Some Gen Zers probably lied about it who they were voting for.
Summary
Despite his conservative platform, Donald Trump made unexpected gains among Gen Z voters. Exit polls showed a shift, with young men favoring Trump by 2 points, a reversal from Biden’s previous lead.
Gen Z’s support for Trump may have been underestimated, as an Axios poll found nearly half of Gen Z voters lied about their vote, with young men more likely to support Trump quietly.
Trump connected with young men through appearances on popular podcasts and endorsements from social media influencers.
Disillusionment with the economy and frustration with the Democratic Party’s approach to working-class issues also drove some Gen Z voters to seek change, with Trump capitalizing on these sentiments.
Well, a lot of people - mostly people in a certain age range - kept saying how magical the younguns are, how media savvy and how morally upright they were, and how they were going to get things right where the stupid boomers, Gen X and Gen Y got it all wrong...
And while I'd like to believe that, I've seen little evidence of better instruction anywhere K-12 or in higher education about logical fallacies and teaching about a good media diet. Being able to install an app on your phone doesn't make anyone media savvy; these things are designed so nearly any idiot can use it.
Why anyone ever thought that "the kids" were going to be able to have a better filter than older generations is like assuming kids plopped in front of Saturday morning TV that was meant to PREY on them were more "media savvy" about that environment....sigh.
If anything the easy access to information and apps are a lower barrier of entry than in the past meaning you can be dumber and still participate.
I don't want to shit on an entire generation but I am also not so impressed.
This is a historic thing though where people don't think highly of younger generations. One needs to be aware of this bias.
I'm a highschool teacher. This generation of students isn't even more tech savvy, let alone media savvy. Your exactly correct about the design of modern technology; this generation grew up with tablets and iPhones, they have no idea how to do some incredibly basic tasks unless an app does it for them, and they no understanding of really core - and in my mind simple - computer use concepts like what a folder is, or how find a file on a device and attach it to an email.
We've begun teaching media literacy in the highschools, but it's unfortunately falling into the pitfalls or most education. We pull specialized articles from sources that students would literally never engage with, discuss how to read such articles and how they can be misleading, and never make the connection to the kind of content that students actually absorb. Students are day-in, day-out learning from influencers and social media, and we're handing them articles from 2010 reprinted into textbooks and news posts they'd never have the patience to read, while continually reinforcing that cell phones are toys that are meant to stay out of the classroom and used in private or with small groups of friends.
He endorses whoever likes him the most. He's a moron. And so are his remaining fans.
Someone on Lemmy yesterday insisted that he was actually smart. When I asked for evidence, they mocked me for asking for evidence. That's the level of intellect we're talking about here.
Yeah, I went through a Rogan phase years ago back when he endorsed Bernie. He definitely was a little controversial even back then. I stopped listing as he got more controversial. I tuned back in briefly for the Trump and Rogan interview just out of curiosity. I was shocked to see how far Rogan has fallen.
For context, I’m a Gen Z man. I’m really disappointed the way my fellow Gen Z men are going.
I’ve gone on my own political journey being raised pretty conservative and becoming liberal as I met more diverse people. So honestly maybe Rogan should have always been a red flag, but I did look up to him for a while. I really wanted him to be a progressive voice, but it’s blatantly obvious now he is just as bad as the rest.
AFAIK he always claimed to be a centrist until a few days ago. I don't think he exactly endorsed Bernie, but he's said very nice things about him and his policies.
I genuinely think Rogan is diluted to think those things rather than think big picture and make nefarious recommendations. On the other hand though he does hock neutropic supplements, so it’s just confusing to put a label on him. He’s legit uneducated and just parrots smart statements sometimes.
I’ve been listening to Rogan since 2017ish and he has totally shifted rightward. I used to listen to every episode because it was usually either funny or informative. Now it’s preachy and just captured by right wing talking points that border on conspiracy theories. My takeaway is that he listens to his comedian friends instead of his more educated guests, which is a microcosm of America. His show is only as good as the guest and subject matter… Neil DeGrasse Tyson? Fantastic. Trump? Problematic. It just comes across that since he is now in the running to be a billionaire with good investing strategy, he is now switching his interests and views to match. If you recognize a guest, definitely listen, but skip over everything else.
My little sister actually dodged a date with one of these chucklefucks only a few days ago. I think they were supposed to meet on Friday for the first time, but she asked if they could meet this coming week because she was slightly freaking out about the implications of the election results… dude straight up admitted he was excited, and that he was a MAGA/MAHA (I had to look that up - apparently it’s “make America healthy again” (????????????)). Instablocked that fucker lmao.
I wonder how many start trying to hide their magabrain, their magagear, their media diet, etc...for the early part of dating.
If my experience is any indication, they won't be able to keep their yap shut about it for long, and....welcome to getting ghosted, swiped left on, and just generally having a very, very long dry streak. :)
In other words: brainless morons let Rogan take a dump in their skull. It's like the people that used to let Rush take a giant shit in their heads on the daily.
