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Misdirects
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Audio Recording by George Hahn
Narratives surrounding the attempt on Trump’s life were being shaped as the event was unfolding. Most of them are misdirects from the real story — the crisis facing young American men.
Moments after he was shot by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks and swarmed by Secret Service agents, Donald Trump had the instinct, and physical courage, to pump his fist for the crowd and shout “Fight!” That image of him, defiant with blood running down his face, may help him recapture the White House and mark the year — possibly the decade.
Soon after, anyone with an internet connection rushed to vomit out an explanation of events that rendered their perceived enemies as un- American, dangerous even. Republican Congressman Mike Collins of Georgia announced on X: “Joe Biden sent the orders,” equating Biden’s clumsy shooting metaphor — “It’s time to put Trump in a bull’s-eye” — to instructions to carry out a hit.
Elsewhere, conspiracy and misinformation from the left speculated the shooting had been a false flag staged by the Trump campaign itself. People on the far right declared that the Secret Service’s failure to prevent the shooting was caused by the DEI assignment of incompetent female agents. Spoiler alert: More White men protecting White men from other White men isn’t the solution.
There’s also an understandable raft of questions wondering why, if attendees at the rally could see the shooter on the roof, the Secret Service did not. Thus far, it appears this was a story of incompetence vs. a conspiracy. Regardless of your politics, there are few people who deserve to be relieved of their duties more than Director Kimberly Cheatle.
When President Biden addressed the nation on Sunday he highlighted the need to “cool down” the temperature of American politics. This is a reasonable request — and has zero chance of happening.
All of these narratives are an effort to get you to look away. We knew who the perpetrator was before knowing who he was: a lonely young man with access to weapons of war trying to recapture social status with a (perceived) heroic act of violence.
Lost Boys
I’ve written and spoken a lot about the obstacles — financial, educational, social, sexual, spiritual — facing young men today, so I won’t relitigate my case. If you’re interested, read more here or here or check out my TED talk.
The CliffsNotes: Over the past generation there’s been a deliberate transfer of wealth from the young to the old. Among other things, the result is unaffordable and indefensible costs for education and housing. Things are especially bad for boys and young men.
Algorithmically generated content on social media contributes to — and profits from — young men’s increasing social isolation, boredom, and ignorance. With the deepest-pocketed firms in history attempting to convince them they can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen, they grow up without acquiring the skills to build social capital or create wealth. They face an educational system biased against them and enter a workforce where the minimum wage is below the poverty line. Many boys grow up with nearly no male role models. The results include loneliness, depression, suicide, and an increased susceptibility to radicalization and belief in conspiracies.
Alienation and disaffection drive depression and violence. By age 27, high school dropouts are four times more likely to be arrested, fired by their employer, on government aid, or addicted to drugs than their peers who graduated. One in seven men reports having no friends, and 3 of every 4 deaths of despair in America — suicides and drug overdoses — are among men. We’re facing declining household formation, reduced birth rates, and slowing economic growth just as the baby boomers are entering decades of nonproductive retirement.
There is, to put it simply, a cohort of young people in our country who are denied the same opportunity presented to my generation: the chance to live a meaningful life.
12 Years
A generation of alienated young men can quickly thrust a nation into darkness. I spent last week in Germany for the European Championship. In between football matches, we did bike tours, learning about the history of Deutschland. For most of its centuries-long history, Germany has been a progressive society, tolerant of diverse religions, nationalities, and sexual orientations. Central to its 12-year descent into fascist totalitarianism was the same incendiary that inspired the Russian Revolution, the Arab Spring, and the fall of the Roman Empire: struggling young men.
The Great Depression left many young men in Germany unemployed and without prospects. The National Socialist Party capitalized on this desperation by promising jobs, economic stability, and a return to national greatness. For young men from lower socio-economic backgrounds, the Nazis offered unprecedented opportunities for social mobility. By joining the party or its affiliated organizations, men could gain power, status, and influence that were otherwise unattainable in the rigid class structure of Weimar Germany. These recruits made up the 2-million-strong Hitler Youth, and then the Sturmabteilung, or SA, also known as the Brownshirts.
