Are young men THAT conservative?

Trump4Prison-2024 · 2026-06-25T16:42:24+00:00

Nope, young men aren't that conservative, they are just not going to vote for a party that views them as the enemy.

blackmamba4554 · 2026-06-25T16:50:09+00:00

In my opinion, it's a predictable response that the mainstream left have been occupied by feminists and have become openly misandrist.

HyakuBikki · 2026-06-25T18:42:27+00:00

I noticed theres a tendency for progressive men who are disillusioned with the left often get lumped in with the right regrardless if they disagree with most right wing views. to the normie left, being disappointed with how women get away with treating men horribly makes you a conservative somehow.

CZ-7000 · 2026-06-25T20:29:11+00:00

we should consider Demographic factors that could explain the discrepency.

We know that the higher the Education the more likely People are to lean Liberal and as there is a massive discrepency especially on highest Education (60/40 to 2/1 split depending on the university/college) it isnt that surprising.

Also we have quite good evidence now that young Women outearn young Men in many places (which is obv directly linked to education) which also predicts more left leaning attitudes.

ironically when those factors where in favour of Men, Women where leaning more conservativ and Men more liberal.

This was the case for most of the early to mid 20th Century.

But sure lets blame it on the manoshpere or Masculinity and ignore well understood societal factors related to education and Economics.

Sharo_77 · 2026-06-25T18:52:08+00:00

No, they just feel hated by "the left". How often do you hear "the left" talking about mens rights? The need to protect the working guy?

Jayken · 2026-06-25T20:36:26+00:00

Yes and no. A lot feel alienated from the Left but also don't want to be cannon fodder for the right either. Now the right does offer validation for the struggles that men and boys face, but is short on actual solutions. Most can see through the facade, but it does give the impression that there is a rightward shift.

Mostly, from my experience working in K-12, it's that boys are largely uninterested in society at large. They want to do their own thing and if you don't like it, well, tough tits. This extends to their interactions with women and girls too. They are less likely to submit themselves to the traditional games played. Add onto it, the hormones, the basic trying to figure themselves out, while also having a billion influencers constantly in their ears feeding them bad advice, and you get very dejected and apathetic men.

Plus-Meaning-7484 · 2026-06-25T18:39:44+00:00

When all parties don't take men and boys issues seriously. When mots left leaning parties define being masculine as original sin in the world. Then it's no shock that men and boys will feel disconnected from left leaning parties and drawn towards right lensing parties.

At minimum right leaning parties are traditionalist but less about attacking masculinity.

I say this while in Canada all 4 major parties (Liberals, NDP, Greens and Conservatives) attack and believe that men and boys do not deserve access to the same laws, protections, funding or rights that women and girls have.

BlessdRTheFreaks · 2026-06-25T19:08:51+00:00

No, I don't think men are that conservative, I think it's just that many of the current progressive projects and positions don't line up with the interests and wellbeing of men, and that both the left and the right have become more polarized, leaving men in the middle.

MW_200309 · 2026-06-25T19:28:50+00:00

I think most Gen Z Men like myself are politically homeless rather than being firmly on the right. I personally lean more towards the left on economics and I’m more socially libertarian.

The reason why they swung to the right is because it was an inevitable cultural backlash against Identity Politics and Political Correctness.

Young Men realised that feminism and the progressive left didn’t speak for them so they voted for the only side that did.

Sunshinechuuga2004 · 2026-06-25T22:49:46+00:00

This is one of my most hated misconceptions cause looking at voting data (at least in the United States) the trend is not young men moving to the right but young women moving far to the progressive end. I've heard young men shifted more to Trump in the 2024 election, which is true... slightly. Men aged 18-29 voted 49% for Trump and 48% for Harris. Numbers are kind of hard to find in this category for 2020 but it seems this is a slight shift right along with the rest of the country. Women, however, in the same age group voted 38% for Trump and 61% for Harris.

One of these groups is far more of an outlier and has far more of an impact on the discourse I feel. All young men did was move slightly more in line with the other age demographics of men, in fact women aged 45-64 actually voted more conservative than young men did still, while young women are vastly out of line with the rest of how women vote and the national average

I am staunchly left wing and progressive so it saddens me to see young men drifting to the right because of this issue, but the amount has been drastically overblown and framed as this problematic brainwashing that needs to be rectified, instead of trying to appeal more to men the tactic seems to be to shame them. Whereas young women drifting way further left gets ignored as if it could never have any meaningful impact on things. These exit poll numbers could very well be more drastic in the future, but as of now the focal point shouldn't even be on young men being conservative because voting data doesn't reflect that yet, but men gotta be the issue somehow so 🤷‍♂️

Global_Estimate7021 · 2026-06-25T17:18:18+00:00

I think it's not that men are more conservative but rather that there's no space where they fit on the progressive spectrum -- think of it as a negative pressure -- so you get this mix of stances that they call the "manosphere".

