this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2026
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me_irl
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Being angry is their identity.
It's one of the symptoms of early childhood lead poisoning. I'm convinced that the modern Republican party is composed primarily of the kids who grew up with leaded gas.
And you'd be making a terrible mistake. Yes, 45-64 year olds overwhelmingly turned out for Trump. But, Trump won ALL age groups for male voters. Trump just barely won 45-64 women by 1% and lost all other ages ranges for female voters. (According to a study with 22k participants) Source
There are also lead poisoning concerns for people who frequent indoor gun ranges.
And I'd say male voters for Trump aren't so much indicative of general Republican support as they're indicative of an appetite for populism.
Anger is the only emotion that men -- especially conservative men -- are socially permitted to express.
It isn't permissible, they get criticised, threatened, criminalized and shamed for it, constantly, just less often directly. There is an abundance of shame for male anger.
All other emotions get shaped in service others, or are dissuaded altogether. Often through some pretty harsh and abusive methods, used by both men and women.
Anger is unique because attempting to suppress men, when angry, becomes a risk, especially the harsh, more cruel methods, which can provoke a genuine and extreme threat. I think it's more that a majority of people are scared to attempt to directly control or manipulate a man when he is angry, the way they do his other emotions, so the social influences on men's emotions are absent, making the prevalence of anger much higher because it's actually given space to exist. It isn't that men are permitted, it's that people are less willing to risk dissuading it. If you've ever had to handle an angry person who could very seriously hurt you, you know how delicate and tense that can get and how few people would willingly attempt it.
Men are then abandoned to their anger, to suffer it alone, because people don't want to be around a threat. Men's relationship with anger comes from societies failure to maintain controlling influences during moments of anger. The lack of fathers and male role models in boys lives causes the abandonment to start as soon as a boy becomes big enough to threaten people, particularly mothers. Unlike mothers, fathers can remain a control on male anger through early puberty, being unthreatened in those moments of pubescent anger, when boys should be taught a healthy relationship with anger.
Unfortunately for conservatives, those fathers tend to respond to anger, with anger. Which doesn't teach a healthy relationship, but one of power dynamics, instead.