One Man
Sometimes it takes just one disaffected young man to change the course of history. Gavrilo Princip was born on July 25, 1894, in the village of Obljaj in Bosnia, at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the second of nine children in a poor Serb peasant family. Only three of his siblings survived infancy. Think about the last sentence and the impact on your perspective had you been raised in an environment where only one-third of your brothers and sisters survived.
Gavrilo moved to Belgrade in 1912, where he joined a Serbian nationalist organization, the Black Hand, a secret military society known for its use of terrorism to achieve political aims. Princip’s assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife set off the chain of events that led to World War I and set the stage for World War II. He was 19.
Sometimes It’s Darkest Before It’s Pitch Black
There have actually been only 231 documented acts of political violence between 2010 and 2020 in the U.S. However, with 40,000+ gun deaths each year, and 10 mass shootings a week, it’s naive to think large, frequent gatherings such as political rallies won’t eventually be subjected to random violence. What makes it more likely — the glycerin to the nitro of struggling young men — is access to weapons of war.
The AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle Crooks apparently used is not a weapon for hunting, target shooting, or self-defense outside of a war zone. (Cue the dull comments from gun violence apologists.)
Investigation finds Secret Service failed to account for nation’s 393 million guns —The Onion
The original AR-15 was designed in the 1950s because U.S. combat soldiers needed an accurate weapon that fired multiple rounds at the enemy fast. The AR-15’s descendants, once banned by President Clinton, are now the bestselling guns in America. When Trump was president, he considered reinstating the ban until the NRA talked him out of it.
We Knew Who He Was
We knew who Thomas Crooks was before we ever heard his name. As my Pivot podcast partner Kara Swisher put it, he was “that kid,” somebody none of us had any trouble imagining. A kid with little social capital, connection to others. We know that kid, some of us were that kid.
A classmate told the New York Times about Crooks being mocked as a freshman for his dorky Spongebob T-shirt and poor hygiene. “Those other kids would always say, ‘Hey, look at the school shooter over there!’” she said.
The coarsening of our discourse, income inequality, and political polarization are problems that warrant our attention and resources. But the accelerant poured on almost every serious problem in our society is a generation of young men who lead increasingly bleak, lonely lives. We don’t have a monopoly on struggling young men. But we do have a monopoly on struggling young men who have access to weapons of war.
We need more empathy, as well as programs that restore connection: investments in third places, vocational programs, expanded freshman seats at colleges, child tax credits, negative income tax credits, a $25 minimum wage, a culture of mentorship, more men teaching in primary schools, age-gating of social media, mandatory national service, and fiscal/tax policies that stop the transfer of opportunity and prosperity from young to old.
Each side wants to blame the other’s rhetoric, or find a novel conspiracy. The issue is more boring and hiding in plain sight: The most dangerous person in the world is a lonely young man, and we are producing too many of them. Worse, we arm them with weapons that every other developed nation recognizes are instruments of war.
The U.S. is nearly impervious to foreign threats, but it’s waging war on itself. The front line of this war is on our own soil, raging, and largely ignored: the struggle of young men.
Life is so rich,
P.S. On the Prof G Pod this week I spoke to Jessica Tarlov, reporting live from the RNC, and with Reid Hoffman about the decision facing Biden. Listen here on Apple or here on Spotify.
P.P.S. Get on the waitlist for Section’s Build an AI Product bootcamp, and design and prototype an AI-powered product in eight weeks. Waitlist members get a discount.
I don’t know it for a fact; but this makes me feel like you read my comment somewhere about DT being a VERY BAD THING for the shooter, which is probably why he shot at him.
If everyone around the shooter sees DT when they look at him, he won’t get anywhere. DT is as bad a caricature of a white man as a gangster rapper is of a black man.
Regardless of if a man adores or despises his caricature it still doesn’t help him either way.
This comment section has a lot of really bogus opinions. “drugs are the problem”, “white men need to suck it up”, “its the loss of religion”. All of these are EXTREMELY WEAK arguments…
When a society loses religion it loses cohesion and devalues life. If there is no higher power to live for, there is nothing to lose.
