➡️ Why are young people—in the US and around the world—shifting right?
I wrote about a phenomenon I call Generation C—the young people whose experience with COVID's health, political, and economic crises caused a strong shift right among young ppl across the developed world.
In the U.S., between 2020 and 2024, voters under 30 (and esp young men) shifted ~20 points toward the GOP. In Germany, France, Portugal, Finland, and beyond, young voters seem to be swinging their support toward anti-establishment far-right parties in numbers exceeding older voters.
What's going on? Probably many things. The world is an incumbent's graveyard right now (cf John Burn-Murdoch). Inflation is a scourge. Immigration is creating headaches for centrist/progressive parties throughout Europe.
But I also think that, in ways both obvious and non-obvious, this is a COVID phenomenon. The pandemic era didn't just demolish faith in scientific and political elites. It also strongly increased alone time, sending young men and women in highly gendered social-media spaces, where the youngest men in particular seem to have become significantly more anti-feminist and open to right-wing influencers and parties.
🔗 Derek Thompson
British man attacked for entering a ‘no-go zone’ in London.
A horde of Islamists surrounded him and questioned why he was in ‘their’ neighborhood.
They threatened him and began chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they kicked him out.
A 65-year-old couple retiring in 2025 with average earnings will receive an estimated $1.34 million in lifetime benefits, while contributing only $720,000 in today’s dollars.
That shortfall—more than $600,000 per couple—is being made up by younger workers.
“Most of the growth in spending has gone to retirement and healthcare, while programs that promote upward mobility... have been left behind”
https://www.newsweek.com/social-security-medicare-young-workers-cost-10477619