Discussion about how left wing policies DO help men

diagnosissplendid · 2026-05-12T05:59:13+00:00

I'm going to come back to this and read in more detail, but two things:

Workers rights as men's rights is basically correct in the old days. Interesting that it ended up benefiting women
Social/public housing advanced everyone's rights and continues to do so: bigger building programmes would house a lot of men if they were sustained. (Yes, I know women are given priority for housing in many places, but nevertheless)

IronicStrikes · 2026-05-12T11:08:17+00:00

That's kind of the problem, isn't it? We want to be left wing, because we would like the majority of left politics. Economic fairness, social liberties, social security, socialized healthcare, worker's rights, consumer protection, environmental protection, etc.

Left wing politics doesn't want us, though. As votes, sure, but not as policy stakeholders.

Langland88 · 2026-05-12T07:11:51+00:00

I have had similar discussions like this over at subreddits like r/askaliberal or r/askdemocrats which have pointed out plenty of policies that do help out men. The thing is that, even as true as it is, a lot of these policies never get properly messaged to the male voters. This was huge failure especially in 2024. Plus it doesn't help that Democrats and Left Wing platforms often have policies that tend to be treated more exclusively to women and often times dismiss the issues and concerns from men.

What would go a long way is if the economic policies that do benefit men, were actually advertised towards men. It seems like for whatever reason, despite all the time it's insisted that it's not, it's always seen as a zero sum game to even talk about Men's Issues on the left or in the Democrats platforms.

BRCityzen · 2026-05-13T00:04:35+00:00

You're not wrong. And I find that the intersectional left-wing issues that I've worked on, are men's issues whether they're talked about that way or not.

Anti-war: Leaving aside the nonsense that "women and girls are most affected by war," the reality is that MEN are the ones who primarily are forced to fight and die in wars. So anything that reduces war, is something that helps men.

Police violence and incarceration: Absolutely a men's issue. No one is out there *saying* MEN's Lives Matter. But that's what it really boils down to. Almost everyone getting murdered by the cops is a man. Men of color more than other men, but even white men have a greater chance of being murdered by a cop than a woman of any color. Same thing with incarceration. Anything that reduces incarceration, increases police accountability, helps men by default.

Same issue with the drug war -the vast majority of people caught up in the criminal injustice system for recreational drug use, are men.

Even immigration: Most of the immigrants risking their lives to work are men. And 31 of 32 people who perished in ICE dungeons last year were men. Reduce that, and you help men.

Workplace safety: 95% of those who die in workplace accidents are men, because men hold the most dangerous jobs. Increase workplace safety, and you are helping primarily men.

I could go on, but yes, I agree. And that's why I remain a leftist and I still advocate for all these issues, even though I am invisible to these movements. It does hurt though, and at this point I do consciously try to inject it into the discussion to plant the thought, even as I continue doing the work in areas where I can find common ground.

kohaku_no_mori · 2026-05-12T13:33:27+00:00

I agree with pretty much all of these.

Adding onto the legal part, one of the most important left-wing positions is a focus on rehabilitation over punishment in the legal system. Obviously this mostly effects men, which make up (If I remember right) around 93% of the U.S. prison population.

Obviously there is the caveat that when attention is brought to these issues, they often disproportionately focus on women to the detriment of the vast majority of the prison population. Happens with all of these issues, but that doesn’t change the fact that favoring rehabilitation has long been and continues to be a left-wing position.

Islander-SC · 2026-05-14T20:11:48+00:00

I get what you're saying, a lot of those policies just help people overall and men benefit from that too. It really comes down to who's improving daily life like jobs and healthcare. Even something like having a solid ACA plan can make a big difference for guys trying to stay stable.

DeterminedStupor · 2026-05-13T01:35:13+00:00

as men are less likely to be religious at all

I honestly didn’t know this until now:

Women make up a majority of U.S. Christians but fewer than half of atheists and agnostics

But other than this point, considering that men still do the most dangerous jobs, any movement towards improving wages and working conditions is (objectively) a pro-male movement. However, I don’t think left-wing movements are ready to give a better message to men – not even (US) male leftists like Zohran or Bernie want to do it. I really hope the tide is beginning to turn now.

PastDifficulty7 · 2026-05-15T02:47:56+00:00

A welcome conversation.

AutoModerator · 2026-05-11T05:01:37+00:00

Thank you for posting to r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates. All new posts are held for manual review and may take up to 48 hours to be approved. Please don’t message the moderators, we’ll make sure to review your submission as soon as possible. If this is your first post, be sure to review our rules to ensure it meets our criteria.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

MonochromaticPrism · 2026-05-15T20:04:34+00:00

Perhaps my personal view, but I don't think this discussion can be had without recognizing the moral/philosophical split between liberals and progressives. Almost all the "Left-wing" factionalism in the USA that's been platformed and pushed in the mainstream has come from liberal political figures and been supported by the liberal establishment. It's no surprise that this is the case as this allows them to try and "trick" voters into supporting them without actually providing anything of material benefit in return for that support, as to actually address things like wage stagnation or the legal loopholes that led to the "Gig Economy" would upset the donor class.

As much as the mainstream claims that "progressives" are the reason for DEI and other institutionalized tribalism, if you drill down and look for the origin you overwhelming find liberal politicians as the primary group implementing these policies.

Thus, when talking about how to actually fix societal problems, it's important to emphasize that value of primary voting to prevent more centrist liberals or neoliberals from ending up in government.

Comments