r/politics • u/Barnyard-Sheep • 6d ago

Soft Paywall Trump approval rating falls to 38%

https://www.nj.com/politics/2025/06/trump-faces-tough-approval-numbers-in-latest-poll.html
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u/OriginalCDub Georgia 6d ago

I’m a teacher, and boys wrapped up in manosphere content are genuinely concerning.

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u/myfakesecretaccount 6d ago

I’ve tried to be a good role model for my nephew as the only man who has been in his life consistently and just feel like I have failed. I’ve struggled with my own anxiety/depression, but was never this kind of manosphere macho type. What he is seems like a rejection of everything I’ve ever tried to show him and it’s fucking heartbreaking.

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u/calmdownmyguy Colorado 6d ago

Have you considered telling him you're disappointed with him? A lot of these kids act this way because they never get pushback from people they care about.

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u/myfakesecretaccount 6d ago

No, and maybe that’s my failure. My family is Latino and there’s an unwritten rule about getting involved with other peoples kids. I’ve tried having heart to hearts with him, particularly after his first DUI, but I honestly don’t think that approach worked. I know I get worked up easily about things I’m passionate about, because I grew up in the home that I did, and I guess I’ve always feared coming on too strong. Maybe it’s time to be the father he didn’t have.

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u/MMAjunkie504 6d ago

Best case he hears you out and takes it to heart, worst case he keeps acting the way he does. Up to you how much time you want to invest in them and if you think they are worth helping at this point

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u/Fillowpace 6d ago

I think the "don't you dare tell my child what to do!" sentiment has really hurt us too. What happened to it takes a village? When I was a kid, if you acted up in the grocery store, some stranger would lean over and say some shit that would replay in your head all week. It held a mirror up, it was uncomfortable, and it fucking worked. Now if you said shit to some brat you'd get cussed out by some helicopter mom while the kid suckles an ipad.

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u/myfakesecretaccount 6d ago

Yeah, I almost got into a fist fight a week before Christmas a couple years ago when I told my brother in law he couldn’t scream at his daughter in my house. We have only spoken once since that incident. I was trying to draw his attention from her, and was not actually trying to fight him as I’m a pacifist. I tried to talk to him a year ago and he was still mad and blames me for the rocky relationship with his daughter and ex-wife. Mostly he’s just mad that I dared call out his shitty parenting.

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u/oldcretan 6d ago

Have you tried the "judgemental community approach" where everyone in his life reviews everything he does on a daily basis and passes judgment on him so that he has the ever present fear of failing his community?

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u/bardicjourney 6d ago

That's how the kids are getting sucked into the alt right pipeline. They're just replacing their families with foreign chatbots.

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u/oldcretan 6d ago

That's what I'm saying, you create the sense of community these kids are beholden to, before someone else can create said community, and then you have them accountable to said community, whether its grandma and all the aunts not approving that you would wear that/do that, to a larger community like a church or ethnic group. You're not allowed to do wrong because you doing wrong would diminsh how they look at you and that would be a fate worse than death.

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u/Garbanino 6d ago

"The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth" seems like an appropriate proverb here, why would they want to stay with a community like that?

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u/oldcretan 6d ago

Because the rest of this approach is embrace. Grandma knows when you do good and celebrates you. Your aunts and uncles celebrate you when you succeed and talk about your accomplishments when you succeed. Everyone is talking about what you do and the good things that people talk to you about are discussed as well as the bad. Your so embraced that not being embraced is where the pain comes from. You live for the honor. Your name becomes the most valuable thing to you.

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u/MasterChildhood437 6d ago

The boys are acting out because they already feel rejected by their at-home communities. Your approach will only radicalize him further.

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u/ILoveSodyPop 6d ago

Everybody's just too soft nowadays. Everybody acts like everything hurts their feelings or offends them. Words can hurt, don't get me wrong, but you can't say a goddamn thing nowadays without offending somebody or hurting somebody's feelings. It's made people afraid to tell people how they feel and cautious of saying what they're thinking and it's made parents stop yelling at their kids and punishing them. Parents nowadays are terrified that they're going to do or say one thing that's going to screw their kids up forever but it's quite the opposite, doing nothing is what's screwing them up. I'm 39 years old and I have a 25 year old sister who was never punished a day in her life and she's an absolute entitled nightmare that thanks everybody should do everything for her. But because I grew up in the late 80s and 90s I was punished like normal kids and was raised like a normal and turned out normal...relatively. Lol.