There are plenty of jobs out there. The problem for these young white men is that they are coded by them as “women’s work”: teachers, healthcare workers, etc. or “non-white” work: farm work, food factories, etc. What they require is what they don’t have: for the former, empathy and compassion (also coded as female) and a willingness to do hard work for long hours and crummy pay plus moving to the job. In other words, they have to stop trying to be “men,” which will free them to pursue more opportunities, and start thinking like immigrants, which will give them drive, so they can re-establish themselves as Americans.
I think the author is missing something here. When I grew up in the 80’s. I owned rifles that could have killed someone at 100-200 yards (even out to 400-500 yards) that were just a capable as an “AR” rifle used in the attempt on Trump so I don’t buy the “It’s the rifle” argument”. What the author seems to not call out and question is the fact that many of our youth, people in the 20-29 range are using prescription drugs daily. From the stats I can find, they tell me that roughly 40% of this age range take them daily and about 50% have taken then in the last 12 months. This kids parents are psychologists. Was he on medication prescribed by his parents? If he was depressed from being bullied as the press says, then I don’t feel like this is too far of a reach. We need to better understand the role these drugs play because it’s not the lethality of the gun, that hasn’t changed over time, just the shape of the gun. Oh and the stats presented are misleading also….40k gun deaths include suicide, murder, self defense and homicide. Our suicide rate is lower than Japans yet they have way stricter gun laws with little access to guns. So again, let’s look at something more than the tool and find the underlying cause. My perceived difference from my youth is that no one I knew took any medication unless they had the flu….but we all had guns.
Definetely agree on school phone bans. But everything else looks like some democrat propaganda. I agree lets remove the 230 protection for algorithmic content! But how do you think does National Service Requirement can improve mental health?
I like your article and see a bigger point. Look at the police officer who myrdered the Black woman in Minnesota in her home when she called for help.. The officer who murdered her had two prior DY convictions. He never should have been hired, but that’s the DEI hiring of white guys and then giving them guns. It is not safe for Black people in this country now it’s not safe for anybody, but I think that guy saw Trump is dangerous, and didn’t mention that
Interesting analysis, Scott. I’m curious about what you think of mandatory service—not exclusive to the military (i.e. Red Cross, Peace Corps, etc.)—for all. I think these same young men often lack a sense of purpose and agency in the fate of our country. It would be great to have more “skin in the game” amongst our society. What do you think?
I appreciate your commentary; it has been simmering for years. I work in men’s groups and the core concerns are the SUSTAINABILITY of men in society. U.S. Census noted, “men aged 25-34 in 1987 were the first to experience median income below their father’s generation. Racially this analysis maybe bias considering limited opportunities for minority men by comparison but the growing occurrence among white males seems to be ignored. This pool of minority and young white males at the bottom rung of the country’s pecking order, lead to an incredible amount of resentment toward authority, intellectual pursuits, and civic awareness. Extremist groups pound on these populations consistently through social media and online communication to build intricate networks. The core racism and sexism sentiment, prevalent in these circles are results of closed child rearing practices and failures of institutions to recognize predictive behaviors. Men must engage to correct these issues early. A local group of advocates and my fraternity developed “Project Get Right”-targeting young males to distribute hygiene supplies and how to use them, an introduction to basic tools, how to wash and press clothes, etc. Though the challenge is daunting there are solutions but are we men enough to do them before someone or something else takes control?
Great that you point to racism but then you pivot and lump “minority” men and white men together. Please note, there is no more privileged person in the USA than a white male. Black males for example have been told to pick them selves up by their own “bootstraps”. White males do not have to worry about the police. White men still have a greater expectation of being treated better by American institutions than Black men. For example, so many times, when I had a court-appointed criminal client I saw my white male clients get treated so much better by the prosecutors and the courts than my Black and Latino male clients. White males need to suck it up.
7.13.24 – Failed assassination attempt on Trump by yet another Lone Gunman.
As the days go by, the official story becomes more and more unbelievable.
