Condensation of Ideology
In to Madness
Welcome once again to the asylum, my dear readers. In the news, we are seeing reports of men, especially young men, becoming more conservative. While it does seem to have the leftists in a tizzy, we need to take it with at least a small amount of salt because to most of the people gathering this data, if you are more conservative than Jo Stalin, then you are a far-right extremist. It is really freaking stupid. People who were once considered liberal, such as Tim Pool and Elon Musk, who haven’t changed their core beliefs, have in recent years been labeled as far-right or extremists. The truth is, they are moderate with a slightly liberal bent.
This can be explained by a contraction in the diversity of thought that has occurred in recent years. A massive 2019 study shows that the diversity of acceptable thought on the left had significantly contracted, while the diversity of thought allowed among the right was much broader (here). To be honest, that allowable range of ideas has only shrunk since this study was done. We have all seen one liberal public figure after another demonized and cast out for one “wrong” statement, idea, or opinion (here and here).
As the scope of acceptable beliefs contracted, they became more radical and unreasonable. This was and is facilitated by social media platforms that create echo chambers in which only these acceptable ideas are discussed, and any counterpoints are banished to ridicule and ad hominem attacks, creating a real fear of exclusion, since for many younger people, online forums are their communities as much as church, scouting, school teams, or other hobbies were for previous generations. Majority opinion and social pressures modulate beliefs, and since the males of our species have a much harder time complying than the females of our species (here), they get booted at a much higher rate than women.
I don’t think this shift is as major as some would have you believe, so far as base ideology goes. I believe a lot of these now conservative men would have been considered liberal even 10 years ago. They are now voting conservative, not because they fully buy the ideology, but because the approved ideologies of the left have gone so far off the sanity reservation, they don’t really have any other options.
