Free Republic

My 11-year-old son joined the elementary school band, and so I went to the parents’ orientation night held at a local high-school. As the night went on it became obvious why young men rage against the larger social system and why they might find a character like Nick Fuentes attractive. The classrooms were inundated with DEI messages and trans pride flags. On the walls there were posters, stickers and decorations that all invoked the various totems of diversity. Black Lives Matter messaging, decolonization messaging, LGBTQ+ messaging and basically every sort of race and gender social justice messaging you can imagine...

The Radicalization of Gen ZA rootless generation looks for home in dark places.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...

Last week a radio host in Salt Lake City asked me a question I didn’t expect. We’d been talking about my “jobs Americans won’t do” article, which kind of kicked the anthill, and everything stayed within the usual lanes: illegal immigration, wages, hiring incentives, hollowed-out towns. Then, at the very end, he asked the only question that really matters:“So how do we fix it?”Not describe it or rant about it. Fix it.My answer, essentially, was, "It's complicated." There isn’t a bumper-sticker answer. And there certainly isn’t a partisan one. The problem goes much deeper than illegal immigration, though illegal immigration...

Anna Kepner, a teen who died aboard a Carnival Horizon cruise ship earlier this month, was found dead under a bed, wrapped in a blanket and covered by life vests, according to a security source briefed on the investigation. The 18-year-old cheerleader from Titusville, Florida, was reported dead while aboard the Carnival Horizon cruise ship on Nov. 8. The Miami-Dade medical examiner has not specified a cause or manner of her death. Among the avenues investigators are looking at is whether there might have been some sort of altercation with her stepbrother prior to her death, the source told ABC...

Way back in January 2020, Peter Thiel wrote an email to Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Marc Andreessen and others warning that Millennials turn toward socialism needed to be taken seriously. Here's that email which started going viral this week in the wake of Zohran Mamdani's win in NYC. Here is Peter Thiel’s email to Zuck and Andreessen in Jan-2020 predicting socialism.Tl;drtoo much student debt and lack of affordable housing keeps young people with negative capital for too long. And without a stake in the capitalist system, they will turn against it. pic.twitter.com/BOKgwJ2cV0— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) November 5, 2025His conclusion was...

I feel like Politico has just discovered something that conservatives have been openly worrying about for more than a year and especially in the past two months after the murder of Charlie Kirk.Most Americans expect political violence to keep growing in the United States and believe that it is likely a political candidate will be assassinated in the next few years.Widespread pessimism about political violence is a rare, grim point of consensus in a country riven by political and cultural divisions.A majority of Americans, 55 percent, expect political violence to increase, according to a new poll from POLITICO and Public...

Young people seem to have a favorable view of socialism. This comes as somewhat of a surprise to older generations, whose experiences with that doctrine have understandably led to less approving opinions of it. It seems that young people approve of socialism in defiance of indisputable facts. Relevant facts may be summarized in such observations as “socialism has failed every time it has been tried,” and “socialism has been responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths in the last century.” Despite readily available evidence in support of these assertions, young people seem unmoved by them. The reasons for this are...

In a clear sign that the radical gender ideology push is losing steam, new data reveals a shocking drop in the number of American college students identifying as transgender or non-binary, just two years after the trend peaked under the Biden-Harris administration’s influence. According to a report from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), analyzed by the Centre for Heterodox Social Science, the percentage of U.S. undergraduates claiming identities other than male or female has declined from 6.8 percent in 2023 to just 3.6 percent in 2025, representing a nearly 50 percent decrease. The report states: The scale...

The world is waking up. This is great news for young people, great news for parents -- and terrible news for the doctors who had begun to profit from this madness. From UnHerd: Data from my new Centre for Heterodox Social Science report, 'The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans', shows that since 2023 both trans and queer identification have dropped sharply within Generation Z. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which conducts a large annual survey of US undergraduates, polled over 60,000 students in 2025. My analysis of the raw data shows that in...

A surprising shift is taking place in the gender and sexual identities of young Americans. Data from my new Centre for Heterodox Social Science report, “The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans”, shows that since 2023 both trans and queer identification have dropped sharply within Generation Z.The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which conducts a large annual survey of US undergraduates, polled over 60,000 students in 2025. My analysis of the raw data shows that in that year, just 3.6% of respondents identified as a gender other than male or female. By comparison, the figure...

Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, there have been over 75,000 requests for new Turning Point USA chapters and many conservative commentators have written about his legacy and achievements, but what hasn’t been remarked about enough is, “What was the essence of his appeal to young voters?" asks Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” The answer? Charlie Kirk understood that young people, by their very nature, are rebellious. He wanted to take their natural skepticism and point it toward the establishment, which, today, is composed of the corporate media, higher ed, and baby boomers...