The history of other state sponsored Lone Gunman assassinations is now back in the public conversation.
Trump has said when he gets back into the White House he will declassify the rest of the JFK files, 9/11, and Epstein.
Is the world ready to know what really happened with JFK?
Stage being set?
7.18.24 – Trump becomes the official Republican Party nominee for president.
Trump now has access to daily intelligence briefings.
7.18/19.24 – Largest IT crash (sabotage?) in world history.
Remember that time in 2019 that President Trump was asking Zelensky about the Crowdstrike servers in Ukraine and then was immediately indicted.
How come Crowdstrike was investigating the DNC hack/leak instead of the FBI?
What is Crowstrike really and why does it have all this power to cripple (sabotage?) the internet?
7.21.24 – Joe Biden drops out reelection campaign.
Bait and switch incoming.
Who has really been running this country for the past 4 years?
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
Thank you for your thoughtful analysis. suicide is the second-leading cause of death for youth and young adults, ages 10-34. Youth mental health awareness and action from all of us is more important than ever. For your solutions, would you consider adding Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs to PreK-12 education curricula in our schools as an upstream prevention strategy for youth mental health? Positive outcomes from MBSR daily PreK-12 audio-based programs from non-profits like Inner Explorer have yielded up to 43% better mental health and resilience, less stress and anxiety, 60% improved behavior and coping skills, less violence, and fewer suspensions, 21% higher math and science scores, 15% improved GPA, and a 10% increase in school attendance, per Inner Explorer.
Very good suggestion Marilyn
Succinct and interesting as always Mr G! A lot of our South African friends enjoy your content, patricianly your recent interview with Steve B. A trip to Cape Town would be highly valuable.
Scott,
I understand that one of your biggest social concerns is the crisis of young men untethered to any sort of community, have a no purpose and meaning in life, and do not have any male role models.
In the past, a intact nuclear family with a father figure present and religion served those purposes yet you not only don’t address them as solutions but also rather hostile to them as organic social remedies to the crisis of young men.
First, organized religion provides that sense of community, a place for young men to go to once or twice a week to be with other people, and a sense of purpose to look beyond one’s self. Liberal secularism has made organized religion much less appealing and yet it struggles to replace those vital communal bonds and sense of purpose and meaning.
Secondly, divorce has a terrible effect on young men.Your solution is more money for families yet, you never tackled the cultural aspect of why people get divorce more now than ever. Our parents and our grand parents generation were no richer than our generation but the culture of divorce was not as permissive as our current one where if either partners (mostly the women) don’t feel the marriage is fulfilling their individual happiness, they can just get a divorce. There is no social stigma or judgement to it like there was in the past. This seems to be more of a problem than families lacking money.
When you talk about third spaces, I think of the recent end of video game conventions. They’ve had a lot of people, mostly female ones, complaining about too many guys there alone at events like that, and they tried to revolve the atmosphere around the women at the expense of the men, and loudly proclaimed it. I’ve been trying to find third spaces myself for years, but once someone started trying to out me as an incel, there’s a repeated pattern of trying to make it not for anyone like me. Third spaces aren’t good if someone’s always trying to control or cut off human connections that aren’t that likely anyway. If I hadn’t been repeatedly outed as an incel, I might not be an incel.
This is such a valuable perspective and as an older man I have a lot of empathy for what you are facing as a young man today. There exists a “guilty-until-proven-innocent” view of men that is tacitly or overtly part of the current social environment for a huge swath of women (especially younger women). Neither men, women or non-binary individuals benefit from the polarization and scapegoating of males as suspect or defective. Let each one be judged on their own merits and accepted as a valuable member of the human family.
I’m not a gun nut, but the AR15 thing is a problem because of ignorance. It is an accurate, light, and highly customizable firearm. Thats why people like it, including hunters. It is false to say it’s not used in hunting. It’s used all the time by hunters. Yes, you can shorten the barrel and use a high capacity magazine and it looks military, but long barreled semiautomatic rifles that have the same technology are used to hunt deer every fall by hundreds of thousands of people.