Those you see aren't conservatives, but rather orphaned progressives

BhryaenDagger · 2026-06-25T21:02:42+00:00

Men generally are simply so exiled from the Left by feminist hostility that, if they feel they have to choose between Left or Right, thereby tend moreso to choose Right than they otherwise might have. It’s the only way that the Right has become so much more popular and Trump elected twice (notwithstanding the electoral college win that overrode popular vote loss). It’s never been a question of how brilliant Trump is or Rightwing ideology. There are simply inevitable consequences to making the antagonism of half the human species (among other socio-political errors) an accepted and even required tendency of a political affiliation, including the isolation and potential self-eradication of said affiliation. So long as the Left continues its bigoted feminist indulgence, it will steadily become anathema in society regardless of the Right.

hlanus · 2026-06-25T18:01:00+00:00

I would not trust social media; the algorithms favor virality over truth and outrageous content goes viral much faster and harder than the truth.

Beljuril-home · 2026-06-25T18:21:59+00:00

Much of the available evidence suggests that young men remain more socially liberal than previous generations, but young women have shifted even further left, producing a much larger ideological gender gap between men and women than existed among earlier generations.

Brilliant_Ad_4743 · 2026-06-25T19:13:30+00:00

Young men haven't changed much from older men. If there was any change, it's probably negligible. Young women, however, have skewed far left compared to older women.

country2poplarbeef · 2026-06-25T22:14:45+00:00

There's a reason Bernie got his movement labeled as the "Bernie Bros." Historically, men have often been the more progressive voters until about the 80's, when Feminism began to take center stage for most Liberal platforms.

63daddy · 2026-06-25T22:36:00+00:00

I don’t think it’s so much that young men are strongly drawn to the Republican Party as it’s that the Democrat party has been alienating them and they have nowhere else to go but the right.

After the last election some politicians on the left acknowledged this as did some left leaning news outlets like CNN, but the proposed solutions I’ve seen have no real teeth. I think if the left actively supported equal rights for men and opposed discrimination against men, the young men that left, would flock back.

dsakc12 · 2026-06-25T21:41:13+00:00

Men haven’t really changed in their beliefs and voting habits. Women did. Men are starting to go more conservative for Gen Z and it’s a response to women and especially their perception of radical feminism online

vk059 · 2026-06-26T00:24:13+00:00

Few are genuinely conservative but few are "woke" either. I am friends with guys who are left wing and right wing and in terms of humour/personality they are all pretty much the same. None have the woke sensibilities that some young women have even if they are politically left wing or progressive.

SarcasticallyCandour · 2026-06-25T16:47:00+00:00

I think the left has become so extreme, even liberal is called far right.

For example the concept of supports for boys in school or scholarships for boys to go into health or education is seen as right wing manosphere.

Even talking about how female only hiring (quotas) or female only promotions or fast tracks has to be done in a "you go girl!" way, which is bs.

The next is this ridiculously deceptive ideology of "equity" where a gap of less females in something is a problem, but less males is a "good gap". We see this everywhere. Women or girls can go up to 100% in a degree or profession and its seen as a good thing, while you can't have more men or boys. All about crushing the oppressive males.

When you question this bs you get called Tatertot, manosphere etc. The left especially white women have gone batshit to the left, where they promote inequality as good now.

It makes it look like young men are far right.

QuixoticQuisling · 2026-06-25T20:44:12+00:00

I am definitely in a position where, realistically, I greatly dislike the right-wing parties that I have the ability to vote for. However, the left-wing ones actively treat me as an enemy, so I don't really have a choice.

SpicyMarshmellow · 2026-06-25T19:13:09+00:00

I don't think a single, simple answer to this question is appropriate.

My observations, which I could be wrong about. I'm a 43 year old guy, but I have two young adult sons. One of whom I talk with about social/political issues, and inquire about his social experiences in relation to them daily. And I've always put a lot of effort into keeping an eye on the discourse and vibe among different groups.

