this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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Are Americans in their late teens and early 20s actually super-reactionary? (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 month ago by CleverOleg@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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Ever since the election, there seems to be a torrent of polling that shows Americans in their late teens and early twenties are fairly reactionary (young men overwhelmingly so). I’m old so I don’t know anyone IRL in that age bracket. But something about what the media has been claiming for months now doesn’t seem to sound right. Idk maybe it’s 100% true but it’s something I have a hard time taking the media’s word for. I know we have quite a few users here in that age bracket. What are your real-life experiences (i.e. not online) with this? Do you think this age demographic is actually trending reactionary?

(I do remember digging into the details of one poll, and while it seemed there was more affiliation with Republicans than previous, it also seemed like there were an also very large segment that were openly showing to be further left than the democrats? So maybe more reactionary sentiment but also more genuinely leftish sentiment?)

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[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Reactionary in terms of conservative? No. Reactionary in terms that they almost entirely get their politics as a reaction to whatever personally irritates them? Absolutely. Most zoomer politics are not class based, they are based on how many of a particular annoying personality they encounter, and who tends to be on that annoying side more often. It's basically an end point of own or be owned media culture. But that can create space for you to make points if you are media savvy or personally savvy enough. Just don't expect it to stick.

[–] GVAGUY3@hexbear.net 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's kinda the trend universally in politics right now

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Exactly. You get a little more actual class/cultural differentiation as people get into the workforce, but ultimately politics at this moment is more of a reflection of the fractured state of media (thus following Parenti's hypothesis in Inventing Reality) than any sort of class consciousness.