– By Lisa Rutherford –

It’s clear that many young men are mad about their circumstances, and apparently, they are taking that anger out on Kamala Harris by voting for Donald Trump, hoping he will help them. Is there real justification for their anger and will Trump be their savior?

Their main concern seems focused on the economy and feeling they were better under President Trump. That may be true, but facts don’t completely bear that out. As to which president – Trump or Biden – has been the better economic steward, there is no simple answer. Both presidents had impressive numbers during their first three years in office – factoring out the covid pandemic in an effort to be fair. During his three years, Biden added jobs at a faster rate, and employment is now 10% above when he was sworn in, exceeding where the workforce stood before the pandemic. Manufacturing jobs, traditionally male jobs, grew by about 6.5% since Biden took office, while under Trump it grew 3.4%. Biden’s growth was the strongest of any recent president. Wages adjusted for inflation increased 7% under Trump’s four years in office, continuing an upward trend during Obama’s term, but Trump’s increase was partly due to low-wage workers being laid off during the pandemic skewing wages upward.

Inflation – an issue over which presidents have little if any control – has hampered Biden but did not hamper Trump, who enjoyed an ongoing low-inflation environment, and saw wages outpace inflation. Wage growth is expected to exceed price growth in a couple of months under Biden. Many Americans are better off than they were a year ago as wage gains outpace inflation.

Even with the inflation headwind, Biden added fifteen million jobs in less than four years, exceeding economists’ predictions and fueling blockbuster growth. Black unemployment fell during both administrations but reached an all time low under Biden last year.

Of course, inflation and interest rates have had a big effect on the housing market and consumer goods prices, but even with the complaining, Americans continue to spend on cars, travel and dining out.

The economy is not the only complaint young men have. They feel their masculinity is being challenged, that women are taking jobs that should be theirs, that feminism has left them behind, and that political correctness and wokeness have made dealing with society more challenging. Some people may feel these are manufactured problems, but they’re creating real challenges in the male community. Young men are statistically more depressed, feeling undervalued, and taking their own lives.

Richard Reeves, a liberal scholar and author of Of Boys and Men, observed troubling statistics that showed boys were not succeeding in school, men were failing in the labor market, and male suicides were up. 40,000 men a year die by suicide! He observes that women’s problems have been a focus for the political left, but they haven’t figured out how to talk to men.  Some politicians on the right, by contrast, have found ways to connect with disgruntled males. Donald Trump is an obvious example. However, Reeves, unlike the young men about whom he is concerned, believes that gender equality is not a zero-sum game where one side wins and the other loses. He believes the liberation of women is a crucial and ongoing project, but we must address the issues that men face.

The problems faced by men are not the result of the rise of women, but it has been “destabilizing” for male identity leaving many to wonder how they fit in now. Women have changed their “script” of being a housewife and mother to include economic independence and autonomy. But the male “script” of being the head of the household and breadwinner remains in the mind of many young men, but not all. Many have adjusted and find themselves happy with a woman who earns more than they do. Apparently, it has not challenged their masculinity. Perhaps that is what real masculinity is about – feeling comfortable with who you are and your masculinity no matter what your circumstances. We need to help young men understand that masculinity is more than how “buff” you are or how charismatic or brash you are. We certainly don’t need a leader who praises the size of male genitals as Trump did at a recent event for Arnold Palmer during which he said that Palmer was “all man” because of his genital size! That is not the definition of masculinity and manhood that these young men need from a presidential candidate.

Speaking of buff and charismatic, many, if not all of these young men, are fans of Joe Rogan – the world’s most popular podcaster with an audience that is 81% male, more than half 18- to 34-year-olds.

Rogan is one reason these men are voting for Trump. In the past, Rogan admired Obama – who is now vigorously supporting Kamala Harris – but Rogan is now advising his listeners that Trump is the “lesser of two evils” in this election. So, apparently, his respect for Obama only carries so much weight. Curiously, Rogan has called Trump a “polarizing figure”, an “existential threat to democracy” and refused to have him on his show, in spite of hosting other very controversial figures. So, apparently, his concerns about Trump only carry so much weight, also. However, he now plans to have Trump on his show, while an interview with Harris is not scheduled. One of his main concerns about Harris is his fear of more censorship – affecting his podcast’s bottom line.

Many of Rogan’s disgruntled young men feel that women are getting more attention and men are being ignored. And it doesn’t help when they are reminded that women’s needs were ignored for many centuries while men ruled. That just seems to make them madder! It’s not clear to me what Rogan provides that soothes their tortured souls and egos or at least gives them some rationale to justify their feelings and feel more “manly”?

I do, however, have concerns about Rogan and the information he’s dishing out to young men since many of the people he interviews express radical ideas. Rogan is a free speech proponent. I appreciate that, but with free speech comes some responsibility to give thought to what message you’re conveying to your impressionable audience, an audience that faces many challenges in their lives, as I’ve described. And I’ve witnessed him expressing some pretty poorly-considered opinions on his show.

Given the angst that these men are experiencing, and which Rogan should be aware of, it seems that he would be sensitive to the influence he has. Here’s an example. On one podcast he referenced a book review in the NY Times during an interview with Bret Weinstein, another podcaster. Without going into what the article actually said about the book, he just used the title to show how dismissive the NY Times – a liberal publication – was of the Constitution. I read the article. It was a review of a book not an article by the Times asserting that the Constitution is dangerous. The review simply points out how much controversy the Constitution has generated ever since its inception and before! This concerned me because what other misinformation are Rogan and those he interviews putting out to the disgruntled young men who follow him? Like his assertion that the moon landing never happened but later changed his position! Perhaps he should have researched that. And, if, Joe Rogan is such an advocate of free speech, as he firmly asserts, why wouldn’t he support the NY Times’ right to question the Constitution anyway?