Remember how everyone was telling us how magical the next "generation" is? Yeah, I wasn't really buying it, either. I fucking hate that Maher is right about this kind of thing, though.
Maher is an insufferable cunt who just hates all young people. Broken clock and all that... I couldn't take listening to him even like 4+ years ago, I can't imagine how much more annoying he's gotten as he gets older.
Less public / archived spaces as well. Videogame lobbies were rampant with Trump / MAGA messaging in 2019. Not sure what its like now as I quit all online gaming. Anyone 14-17 during that period who are now of voting age has likely gotten a massive dose of right wing propaganda.
That was Steve Bannons plan way back from 2015-16. He was the one to really push for indoctrinating the gamers and making gamer culture and maga anti-woke one in the same...
Now you can't even go into a single steam discussions forum for a new popular game without seeing multiple "go woke go broke" and "is this game woke?" posts... Makes me sick...
I think people also underestimate the amount of twitch streamers that are leaning right wing. Asmogold I think it the most popular one, but there are many others as well
There is a sizable group of young men who not only feel like the Democrats (and people on the left, in general) have not only ignored the issues they face, but view them as being inherently bad in some way. The alt-right spaces have been very successful at translating discussions of privilege into a message that everyone but the GOP believes young men, especially young, white men, are doing just fine and are greedy for demanding any sort of help or attention, as well as inherently being oppressors of the marginalized groups that have featured so prominently in contemporary discourse, with no way of redeeming themselves short of complete and total submission to these groups. Basically, painting white guilt on steroids as the only acceptable option for these young men to the Democrats, but with the caveat that nothing they do will ever absolve them of the crime of being born with a penis.
This is obviously nonsense, but it's quite attractive to these people to hear someone say that they acknowledge their problems, those problems are real, and what's more, those problems are not their fault. The absence of acknowledgement or inclusion of these problems in the Democratic talking points lends it some credibility, and there's a robust media apparatus in place, with folks like Joe Rogan or Jordan Peterson, that allow them to form some sense of community and identity, while also moving them further on the way to being full-blown MAGA supporters.
It's the same sort of strategic failure that the Dems encountered with working class people more broadly; they dismissed their concerns, told them everything was actually fine, when many acutely feel the struggle of existence, and didn't offer a platform that got them excited and feeling like their economic concerns were being addressed. Then add in policy proposals that specifically target groups like black men, and many of them begin to view the entire field of politics as a zero-sum game, which one side is looking to rig against them.
Of course, this is a misguided take, at best, but it's amplified by podcast bros and alt-right youtubers, and the way the DNC strategists takes the votes of these groups for granted lends further credence to the notion, in their eyes. The DNC desperately needs to come up with some countermeasures for the alt-right media bubble and stop assuming they can count on any votes as safe, especially if they don't have heavy messaging targeting the demographics in question.
Multiple reasons, but it starts with terrible education. They don't know how to verify information at best, and at worst don't want to, they believe they win when they piss off someone they don't like. This means the information they get on current topics is generally something pushed by someone either paying an algorithm to target them or by things like AstroTurfing.
There's a lot of value for the hegemony class in getting people to not care about the climate, endless war, genocide, and human rights in general.
And then you have the out of touch authoritarian liberals/neoliberals that control the liberal side of the mainstream media.
The way I see it is, the youth were super excited about changing the shitty situation that faced them, and the prospect of having Berny Sanders as president, who also wants to change that situation, and they had that ripped away from them, so they were radicalised, they spend 4 years with a senile old man, who did nothings to change the staus quo, and so they voted naively for the candidate who proposed change.
If only it was just Lemmy...I was being told by so many self-styled authorities that this generation had some kind of magical properties that no one that came before them has had, and just by virtue of "getting it" when it came to consuming things like social media (or something).
This is dumb. It's always been dumb. The target demo is the target; they aren't savvier than anyone else is that is a target. So when boomers were saying stupid shit about how Gen X "just gets it" when it comes to something like MTV, or the early days of the (privatized) 'net, that was just as stupid. MTV was a product and Gen X was the target demo, emphasis on target. The elitists quickly figured out a way to monetize the (privatized) 'net with some of the first target demo being boomers and Gen X.
It's no different today. Without serious education in critical thinking, this stuff is only weaponized against the target demo, they don't know shit about the new product any more than anyone else does.
"Disillusionment with the economy and frustration with the Democratic Party’s approach to working-class issues also drove some Gen Z voters to seek change"
Democrats: WE NEED MORE CHENEY! Drill baby drill! Look at me I'm a conservative! That's what they want right? Right?
If, and thats a big if, we ever have elections again. Democrats need to stop trying to build bridges. The reds will never reach back across the aisl3. Ever.
But they have everything now and a corrupt supreme court to rubber stamp any constitution-breaking bullshit they're going to pull. N 2026, they'll martyr the orange buffoon to let their controllable puppet Vance become president. He'll use this "tradgedy" to declare martial law and cancel elections. They won't willingly give up power agajn.