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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   29339 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 6, 2025

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https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democrats-want-reach-young-male-voters-how-get-them-is-up-debate-2025-10-06/

Reports like these have been an almost weekly occurrence all year. To state the obvious that none of these articles include: The Democratic Party and liberals engage in bulverism and bulverism alienates people. But is the problem purely liberals alienating young men or are conservatives also successfully courting them?

The democrats lost young men when they stopped staffing young men. The democratic party is split between the faces (who're men) and the staffers (no straight men). The party, from 2nd in command to bottom, is run by women and feminine (I don't mean this as an insult) men. The party talks to men as the 'other' because they are the 'other'.

It's clear that the democratic party would rather see Newsom and Buttigieg fall into a ditch once an electable woman shows up. Unfortunately for them, they can't get a woman elected, so the 2 of them are tolerated. A conventional straight man is only welcomed into the democratic fold if they are muslim or black (and usually communist + nepo baby to boot). Zohran and Hasan being the canonical examples.

In 2022-23, the tech industry cleared itself of the woke scolds. People were fired, replaced and sidelined. Companies rebranded, some quietly some loudly. There has been no such reckoning within the democratic party. We might be seeing the first signs of it, with Bari Weiss taking over CBS. But for the most part, the internal rhetoric of the democratic party is stuck in the last decade. The only outreach they're capable of doing is to the left of them. And that's why the AOC/DSA wing is ascendant.

Today, I can see that milquetoast commentators such as Ezra Klien and Derek Thompson sustain an uncomfortable alliance with the democratic party. I can't imagine how the average young man (who is definitely to the right of them, more patriarchal and more traditionally masculine) could feel welcome in the same democratic party.

We might be seeing the first signs of it, with Bari Weiss taking over CBS.

This has nothing at all to do with woke - this is very explicitly to deal with growing anti-Israel sentiment rather than the culture war.

But for the most part, the internal rhetoric of the democratic party is stuck in the last decade. The only outreach they're capable of doing is to the left of them. And that's why the AOC/DSA wing is ascendant.

Well, they did drum out a sizable fraction of the jews, which is an enormous self-own for human capital. Especially given the range of folks replacing them.

You are aware that the DNC chair is a white man and 5 of the 11 board seats are also men, 7 of 13 if you include the ranking House and Senate leaders who serve on the board? You are also aware that local Democratic committees are composed of 1 man and 1 woman per precinct by rule? And I don't expect you to be aware of this, but in Allegheny County at least, the local board is mostly straight, white men. Are you also aware that these positions are elected and there are usually plenty of vacancies due to lack of interest and unwillingness to actually put the work in, and that it's not that hard to get on the ballot? Do you really think that men are turning away from the Democratic Party because they can't get work with them?

I'm speaking of young men aged 18-35. My opinions are colored by personal anecdotes from deep-blue cities.

I haven't met a non-communist straight man who has 'volunteered for the democrats' or 'worked on the campaign'. On the other hand, I know multiple women and LGBT men who have done so. I am the eldest of a family of male cousins. The college aged (18-25) cousins only express positive emotions about democrats when around women their age (reasons obvious).

I could be in an echo chamber. But, it sure feels like the truth.

You are also aware that local Democratic committees are composed of 1 man and 1 woman per precinct by rule?

I was not aware of this. Good rule. I went back and looked at the numbers. Now seems as good as time as any to be a young man in democratic party. A healthy number (~50%) of the young democratic leaders (major mayors, house reps, senators) are under 45 men. Try as I may, the real numbers don't match my intuitions.

I still have my suspicions. But, I stand corrected.

Why would any of them want to be around young politically-active democrats? They'll have to grin through a bunch of "straight white men, amirite?" Comments, every conversation about media will inevitably turn into how queer something is or how problematic it is for being from the wrong era. They'll be asked their pronouns as a social formality. All the women who don't have dicks will be they/thems in an open demi-asexual polycule, and while walking to wherever it is they're volunteering, the female volunteers will notice that a man is walking in the same direction as them and be performatively afraid. And whatever they're volunteering for, it'll be to do with People of Color somehow.

I don't see the appeal. Leftist Activism is a subculture/social scene larping as a political movement, full of utterly insufferable people.

I could be in an echo chamber. But, it sure feels like the truth.

Surely all echo chambers feel like the truth? That's the function of an echo chamber.

I haven't met a non-communist straight man who has 'volunteered for the democrats' or 'worked on the campaign'.

As a (admittedly bi, but married to a woman) man in a deep blue city, I'll raise my hand. A half lifetime ago, I spent several years getting my paychecks from Democratic campaigns and the DNC (depending on when in the cycle we were).

Thinking about my ex-coworkers (who were mostly male) I've stayed in touch with, I'd say a third to a half are now thoroughly disenchanted with the Democratic Party, with the turn toward identity-based politics being a repeated, major point brought up by them.

Though none of us have voted Republican, AFAIK.

Looking at the DNC leadership page, Jason Rae is gay. Stuart Appelbaum and Chuck Schumer are Jews. Only Ken Martin and Chris Korge appear to be straight, white men.

Jews are white.

Only until the time comes to denounce the whites.

Stuart Applebaum looks white as all, what are you on about?

Berg, Witz, Baum, Stein,

I'll leave off the rest of the chant.

Stuart Applebaum

He looks jewish to me, not white.

I have some family and friends who work in DC as part of national Democrat political strategy.

They are comically far left, woke, and every extreme stereotype.

Outright caricatures who literally run out of the room if you push back against their political positions in the most mild way.

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