How about the biggest solution being “Banning access to weapon of war??!!
I SEE YOUR CONCERN ABOUT YOUNG MEN . DO YOU REALLY THINK YPUNG WOMEN ARE IN ANY BETTER LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES? YES LIFE IS RICH.But only for those mentored with much loving care .
I’m sick of rich ignorant potentially racist white people calling for the ban on AR-15s. If you really cared about saving lives from gun violence, you would be calling for the ban of handguns. Handguns are responsible for exponentially more deaths in the United States than AR-15s. However, lazy so-called thought leaders either just want to use a tragedy as an excuse to push out content to make money. They don’t actually care about saving lives. They care about one of two things. Either using this as an excuse to make money or saving white rich people from gun violence. Because the fact is AR-15s are responsible for far less deaths than a pistol. It’s a fact. End of story.
Scott,
Thanks for sharing your insights on things we can do focused on solutions. I invigorated you to add to that list Foster care system reform, where all too often disconnected youths are abandoned upon reaching 18 years old. You can find more information in the Tedx talk by Amelia Franck Meyer.
A lot of well-made, incisive, intelligent points leavened with incredible ignorance regarding minimum wage, weaponry, and a number of other issues. The AR-15 “weapon of war” is a consumer product used by no military in no war, and is not an automatic–it fires one round at a time. Most crime is committed with hand guns.
A $25 dollar minimum wage would guarantee that almost no unskilled young men were employed.
Etc.
Hiring women who hide behind and are much smaller than the man they are hired to protect, can’t re-holster their guns, and are focused on their own sunglasses while scurrying around like “fumbling fumblinas” doesn’t make anyone safer either.
But you are always entertaining, and an obviously bright guy.
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” – Frederick Douglass
Just sayin’
You are so right on all fronts. Particularly with regards to your list of solutions at the end of your article. Run for office.
Scott, please don’t run. There’s already enough dead children in Gaza without you advocating for more.
This guy^ gets it.
This and there being no political way to effect any of the changes.
How can we doublethink that the alienation and loneliness capitalism creates is bad (“everything solid melts”), but have a professional life devoted to celebrating capitalism.
This guy^ gets it.
This and there being no political way to effect any of the changes.
How can we doublethink that the alienation and loneliness capitalism creates is bad (“everything solid melts”), but have a professional life devoted to celebrating capitalism.
While I’m a huge fan, I’d like to correct the modern attempts of rewriting of history with regards to Gavrilo Princip.
Bosnia was forcefully annexed by Habsburg Monarchy in 1908 (wiki Bosnian Crisis). During the show of force by the occupiers during a military parade in 1914 (just 6 years later), Gavrilo Princip assassinated the head of military and the future head of state of the enemy. That is not terrorism, that is rebellion against the usurpers.
Branding it as terrorism just twists the meaning of the word, as a blatant attempt to falsely rewrite the history in favor of Austro-Hungarian (Habsburg) monarchy. The whole of Europe was rebelling against another Austrian-born (Hitler) in WW2, and I don’t hear any of them being branded terrorists today.
I’d appreciate if you would update the article to reflect actual history. Thank you.
I have a nephew I call twice a week. hes 32, uneducated, a farm labourer, and he has two kids to a crazy ex who learns how to behave off tiktok. He has no friends and battles with lifes issues. Hes a solid guy but just has no support network. He really values the phone calls and the friendship.
My wife and I have a young guy, 23, who has boarded with us for 5 years. Again a solid worker but his inability to plan and complete lack of investment mentality boggle me. He just lives for today. I offer up all the advice I think he can take and he takes almost none of it but after 5 years I think his frontal cortex is finally catching up. hes starting to move ahead. He had a fraught childhood, father left when he was about 8, mother worked long hours, got a boyfriend when he was about 13 who tried to ghost him out of the house. He has a high level of underlying stress, unfulfilled fight or flight.
And then my two kids, raised in a warm secure home, supported and guided, never gave any trouble, got uni degrees, got jobs. The difference is stark and you cant choose your parents.
