As someone who sees topics about “young men” (starting to hate that phrase 😭) one portion or dimension that is often left out is youth. Before I say this don’t get me confused one doesn’t need to fall into a “victim” or “ oppressed” category to think of things this way but a fundamental hole in how a people conceptualize relating to young men and boys on the left is that it feels awfully one sided and top down. Talking to fellows lefties some of them think of the next generation of boys and even their own children in ways that are *quite problematic, they view them as future troublemakers or at best as blank vessels who they need to either impart wisdom or ideology. Youth liberation is a very fringe ideology on the left and it used to be a staple among left wing politics feminism etc, Bell Hooks, was youth lib oriented, so was Shulamith Firestone, and plenty of woman have connected women’s association with being “treated like children” to challenge all oppression in general. My problem lies (and this is a place in which lefties have some holes with the male gender) with the fact that leftists will criticize top downs pedagogical approaches (pedagogy of the oppressed or Ivan illich’s schooling society from what I’ve heard) but most discussions about young men let alone boys fall back into a very disciplinary mindset, how can we teach them right from wrong? How can we manage what they are learning so they don’t become bad etc

I was talking to a friend who says that teenagers are “too stupid” to come up with useful ideas on their own and as an anarchist I find this approach quite offensive and paternal, you can never establish emotional intelligence or critical thinking by telling people what to think, left wingers can’t be serious and think the will to change by bell hooks is bible and disregard the autonomous thinking from the youth themselves. Fuck books, fuck reading, I want boys to write their own!!

I’m not sure how anti misogyny courses happen but the generalizing nature of school curriculums might bring poor results if they don’t separate folks who actually need them and folks who don’t, treating boys as “born bad”

Rightfully it would piss anyone off and I’m scare the left comes across as a bunch of mansplainers who don’t understand the lives of boys and don’t really care to try. I remember going on one of the feminist sauna and they were talking about male child Sa and I was thinking to myself “why ask abunch of 45 year old men and women on Reddit about the experiences of child SA”? Not that their perceptive isn’t useful, but a lot of times the left views children as blank vessels and not beings who can contribute in their own right and it makes their way in topics about young men

It’s often criticized that without proper sex ed folks first exposure to sex may come from unhealthy places. I’m not sure why people don’t apply this to the manosphere, if boys first experience with politics was anti sjw or anti feminist pipelines then that is a failing of teaching and parenting not a failure on children. The way in which the nuclear family and schools segment people away from each other is a barrier to the kind of diversity and exposure that can challenges the growth of bias and bigotry

Also on topics of school feminists can sometimes fall into essentialistic territory, when it’s explained why boys underperform in schools it is mentioned that girls are simply socialized to “do better” in schools and are more mature as their brain matures early +socialisation

As someone who is neurodivergent I end up now finding these beliefs baked with underlying normative statements and thinking, leftists can’t seriously criticize one size fits all answers but think that sitting docile and being a “good student” (in that sense) is the only way to learn when in other contexts such as folks (often boys being diagnosed before adulthood) with adhd this same rigid nature being criticized for its normative nature and that not everyone learns that way

I’m not sure whether or not schools are designed for girls or boys but I sometimes get critical of belief systems which perpetually assume whatever the object of critique is without verification

I have seen folks say that psychology as a field is not geared towards women, now I understand women get the short end of the stick when it comes to medical al misogyny, not getting listened to, their pain ignored or certain things going under studied but the majority of psychologists and therapists are women and I’m sure one can find plenty of things in which men struggle as well, I don’t think reality is all that simple

Same applies to school, I don’t see frameworks which involve boys more I see folks on the left the right and everywhere which effectively mansplain to boys

As someone in my twenties I personally don’t care what some fourth five year old says is positive or toxic, every system of normativity dressed up conformity positively, that’s how it works, and I don’t think you can make a clean cut good and bad masculinity, it’s why black and white distinctions such as forced gender norms, the laws and categories are so bad at handling real world complexity

I fear disciplinary approaches may actually backfire similar to how no smoking ads for women backfired and made them want to smoke more

Sometime being arrogantly lectured to by a bunch of were statesmen makes anyone want to roll their eyes, fuck as a leftie?/post leftie it even makes me roll my eyes

And most of the left doesn’t interact with boys out of a genuine love and care for them but more as hazards to avoid future misogyny or to gain votes not as real love human beings with creativity, passions and perspectives of their own. The youth don’t get their troublesome always from only themselves and to discuss young boys without listening to them is a crime in my perspective, the left needs to end the reeducation approach they take to boys and have a much more mutual discourage that involves the perspectives of children themselves both boys and girls, that swill be more effective than another boring reading of bell hooks or another snooze fest about toxic masculinity 😴🥱

Gerontocracy was one of the first human hierarchies and leftists may be prone to reproduce and justify a lot of controlling behaviors trying to police “the bad boys” 👮🏼‍♂️