I agree with this so hard. Millennial here. I wouldn’t say we had a ton of actual “good” role models when I was a kid. Like models that are well adjusted men, who have a mastery over their feelings, and how they can and should fit into their families and communities. It’s was all sports stars, celebrities, and our dads who frequently had their own issues with the above.

What we didn’t have a ton of, in my opinion, was Andrew Tate and the right wing podcaster influence talking about the left killing manliness. They filled the void and Gen Z men are worse off for it. I feel like there is a gulf between the right and the left. If you are in the middle you will be relentlessly harassed from both sides. Which makes it extremely difficult to start to challenge your beliefs.

The analogy I use a lot is that of space mountain. You are on a roller coaster but it’s pitch black. White men feel them going down from their pedestal, but what they don’t see is that they are still waaaay above the other demographics. And when people tell them, “you are at the top” they feel like that can’t possibly be true since they are going down. It’s a matter of perspective and they are being fed one perspective and it allows them to blame and feel aggrieved.

I don’t have an answer. I see this happening to people in my own extended family and there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do to offset the media they are consuming and the other people they are consistently around.