Is it possible that teenage boys are trending Conservative because of Donald Trump’s “hypermasculinity”, “frequent use of language one might overhear in a high school cafeteria”, and “an unrepentant misogyny”? Yes, of course it is. It is if you are a toffee-nosed twat who lives in bubble-wrapped Ivory Tower and sips your sustainable Earl Grey tea from Qing Dynasty China. Where on Earth do they find these people whose feet have never touched terra firma and, apparently, never ate in a high school cafeteria.

The Hill has written an article based on the “2022 Monitoring the Future Survey”, “a scholarly endeavor that dates to the 1970s.” Wow! Ancient Times. The article is “High school boys are trending conservative.” From the article:

The rightward drift of high school boys is comparatively subtle. Indeed, when it comes to politics, most boys seem reluctant to pick a side. In the 2022 Monitoring the Future survey, the largest group of senior boys, more than two-fifths, claimed no politics at all, answering the liberal-conservative question with “none of the above” or “I don’t know.” Nearly one-fifth identified as moderate. Only 36 percent selected liberal or conservative as an ideology, and only there did the trend emerge.
Jean Twenge, an author and professor of psychology at San Diego State University, presented the data in her new book, “Generations.” To spotlight the growing gender gap, she couched the numbers in a chart that split boys and girls along ideological lines, omitting moderates and the undecided.
“Among liberals, the future is female,” she wrote. “And among conservatives, the future is male.”

Whoa! Back it on up there, Dr. Twenge. So, um, 60/% don’t fit into your defined boxes, so you tease out some data. define your parameters, an “couched the numbers in a chart”. Did you account for the segment of this population that wouldn’t tell you the truth for ready cash or that will say what you want to hear. Have you ever met a real honest to goodness human teenager? I am not the only one who finds the breakouts of this study suspect:

It's sad but one can't rely on much of the political analysis that appears in the press.
This article, for example, is based on NBC polling & studies by a professor at San Diego State University. It quotes PBS.

Those sources are not unbiased purveyors of factual news. They're… pic.twitter.com/FCv44J8Cwc

— Mark Miller (@PatientType) July 31, 2023

Anyways, as our Kim told you four years ago, teenagers are not experts on politics or policy. The geniuses that looked at this then tell us that despite Donald Trump, his hypermasculinity and high school cafeteria talk, nothing really has changed:

The political leanings of young men have changed little over the past two decades, according to an analysis by the Survey Center on American Life. Last year, 43 percent of young men identified as moderate, 31 percent as conservative and 24 percent as liberal. Twenty years earlier, the numbers were more or less the same.

So after four decades of talking about hypermasculinity and toxic masculinity, boys haven’t changed, but the language has:

Hypermasculinity like boxing, mixed martial arts, firefighters or Airborne? Yes, there are girls in all these areas but they are in much smaller numbers. And, who says hypermasculinity is a bad thing?

If you teach history and you aren’t mentioning the individual stories of heroes like 1st Sgt. Jake “McNasty” McNiece of the 101st Airborne’s “Filthy 13” your students are missing out.

-4 combat jumps
-4 Bronze Stars ️
-2 Purple Hearts
– Legion of Honor pic.twitter.com/Zkd6ZMeqLM

— J&L Historical (@Jason_R_Burt) July 22, 2023

Yes, it’s Donald Trump’s fault that men are like this today and women are rejecting hyper or toxic masculinity. Is that what they are trying to tell us with graphs and charts and all kinds of stuff and nonsense?

Sorry, I don’t believe any of this. I don’t believe it right down to Donald Trump and hypermasculinity. I do know at whole lot of angry, feminist types raising angrier, feminist daughters, so there is that. Do you trust statistics any more than I do?

Benjamin Disraeli – “Lies, damned lies, and statistics”

Featured Image: Tabitha Kaylee Hawk/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons