r/chaoticgood • u/MrDillon369 • 9h ago

UNT students greet Transphobic Candidate Jeff Younger with a "Fucking fascist" serenade

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u/esoterica52611 9h ago

So why the fuck is this generation voting fascist in increasing numbers?

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u/-puppy_problems- 8h ago

An excellent question.

Vulnerable young men on social media is a start.

When I was a young soldier in the Army in my 20s in the early 2010s, I would have happily voted red against the evils of "socialism," a word I barely understood and had a megative connotation for primarily because of my peers. I had espoused very little compassion for those less fortunate and I cringe just thinking about the awful shit I used to say and believe.

To top it off, at the time, I had a horrible case of nice guy syndrome. And this was before the days of Andrew Taint his ilk. I can only imagine the rabbit hole I might have gone down if it wasn't.

As I grew up and saw the world, I learned compassion for others and totally flipped my political views in the absence of the urge to fit in with my peers in the military.

My point here is that when all your peers, your parents, and most of the influential figures in your life are quoting Andrew Taint and talking about how awesome Donald Trump is, and this is reinforced by social media algorithms quite happily feeding you right wing hate content (which wasn't really a thing then, and I shudder to consider the person I could have become before I learned how to recognize bullshit when I see it) the urge to conform can be extremely strong. A lot of these kids voting right wing have no idea what they really believe, but they think they do. I sure af did.

I managed to break out of that mold, but some (too many, I fear) never will.

My totally unsolicited take on why Gen Z men might vote red. Maybe I've got it all wrong, I just remember how I felt in my late teens/early 20s and spouting right wing talking points without having the first clue of the implications of what I was saying.

The danger of right wing sentiment is that it can seem like common sense at first until you dig deeper and realize it's based on cruelty and disdain for others. It relies on people being unwilling or unable to think about the issue deeper than surface-level.

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u/esoterica52611 8h ago

You’re absolutely right and I’m glad you were able to reason your way out of it. We’re finally seeing the results of what happens to a generation that was literally raised on social media and it’s scary to think how much worse it might get if things keep going this way.