Leftism/progressivism has been associated with youth in western culture for a long time, and I think there was a strong trend from like the 80s to the 2010s of youth culture drifting ever further in that direction over time. I think young men of the last 10 years are reversing that trend, and drifting more conservative, while the same drift is not happening with young women. I think the change in direction and the discrepancy between men and women is highly visible, and has generated a lot of controversy. And it's that visible reversal of a trend and the friction between men and women which has made it very easy for our sensationalist media to push the alarmist narrative that young men are suddenly extremely conservative, which is ridiculous.

I also think this conversation almost always leaves out the crucial factor that the style of conservatism young men are gravitating towards is not the conservatism of the generations preceding them. I don't see young men on any significant scale embracing the bigotry of boomer conservatism, for example. But the discourse doesn't make any distinction. It very clearly just wants to throw around the word "conservative" carelessly to convince us that young men are regressing en masse to some racist uncle stereotype of the 90's. The norm, even among conservative young men, seems to be pro-equality. They're totally fine with LGBT rights, and gender and racial equality. But they're turned off by aggressive, over-reaching progressive minority movements. The conservatism I see returning revolves around specific social values. Such as individualism, traditional family structures, hyper-competitiveness, and religious identity. They seem to want a more simplistic social order that offers them a direct narrative for how to earn their place in it, rejecting the "everything's nuanced and complicated and you can't understand how to be a good person without a humanities degree" attitude of modern progressivism.

Finally, I think there is also a slight uptick in conservative radicalism, which is not representative of the typical young man of today. But sensationalist media and culture warriors cherry pick them as ammo to attack young men as a whole. Which Streisand effect feeds those extremists, and continually builds resentment among young men. This leads to a Poe's Law effect, where fed up young men repeat extremist stuff as meta-ironic edgy humor reference to the pressure they're under for supposedly believing such things, while other young men repeat the same extremist stuff sincerely... and it can be difficult to tell between the two. And if the culture war continues and the resentment continues to build, that difference is in danger of vanishing over time.

I had my son review this post, and he says he mostly agrees with it. But adds that young men have been bullied out of the left... which kinda doesn't even need to be said at this point - this topic has been brought up many times on this sub and the it's point that everyone beats to death. And he also points out that young men are distinctly avoidant of women these days, and he thinks they often say extremist conservative stuff that they don't believe just for the purpose of driving women out of their spaces. And yeah... I remember him remarking often in high school about how his male classmates mostly avoid interaction with women, because of how bullying young women are towards their male peers.

Local-Willingness784 · 2026-06-26T19:01:40+00:00

While it's true that women are becoming more left-leaning, most men seem to be either dropping out of politics or not moving from their positions (that, for instance, in the UK seem to be left-center), the only place where men seem to be reliably moving right in meaningful ways is south Korea, for a myriad of reasons, even the article that began the whole narrative shows mostly women becoming leftleaning at great rates instead of men becoming right wing in any similar capacity.

https://www.ft.com/content/29fd9b5c-2f35-41bf-9d4c-994db4e12998

also https://www.politico.eu/article/france-eu-elections-2024-women-vote-far-right-policy-emmanuel-macron-july-7/

chevyboy-2022 · 2026-06-27T16:31:49+00:00

Not really, but I do see a surge of young men across all ethnic backgrounds leaning towards the right due to the constant demonization of men by wild feminists. They’ve even started to go after minority men, by saying things like we hold “male privilege.” I’ve debated a few and asked them to define male privilege, and almost always get the same response, “the patriarchy” “violence against women” ,but when I pointed out that young black men are most likely to be a victim of a violent crime in America it just resulted in labels being thrown around. I’ve also seen how white men are often demonized if they aren’t allowing people to abuse them for things out of their control. As a black man, I don’t expect white men to bow at my feet for the sake of history, I just want everyone to live their lives in peace.

