union to encourage more women to become active, the men used to say to me “what about the men’s committee”. My answer was always go for it.