New Zealand is just starting up army lead boot camps for troubled youth with a focus on development and mentoring, I really hope they get it right with a profound and positive intervention that works.
Fully agree, I would add a worldwide wealth tax above a certain threshold with no exceptions. Switzerland has a wealth tax but no capital gain tax. Same effect far simpler. If stock values increase you pay more wealth tax. Period.
We need more empathy, as well as programs that restore connection: investments in third places, vocational programs, expanded freshman seats at colleges, child tax credits, negative income tax credits, a $25 minimum wage, a culture of mentorship, more men teaching in primary schools, age-gating of social media, mandatory national service, and fiscal/tax policies that stop the transfer of opportunity and prosperity from young to old.
Scott I have been a long time fan and supporter of you and your businesses and liked the way you often spoke about the important of civic duty and advocating for national / civic duty.
To then make jokes about the attempted assassination of Trump a few days after the event was not only in poor taste, but abhorrent. It was clearly something that had been planned and not an off the cuff remark which made it even worse.
How is that being a role model for young boys and men?
Great analysis as usual. It’s difficult to understand from abroad the fascination of many Americans for arms. It defies rationality when one look at the horrific figures and statistics. The problem
will never stop unless the constitution is changed which looks impossible because of the political system. But what is easier ? To change the constitution or to deal with young depressed men who have access to war arms?
So what are YOU doing about it? Fixing this problem requires men such as yourself to do something other than talk and enrich themselves.
Public figures have a responsibility for the society that lifts them up. I’d suggest that men such as yourself have created this problem. Men who care about enriching their business and monetizing society.
On character cycles: Strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create bad times, bad times create strong men.
Responsibility cannot be outsourced to government, nor should government be allowed to stand in the way of developing manhood.
I SEE YOUR CONCERN ABOUT YOUNG MEN . DO YOU REALLY THINK YPUNG WOMEN ARE IN ANY BETTER LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES? YES LIFE IS RICH.But only for those mentored with much loving care .
As always well articulated and spot on.
When you have a whole generation of people who drank the post-modern kool aid, teaching students to believe that if anyone has the misfortune to be born male, they deserve all the misfortune in the world and more. And double that misfortune if one is also white. So what do you expect? Society can’t have it both ways. Step on young men and expect them to keep trying to rise up is a Sisyphean task. I agree with nearly everything but into acknowledging the zeitgeist that got us here and fixing it, we are just going to dive deeper into the pitch black.
Sir you’re a hero! We need more of you. I am going to do my best to emulate what a good man and mentor does for young men when I see them.
Best! Stephen D
I’ve been waiting for a “male loneliness crisis” post or something similar to ask this question.
What role do men, regardless of age, play in creating the so-called “male loneliness crisis”?
I believe men are lonely because they don’t value same-gender relationships that much, especially as adults. They focus most of their energy on their careers and on finding a girlfriend/wife. In contrast, women seem to be able to manage having a career, being married, and raising kids while maintaining a strong friend circle. Why can I text a married, working mother and get a reply no later than a couple of hours but a single, childless, guy friend may take 2-3 days and start the message with, “Sorry, I’m so busy…”?
If men don’t give each other time beyond those short little conversations when circumstances (school, work, church, dinner with the gf/wife’s friend group) force them to be around each other, then good luck not being lonely.
I am a man yet wrote in the 3rd person because I value friendships with other guys. I also understand that my comments don’t necessarily address the topic of the DJT shooter or how to address people who fit the profile of school/mass shootings. However, there are a lot of men who have the appearance of being socially adjusted who will never resort to violence or other illegal activity who are struggling with loneliness, sometimes at their own making.
I can’t tell you how long I’ve followed you and how much my family and I admire… and, yes Scott, even adore you. Particularly for how you’ve spoken out against the anti-Semitic protests and all that has come with it. So it’s kind of silly that the ONLY reason I’m writing is because of ONLY one word in ONLY one sentence: “There have actually been ONLY 231 documented acts of political violence between 2010 and 2020 in the U.S.” ONLY 231? That number is far more than I ever expected. Which means our problems are far worse than I ever imagined.
