Over the past couple of months I’ve noticed increasing commentary by the cultural elite and legacy media regarding the rejection of wokeness and leftist policy by the younger generations and specifically Gen Z – those born from 1997 onwards – so they’re 28 or younger. What the commentators are most concerned about is their drift to – shock horror – social conservatism, and the effect it’s having on politics and elections.
According to a report in The Hill two years ago, twelfth-grade boys (which is year 13 here so it’s 17-18 year olds (for us oldies – think 7th formers) – those boys are nearly twice as likely to identify as conservative versus liberal, according to a respected federal survey of American youth.
In annual surveys over the last three years, roughly one-quarter (between 26 and 23%) of high school seniors self-identified as conservative or “very conservative” on the Monitoring the Future survey, a scholarly endeavor that dates to the 1970s. Only 13 percent of boys identified as liberal or very liberal in those (last 3) years. The figures represent a striking shift in the political views of boys. As recently as the late 2000s, liberal boys occasionally outnumbered conservatives.
You can see that just in the middle of the graph where the blue is above the red briefly, and also briefly in 2009.
It seems that high school boys do not want to be considered liberal. Liberal-identifying boys have been an ever-falling trend, however, since the study’s first numbers in 1975 were at 25%.
However, girls are different
The share of 12th-grade girls who identified as liberal rose from 19 percent in 2012 to 30 percent in 2022. Only 12 percent of girls identified as conservative in last year’s survey, administered by the University of Michigan.
Young girls are a different story, though; liberalism in senior girls has skyrocketed to over 30% in recent years, whereas conservative-identifying girls have dropped to nearly a third in comparison at 12%.
Since 2016, however, the trend toward conservatism for high school boys has grown considerably. High school girls, on the other hand, have drastically moved to the Left in the past decade
Young women, too, are trending liberal. Women ages 18 to 29 are more likely to identify as liberal now than at any time in the past two decades, according to Gallup surveys last year. Young women are almost twice as likely as young men to claim the liberal tag, a widening gender gap in political beliefs.
The political leanings of young men have changed little over the past two decades. Last year, 31 percent said they were conservative, 24 percent as liberal, and 43 percent identified as moderate – so slightly more conservative than liberal, but mainly just sitting on the fence in the middle.
DailyWire says
As boys in high school shift to the Right, fewer young men are graduating from America’s universities, which many conservatives believe have become beacons of leftist ideology. In the 2018-2019 academic year, just 74 men received a bachelor’s degree for every 100 women who completed their program. As of 2023, 64% of women at public universities were graduating compared to 58% of men. In overall enrollment, women are outnumbering men by almost 60% to 40%
However, before you despair about what is happening to our younger women, check out this story from June. And remember this is all ages
The Gallup survey released Thursday showed 38 percent of respondents said they are conservative or very conservative on social issues, an increase from the 33 percent who said so last year. The percentage who now say they are liberal or very liberal on these issues dropped from 33 percent last year to 29 percent.
So social conservatives have increased from 30% to 38% in the past 2 years.
Social liberals have dropped from 34% to just 29% in the past 2 years
But here’s the interesting bit – and I shared this as part of my opening remarks at the recent Forum on the Family.
PEW Research found that young liberal women followed by young liberal men (on the right of the graph) were far more likely to have been diagnosed with a mental health issue than a young conservative female or male (shown on the left) and 18-29 and 30-49 are the left half of each line
Now commentators such as the Disinformation Project and other activists will immediately blame phobias, bigotry and right wing fundamentalism.
But the research amongst young people from the same Monitoring the Future study of students shows clearly that the harms started rising with a social liberal as President (Obama),
gay marriage being legalised and the White House being lit up in the new cultural religion. So that argument simply doesn’t stack up.
Here’s the more recent data from that same study through to 2021 – and this was reported in 2023. Self derogation is inner conflict and anxiety & depression. Most likely in liberal girls followed by liberal boys. Least like in those who identify as social conservatives.
Now this earlier research has recently been backed up.
According to Evie Magazine in February this year
According to the 2024 American Family Survey, young liberal women are significantly less likely to report life satisfaction compared to their conservative peers. The numbers don’t lie.
Findings reveal that 37% of conservative women and 28% of moderate women aged 18–40 reported being “completely satisfied” with their lives. However, for liberal women, that number shrinks to a measly 12%. Liberal women are almost three times more likely than conservative women to experience loneliness multiple times a week, about 29% compared to 11%.
Brad Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia and a fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, told Fox Digital, the Institute for Family Studies concludes that these two factors, marriage and church attendance, account for about half of the happiness gap between liberal and conservative women. “Liberal young women are less likely to be integrated into core American institutions—marriage and religion—that lend meaning, direction, and a sense of solidarity to women’s lives,” their report stated.
But here’s the latest articles where the mainstream media have been increasingly concerned about young people turning away from liberal leftist and woke policies and to social conservatism.
