“I see nothing for the future.” The young man is not impressed by empty platitudes about the greatness of America?
Take one young Pittsburgh man I met in a recent focus group. A college graduate working part-time as a bartender, he felt weighed down by hopelessness, adrift in a country where rising costs, stagnant wages and lack of affordable housing have made even the modest ambitions of other generations feel out of reach for him. “Hope is great,” he told me, “but I see nothing for the future.”
The young man’s experience reflects a broader crisis of confidence and purpose, rooted in economic insecurity and social disconnection. The Covid pandemic exacerbated the alienation, with many first-time voters spending thousands of hours isolated and online in their formative years.
While these struggles affect the whole country, they weigh especially on young men of all educational, racial and ethnic backgrounds. Nearly three-quarters of Gen Z men report feeling regularly stressed by an uncertain future, stirring painful memories of the Great Recession they witnessed as children. These feelings erode self-esteem and diminish their interest in personal relationships and long-term planning, leading many to describe their future as “bleak,” “unclear” and “scary.”
Today’s young men are lonelier than ever and have inherited a world rife with skepticism toward the institutions designed to promote and defend American ideals. Men under 30 are nearly twice as likely to be single as women their same age; Gen Z men are less likely to enroll in college or the work force than previous generations. They have higher rates of suicide and are less likely than their female peers to receive treatment for mental health maladies. Most young men in my polling say they fear for our country’s future, and nearly half doubt their cohort’s ability to meet our nation’s coming challenges.
The rest of the article is garbage. It makes it seem that it was easy for Trump to be a Pied Piper. And the text entirely ignores the bipartisan failure to address the issues of younger voters. I wonder why the writer would have that POV and ignore the democrats’ failure?..
By John Della Volpe
Mr. Della Volpe is the director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics. He runs a research firm that conducted polls for a PAC supporting the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaigns.
Here’s a suggestion by the brain genius.
To reignite the hope of the emerging generation, Ms. Harris should make a sweeping national call to both military and civilian service — name it the Generation Z Compact to Rebuild and Renew America. Such a plan would offer a sense of identity, community and patriotism, while providing economic stability and skill-building — things many young men feel they are missing.
Comments are off because of course they are.
I’m speaking from experience when I tell you that kids are horrified by genocide. When adults brush it off as “complicated,” it reinforces the idea that adults are full of shit.
Kids are also horrified by climate change, though this one is usually a little less front and center.
During the onset of Covid, and through the first few years of the pandemic, kids were horrified that adults took a simple thing (“try to avoid getting people sick”) and complicated it with their bullshit.
Adults don’t know what they’re doing and they’re full of shit most of the time. The main tell for that is “it’s complicated.” Kids know.
As they become adults, kids are operating under the correct assumption that we’re all doomed unless something drastically changes, and they have no idea how to participate in a doomed society.
Even the ones that don’t believe in climate change, covid pandemics and deny the genocide know that something is off, something isn’t right. Nothing is working how it’s “supposed” to work i.e. how they were taught. When the powers that be are making the world miserable and the same powers to a half-assed admittance to all these things, many don’t feel they can trust the truth and turn elsewhere for answers, look for new truths and conspiracies. Hence why Trump and other fash movements (MRA, eco-fash etc.) do gain a following.