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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023

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Again, hard to judge averages through a computer screen, but going by top recommendations on various social media, for a while it seemed like the "cool" thing was to chant "black trans lives matter" (clap emoji, clap emoji, clap emoji), talk about socialism, and joke about gulags. Maybe it was all a mirage because western SocMedia were so heavily censored/manipulated, Then again, if you follow lefty influencers, you could see the whole thing falling apart as they started burning out on wokeness, burning out on politics, and forming circular firing squads.

Yeah, for women aged 16-35 on Twitter or Tumblr, the pussy-hat-wearing brigade.

I don't have access to their analytics, but I really honestly doubt that people like Contrapoints, PhilosophyTube, Vaush, DeamonMama, Hasan Piker, and a whole bunch of B-list personalities that I never bothered checking out, but who are obviously trying to appeal to young nerdy men had a majority female audience. I'd be surprised if they had anything approaching parity. I think I heard some of the trans influencers brag about how they managed to attract a women audience talking about politics, but if there was a way of verifying, I'd bet 1000$ right now that all these women were trans themselves.

No offense to either of you, but this is Hlynka levels of forcing reality to fit your theory.

I don't have the analytics either, but I do have a zoomer son, and the possibility that he and/or his friends are spending time watch Contrapoints is... remote.

If for no other reason, then because she doesn't upload videos more than once a year anymore...

Anyway, I agree she's more Millennial material, but there was a time the whole Internet went gaga about her.

The Millennials I know are pretty woke -- I think the point is that the Zoomers aren't (maybe) buying it.

Whether that's copium or not IDK, but my kid and his buds are not very woke at all. (Despite/Because they are constantly bombarded with it at school)

Maybe the millennials were in the sweet spot where woke/protowoke behaviour was rewarded but not so institutionally mandated as to seem mainstream and lame?

Maybe the millennials were in the sweet spot where woke/protowoke behaviour was rewarded but not so institutionally mandated as to seem mainstream and lame?

I think there's something to that. I'm an older millennial, and when I was a teenager/early 20s, what we would call "woke" now was still somewhat counterculture. Somewhat; it had already dominated many fields of life and was pushed as the obviously morally correct view that all good thinking people should have, but it had just yet to be adopted by the crufty old generation of white patriarchal bigots. So it was considered "cool" to push it, a form of rebellion against "the man" and blazing our own trail.

By the time I was in my late 20s and now 30s, this became just straight-up false; "woke" and its predecessors was the dominant culture, the ones that told us from on high what was Right and Wrong and had the controls of the levers to power to make sure that those who are Wrong are Justly Punished. I've noticed that my generation has aggressively refused to notice this and still positions the "woke" as the Little Guy fighting against The Man, likely out of both momentum and the high status afforded to the Little Guy within the ideology. I don't know what the kids these days are into, but to whatever extent they have a sense of youthful rebellion and contrarianism, they would be expected to push back against "woke." One complication factor, though, is that "woke" by its nature is very good at hijacking that rebellious impulse; but it's not the only ideology that's good at that.

ContraPoints' audience being primarily young men is entirely compatible with this theory, though. There would still be many millions of progressive young men in the US alone.

Teenage boys IME are mostly interested in sex, tempered with some combination of drugs, violence, and/or sport -- I just don't see how Contrapoints would scratch any of these itches.

Ed: Of course now that I think about it neither does Mr. Beast AIUI -- maybe chalk him up to camaraderie or something?

You missed money. Many Mr Beast episodes play out fantasies about being ridiculously rich (often in a generous or silly way).

"Life ain't nothin but bitches + money" -- seems to check out.