Posted on 11/24/2025 10:16:14 AM PST by Heartlander
A friend who works with high school students recently said to me, “I overheard a group of boys talking about ‘international Jewry.’” He was in disbelief to hear these seemingly mild-mannered kids express views that, not 20 years ago, would have been considered taboo.
What is going on with Gen Z?
I’ve written elsewhere that Gen Z is experiencing a kind of church resurgence. That remains true. But at the same time, Gen Z is one of the most polarized generations in American history.
In 2024, Gen Z—led in part by young activists like Charlie Kirk and Scott Pressler—shifted toward Donald Trump. He won 46% of Gen Z voters—56% of young men and 40% of young women. This led many to expect that a younger, more populist generation would shift the country rightward. But now, in 2025, the self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won 78% of the youth vote in New York City—67% of young men and 84% of young women. Far from being locked into any one existing political party, young people are more divided than ever.
One cause of this is what I call “Nomadic Progressivism.” Kids born between, say, 1997 and 2012 have been thoroughly inundated with progressivism and identity politics from birth. They came of age amid several key developments that shaped their moral and social formation:
We could list hundreds of others, but these movements captured Gen Z’s moral imagination. Each sought, in the name of justice or progress, to undermine the inherited order, replacing the inherited structures of culture with moral and social uncertainty.
Gen Z grew up bullied by progressive ideology, and until the shocking election of Donald Trump in 2016, there was no visible reaction. Society appeared to be marching unopposed toward progressive utopia. But Trump’s election broke the spell. His first term was marked by protests, the rise of transgender ideology, and a wave of social revolt.
Then came COVID-19. As the Left preached “safety,” Gen Z was locked inside, immersed in a digital environment, and wracked by depression and anxiety. Created for engagement and real community, young people were instead sent to their rooms and told to stay there.
This, I believe, is the key: progressivism prepared the soil for radicalization. It removed the roots—churches, families, communities—that once grounded Gen Z’s moral life. It left young people searching for belonging in a barren landscape.
The philosopher and novelist Simone Weil wrote in The Need for Roots that “Human beings have roots by virtue of their real, active, and natural participation in the life of a community which preserves in living shape particular treasures of the past and particular expectations for the future.” When that participation is stripped away, people search for roots elsewhere.
For Gen Z women, that search often led to Instagram and other social media platforms. They heard celebrities and influencers denounce the status quo. They were told marriage was oppressive, men were vile, and independence was the highest good. But that “empowerment” was often just loneliness in disguise.
As for Gen Z men, constant ridicule and belittlement left them disoriented. Why invest in a society that despises you? Why build what the world condemns? In this vacuum arose the “Manosphere.” Figures like Andrew Tate offered refuge. They told men it was okay to be men—and as they were among the only ones saying so, they had free rein to define what it meant. If honor, discipline, and respectful courtship were only going to get you mocked and condemned, Manosphere influencers reasoned that you might as well double down on boorishness, lust, and aggression.
As distrust of the government and institutions grew, young men turned elsewhere for truth. In gnostic fashion, figures like Nick Fuentes promised to reveal “how things really are.” But as Chris Rufo has noted, it’s a ruse. Fuentes exploits the crisis of masculinity to peddle resentment and historical denialism. Progressive Gen Z women, seeking fulfillment in the depths of the online space, are little different from the young men seeking connection and meaning from those like Fuentes.
Gen Z is a generation longing for roots. They are trying to find them on the fringes of society, since their own roots were dug out years ago. Progressivism creates nomads. Social systems which seek to reorient reality by means of uprooting history and tradition will ultimately create a rootless and disaffected class in search of belonging. And they will find it in dark places.
The men and women of Gen Z are not uniquely radical. They are uniquely rootless. They have inherited a moral landscape stripped of shared meaning, through which they drift amid ideologies that promise belonging but deliver only bitterness. The progressive order unmoored them; now the reactionary order recruits them. And unless a deeper renewal of faith, family, and community takes root, this generation will continue to wander—searching for the very home that modernity taught them to forget.
“But now, in 2025, the self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won 78% of the youth vote in New York City—67% of young men and 84% of young women”
Surprise surprise this stupid article forgot to mention the fact that the majority of voters of Mamdani were not native new yorkers
Maybe those boys read about AIPAC trying to sink the election campaigns of sitting reps like massie and it pissed them off?
Does anyone think they actually know any history or anything particularly that would explain or justify their passion about “international Jewry”?
They do the same thing with other topics, from the Crusades, to slavery, and on and on, they are deeply passionate about their position of yea or nay (always nea), yet know nothing about the topic, or the history.
When one sneers at the Crusades with that passionate righteousness, ask them when they were, or anything about them, they know zero, they merely have a strong, almost violent opinion that someone implanted in them.
I can’t help but feel much of this stuff is over analyzed, spinning these big webs of theoretical problems. Create an economy where the median home price is 2x the median income (not household income). Much of the “problem” with the youth would simply not be a “problem” anymore.
Just look at the people pushing leftism and look at their wikipedia “early life”
Rufo: “Fuentes exploits the crisis of masculinity to peddle resentment and historical denialism.”
Who is in denial?
https://forbes.co.il/e/rankings/2025-jewish-billionaires/
Too much noticing going on here...
all you need to do to drive up wages is to kick out all the illegals.
What’s wrong with gen z? The dept. Of education.
Multiculturalism creates low trust societies . It’s why so many people lack “roots”. All immigration needs to end especially the current trend of importing the absolute bottom of the barrel people.
“What is going on with Gen Z?”
Gen Z aka Gen Zero ... not all but a lot.
I wish that Gen Z had a thriving music scene. Could be a new wave of disaffected punks and really shake things up.
Gen Z are not uniquely radical. They are uniquely rootless.
Shallow
Thoughtless
Puppets
Ignorant
Slackers
With the notable exception of Northeast Asians, the nonwhite population of New York City provided the victory for Mandami. The population of nonwhite groups is younger than that of whites, which explains his 78% win of the youth vote. With the exception of blacks (even there, you have a significant population of Caribbean and sub-Saharan African immigrants), few nonwhite voters come from families with long ties to this country. The demographics of New York City are not unique to that city. The same mechanics work in Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. The enemy knows this and clones of Mandami may knock out the residual slightly left of center Democratic politicians.
Thr more you foccus on this nonsense thrvmore you aid the left, the more you talk like a traitor.
“Multiculturalism creates low trust societies”
Correct.
Trust is easily destroyed—and finger wagging and name calling will not bring it back.
Pounding the table and demanding someone trust you does not work.
Yes. And focusing on Israel which jas nothing to do with it is dumb, and aids the left.
You know who was radicalized? Boomers. Those folks were cray-cray. “Don’t trust anyone over 30!!!”
“focusing on Israel which jas nothing to do with it is dumb, and aids the left.”
Tell it to these folks—I am sure they will welcome your input:
https://www.jewishleadershipconference.org/speakers/
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