Summary

Gen Z’s reputation as a reliably progressive generation has been challenged by recent U.S. election results, showing a noticeable shift toward conservative voting, particularly among young men.

Many young people struggle with financial security, psychological safety, and optimism about the future. Trump tapped into their anxieties of a frightening world that’s worsening.

Issues like inflation, financial stability, and safety now rank higher than traditional progressive causes for many young people.

Additionally, conservative influences from figures like Joe Rogan and family ties to Gen X parents may have nudged Gen Z rightward, reflecting their complex and evolving priorities.

  • Jaderick@lemmy.world
    737·
    2 days ago

    Trump tapped into their anxieties of a frightening world that’s worsening

    No reflection on how Trump exponentially makes that worse?

    So they’re stupider than we thought. Nice.

    Edit: at least the ones that vote

    • TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org
      471·
      2 days ago

      We are now seeing the results of Bush’s No Child Left Behind.

      Edit: also:

      For years, Gen Z has been either derided or praised for supposedly being “woke.” Its members have been called snowflakes, mocked for performative “slacktivism” and embracing trigger warnings, and described (favorably and unfavorably) as climate warriors and gun-control activists.

      Pretty sure that was us Millennials. That stuff started in the late 2000s when all the Occupy shit popped off, when Gen-Z were just kids. Meanwhile we were handing them tablets and phones to keep them quiet and giving them unrestricted access to the Internet, beginning their radicalization right under our noses. Surprise, now leftist mom/dad have a Nazi son/daughter.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        20·
        2 days ago

        For years, Gen Z has been either derided or praised for supposedly being “woke.” Its members have been called snowflakes, mocked for performative “slacktivism” and embracing trigger warnings, and described (favorably and unfavorably) as climate warriors and gun-control activists.

        Change a few labels, and this sounds like the same stuff aimed at Gen X - called slackers and the “political correctness” hysteria really started to take off when we hit early adulthood, etc.

        The more things change…

        • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
          2·
          1 day ago

          Except the parents aren’t hippies but run a Yoga studio and make podcast to stay afloat, are apolitical and don’t vote. Alex’s only successful venture has been to transform his parents’ yoga retreat into an oligarchs brothel catering to Russian billionaires and Chinese whales.

    • ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world
      16·
      2 days ago

      Not voting has the same consequences, so those aren’t too smart either.

      Gen Z are entitled like boomers, but with almost no economic prospects outside their parents.

      Which makes sense, since loads of Gen Z were priced out of a future before they could even start earning, so there’s no point in giving effort

      At least Trump will guarantee Gen Z nearly unlimited well paying work if they’re interested in bounty hunting immigrants and tracking fertility

      • Thrashy@lemmy.world
        12·
        2 days ago

        GenZ is the generation raised by helicopter parents, whose late-Boomer-to-early-GenX parents went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that they never faced any challenges. Of course they’d have some odd ideas about how the world ought to work, after spending their entire childhood and early adulthood with Mom and Dad working strenuously to shield them from personal struggles, emotional distress, and the consequences of their actions. What remains to be seen is how those attitudes shift as the rubber hits the road and their parents lose the ability to protect them from the increasingly dire state of the world. I suspect it’ll be an even three-way split between blithe entitlement, despair and withdrawal, and an impulse to step up and do something about it.

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          GenZ is the generation raised by helicopter parents, whose late-Boomer-to-early-GenX parents went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that they never faced any challenges.

          Weren’t the same kinds of things aimed at kids raised by Dr. Spock? In other words, the boomers?

      • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 day ago

        You joke, but … fore many white men these job prospects (cop, immigration office, jail guard) are a reality. The factories have all moved away. If you’re a contractor, doing roofing or painting for example, you’re competing against illegal immigrants that work under the table.

    • very_well_lost@lemmy.worldEnglish
      111·
      2 days ago

      To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld:

      You don’t run for president with the voters you want, you run for president with the voters you have.

      Stupid or not, these are the voters we have, and Democrats need to learn how to reach at least some of them if they ever want to win another election.

          • BlemboTheThird@lemmy.ca
            51·
            2 days ago

            Voting isn’t an endorsement for literally everything a candidate says and does. No one even knows who you vote for unless you tell them. It’s about picking the best of the choices. Your lack of a vote is just as much an endorsement of genocide as a vote for Trump, especially since he won.