Men Are Voting Conservative Because Patriarchy Made Them False Promises
Conservatives are blaming feminism for young men shifting to the right but the real reason is that patriarchy and capitalism have made them false promises and are letting them down
This week, I wrote an article on Medium about why Gen Z men are voting to throw us back into the Fifties.
Men have lost their traditional roles. Capitalist exploitation has made it impossible for them to be the kind of men they’re told they’re supposed to be.
They have neither the income nor the resources to be a provider. Yet they’re told that to be a man, that is what they have to be.
They’re still trying to “build a house, plant a tree, and raise a son.”
And they’re not given any real alternatives to this model.
Instead, they’re told that feminism is the reason they can’t do what they’re supposed to do.
So they vote for conservatives who promise to bring it all back.
Many people were surprised by the statistics John Burn-Murdoch posted on Twitter.
But I think this is just a natural continuation of everything we’ve seen over the past 50-60 years.
Since the beginning of modern polling in the U.S., men had consistently held more conservative positions than women on a range of issues, including welfare spending, homosexuality, and use of force in foreign policy. As the parties became more ideological, the gender gap kept growing — from eight percentage points in 1980, to 12 points in 2000, to 13 points in 2016.
Women have been more left-leaning for a long time.
Not because they have so much more common sense than men. But because they know what they stand to lose when conservatives win.
What woman in her right mind votes for the Handmaiden’s Tale dystopia the right has in store for us?
When the world becomes more liberal, women gain equal rights, equal pay, bodily autonomy, and the freedom to decide how they want to live.
On the other hand, men, for now, only seem to lose things. They lose privileges and power. They feel that the “natural” order of things is being turned upside down.
And no one seems to bother to tell them that their lives will be easier if they share power and responsibility with an equal partner.
A more liberal world also gives men more choices, but someone needs to model new ways to be a man first. Instead, men who don’t want to fit into the mold are mocked and ridiculed.
The patriarchy doesn’t allow them to consider other types of masculinity so they vote conservative.
But they overlook that under turbo-capitalism, there’s no chance in hell that any of the traditional roles work.
Single-income households have become a rarity as the gap between rich and poor widens. The prosperity created through the fantastic economic growth pundits are harping about is no longer shared.
People are becoming poorer and poorer. Now at least two jobs are needed to support a family.
While 77% of households were single-income in the 70s, only 23% are now.
The average income of the top 1% has quadrupled. It rose by 224%. Meanwhile, the middle 60 percent of incomes grew by only 47%.
Beginning in the 1970s, economic growth slowed, and the income gap widened.
Income growth for households in the middle and lower parts of the distribution slowed sharply, while incomes at the top continued to grow strongly.
The concentration of income at the very top of the distribution rose to levels last seen nearly a century ago, during the “Roaring Twenties.”
As less and less money went to the masses, laws were changed to allow women to leave their homes, work and make money.
As a consequence, women today no longer need men to survive. They can now choose which men they want to partner with.
You’d assume that is a positive thing.
Of course, insecure men quickly let me know it wasn’t. “Stop telling men they’re useless,” one specimen told me.
I never said this, of course. But this illustrates nicely the point I made. Men see their roles in this world so deeply intertwined with the provider trope that they see no reason for their existence if that role isn’t required.
For them, a man who is not needed by a woman is useless.
Crazy, but not as crazy as this nutter who told me that women need men because the world would crash and burn without them
Women do need men to survive. If men disappeared there would be mass famine and death. There is some sperm in storage but that would run out quickly and go to a powerful elite who would then control the sperm. Rebellious women who do not want to terminate their sons would escape and breed an army of men to fight the feminist cult.. I’m not sure who would win?
Not that I ever mentioned I wanted men to disappear. Interesting how women’s autonomy immediately leads to Endzeit fantasies for men.
As if they’re not doing their absolute best to crash and burn the world right now.
Women lean more toward more eating and fewer tears.
Men need to stop defining themselves through the traditional role of being able to support women financially. Capitalist exploitation has ended this short episode in history.
We do need men. But we need them to support our battle to make this world livable again.
There are traditional things we should vote for.
The traditional values we should fight for are the sharing of prosperity between all parts of society and the notion of fairness in the workplace.
The denunciation of corporate greed. The expectation that our contribution is valued. And respect for the planet we live on.
We need to bring back the opportunity to live a life worth living. If we do that, men will stop looking to the right for answers.
Men have to start focusing on these pressing issues instead of trying to vote us back into the kitchen.
Their lives would be so much better.
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