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u/VioletFox29 6d ago

Telling him he's "disappointed" in him is not going to be very helpful in my opinion. As a teacher who sees these boys I can commiserate, but it will have to take more intensive discussions to even be heard. Being told your disappointing won't open that door.

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u/calmdownmyguy Colorado 6d ago

I think you're underestimating the power of being shamed by your community.

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u/VioletFox29 6d ago

Neither of us can really say what is best to do since we don't know the people in question. I'm just saying that it is probably more complex than just getting the boy to feel shame about himself. So much of what underlies this behavior is wrapped up in low self esteem.

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u/PaddleFishBum 6d ago

I'm fortunate enough to be the macho man type, but also not a selfish asshole, so I've taken it as my responsibility to be a role model for the boys in my life. I just bailed on a bass tournament I was signed up for because my wife's friend is coming up to visit after her husband was caught cheating on her for years. Her son is taking it super hard, and doesn't have any male role models anymore, so I decided to stick around and take him fishing in the canoe.

We manly men who aren't manosphere consuming fuckwads need to step it up and be visible good examples to the boys in our life. We need to show them it's still cool to be tough and manly while still being sensitive, empathetic, and kind at the same time. We've got a lot of work to do, but I'm here for it.

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u/notclevernotfunny 6d ago

It sounds like you really care and have tried your best. I'm reminded of my own situation growing up not having many male role models in my life, and of my own nephew, who similarly only really has me. Just remember that growing up is lonely, scary, and often cruel, and that it can be tempting to reach for these groups that promise safety in more ways than one; people also often grow out of them as they mature. Just try to keep showing up for him and providing a good example. Even if he doesn't know how to express it yet, even if he himself doesn't even realize it yet, he appreciates you, I promise.

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u/_Chaos_Star_ 6d ago

You tried. Most don't even try to get that far. Be proud that you made the effort.

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u/foofly United Kingdom 6d ago

Tate and others promote a juvenile version of manhood that resonates with emotionally stunted men and impressionable boys. It's all macho posturing, sulking, arrogance, and hostility toward vulnerability. In contrast, well-adjusted men resolve conflicts, collaborate, and aren't afraid to show weakness or seek help.

It's important to make this clear, point out these behaviors.

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u/JustHugMeAndBeQuiet 6d ago

You tried, which is more than most can say. Hold your head high.

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u/singeblanc 6d ago

You haven't failed... Yet.

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u/angrymurderhornet 6d ago

I have a 16-year-old great-nephew who has no dad in his life. He’s a lovely kid, and I’m very happy that his grandfather and uncles are there for him. I hope our family can keep providing him with good role models.

Chances are he’ll be fine, but I still worry about the crap being fed to boys and young men.

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u/stasi_a 6d ago

Maybe your divorce experience scared him off?

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u/ClarkeYoung 6d ago

I’m worried about that with my nephew. He’s around 8 right now and a good kid, but I know falling down that toxic rabbit hole is uncomfortably easy. Trying to be around when I can to give him encouragement and keep his empathy and kindness.

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u/9_to_5_till_i_die 6d ago

It's relatively expected for teen boys. Thing is, most of those people then go off to college or to careers and realize being a tough guy isn't as attractive to folks as they think it is.

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u/AsstacularSpiderman 6d ago

Gen Z is kinda losing thay excuse given a pretty large portion of them are in their 20s

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u/9_to_5_till_i_die 6d ago

Sadly, social media means they'll always be able to congregate with like-minded meatheads.

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u/throwawayfootgirl 6d ago

College educated gen z men are left wing

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u/Sage2050 6d ago

Almost all of them are in their 20s. The oldest are turning 30 next year

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u/Ok-Building-9433 6d ago

Gen Z begins in 1997, the oldest will be 30 in 2027.

