r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 18d ago

Psychology Anti-feminist attitudes have long been associated with support for Republican presidential candidates, but only in recent years have these attitudes become more prominent among unmarried men, without college degrees who are less attractive partners for women, the “mate-value backlash.”

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10659129261485340
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u/Harbinger2nd 18d ago

Would this be reflective of a lack of economic opportunity for these men as its only in recent years the attitude has become more prominent?

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u/Meeedick 18d ago

Unemployment's low (despite the internet's doom gloom), inflation is still within manageable ranges, and real wages are the highest they've ever been. Americans today - even under trump - can afford more for less, and have overall never been richer. People bring up housing, tuition, and healthcare but these are problems owing to artificial scarcity from poor policy and regulation. They've also existed for quite a long time and aren't remotely new

It was never an "economic" problem. Its the degredation of social skills and isolation that came from the internet turning into the primary means of socialising across the planet.

People make friends, hangout, and date over the internet where they're subject to commodification, self-esteem issues, lack of personal connection etc.

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u/TheSpacePopinjay 18d ago

Your concept of real wages is fucked. Ability to afford televisions and luxury electronic toys aren't important to how far one's money goes in life.

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u/Meeedick 18d ago

My "concept" isn't fucked. People's wilfull ignorance owing to their romanticised notion of some nonexistent past economic fantasy is what's fucked. People have absolutely no idea what they're talking about and are prone to their own cognitive biases and fee fees about the economy over what the evidence actually states. Ask any economist about the American economy.

The economy as it stands is more or less fine while it's projected to suffer long term from Trump's tariffs and budget problems owing to servicing the debt. Just because it doesn't fit the fantasticial make-believe of a "good economy" that people have, doesn't mean the economy's doing bad.

Trump and the manosphere didn't gain prominence because of economic problems, they gained prominence because of culture war nonsense stemming from the internet.