This boy was lying to me. I could tell from the way he swiveled in his chair, fluffing up and then patting down his shaggy hair. I could tell from the rehearsed sentences he fed me, his voice bored and monotone. \u201cI\u2019m a white man,\u201d he stated. \u201cI have a lot of advantages in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Normally, I would have felt pleased that he acknowledged his privilege. It\u2019s rare for a teenager to admit they are systematically advantaged. But his eyes were glazed over, and he was checking the time on his phone. I knew he wasn\u2019t going to tell me the truth unless I gave him permission.<\/p>\n
So I paused the recording I was making and leaned in, telling him I wasn\u2019t trying to cancel him for racist or sexist opinions. I just wanted to hear his perspective. And when I restarted my phone\u2019s voice memo, I was talking to a different person. He knew what he wanted to say; he just didn\u2019t think I wanted to hear it. All it took was permission to shed his progressive facade. This didn\u2019t surprise me because I know he\u2019s not alone.<\/p>\n
A survey<\/a> done in the spring of 2025 showed that only 7% of men ages 18-29 thought that diversity, equity and inclusion programs helped them. This aligns with polling that finds 54% <\/a>of men in the same age range voted for President Trump. Trump\u2019s approval numbers have declined<\/a> among young people, but liberalism is still losing boys my age to the ideology of the manosphere \u2014 which is exactly what I heard from my classmate when that facade came down.<\/p>\n I knew that boisterous talking heads like Charlie Kirk and Joe Rogan flooded the social media feeds of teenage boys and young men. I wanted to see if this was true even in my own left-leaning high school in New York City. In mid-April, I set out to interview teenage boys in my life. I needed to know if the boys I cared about, that I had hopes for, subscribed to the digital misogyny of the internet.<\/p>\n I suspected that young men, especially white and straight ones, were moving toward the right because they felt unwelcome on the left. The fear of being \u201ccanceled\u201d has been ingrained in many teenagers \u2014 boys in particular \u2014 who attend liberal schools since 2020, when many came to see cancel culture as a life-ruining threat. It was a small step from fearing cancel culture to hating \u201cwokeism.\u201d<\/p>\n To start one interview, I opened my laptop and pulled up four videos: two of Joe Rogan from his podcast, the first talking about open borders and immigration and the second on transgender athletes. One of Andrew Tate ranting about the evils of wokeism and one of Charlie Kirk arguing about systemic racism with a Black college student. In between the clips, I asked my male classmates why they thought these would be enticing or persuasive to young men.<\/p>\n The first response I got was about aesthetics. \u201cYou can see in the video he\u2019s built,\u201d said a senior, who had to cram in the interview right before a baseball game. \u201cAthletes are some of the biggest role models for teenage boys.\u201d The mention of appearance reared its head again when a sophomore described Rogan as \u201cvery masculine.\u201d The interviewee, sporting a mullet and a white tank top undershirt, explained that \u201ca bald guy with a deep voice\u201d is more appealing than \u201ca woke 25-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n The other recurring theme was that these high school boys spotted the powerful rhetoric and fearmongering they saw on my computer screen. Rogan\u2019s views on immigration \u201cconnect to this idea of being under attack,\u201d said one junior boy. White men are \u201cunder siege,\u201d he added. Is this true? I asked. Doesn\u2019t matter, he answered: Extreme rhetoric like that \u201cmakes everything just kind of simple and quotable.\u201d<\/p>\n It was only when I asked these boys if they were liberal that I got any indication they didn\u2019t actually support the men from the videos. Almost all of these teens told me they were liberal, and yet they could see the manosphere\u2019s appeal. <\/p>\n The rest of us can\u2019t afford to stand by. This half of the population needs to feel at home on the left. Democrats should be mindful to welcome young white men who don\u2019t agree with every progressive policy, ensuring they are still offered a seat at the table to help create a fairer, more equitable country. <\/p>\n The divisive appeal from the other side has proved to be powerful. \u201cFrom what I\u2019ve seen,\u201d one of my classmates told me, the liberals \u201csay all these [negative] things about young white men and Trump doesn\u2019t. \u2026 Why would we get behind ill fortune to ourselves?\u201d The president seems to be the champion of a group that will outlast him: young white men who feel that the liberals have made them the enemy.<\/p>\n The Democratic Party isn\u2019t actually antiwhite or antimale, of course, but it\u2019s not enough to say that. Democrats need to make clear that they welcome the support of people who may not agree with every aspect of the left\u2019s agenda. Relatability is important as well: Leaders should go where young people are and be likable. \u201cGoing on podcasts can help,\u201d said one junior boy when asked what Democrats can be doing to reach out to younger audiences. \u201cThey need to get views.\u201d<\/p>\n These classmates of mine are a few years away from voting. It\u2019s their responsibility to fight for healthy discourse, for spaces outside of Instagram and TikTok to talk about politics. Don\u2019t consider disagreement the foe of unity, consider it the necessary stepping stone. Demand a space from the left. There is work to be done \u2014 so much work. But I have faith that my peers will vote in the future with their mothers and sisters in mind. I just hope I\u2019m not naive to think that.<\/p>\n Naomi Beinart is a high school student in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This boy was lying to me. 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