I’m tired of seeing teachers, school administrators and society in general treat boys with disdain and even as symbols of toxicity.
Donald Trump appears on Joe Rogan’s podcast
With the election days away, Donald Trump was in Texas for a sit-down interview on the podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” with Joe Rogan.
A teacher called me a few years ago about my youngest son, who was still in elementary school. She wanted to tell me about an incident in her class. I braced for a bad report. But then she said my son had raised his hand, said something funny and made the class laugh. She scolded him, to no avail.
“Is that it?” I said, a bit flummoxed. I encouraged her to maintain order in the classroom as necessary, but also suggested she appreciate his humor and energy, especially as a coping skill.
Before this incident, the teacher had insinuated that she thought my son had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and needed medication because he was so active and spirited. I declined.
As a mom of two boys, including one who is now 18, I’m tired of seeing teachers, school administrators and society in general treat boys with disdain and even as symbols of toxicity. I’ve observed all kinds of people struggle with the energy, busyness and spirit of my boys.
The war on boys − and men − has gone on for years. And it has discouraged and exhausted them. Now, many young men are moving to the right, politically and culturally. That’s because, at least in part, conservatives accept young men for who they are.
Young men are becoming more conservative
I thought of my son’s school incident again when I saw a clip recently resurface on social media from Chris Williamson’s popular “Modern Wisdom” podcast, Williamson asked guest Eric Weinstein, an investor and financial executive, if he had seen the data on teenage boys becoming more politically conservative.
Weinstein’s reply resonated closely with my own experiences as a mom. “I had a teenage boy. I still have one,” Weinstein said. “He’s 18 now. And I watched them be pushed farther and farther right by their schools.”
Weinstein then described the progressive narrative that’s targeted loudly and clearly at young men and boys: “‘You suck. All of your instincts are bad. These girls are amazing. Look at you. You’re pathetic. Be less masculine.'”
Weinstein continued: “You’re just barking at them constantly. They’re not moving right. They’re moving out of your stupid way. You’ve given them, what? Nothing.”
Weinstein is right that men have shifted rightward politically. In the 2024 election, 56% of men ages 18 to 29 voted for Donald Trump for president. In 2020, Joe Biden won 56% of the votes cast by young men.
As a mom and a columnist, I agree with Weinstein that men have become more conservative because of a progressive culture that often presents itself as anti-traditional male.
Men, and working-class men especially, are often portrayed as stupid, selfish, violent, abusive and bigoted in entertainment, on social media and even in mainstream news media. The message sent and received by millions of hardworking husbands and fathers − and their sons − is that there’s something inherently wrong with them because they are males.
Trump speaks to young men with respect
In the 2024 election, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris did little to appeal to male voters. She surrounded herself with female icons like Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey, ran on a platform of women’s “reproductive rights” and chatted on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, a platform by a woman for women.
But she turned down an invitation to appear on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast, which has an enormous audience of young men.
In contrast, Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance spent hours talking to Rogan in the final days of the hectic campaign season.
Progressives’ record of either ignoring young men, stereotyping them as a toxic threat or turning them into weak and infantile caricatures isn’t new. In 2013, a progressive outfit called Organizing for America gave us Pajama Boy, a onesie-wearing young man who regaled his family at the holidays on the wonders of Obamacare.
As writer Rich Lowry noted, “Never has the difference between what Chris Matthews memorably dubbed the Mommy party and the Daddy party been so stark. Pajama Boy’s mom probably still tucks him in at night, and when she isn’t there for him, Obamacare will be.”
Millions of men saw the left’s portrayal of the ideal male and said, “That’s not me. And I don’t want that to be me.”
The right has its flaws. Trump is no paradigm of male virtue. He has repeatedly mistreated women in his personal life. He also has nominated and hired sharp, talented women like White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
But in Trump, men see the leader of a political and cultural movement that doesn’t hate them for being male.
I’m sick of how progressives view my boys. Millions of men who voted for Trump apparently feel the same way.
Nicole Russell is a columnist at USA TODAY and a mother of four who lives in Texas. Contact her at nrussell@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @russell_nm. Sign up for her weekly newsletter, The Right Track, here.