Happy-Pirate733 · 2026-06-26T23:19:20+00:00

I do know genuinely conservative young men (roughly 30). But broadly speaking, most of us have political opinions that are not traditionally categorized. By that I mean, regardless of right wing or left-wing nobody wants to be doing war in the Middle East or involved with Israel. Most of my friends see corporatism as greedy and destructive to society. I would say most of us are more economically left-leaning, or class conscious than previous generations (favoring things like universal healthcare). I would by no means classify us as LGBTQ activists, but we are accepting of different people who choose to live their lives differently. That being said we definitely will also enjoy making jokes that may not be considered politically correct. I personally will respect trans people and whatever pronouns do you want to be called by how to respect for you. But when it comes down to how I truly think I don’t believe that trans women or real women or trans men or real men. I accept people and how they choose to live their life, but I do not genuinely think that their biological reality has changed because of how they think or feel. do anyone who is wondering why I’m in this Reddit thread it’s because I believe in left-wing socialist economic policy.

forestpunk · 2026-06-27T04:54:28+00:00

No. It's culture wars bullshit based off cynically cooking the data to generate alarmist headlines. If you look at the numbers, guys are still more liberal than previous generations. The numbers say "more conservative COMPARED TO WOMEN" because women are very likely to adhere to every progressive cause.

GatemouthBrown · 2026-06-25T20:53:52+00:00

Maybe if the Dems kept the feminism but got rid and of the misandry that they tolerate from the fringes of feminism, they would regain the alienated young males.

Zoya_The_Destroyah · 2026-06-25T16:42:24+00:00

Yes, we live in more progressive times than previous generations BUT young men aged 18-22 are definitely becoming more conservative perhaps in response to the very progressive mid 2010s.

Happy-Impact-5069 · 2026-06-26T02:55:05+00:00

I'm Gen-Z and right-wing on many more issues than other issues, though it's nuanced. I tolerate moderate left-wingers, though, like many on this subreddit.

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Cute-Sea-8374 · 2026-06-25T21:39:27+00:00

I don’t know, right wingers at large justifying the new DOJ memo regarding the ADA and disabled people seems pretty self explanatory. I would of considered myself centrist/apathic, many guys like me voted Trump because of ‘misandry’ but for me, at least, it happened backwards, misandry aside, everything the Trump admin has been doing has just pushed me further left.

fredriktomte · 2026-06-28T17:45:13+00:00

I don't know, but I think there is a risk they will become that conservative even if thwy are not today, because people have a tendency to go for the entire opinion package rather than think for themselves on every issue. There is research from my country that bears this out, regarding working class left wing voters who switched to the the immigrant negative right wing party due to their views on immigration on social issues and then also changes their views on economics, unions and so on, to match their new party.

man_vs_cube · 2026-06-29T21:03:17+00:00

Speaking to the immigration part specifically, yes, the country is in a catastrophic spasm of hateful and violent nativism. It's swept up even people with fairly liberal positions on other issues. That's a problem across demographics, not just young men or men in general.

EmpathGenesis · 2026-06-30T19:12:47+00:00

I would say that men are less becoming more conservative, and more so allying themselves with groups that don't (openly) hate them.

Doubly so if the men happen to be white, too. But we've seen what happens to male minorities when they don't espouse the leftwing dogma.

It doesn't surprise me at all that young, especially white, men are drifting towards conservatism, which actually seems to value them.

It's becoming harder and harder to be a socialist when the doctrine dictates that I'm evil due to the colour of my skin and what's dangling between my legs... Why would I want to ally myself with those that hate me?

Sensitive-Captain18 · 2026-07-03T18:19:43+00:00

I honestly don't think you men are conservative and women are left wing. Young people are radically self-centered. Living in their heads and in their phones. For women it materializes as this strive for perfection in relationships and looks. For men its money, muscles and "your body my choice" type selfishness. I would also add this "holier then you" mentality thats common on the left among women in that bucket. I think more men will not vote right wing moving forward as the right has been unable to provide what the men want (better economy).

numbmumpleb1ister · 2026-07-24T20:51:31+00:00

Define “conservative.” In reality, there is no widespread agreement on the meaning of that term. Many young men are attracted to the machismo and trash talk oozing from the orange felon in chief. They like the idea of a world where they are given every advantage over women, where women need them (even if these same women don’t really like them), where they can punish women for what they see as stepping outside of gender norms. If they think this will result in having more meaningful connections with women, they are in for a rude awakening.

Sewblon · 2026-06-25T20:08:20+00:00

>more broader ways to express yourself and ways you can be as a man.

Can you give me an example of that?

But anyway, "conservative" just means "Republican." "Progressive." just means "Democrat." People think that these words have trans historical meanings. But they don't. It used to be that "conservatives" opposed cutting the income tax. It used to be that "progressives" supported eugenics.

Women are more democratic than men. But men and women under 30 are both more Democratic than people over 30. Donald Trump isn't so much president because of men as because of old people. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/age-generational-cohorts-and-party-identification/ I hate being old.

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