Politics

10206 readers

151 users here now

In-depth political discussion from around the world; if it's a political happening, you can post it here.

Guidelines for submissions:

Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
Social media should be a source of last resort.

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

Socialism

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

alyaza@beehaw.org

TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org

circularfish@beehaw.org

knokelmaat@beehaw.org

remington@beehaw.org

229

High school boys are trending conservative (thehill.com)

submitted 1 year ago by trashhalo@beehaw.org to c/politics@beehaw.org

249 comments fedilink hide all child comments

While many believe young people are becoming more liberal, data shows that 12th grade boys are nearly twice as likely to identify as conservative compared to liberal. Around 25% of high school seniors identify as conservative while only 13% identify as liberal. In contrast, the share of 12th grade girls identifying as liberal has risen to 30%. Many factors may contribute to this trend, including the rhetoric of Donald Trump which appealed to disaffected young men, and the focus of progressive movements on issues of gender and racial equality which some young men perceive as a "matriarchy." However, most high school seniors claim no political identity, and many boys in high school do not actively discuss

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 13 points 1 year ago

Theory: Entertainment propaganda - like Fox News and (for the non-elderly) performative alt-right influencers/male-rights-douchebags - succeeds for the same reasons as addictive drugs. They introduce a quick dopamine rush of easy answers, validation, and a feeling of euphoric purpose.

Some of that propaganda may be more or less addictive, but it also works by creating and reinforcing mental pathways. Drugs create dependence. When Fox News is left on at the gym, or work, or wherever, or Andrew Tate-esque douchebags show up on TikTok and YouTube feeds, many of these people will just let it play. But soon, they seek it out on their own. They need more validation, they get used to their opinions being digested and fed to them. The outrage becomes comfortingly normal. But then, the high doesn't come as easy, so they go further down the rabbit hole. Most of this functions outside of any semblance of factual support as well - just addictive disinformation/misinformation being handed out to kids on the playground for the power and profit of people higher on the food chain.

So the next question is: Is there anything we can do, within the First Amendment (at least in the US), to disrupt that addictive dopamine drip that every teen has access to?