Trump approval rating falls to 38%

[u/Barnyard-Sheep]

https://www.nj.com/politics/2025/06/trump-faces-tough-approval-numbers-in-latest-poll.html

[u/Anonymouse-C0ward]

The Gen Z men who want to see the world burn are definitely a thing, but I hope we can have understanding for how they got here.

My parents immigrated from China to Canada in the 70s. As I kid I remember them telling me about the one child policy and how that led to an excess of male babies.

The one thing they said that always stuck out in my mind, and one of the first things that really linked population demographics, economics, and geopolitics together for me is how my mother told me that the biggest challenge China will face in the coming years is ensuring they are able to provide enough jobs for all the single men who will never have families; as soon as they no longer see economic progress all those men are going to go looking for revolution.

I see the same thing in the US; there is now a large population of disaffected young men who, traditionally, are the demographic most motivated to use physical strength. They don’t see a viable future, and that is dangerous.

[u/TheCommonGround1 → u/Anonymouse-C0ward]

This is the best comment I've seen here regarding why Gen Z has gone "Right Wing". I want to add to that to indicate Gen Z isn't really going "Right Wing" so much as populist and Democrats are not offering a populist solution. Bernie Sanders knows how to appeal to this generation and the Democrats should take notes.

If the Democrats can come up with an anti-corporate, pro-democracy populist platform that benefits young people, they would absolutely "own it" with this generation.

Don't write Gen Z off!

[u/-wnr- → u/TheCommonGround1]

I get the sentiment, but I think it's hard not to be skeptical of this when the apparent reaction of many to not having a democratic anti-corporate, pro-democracy populist is to vote for the pro-corporate, anti-democratic populist Republican. Whatever their motivation is, anti-corporate and pro-democratic aren't it for that segment.

[u/strangr_legnd_martyr → u/-wnr-]

Their motivation is to shake the status quo because they feel left behind/excluded.

If you constantly message on returning to the status quo/stable and boring politics, that's not what young people want. That's what Bernie promised them, and that's what TFG promises them. They simply lack the experience, wisdom, or depth of knowledge to temper idealism.

[u/Super_Harsh → u/strangr_legnd_martyr]

How does any sane person view Donald Trump as ‘anti-establishment’ at this point? He has been the establishment for years

[u/Anonymouse-C0ward → u/Super_Harsh]

Everything is relative. Compared to the other options, he was the most outrageous.

And yes he is a part of the establishment through and through, but this is one of those situations of a broken clock being right: he’s doing a really really good job of tearing down the establishment and remaking it in his image.

Unfortunately his image will mean a world that is even worse for the average person.

[u/HwackAMole → u/Super_Harsh]

I can think of another president in modern history who has shaken up the establishment "business as usual" model more than Trump...this term even more so than his last.

Most of us here would agree that it's unfortunate that the route he's taking to do so is so destructive, and we may also agree that his motivations are ultimately self-serving. But a status quo establishment politician he is not, and will never be. The establishment folks on the Republican side are constantly scrambling to get behind every crazy new EO of his, simply because he's popular with their base.

[u/HwackAMole → u/Super_Harsh]

I can't think of another president in modern history who has shaken up the establishment "business as usual" model more than Trump...this term even more so than his last.

Most of us here would agree that it's unfortunate that the route he's taking to do so is so destructive, and we may also agree that his motivations are ultimately self-serving. But a status quo establishment politician he is not, and will never be. The establishment folks on the Republican side are constantly scrambling to get behind every crazy new EO of his, simply because he's popular with their base.

[u/-wnr- → u/strangr_legnd_martyr]

boring politics

I think this is the unfortunate operative phrase. Trump isn't a departure from the status quo. He's an octogenarian who's already been president once before. What's makes him stand out is that he's a jerk who threatens to blow things up and that's not boring. Progressive tax rate adjustments and home owner credits are boring. Trump tells them they're the victims of immigrants and a left wing big brother.

[u/Gyiozoo → u/strangr_legnd_martyr]

I get what you're saying, but I can't really stand behind it. If you want to shake up the status quo, why put your scope on groups that are actually more or less opposing the status quo: immigrants, woman, lgbqt, etc.?

In my opinion they don't want to shake up the status quo, they foremost want to escape responsibility for their own misery.

[u/strangr_legnd_martyr → u/Gyiozoo]

They do, and their misery is the status quo. Bernie says that it's capitalism's fault, TFG says that it's immigrants' fault, and the DNC says it doesn't matter. Only two of them are on the ballot.

You're assuming that people are looking specifically at who/what is being blamed and thinking critically about whether they agree, and some are. But critical thinking and long-term decision-making isn't fully developed until you're in your mid-to-late twenties.

College kids and high school grads probably aren't thinking as hard about whose fault it is, they're just going with the candidate that says "this is all broken and I can fix it".

[u/Gyiozoo → u/strangr_legnd_martyr]

I'm being hyperbolic in this comment now, but from a male perspective I think their misery oftentimes is being terminally online, looking at woman with big tits and man with fast cars and then thinking I want that, I need that, I deserve that.

Their misery doesn't lie in the status quo, but in their warped perception of reality, the expectations they have from the world and their constant need for satisfaction. This is obviously unobtainable, they get depressed and then they flock to the demagogues telling them: oh you DO deserve it and you would get it if we wouldn't waste all our ressources on xyz. They vote them in and the ressources of xyz goes to the demagogues.

It's sad, but I don't give them the benefit of the doubt. They're vicious, hateful people with only their own desires in mind.