No wonder boys are turning toward conservative beliefs — it’s rebellion against parents’ woke ideology
https://nypost.com/2024/02/28/opinion/boys-are-turning-conservative-to-rebel-against-woke-parents/“Can we keep our sons from conservative politics?”
That’s the question writer Kathryn Jezer-Morton posed in a recent column for New York Magazine’s The Cut.
“In her son’s case, I wouldn’t bet on it,” New York Times columnist Ross Douthat shot back on X.
He’s right.
Jezer-Morton is facing an age-old conundrum of parenthood: Kids rebel against their parents’ politics.
Except, in 2024, the classic trend is being inverted.
Boys become conservative to rebel against their leftist parents.
“Coming down too hard risks playing right into the paranoid hands of masculinist discourses of male disempowerment,” she warns. “It might feel dangerous to let a teenager argue that sexism works both ways, but it’s far more consequential to make him feel like that position is forbidden.”
She’s right that parents should let kids explore ideas, even those that offend their sensibilities.
The more shrilly that woke parents plead, the further right their offspring will go.
But, whatever their politics, any parent truly concerned about their child being swept up in ideology should be questioning whether the real enemy is competing viewpoints — or allowing their children to construct a worldview on TikTok and YouTube.