I have been watch 8 seasons of Rawhide and it is refreshing how much comradery the people had. There was a love for each other and if someone needed help they would stop the whole heard and risk their live to help someone, to do what was right. A lot of old Movies and TV shows seem more good and wholesome.
Bring back the draft. Mandatory military service provides employment, housing, training and essential life lessons, like how to work for someone you don’t much like. When we had a draft during the Vietnam war, the U.S. military developed and deployed its own support services. Cooks and clerks, mechanics, builders, personnel managers, logistics specialists. All of these positions, couched in the discipline of military service, taught those same young men (and women) that they have personal value and can develop the skills they would need in a few years to integrate into the civilian economy. Today’s contracted services military has a much narrower skill set. Young men and women learn weapons and combat, and some civilian contractor pretty much takes care of the support services. A huge lost opportunity to introduce young men to useful life skills and avenues to success in the civilian economy. We need to kick out the contractors and start using our military to teach young men something more than how to use an assault rifle or pilot a killer drone.
When i joined the Marines at 17 in 1974, it stopped my slide into nothingness. With the GI bill i went on to graduate from college which allowed me an amazing life filled with self confidence and purpose. I tell this to every young person i meet these days whom are struggling. So far nobody has taken my advise. It seems they prefer not to make the sacrifice.
Unfortunately, the military people themselves don’t want a draft anymore. They’ve learned a hard lesson years ago: the worst volunteer is still better than the best conscript.
What is extra shocking to me is that I might have read that Crooks’ parents were therapists. Crooks was employed, and he may have had a junior college degree? Perhaps Crooks was screaming out in his own odd way. All of Scott’s ideas are good and may help some, but we need to find a way for God’s love personified in his loving son Jesus Christ can reach those who are emotionally hurting inside. So many have deep emotional pain that needs to be helped.
Scott cited “The Onion” in his recent article, a fake and satire news source. This begs the question; what other fake sources is he using?
The onion is not a news source. It does not intend to be, either.
The people in Bethel Park knew the shooter as the kid who got bullied.
I don’t want bullies to destroy their victims’ lives, and I don’t want any bullying victims to turn violent.
That’s why I don’t like a solution which puts the burden on the victims of bullying, and I call out the people who try to bully incels and others online.
What the shooter did was wrong, but what his bullies did to him was wrong too.
As a mother of 2 young men, this hits home. I find myself much more their friend (as well as loving parent) than I thought I would be. They rely on me so much more than I relied on my parents at the same age. I like your solutions because they are about empowering young men not about disempowering women – the political environment “anti-DEI” is more about subjugating women than helping men IMHO and that ethos terrifies me for the same reasons you mentioned about the 1930s. In any case, this trend has been going on for a long time and we need well thought out practica ideas to help young men thrive that are not at the expense of women.
I completely agree…I might add that the isolation of video games and the (non) socialization of young men connecting with screens. It can be desensitizing violence by points. Guns, explosives, invitations to anti anything conversations. I wonder how many shooters were game addicted?
I agree. Great and consistent analysis. We all knew “that kid” growing up, even before we news on his identity was out.
“The U.S. is nearly impervious to foreign threats, but it’s waging war on itself. The front line of this war is on our own soil, raging, and largely ignored: the struggle of young men.” SCOTT NAILS IT RIGHT HERE.
Do we love our children? Hmmm. Do we incentivize one parent families over two the under Title IV-D Social Security Act? America has equality and due process clauses within its Constitution – so how did the state come to own our children? First they take your children and then they make you pay to see them. Don’t believe they do? My SCOTUS Petition for Writ of Certiorari just dropped yesterday. I am an Australian and the Libertarian Candidate for Macquarie and I approve this message.
I had said something similar in a forum and was attacked venomously and I was confused why they were so up in arms. I read the members profiles that were attacking me, they were family attorneys and this is their bread and butter.
I’m glad Scott mentioned ‘3rd Places’ as a solution.