From Reuters and Newsweek – and also some recent surveys and elections in various countries.
Firstly from Reuters – How a Gen Z gender divide is reshaping democracy
In democracies worldwide, a political gender divide is intensifying among Gen Z voters, with young men voting for right-wing parties and young women leaning left, a break from pre-pandemic years when both tended to vote for progressives…
And then it looks at some recent elections in various countries
[In France], men aged 18-34 voted in larger numbers for Marine le Pen’s far-right party than women in last year’s legislative elections.
In the UK, where more young men than women vote conservative, males aged 16-24 are more likely to be neither employed, nor in education than female counterparts, official data shows.
In Germany’s general election in February, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a record 20.8% of the vote, tugged along by an undercurrent of support from young men — though the leader of the party is a woman.
Reuters then goes to their resident expert – an 18 year old girl from Berlin who analyses it perfectly for the media because she based her vote on climate change and economic inequality.
“A lot of young men are falling for right-wing propaganda because they’re upset, they have the feeling they’re losing power,”
Ah yes – but it’s not the females falling for left-wing propaganda. Of course not.
And then Trump where the media are still struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after the US elections last year…
Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign… also resonated with young white and Hispanic men, but turned off young women, fuelling the country’s big political gender gap. Roughly half of men aged 18-29 voted for Trump, while 61% of young women went for his opponent, Kamala Harris.
Interestingly the article concludes
In Australia, which went to the polls this month, the Gen Z war did not play out at the ballot box.
Then Newsweek – Gen Z Men Are Turning Against Porn
Gen Z men are turning against pornography, a recent study from the American Survey Center has found. The majority of Americans support making internet pornography less accessible, and the majority of young men are in support of this. The survey comes at a time of increasing conservative ideology among young people. Data from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation found that Gen Z teens are twice as likely to identify as conservative than their parents than millennials were some 20 years ago. This cohort is small–14 percent–but it suggests a generational shift.
The American Survey Center found that 69 percent of Americans supported making internet pornography less accessible. Less than one in three oppose these efforts. The increase in support is modest overall… Where there is a significant increase, however, is among young men. In 2013, young men were divided about restrictions on pornography—around half (51 percent) favored making it more difficult to access pornography online. In 2025, six in 10 young men say that they believe accessing porn online should be more difficult.
… The increase in support for porn regulations could be tied to both an increase in conservative ideology
… On TikTok and Instagram, videos promoting abstinence and waiting until marriage to have sex regularly rack up views by the million.
In fact, in an earlier article by Newsweek panicking about this increase in conservatism and that blasted Trump guy, they said
What is the Conservative Aesthetic?
The conservative aesthetic acts as something as an umbrella term to reference the milieu of micro trends that have exploded on social media in recent years. There was cottage core, there was the trad wife, there was the stay-at-home girlfriend. They go by different names but have one thing in common: a return to the revering of femininity, modesty and tradition.
Ooh – femininity, modesty and tradition. Absolutely shocking.
Where social media apps would once serve up pictures of girls in hot pink bathrooms captioned with quotes like Lena Dunham’s “All Adventurous Women Do,” and a “We Should All Be Feminists” t-shirt, today you’ll find the stay-at-home girlfriend trend, the clean girl and a loaf of sourdough bread accompanied with home-churned butter.
Those darned trad-wives. Where’s the Disinformation Project when you need it.
Then Newsweek was off to its own experts – similar to Reuters – but slightly more lunatic
Professor Jessica Ringrose, of UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, told Newsweek: “Anti-pornography trends have tended to be steeped in conservative values of shame and blame that merely push issues underground rather than help young people develop their digital sexual literacies in ethical ways.”
Yes – the myth of ‘ethical’ porn. The oxymoron.
Ringrose said that the answer to this from an educational perspective is “greater porn literacy,” as opposed to “conservative trends to ignore pornography in general as bad, which tend to shut down the sexual agency and autonomy of women and girls in particular.”
Newsweek then reminded everyone that a ban on pornography is a key agenda item in Project 2025.
Excellent. Now you know why the media hated Project 2025.
But then two commentaries from The Good Oil that I noticed.
The first was Gen Z Men Are More Conservative. And it started by quoting some data from a Newsweek article entitled Young People Are Now Overwhelmingly Republican – saying
Young Americans are supporting the Republican Party in greater numbers, a new poll has found, highlighting a large divide among people aged under 30. According to a new Yale Youth Poll… voters aged 18 to 21 lean Republican by 11.7 points when asked who they would support in the 2026 Congressional elections, while voters aged 22 to 29 favored Democrats by 6.4 points.
The Good Oil article continues
Political parties ought to take note. Young men voted 41 per cent Trump in 2020 and 56 per cent in 2024. The Gen Z’s voting power is worth watching.
