➡️ 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
🛢📈 — Reuters reports that oil is approaching $100 per barrel following the latest exchange of attacks between Americans and Iranians on oil tankers.
▶️The price of Brent crude has risen to $97.07 per barrel, while American WTI crude has risen to $92.28. In the past week, Brent has risen by 7.8%, while WTI has risen by nearly 10%.
▶️On Saturday, U.S. forces attacked three Iranian oil tankers, one of which was stationed near the island of Kharg, a key center for Iranian oil exports. In response, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced attacks on three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and three more U.S. ships.
▶️In this context, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has sharply declined. Over the past 10 days, an average of only 10 cargo ships have transited the strait per day – the lowest level since May.
The WHO now states on its website:
Vaccination against COVID-19 can trigger multiple sclerosis through cross-reactive CD4+-T cells that recognize the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and myelin peptides.
In other words: Your own immune system destroys the nerve pathways and then attacks your brain and spinal cord.