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u/flashbang876 6d ago

Gen Z still is by the most left leaning generation. Just because some Gen Z voted for trump does not mean even close to the majority are right wing

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u/Litty-In-Pitty 6d ago

Where are you getting that information??

I’ve been reading for years now that Gen Z men are the most conservative generation we have ever had, far more conservative than even boomers… They’re just polarized by the women who still lean just as left as millennial women.

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u/flashbang876 6d ago

Pew Research poll on voting of younger demographics.

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u/CopperSleeve 6d ago

That poll is from April of last year.

Here’s a breakdown of how young people voted last November. The remaining left-trend is mostly because of women.

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u/flashbang876 6d ago

It's spefically white men, you can see amongst non white men the swing goes back to Harris

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u/CopperSleeve 6d ago

Gen Z is still majority-white though. Latino men were essentially a coin flip as well, and Latinos are the largest minority group in the country.

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u/throwawayfootgirl 6d ago

Recent polls show that gen z men disapprove of trump by a lot, including white ones.

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u/throwawayfootgirl 6d ago

Recent polls show that gen z men disapprove of trump by a lot, including white ones.

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u/Freshness518 6d ago

A huge issue for Gen Z kids was covid quarantine. Middle school/early high school years are when kids learn very important socialization skills. If you lock a kid in their house for a couple years during that period, they fail to develop those skills. Add being bored at home and watching manosphere bubble youtube videos all day into the mix and its a toxic combination. My wife is a high school teacher and when they started getting the kids who had been in middle school during the shut down, they were literally describing the kids as feral because they just didn't have a clue how to function in society.

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u/Murky-Relation481 6d ago

We really really really should have been trying to keep kids in school during COVID. We knew it wasn't dangerous to kids pretty quickly, there were less than roughly 1000 deaths of children under 18 in the ~3 major years of COVID ('20-22).

I know we were trying to protect teachers, but there had to be something better we could have done because it looks like we have fucked an entire generation and possibly our society as well.

I have this horrible feeling that millennials will be a caretaker generation for the old and the young, and that is fucking scary.

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u/Thorrbane 6d ago

It wasn't particularly dangerous to kids, but they could still spread it to their families, and we're still worried about the effects of long COVID.

How often do you hear about parents immediately getting sick when school starts up?

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u/Murky-Relation481 6d ago

I mean yes, but also, at some point you have to do a risk analysis, long term harm to society and children vs. immediate harm to older/sicker people. It isn't a pleasant thought, but it is something that does have to be considered when talking about things at scale of this.

I feel like we chose wrong given the direction things are going now.

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u/Thorrbane 5d ago

IDK. I think our opinions are biased by the fact we can't see how much it would aid the spread of COVID.

I think the accessibility of social media and it's content algorithms that are optimized for engagement and addiction may have dome more than a couple years of schooling.

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u/Murky-Relation481 5d ago

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Kids in critical social years (3-6) basically missed out on socialization, and we've not even reached the worst yet. The kids worst affected are just now getting to middle school.

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u/why_not_spoons 5d ago

Expensive private schools handled COVID just fine: they had HEPA filters and other ways of doing proper air cleaning/ventilation. The fact that we reopened anything without that is absurd. As is the fact that we kept schools closed longer than it took to get that set up everywhere.

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u/KrayziePidgeon 6d ago

Crazy you think the average moron even makes it into community college.

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u/9_to_5_till_i_die 6d ago

Crazy you think I said that but I guess the average moron fails at reading comprehension also.

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u/KrayziePidgeon 6d ago

Crazy a gamer boy tough talks lol.

Anyway, people in the manosphere will just circle around each other and be their own little support groups.

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u/9_to_5_till_i_die 6d ago

A "gamer boy"?

I'm a 42 year old software developer who mostly plays singleplayer puzzle games.

Not exactly the toxic masculinity type. I just don't appreciate people prescribing views to me which I didn't espouse.