In all fairness to Joe, I watched one of his videos in which he shared his advice on life and motivation. This is the best show of his that I watched because he provided information that I hope many young men heard and took to heart but fear many did not. However, I did notice that much of what he said seemed contradictory and may have just confused listeners. For instance, he talked about guys needing to get out of their comfort zones – get off the couch. Then he talked about society forcing the maleness out of men by forcing them to sit in offices eight hours a day to do work they don’t like. Seemed to me that many of those guys are definitely out of their comfort zones at that work which is exactly what he was telling them to do – get out of their comfort zone. How many of us have had jobs in which we were outside our comfort zones but did the work anyway – to earn a living and support our family? It does seem from what I heard in this video that Joe was not wanting these men to just sit around grumbling about their situation but do something. But the message was confusing.

In spite of Rogan’s podcast directed at men, male suicide rates have continued to increase. Rogan blames much of the angst white males are feeling on society’s “wokeness” and men’s inability to speak out against it. That may be true, but I see plenty of white males speaking and even acting out as they did on January 6^th 2021. I also see a majority of white men being interviewed on his show. Spotify, with whom Rogan has a $100 million contract, asked Rogan to remove about seventy episodes that included racialized remarks and jokes about sexual assault from their platform. He has exposed his huge audience of young men to right-wing extremist conspiracist Alex Jones before Spotify had it removed. He had Jordan Peterson on a four-hour interview during which Peterson, a psychologist, asserted that women have an “unconscious wish for brutal male domination.” This is the rubbish that these young men are being exposed to – certainly not “woke.” By playing host to this parade of people in the name of free speech it seems Rogan wants to “appear” balanced without actually being balanced when comes to the kind of free speech he’s offering.

I fear Joe Rogan and others in the manosphere are doing more harm to young men than helping, when what they need is real help. But these podcasters are making plenty of money in the meantime, and as is the case with Rogan, may be the next king maker, if Trump gets reelected.

Two decades ago, there was little difference between men and women aged 18-29 on a self-reported scale of 1-10 from very liberal to very conservative. The backlash against feminism may be especially strong among young men because they are the ones who feel most threatened by women’s progress. Better jobs for women need not mean worse ones for men. When groups of frustrated young men link up online, the conversation often descends into misogyny. And, once a man joins an angry online group, the pressure to remain in it is strong.

However, if young men are moving right politically, it could be because the democrats have not given fair attention to the problems they have. So perhaps Joe Rogan is not the whole problem but his show feeds into it rather than helping it from what I’ve witnessed. Some of these problems may be self-created. After all, men complain about college being too expensive, but women are still going to college even though it’s expensive. People such as Richard Reeves recommend helping young men by providing more vocational training to prepare them for occupations such as health care, education or administrative tasks. But since many young men also say they don’t go to college “just because they don’t want to” will providing vocational training even help? Many men seem satisfied with complaining about the situation and turning to people such as Joe Rogan.

The Economist asserts, the U.S. is the envy of the world economically. But that doesn’t apply to all citizens. I sympathize with the angst that young men have about the economy as it applies to their particular situations. Many of the skills and professions that have traditionally been for men are going obsolete, although, as noted earlier, Biden has created more manufacturing jobs – 800,000 – the strongest record of any recent president.

Joe Rogan pushes the idea that if the world is not giving you much in the way of positive feedback, you should create your own. Sounds good but given that he’s a very rich guy perhaps that’s a bit tough for a struggling young man to buy. However, Joe Rogan got where he is through hard work. He apparently truly wants to motivate men to better themselves but it seems his desire is getting tripped up due to the extremism of some of his guests and their messages.

I was raised by a father who I always considered very manly and who always wanted all his children to do well, males and females. He never wanted me or my sister to be relegated to being stay-at-home moms unless we wanted that. I was raised in the fifties when most women were relegated to the home. But behind that serene façade were rumblings because many women were not satisfied with that role. They wanted more. They wanted to be part of the larger world, too, as were men. They, too, wanted to develop skills that would allow them to realize their potential. And they did that! They did what needed to be done to achieve the goals they set for themselves. They changed the “gender script” for themselves and are not looking back.

It’s clear to me that we need more positive role models for young boys to help them grow into confident, successful, happy young men. The idea of having more young men become teachers, as Richard Reeves suggests, seems worthwhile to me to provide role models. After all, teaching was considered a man’s career until around the mid-19^th century when the public-school system was born and all social classes and genders were allowed. Then the profession’s gender composition shifted and women made up sixty-three percent of the country’s teachers. However, men made up most of the high-school teaching force until the late 1970s. When I was in school during the fifties and sixties there were plenty of “manly” teachers who provided great role models for male students including my sixth-grade teacher who was also New Mexico’s handball champion for many years. However, even back then men only made up about twenty-five percent of the teaching workforce.

It’s clear from polling that a majority of young men plan to vote for Trump. The economy seems their biggest concern, and they feel they were doing better under Donald Trump when inflation was lower and home prices, too. But have they given thought to whether increased inflation and home prices would have occurred even if Trump had won the 2020 election? Have they considered the number of jobs created under Biden that have perhaps benefited them? With ten percent of wealthy Americans controlling sixty percent of America’s wealth, do they think Trump will help average Joe’s? But, perhaps rather than due to the economy, inflation, and their personal circumstances this is all about masculinity and bias against women. Whether Trump will be the person to help them solve their problems remains to be seen. Frankly, I don’t think he will.