Connor Beaton (YouTube video, Jan 25, 2025) argues that young men are shifting away from the political left toward conservatism. He cites a recent pattern — a roughly 20% gap between Gen Z men and women (ages 18–29) in voting preferences — and states this is visible across multiple countries (United States, UK, Germany, South Korea, China). Beaton offers several explanations: progressive narratives that portray masculinity as inherently toxic, college institutions skewing female in attendance and creating hostile climates for conservative voices, and dating/economic trends (he claims about 60% of young men are single vs ~30–33% of young women, who often date older, more financially secure men). He warns these trends could produce polarized, single, and angry political blocs and calls for efforts to find common ground across partisan divides.
Questions this video answers
January 25, 2025
About a 20% gap (men more conservative, women more Democratic) among ages 18–29.
United States, United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, and China.
Speaker claims ~60% of young men are single and ~30–33% of young women are single.
Chapters
Foreign.
Why is it that young men seem to be abandoning the political left in a big, big way? This massive gap between men and women has started to emerge politically. And so much so that some recent data which will, if you're watching on YouTube, we'll put up on the screen here for you. So much so that there has become a 20% spread or gap between Gen Z men and women in terms of how they vote. So that's men and women between the ages of 18 to 29. So there's a 20% gap in men voting more and more conservative and women voting more and more democratic. And if you can't see this chart, what you'll know or what I'll tell you now is that this is not just happening in the United States. This is happening in the uk this is happening in Germany. This is happening in South Korea. This is happening in countries like China. This is a global phenomenon that has started to emerge over the last several years and has become more and more pronounced. Now. There are a number of things that we can get into that are playing into this. College institutions being largely attended by women, I think is a big part of it, which I'll get into. The fact that more and more young men are single while young women are not. They are dating, right? Like 60%, 60 to 60% of young men are single, while only 30 to 33% of young women are single because they are dating more financially secure older men, men that have a little bit more life experience, men that are maybe a little bit more emotionally stable or psychologically stable, and they're not actually dating men in their age to. To find those men or to incentivize those men who would normally want to work hard to have a relationship with women their age. And this leads to all kinds of issues. But I'm actually gonna front load my thoughts on this instead of laying out the data. My thoughts on this are as follows. I think one of the biggest problems that is contributing to this are actually the narratives and the stories that that each political party are telling men. So if you look at the progressives, if you look at the liberals, there is this large and very strong story that men are toxic. And there's some progressives, there are some liberals that go so far as to say that boys, that young men, that young boys are born with toxic behaviors baked into them, that masculinity has these. These inherent toxic things that you have to look for and flush out and kill off within you. And for me, this is wildly unhealthy and it's unhealthy because it's akin to the Christian notion of original sin that you are born with this fundamental flaw in you, that you are born and because you exist, you are innately sinful. And so if you are a man in the Western world today, if you are born a boy and a man, you are inherently sinful. There is something inherently sinful within you that you have to go and be a detective for and root out and systematically try and kill off within society and within yourself. And for a lot of guys, this pushes them away from the political left because the, the sort of progressive movement, wherever it is most dominant, makes it very clear that men aren't really wanted there. Most guys are going to take the conservative values. Most guys are going to take that more conservative orientation because it's not saying, hey, because you're a man, there's something wrong with you. There's actually a celebration of, of masculinity, of being a man. There's a celebration of what men bring to the table. And by the way, this is not me advoc for the conservative party. I just want to make that super freaking clear. This is not me saying that I've even ever voted conservative. I am simply saying that as a young man in today's world, I get why so many are, you know, flipping the bird to the progressive end of the spectrum and moving more towards the conservative end. Because at the very least they're not being shamed and diminished for who they are. Fundamentally, it is not uncommon and is not uncommon for us to see headlines and you know, media outlets talking about how conservative voices are shut down and yelled down and yelled out of college spaces which are meant to be apolitical, right? They are meant to be non political places where you as a young person, a young individual, go to learn more social skills, right? You have some level of social polishing that is supposed to happen in a college institution. But you're also supposed to learn critical thinking, which means that you are supposed to learn the trait and the skill set of learning to be in relationship with people that you disagree with. And you're supposed to learn the ability to critically think about problems and issues regardless of whether you agree with the other person on the other side. It is not meant to be a censorship space and an echo chamber where you just go and hear your opinion repeated and getting a pat on the back for saying what you believe in. And where this leads, one possible outcome is that we see two political parties full of single and angry people. One will have single angry men one will have single angry women and both of them need one another. And so we have to start to come across the political divide. We have to start to find coherence and understanding regardless of, you know, whether or not you went and got a four year college degree, whether or not, you know, you want to work a 9 to 5 or you want to build your own business, whether you vote progressive or conservative. We have to find some commonalities across the border of our political affiliations. And if we're not able to do that, I mean for some people they are literally going to sacrifice relationships for this. They are literally going to choose loneliness and isolation over the opportunity to find somebody that they can love and do life with and maybe build a family etc etc etc. Curious to hear your thoughts. Comment below Comment Share this with somebody that you know has a perspective or opinion on it. And until next week this is Connor Beaton signing off.
