I don't know that Gen Z men are worse than my generation or others before them. What I think might actually be different now is that the media voices speaking directly to them are telling them to be worse
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
Every single comedy movie from the eighties is about how hilarious rape is. The toxic masculinity waste that floods youtube algorithms and podcasts was 100% mainstream thought a few short decades ago. We are a fish that has just realized it is wet.
Sure, but if the theory is that the cultural upbringing of Gen Z men made them more receptive to Trump than Gen X, then it’s kind of relevant if Gen X are in fact more Trumpy, no?
That’s been the whole game since the beginning of time. Gen z, gen x, boomers, Kalahari bushmen, Mongol hordes. The only consistent characteristic of our species is malleability and adaptability. It’s the stories we tell ourselves and our children. That’s where the battle lies.
I think the voices are the same kind of shitty- they didn’t sprout in a vacuum and they exist in the context of CHUDS who came before them. I do however think their potential range and access to young, malleable minds is significantly amplified by technology
I do think there's a lot to unpack about 90s media like American Pie basically pushing the narrative that teen boys *should* be horny to the point of normalizing sexual assault, (or 80s see: Porkys, etc.)
But stuff like Andrew Tate there's not even a wink and a chuckle, its just straight up DO IT
There's an entire niche on TikTok of guys going up to strangers in stores and just being absolute penises to other people. Their punishment, millions of views, hundreds of thousands of likes and 10,000 dollars/month in "creator" money.
Its always been like that man. I bet my ass boomers calling you people bad generation too. Its been tradition. I do agree those media voices need not to exist at this instant.
Yeah, and I say this as an old person (by internet standards), there are lots of dreadful social forces, not the least of which is a media environment that elevates the worst people, but a lot of this is "same as it ever was" territory.
Comments
But stuff like Andrew Tate there's not even a wink and a chuckle, its just straight up DO IT
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20171003-proof-that-people-have-always-complained-about-young-adults
https://bsky.app/profile/davidhirsch.bsky.social/post/3l5p2qomo5x2k