This is literally how the right captured so many young men and it's insane to me that so many on the left to this day refuse to acknowledge and address it!!! - ThreadSky

benjaminoknobi.bsky.social • 2 days ago

This is literally how the right captured so many young men and it's insane to me that so many on the left to this day refuse to acknowledge and address it!!!

Reposted from Dave Weigel

This is a well-trod topic, but one commonality between the popular right-wing pods is that they offer to make the listener's life better. Go work out, read Great Books, get confident, get married, be a success.

The left doesn't *not* have this but it obviously has less of it.

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benjaminoknobi.bsky.social•2 days ago

Especially since the left actually *does* have a vision for a better future, but for some reason (read: a host of reasons) has an extremely difficult time communicating that to the general public

kilog013.bsky.social•2 days ago

My parents, friends, and family encouraged those qualities in me, not some choad podcaster.
wtf?!

benjaminoknobi.bsky.social•2 days ago

Same here! Unfortunately, that is very clearly not the case for everyone, so here we are

jamesof89.bsky.social•2 days ago

They're selling hope. The problem is solutions are more complicated than "go work out", so it is a harder sell if you are actually trying to fix shit.

benjaminoknobi.bsky.social•2 days ago

100%, it's an enormous challenge to overcome (but one we can't pretend isn't there either)

veritableplethora.bsky.social•2 days ago

Offering something and delivering it are two different things. There seems to be a catch in their solution.They're offering all that largesse at the expense of women and minorities. Rather than lift themselves up, it seems their success can only be achieved by pushing others down, especially women.

waterybint1952.bsky.social•2 days ago

And we need to understand that rather than Fox, OANN etc, we’re up against YouTube and the hundreds of podcasts that broadcast dis-and misinformation nonstop. How to counteract that is the critical problem.

benjaminoknobi.bsky.social•2 days ago

BINGOOOO!!! And also the fact that it's not limited to any one country's borders!

randomperson645639.bsky.social•1 day ago

The American self-help complex at its destructive worst. People need to realize we aren't going self-help our way out of systemic problems people. Collective action is what makes our lives better.

irarigaud.bsky.social•2 days ago

I think its trickier than “give life advice”
Life advice from the left is often seen as preachy: Michele Obama- get moving is seen as cringe/elitist- now rfk is seen as health guru; The crooked guys are like the fittest men in media- no one cares

Can’t try to chase the right’s path to relevance

benjaminoknobi.bsky.social•2 days ago

Absolutely agree this a major problem and I don't really know how to address it. A number of reasons for this (racism/sexism chief among them), and I also suspect corpo world appropriating left-sounding *language* has been a disaster for progressives everywhere (inherently makes us sound "preachy")

benjaminoknobi.bsky.social•2 days ago

All that said, I really don't think the left can afford to retreat from the media environment either, so it's a serious challenge either way

bigalincal.bsky.social•2 days ago

So, Oprah Winfrey for men?

justingallivan.bsky.social•2 days ago

The left is too fond of calling young men privileged and misogynistic, regardless of their individual circumstances, rather than listening to them.

fireluigi.bsky.social•2 days ago

thing is, they often are. but its not effective to just disregard their feelings totally

fumblingarchivist.bsky.social•2 days ago

when the medical system fails someone the right offers solutions[they dont work but still] and the left just says to trust the doctors. the right questions everything too much and the left is unquestionable to the point of being just followers at this point

chuckgoat.bsky.social•2 days ago

Yep. The successful left podcasters are quite like this too. Hassan got more popular as he got more ripped.

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