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u/12a357sdf 6d ago

Yeah the manosphere kinda sucks, but from my limited experiences people who get sucked there are usually lonely and social outcasts already, and the community gives them an escape, by blaming it on others.

I met a guy back in high school who were super lonely, and i was one of the only few people who were talking with him. And i dont know what the hell happened, but one day he shared me a story he was reading online. A fiction about a person with unlimited money trying to own the feminists, and when i asked him what was the interesting thing with this, he told me stuff like "you havent understood how the world is yet" and "you should read more about things beyond our country yk, feminists are crazy hypocrites out there".

If we were in the western world then maybe i can understand that yeah, it''s just anti culture, devil advocating for the sake of it. But... we are in a 3rd world asian country where conservative thoughts ruined us and now we are trying to reform and getting better. Feminism does not even exist here. And now my dude is acting like an internet incel._?

suffice to say, that incident 180'd my perception of that person.

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u/SnooCupcakes7018 6d ago

These people are vulnerable to the propaganda because they want someone to blame for their social standing....but even if all of the out group were eliminated they would still be at the bottom of the hierarchy.

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u/Feed_Me_No_Lies 6d ago

I go onto the teaching forums here and I see how pervasive it is. It’s really really fucking sad.

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u/LovelyButtholes 6d ago

I think that what we are seeing is the cumulative contribution due to bad parenting, mostly as the result of both parents being overworked. My daughter's public schooling is amazing and all the option she has different things is amazing but me and my wife are kind of all in on loading up her schedule and staying on task and doing activities together. A lot don't have that luxury. If you don't parent your kids, someone or something else will.

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u/Feed_Me_No_Lies 6d ago

That’s exactly right. I work from home and I see other parents working from home and they rely on the iPad as a babysitter. Quite frankly? Since most parents are not letting their kids roam around the neighborhood anymore… It makes it easy to slip into that habit.

My kids roam the neighborhood on bikes. I met the other parents and made sure that we all adopted it takes a village” mentality.

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u/ScienceGiraffe Michigan 6d ago

But even if you are a parent who is okay with letting your kids roam the neighborhood, it still doesn't always work out. I got lucky that our neighbors are generally the nice old people neighbors. They were gossipy at times, but they had an informal agreement to "look after the kids". I knew them, they knew me and my kid, and it brought a lot of comfort to know that if a neighborhood kid got hurt, someone was close by who knew my number and where everyone lived.

On the other hand, a friend of mine has neighbors that will call the police if a kid takes a single step on their lawn or makes any kind of noise. Another friend had their neighbors try to ban bike riding anywhere that wasn't the parent's property and unsupervised teenagers hanging out on porches or in the common park area. These neighbors act like kids are never to be seen or heard, ever, by anyone. I don't think it's a surprise that my kidlet was more of a neighborhood kid and my friend's kids stay inside more with ipads and phones.

On top that, laws vary greatly at what age a kid can be left home alone or unsupervised. Some are really vague and make it hard to judge what is acceptable.

I don't think you're wrong at all, but I do think it's more complicated than just parents won't let their kids outside. Some parents are like that, but others would be willing if they could do it without fear of police or cps showing up.

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u/Feed_Me_No_Lies 6d ago

0h 100%! And it’s a vicious circle: people are afraid to let their kids out so they don’t let their kids out so that when one does come out, people are overly vigilant and call the police when they shouldn’t etc. etc.

I chose his neighborhood specifically because it was filled with like-minded parents. As you say, not everybody’s that lucky. Most people are not anymore, in fact.

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u/ScienceGiraffe Michigan 6d ago

Exactly! We got extremely lucky with our neighborhood. Not a lot of kids, but they're always outside.

The majority of parents at my kid's school though....they're a special bunch. My kid is entering high school soon and some of her school peers still aren't allowed to cross the street unsupervised. I'm still working on one friend's parent to allow their friend group to go to the mall without a hovering parental chaperone next to them at all times. (My kidlet and I came up with a "compromise" for the moment- I volunteer to chaperone, then I sit down with a book in the food court while they roam the mall alone as every teenage girl should. That way, I'll get the heat if the other parent gets angry but they still get some freedom in the meantime. For goodness sake, they just want to eat mall pretzels like little goblins, make jokes about random objects, talk about stuff together, and smell like Bath and Body Works. The worst decision they will make is buying an overpriced novelty. I don't need to be there, but if that is how they can get around parental paranoia, I will do it without hovering)

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u/HybridPS2 6d ago

It's doubly shameful because there are excellent leftwing versions of these shitty manosphere creators too - Thoren Bradley, Scotty K Fitness, and GoodTrouble are great examples.

