No small part of this is economic: income inequality has done a real number on white men (it’s done a real number on everyone, but bear with me, I have a point, here).

The economic ladder’s largely been pulled up, starting with Gen-X and accelerating through the millenials and zoomers. This has taken away a lot of status from men–especially white men–who, for a long time, have had a fair amount of privilege, and the loss of that privilege, combined with an actual loss of status and mobility, stokes the embers of fascism.

The problem is that the Right is so, so much more willing and able to speak to these feelings of frustration and angst. They have an entire playbook centred around validating and nuturing angst and inadequacy and impotent rage; they don’t explain it, they don’t try to ameliorate it, but holy shit do are they good at validating it: “Yes, you are being disadvantaged”, “Yes, your rightful place is being taken from you”, “Yes, it’s shitty that you’re made to feel bad for your privilege” and finally “Yes, it’s the fault of these gays and blacks and Jews that your rightful place has been taken from you”. It’s insidious and disingenuous (especially since the shitheels that promulgate it are doing so for a fucking tax cut and some sweet deregulation) but goddamn does it work.

It’s also ironic because the Left actually has better solutions for the problem: economic opportunity, regulation, a social safety net that addresses basic needs. But the Left is utter crap at speaking to feelings, and I’m not sure if it’s because they find it distasteful, or because the actual message isn’t palatable or (and this is my theory) that since neoliberalism ate the Left, rich progressives don’t really want to talk about economic justice at all, and would rather play identity politics instead.

Frankly, it’s scary. I have a couple of pretty smart boys around this age, and I can see that they’re, frankly, receptive to the idea that progressive identity politics that aren’t helping them at all, and if they weren’t genuinely good kids, I could see some neo-Nazi messaging being appealing, but it’s really hard to explain to them why they should care about rainbow flag day when they see the social safety net fraying and their prospects for, eg, owning a home or having a decent job getting further away.