So 41% jumped to 56% in just four years for young men.
But note the young women. That also jumped from 33% to 40%. Still a minority – but…….!
Gen Z’s impact depends on engagement with social media but they are alert and critical of misinformation. Distrust in government (32%, Pew 2024), media and corporations is high. This fuels independent thinking.
What about NZ?
Polls before the 2023 election, such as the Guardian Essential poll, do not provide specific data on Gen Z voting preferences or behaviours, but do offer insights. It shows a surprising shift among NZ young voters: 18–34 year olds, including Gen Z. Only 20 per cent support Labour, compared to nearly 40 per cent supporting the centre-right National Party. It suggests a move away from Labour’s dominance…
You can see why the cultural commentators and mainstream media are panicking eh
But The Good Oil followed it up with another article talking about the ‘Quiet Revival’ happening in the UK with Gen Zers going to church.
This will really make the cultural elites freak!
The UK Bible Society commissioned a survey that was conducted by YouGov. The stats are astonishing and come from an unexpected quarter. British Gen Zers are going to church. It showed that British Gen Z young men, in particular, are more conservative, similar to their USA contemporaries.
So this is comparing male v female in each age group. Male is red. Female in pink. Men are now likely to attend church than women in the UK, and especially amongst the younger generations
Note the rise in the age groups. Light colour is 2018. Dark blue is 2024. Note the increase again in the younger generations. The commentary says:
It is obvious the Gen Z age group is fed up with woke, ideological, clap trap. The swing away from liberal left-wing lies and nonsense, like the promotion of 72 different genders, is glaring and for all to see. Undoubtedly Gen Z men in particular have seen through the falsehoods, preferring the traditional and more conservative values promoted in these churches.
Okay – and the last article
Back to Newsweek – they are panicking! The article is entitled The Rise of the Young, Female Conservative Influencer
For years, American conservatism had a certain face. It was loud, brash and old, frequently red-faced, armed with a podcast mic and unequivocally male. In 2025, that face is changing. Under the second Trump administration, the cultural, political and social landscape of politics and the media is shifting, ushering a new dawn for a conservative figure whose poise and position are helping to market conservativism for a new generation. Welcome to the era of the young, conservative, female influencer.
…. These women may be from different walks of life and live in different parts of the country, their content may focus on specific issues like abortion or more generally about family. What they do share, though, is a conservative belief system that prioritizes traditional gender roles and a social media presence that is as carefully curated as a good manicure.
The article panics over such commentators as Isabel Brown who has just joined DailyWire, Riley Gaines, Allie Beth Stuckey and others.
In 2019, [Allie Beth Stuckey] testified before the U.S. House of Representatives during a hearing titled “Examining State Efforts to Undermine Access to Reproductive Care,” and discussed anti-abortion policies.
How dare she talk against abortion when the hearing is all about abortion. Where is Greta when you need her?
Speaking to Newsweek over email, Stuckey said: “Conservative women are, in general, happier and more fulfilled than our progressive counterparts, and our message to young women extends beyond politics.”
And then Newsweek were off to their usual suspect left wing woke experts.
Majid KhosraviNik, a reader in digital media and discourse studies at the U.K.’s University of Newcastle, told Newsweek that that there has been a shift in both digital media and society, leading to media platforms “promoting, normalizing and widening,” right-wing populist values.
“populist” – as in, popular because they’re winners?
Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen of the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture told Newsweek by email: “Social media allow for influencers of all stripes to share their content and build a following without the scrutiny of traditional media.”
Ha ha!!!
Social media has hit the public sphere like a hammer to an egg, and conservative and right-wing actors have risen to prominence through the fractures.
But not left wing actors – apparently. Are they still asleep – or wasted from smoking dope?
Eviane Leidig, author of The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization told Newsweek: “Social media algorithms and recommender systems play a significant role in amplifying young, politically engaged influencers, especially those with conservative and anti-feminist views. At the same time, conservative content creators are strategic in optimizing their content to gain visibility, such as clickbait titles, trending hashtags, and hot takes commentary about the culture wars.
“clickbait titles, trending hashtags, and culture wars.” No way!!!
This commentator did get one thing right though – and it’s a good way to end this McBlog. Referring to the UK Bible Society findings that I mentioned earlier, she said
young Gen Z women who have become enchanted by a traditional political value system. Wahl-Jorgensen said that traditionalist messages “appeal to Gen Z audiences, particularly young women, who feel disenchanted with the opportunities afforded by corporate life.” “Many young people feel lonely and isolated, so they’re searching for meaning and purpose in community, whether online or offline,” Leidig said, pointing to an increase in religiosity among young people... Young women feel pressured to ‘have it all’ in terms of achieving a successful career and family life, so the messaging of traditional gender roles in which women reject career demands in favour of a family is appealing,”
Couldn’t have summarised it better myself.