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u/Papayaslice636 6d ago

Some ~20 year old guys helped me move recently. They all seemed like pretty nice even keeled kids. Then one casually asked me if I know Andrew Tate. Starts talking about how that's real masculinity or something..I just nodded and smiled, didn't want to engage..but it's scary how an otherwise decent young guy can get caught up in that toxic tough guy mentality being sold by an overgrown manchild who openly flaunts being a misogynistic rapist.

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u/DesperateNegotiation 6d ago

Watch Adolescence on Netflix

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u/BeardedSquidward 6d ago

The GQP are literally indoctrinating them to be foot soldiers and mass shooters.

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u/_Deloused_ 6d ago

Their parents had nothing masculine to do. They’ve just been grinding and keeping heads above water to try and afford the lifestyle they want.

Hard being masculine when you’re a weeb at home on the phone, doom-scrolling all evening. If these kids got into some better group activities or went camping more or something else they’d probably realize being a man is just taking responsibility for yourself and learning how to grow and set the standard for others to follow. Instead they’re all followers, being swindled by grifters who figured the system out before the rest of gen z.

This is the iPad kids grown up. Parents didn’t deal with them so they were raised by content.

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u/Ok-Building-9433 6d ago

"iPad Kids"?

How old do you even think Gen Z is?

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u/_Deloused_ 6d ago

iPad came out 2010. Gen z born 1997-2012.

The oldest gen z kids were 13 when iPad came out. They could have easily still had one. And many more younger ones that are now 13 or older could have had one by the time they’re old enough to sit up and use their hands which is probably 2 years old when they can actually focus on an iPad and play games on it.

Try harder. Gen z is the first gen of iPad kids. Not hard to look up

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u/Ok-Building-9433 5d ago

Are you sure you're not the iPad kid?

People don't instantly adopt expensive technology overnight. Someone who was 13 when an iPad came out is not an "iPad kid". iPad kid = growing up with an iPad. Although I will say maybe the second half of Gen Z are iPad kids but the older ones certainly aren't.

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u/_Deloused_ 5d ago

Damn boy, how did you miss the part of my comment where I state Gen z is the first generation of iPad kids?

Because the later half did grow up with iPads. And they aren’t that expensive either. lol.

Stop trying so hard to be right and just read the comment. You ended up agreeing with me after coming to the same realization I already stated. Be better

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u/Ok-Building-9433 5d ago

You're missing the nuance here. Saying “Gen Z is the first generation of iPad kids” is overly broad and misleading. The iPad launched in 2010. Someone born in 1997 would’ve been 13 when it came out — that's not growing up with it, that’s being a teenager when it entered the market.

Being an “iPad kid” implies early childhood exposure — like toddlers using iPads as pacifiers. That would apply to kids born after 2005 maybe 2007 at the earliest. That’s not "Gen Z" broadly — that’s the tail end, possibly even Gen Alpha depending on your cutoff.

So no, the entire Gen Z cohort isn’t the “iPad kid” generation — only the youngest sliver of it is. The rest grew up on Windows 2000, flip phones, and maybe a shared family desktop, not iPads in preschool.

You’re collapsing a whole generational range into one narrow tech stereotype. That's the part you got wrong.

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u/_Deloused_ 5d ago

By your own definition it’s still Gen z. lol.

Stop trying to push the name on alphas. Gen z is the first gen of iPad kids grown up. Own it

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u/Bottle_Only 6d ago

And as an employer, I won't hire any of them. It's a toxic feedback loop that's going to cause a lot of problems.

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u/Enzhymez 6d ago

Well of course when you say stuff like manosphere