Alex Gervais ’28
Staff Writer
I hate to say it, but it’s become cool to be conservative. As a young American man, I’ve been on the front lines of this hyper masculine identity revival. I’ve watched Twitter accounts of friends I grew up with transformed into faceless burners that spew dogmatically racist vitriol, seeking affirmation from their burnerverse network. I looked on as the guys at the end of my hall hung flags of a bloody Trump post assassination attempt, defiantly pumping his fist while draped with Secret Service agents. I’ve scrolled past hours of right wing propaganda on Instagram and Twitter: edits of a ‘sigma’ Andrew Tate living a life of exhilarating wealth based purely on patriarchal exploitation and Elon’s tweets preaching a “return” to what America once was. This content has been targeted at me, not because I sought it out, but because I’m an impressionable young man. Somehow, a perturbed, prideful conservatism has infiltrated our society.
The Republican party is not what it used to be. The once deficit hawkish, socially conservative party has morphed into a roaming beast of unadulterated neo-fascist populism. Its leading voices are no longer the boring but reprehensible George H.W. Bushes and Newt Gingriches of the world, but instead exciting, clippable wackjobs like Marjorie Taylor Greene and JD Vance who consistently rail against marginalized Americans. Not only has its identity changed, but its constituency has as well. In 2012, 36% of voters aged 18-29 supported Mitt Romney, but in 2024 that number skyrocketed to 47% for Donald Trump. This trend becomes even more illuminating when considering that only 42% of young men voted for Romney, while 49%, a plurality of the electorate, voted for Trump. Increasingly, young men are entering the fold as reliable Republican voters, drinking the raw milk flavored Kool Aid of Trump’s neo-fascism.
The sources of this alleged cultural revolution are varied, but identifiable. Most important in the mosaic of youth conservatism is the domination of right-wing voices in the media. Republicans ate the Democrats’ lunch when it came to media consolidation. The seeds were planted decades ago with right-wing drive time radio, the air waves bombarded by conservative firebrands like Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin. These voices then percolated into the TV environment, with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News becoming a dominant cultural player, inspiring other spin offs like One American News to further conservative excess. These radio and TV programs gave a platform for the most conservative in society to air their grievances and corrupt the public with their maligned world view. They allowed for Alex Jones to falsify the experiences of Sandy Hook families through malicious conspiracy theories and created fervent election denialism that culminated with an assault on our Capitol. Trinity itself has been complicit in the elevation of right wing voices in the media, our most visible alumni being not esteemed neuroscientists or Nobel Prize winning economists, but instead the lunatic conservative commentators Tucker Carlson and Jesse Watters.
Yet, most crucial to right wing domination of youth political voice is the new media. TikTok, Twitter and Twitch have become the new breeding grounds of festering conservatism. The internet allowed for the typical media types like Ben Shapiro and Laura Ingrahm to increase their reach, but also for new conservative superstars to be born overnight. Now, politics are not limited to just political commentators, but instead the endorsements of the Paul Brothers and Adin Ross hold sway in national elections. The youth of America now look to Dave Portnoy instead of Lester Holt for their news. Republicans invested early and invested well in these platforms and personalities. While the Democrats were pursuing Megan Thee Stallion and Chris Evans, Trump was speaking alongside Bryce Hall and courting Theo Von. Conservatives understood the personalities young men looked up to, and took full advantage to the tune of a Republican trifecta and an assumed mandate to lead.
Potentially more important than just the voices on this platform are the messages they’re propagating. These influencers are vouching for masculinity and ascriptive patriotism. They’ve turned manliness into a zero sum game, creating a fictional world where wokeness and masculinity cannot coexist. They’ve made political leaders seem larger than life, with edits of Trump doing his juvenile YMCA dance and clips of RFK Jr. incline bench pressing. They’ve created an aesthetic of Trumpism that is not merely a political movement, but a cultural moment.
All of this online conservatism is underscored by the first true social media president, Donald Trump. His use of Twitter, not to simply campaign, but to announce administration policy has created a reliance on social media in politics. Following Trump has become not an endorsement of his views, but a necessary avenue for staying up to date on our political reality. Even as one of the oldest men to run for the presidency, he’s managed to outflank the left in the online political arena. His brand of posting brings an authenticity and voice that simply can’t be replicated by a room of millennial DNC staffers vetting the exact placement of an exclamation point in a tweet.
The damage done by Republican media consolidation is permanent. My one time friends who dove into the right wing rabbit hole aren’t coming back up again. However, even as Gen Z men spiral deeper into conservatism, Democrats can’t afford to give up on the young men of America’s future. We must find a way to invite them back into the fold. That’s not to say we should allow sexism, racism or homophobia back into the Democratic coalition, but instead we should preach openness and patience. We need to sponsor a platform that appeals to all the politically frustrated, demotivated young people of today. We need to go to the platforms where we feel exposed and unwelcome, because that’s where minds are changed and hearts are touched. We need to reach beyond the ivory tower of academia and the airwaves of MSNBC. We need a political messaging revolution of our own, it’s the only way we’re going to win again.
Instead of namecalling and using vitriol, how bout you PROVE conservatives are bigoted, crazy, stupid, malignant (though I agree we are much maligned) and all that other stuff? If you tried listening past your own bigotry, you might learn something – like why everyone’s suddenly moving right.
People are moving right (for now) because of the vast amounts of right wing propaganda they’re putting out (I’ve seen it myself too) they’ll eventually push it too far and people will wake up and see through it though, I can see some people already getting fed up with it.
Well written Alex.
Anon wrote: they’ll eventually push it too far and people will wake up and see through it though, I can see some people already getting fed up with it.
Tripod, take heed.