"I strongly believe that people's explanations for their lives don't just emerge out of a vacuum. It's not like a coincidence that a bunch of young men began thinking that women were responsible for their problems. That's been, like, a deliberate message of a set of basically ideological entrepreneurs who are on podcasts, on the internet, on social media, who are acting as influencers, who are selling something to people."
"And when I say selling, I mean, quite literally buy my supplements, buy my classes, buy my books. And it's like Tom Cruise in Magnolia. I'm going to teach you how to be a man quite literally and taking advantage of maybe real anxieties people feel. Anxieties, I'll say, I really want to emphasize this, are just a natural part of growing up. You enter into the world and yeah, you have to figure out your way."
"It's like it's hard and it's always been hard. Even in the mythical golden age of being a man in the United States, which didn't exist, it was hard. It's hard. It's hard for young women, too. But you have these opportunists who see this, who see the fact that it's hard to figure yourself out and what because they're selling something, because they have this agenda,"
More young men increasingly assign blame to women and other groups for personal difficulties. Ideological entrepreneurs on podcasts, social media, and the internet promote deliberate narratives that locate responsibility outside the individual. These influencers market products, classes, and books while promising identity, purpose, or solutions. Growing-up anxieties are natural and common to many people, but opportunists exploit those anxieties to sell a simplified scapegoat explanation. Myths of a past golden age of manhood obscure the persistent difficulty of adulthood. The result is a grievance economy that monetizes resentment and externalizes personal struggles.
Read at www.nytimes.com
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