One would be hard pressed not to find the New York Times article on the reasons behind rise of young women (18-29) identifying as liberal as something akin to satire from The Babylon Bee. But the Times is playing it straight and, boy howdy, the AWFLs’ youngest cohort is an embarrassment of whining emotionalism.

And the New York Times presents the polling data (yes, I know … take it with a large shaker of salt) from Gallup as a way to showcase the “reasons” behind the uptick in GenZ women who are willing to identify as “liberal”. Is it due to new policies advanced in the last four years by Biden-Harris? Policies that have resulted in observable peace, prosperity and personal satisfaction?

It’s hard to say definitively what changed for young women in the last eight years, researchers said. But the rise in liberal identification suggests that for a generation of women who were raised being told they could do anything, the triple punch of Hillary Clinton’s loss to Mr. Trump, the #MeToo movement and the overturning of Roe v. Wade forcefully shaped their political views.

These are women who grew up in a period with a focus on cultivating girls’ self-esteem, civic engagement and involvement in previously male arenas, said Melissa Deckman, a political scientist who is chief executive of P.R.R.I., a research firm, and author of “The Politics of Gen Z,” published this month.

Events since 2016 gave a contradictory message, she said: “Sexism isn’t a thing of the past.”

Wait, what? (W)omen who were raised being told they could do anything but who fall apart when the white pony they demanded for their birthday isn’t delivered are to be considered serious adults?

Really?

In interviews, young liberal women said that the 2016 election was a turning point. Many said that in the Democratic primary, Senator Bernie Sanders had helped mold their liberal views. As the race became in part a referendum on gender — Mrs. Clinton running to be the first female president, Mr. Trump calling her a “nasty woman” and bragging about sexual assault on the “Access Hollywood” tape — those views deepened, they said.

Sanders is an illiberal Marxist so if these delicate ladies are swayed by his slovenly covetousness, there’s a lot more going on than their vagina-in-the-Oval-Office obsession.

And the twaddle about Trump seals their emo-based unseriousness.

You mean like setting up a fake "Russia dossier" to be peddled to the media in an attempt to facilitate a coup against the duly elected president? Stuff like that? https://t.co/kCxIqykAYX

— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) September 17, 2024

I’d say that qualifies as something even more than just nasty from Hillary. GenZ women don’t at all seem curious that their adoration of Granny Pantsuit is not returned. Just think of it. Trump used the word “nasty”, SCOTUS returned the issue of abortion back to the states (something even Ruth Bader Ginsburg thought was the proper approach) and all the real encroachments on their rights – especially sex-based rights – are worth no more than blank stare if one dares bring them up.

And certainly the author of this NYT piece is also incurious about things like the destruction of Title IX, males in female prisons, and the rise in rape and assault due to open borders affecting political associations.

In 2018, a record number of women won House seats, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was 29, and other progressive women.

Seeing someone like yourself in office can spur political involvement, political scientists have found, especially for young women. In interviews with Gen Z women, “they all talked about the profound influence of people like A.O.C.,” Ms. Deckman said. “For the first time, they saw someone young, diverse, social justice oriented, running for Congress and also giving makeup tutorials on TikTok.”

Makeup tutorials! That’s it, Watson! That’s how we capture the female franchise! Let’s be off to the cosmetics counter at Neiman Marcus where we will really make these girls swoon!

Holy Mary, Mother of God.

“You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into.”
― Ben Goldacre, Bad Science

This is the huge issue many of us non-leftwing women have in talking with (il)liberal women. Rational discussions are close to impossible. Most of these women are stubbornly proud of their ignorance in what may be considered kitchen-table issues. Grocery bills are up 30% or more, rent, housing, mortgage interest rates … none of this seems to matter except but Trump is Hitler! Republicans are a threat to Our Democracy! They worry about climate change and gun control and a “right” to kill their own child but keep murderers alive.

These women are profoundly unhappy. They chase meaning in their lives through fashionable political postures. Government is not a structure to secure the rights of individuals to rise and fall on their own merit. Government, to GenZ women, is their Daddy, their Spouse, their God.

And they are consistently disappointed that utopia hasn’t been achieved. It can’t be their fault, since they’ve engaged in all the correct rituals — all those “In this house” yard signs! — and their conservative cousin still dares to contradict them at Thanksgiving.

They need an intervention, but where to start? Reason and facts don’t affect them.

Maybe the rest of us living well and not tolerating their Princess Privilege irrationality could be a start.

featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license