Much of America’s youth is in free fall, with the only question being why. On every metric, our kids lag behind the world, are abysmally unhappy and unprepared for a life that’s less kind and forgiving than it was fifty years ago. It didn’t happen by accident, and the divided nature of our country means we are unprepared to make necessary changes. Our society tolerates confrontation and excuses, always finding superficial reasons why Johnny can’t read, and why everyone’s so angry. It’s certainly not about money; we spend more per pupil than anyone else. SNIP During COVID, roughly 31% of...

Jennings was perhaps the most outrageous government appointee in memory. He is a long-time homosexual activist who began his career in Massachusetts, and founded GLSEN, the national homosexual group that targets children in schools. Jennings' depraved record of pushing homosexuality and transgenderism to kids goes back decades. Jennings' Dept. of Education office received $410 million in FY 2011. Among other efforts, last year, Jennings helped introduce Bill 4530 in Congress that would require normalization of homosexuality, transgenderism, cross-dressing, etc., in America's public schools. He also set up an "anti-bullying" conference at the White House in March, part of the larger...

( Video clips at link) Nothing they have done to disrupt President Trump and his MAGA agenda has worked. Even the hundred-plus judges rulings are starting to fall by the wayside. The autopen story has crept back into the news A pro-energy group is renewing its call for an investigation into over half a dozen Biden administration executive actions related to climate that it believes should be deemed null and void due to them being signed by an autopen without any public comment from former President Joe Biden confirming his knowledge of them. Power the Future, a nonprofit organization that...

The biggest cohort involved in gang activity in the United States is youths 13 to 16 years old, the FBI revealed as part of the agency’s Gang Activity, 2021–2024 special report published on Sept. 8.The Federal Bureau of Investigation building in Washington on Aug. 7, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch TimesThere were 79,507 offenders engaged in gang activities during the four years, and of these, 19,163 were aged 13 to 16—the highest among all age groups.This was followed by 17- to 19-year-olds with 13,563 offenders, and those 20 to 24 with 11,452 offenders.“Over one-third (33.8 percent) of offenders were juveniles under...

Have you heard about the seismic shift in one of the key demographic groups that will shape American culture, politics and economics for decades to come? No, I'm not talking about the wholly unexpected shift of younger voters away to President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.It is true that 58 percent of Gen Z men (that is, voters age 18 to 27), reported voting for Donald Trump in 2024. No GOP presidential candidate since the election of George H.W. Bush 36 years ago has received a majority of young male voters.That's a big deal, yes. But it's not...

For what seems like forever, conservatives have been calling out the train wreck that is the American educational system. Instead of teaching things that will help students become responsible, productive citizens, the agenda is all woke, and Donald Trump sucks. It is a good guess that we have at least two generations of budding young leftists who have been taught literally nothing about America, its friends, and enemies, and most importantly, the true difference between capitalism and communism, and what both systems of government really offer their citizens. Recently, that indoctrination was on full display. This is one kid. There...

Making original films for young men isn’t that hard, but you have to quit pushing gay race communism and appeal to masculine virtue.Executives at Walt Disney Studios are reportedly pressing Hollywood creatives for movie ideas that will bring young men back to the theaters. According to Variety, Disney is hoping to get Gen Z men, which it defines as ages 13 to 28, interested in original films.“The sources say Disney has been seeking new IP and pitches such as splashy global adventures and treasure hunts, as well as seasonal fare like films for the Halloween corridor,” Variety reports. “The calls...

How the Latin Mass is Bringing Gen Z to Christod is doing something incredible with Gen Z, and secular media is noticing.The same outlets that once confidently proclaimed, “Religion is dying! Young people are leaving churches in droves! Christians to be a minority by 2050!” now seem to be changing their tune.Lately, the headlines from mainstream media read more like, “Catholicism sees major resurgence among Gen Z” (Fox News) and “Young people are converting to Catholicism en masse” (New York Post). CNN recently published a podcast titled “Catholicism Is So Hot Right Now. Why?” To most people, headlines like these...

In 2025, Germany faces a demographic and economic paradox: more and more citizens—especially young, qualified ones—are leaving the country, while the government and much of the economic establishment insist on the need to attract up to 400,000 net immigrants per year to sustain the labor market. The trend is not new, but it is alarming. Between January and April alone, 93,000 Germans left their country for destinations abroad. If the pace continues, the year could end with a historic record for emigration, surpassing the 296,986 cases of 2024. And contrary to the stereotype of the retiree heading for warmer climates,...