I live in the suburbs of a medium sized midwest city, with my wife and 3 boys. I’m a remote software engineer and am paid as much as a MD might be in this market. My city is not walkable, and being a remote worker, I don’t really even enjoy the benefits of a ‘2nd Place’. I imagine, post-covid, there are a number of folks who find themselves in a similar situation.
When I lived in America I really felt a steady decline in number of 3rd spaces available even living in the east coast. I feel like after the pandemic it’s slowly reversing.
Amen – to both 3rd places as one solution to a multi-faceted problem, and to your situation.
I’m also working, from home – no office to socialize in, and really finding it hard in middle age to make new connections with people that have common interests and different perspectives. My wife reminds me to go and do an activity, and hopefully I’ll meet some new friends, but it is tough.
And I’m a industrial engineer, paid like a dentist, living in a car-centric community on the West Coast. As Scott points out, it’s 100x tougher for a young person, trying to overcome similar lonely hurdles, but without the means (or even a glimmer of hope of achieving them) to solve the challenges. Just wanted to chime in and acknowledge what you suggest – there are lots of us in similar, saddening situations.
That makes so much sense!
Keep going!
Crossing our fingers in Sweden 🤗
People who make income largess from selling Social Media narratives like to blame objects. Guns for one. They like to blame large groups, where no individual can call BS on the charges. Woke/left SELLS those narratives, in the form of SM media, ads, and lifestyle memes. Rich MBA kids manipulate poorer, less physically attractive to BUY acceptance, BUY fame, BUY feelings. Guns, tennis shoes, makeup, energy drinks, whatever. Any effects on society can be put on an object.
Those same people are turning their expertise into stories on why we need UBI, more welfare, more gun laws. All to create more government. Which they have been VERY good at controlling
Could some of the blame lie with our shared origin story? That, having evolved through purely physical processes (natural selection plus genetic mutation) we are therefore also purely physical? This message may be reinforced by us being offered few escapes from a materialist consumer economy. I am a rare secular anti-Darwinist, with a different and more uplifting origin story. Would you agree to be sent my latest pamphlet, 34 pages, outlining my alternative origin story? Email me a street address to receive a complimentary print copy, or an email address to be sent a Kindle. Or preview/buy at Amazon, search for “Children of the Genome.”
My thesis: for 70 years we’ve been pressured to accept a clearly-deficient supposedly-scientific account of how we evolved, guaranteed to encourage a slide into barbarism. Is it time to question that account?
The Boy Crisis has been escalating for two decades. The book of the same name by Farrell & Gray expands on the causes and their solutions. Where are we when the facts are clear and yet we do nothing. Oh wait…because it wouldn’t make a profit or empower the elite or bring extreme wealth to a few.
I’m a retired Lutheran minister who covered for a colleague last week. From the pulpit, I was looking mostly at likely ‘grand parents’. As I highlighted the mission of Jesus to ‘cast out demons’, I quoted Nicholas Kristof from a recent interview. ‘ Every 2.5 weeks, more American youth die of drugs, alcohol or suicide, than all the U.S. soldiers in 20 years of the Afghanistan/Iraq wars.’ If this statistic is not ‘demonic’ with implications (lost young men), what is? One of my calls to mission was for ‘grand parents’ to become more truly ‘grand’ by connecting more personally with the lost generation. Being seen makes a person matter. Thanks to David Brooks for “How to Know a Person”.
It is rare to have such a clear understanding of complex human events while they are going on. As someone who has been working with the young men you describe for more than fifty years (MenAlive.com), your analysis is spot on. There is an African proverb that states, “A young man who is not embraced by the village will burn it down just to feel its warmth.” If we don’t address the problem with our young males, all our lives are in danger.
Finally went to listen to the Ted talk. The point that is so true is how elite higher ed has basically the same Freshman class sizes it had in the 1930s when it didn’t let women, blacks, asians, hispanics. foreigners and jews in — meanwhile the US population has tripled since then. OK, not quite true Harvard has 7,200 undergrads, but in 1935 had 3.700. It should have 10,000+ just to keep up with population, and actually 20,000 to allow for women and minorities. Same is true for housing, health care and a ton of other areas where we have let a lack of infrastructure kill opportunity
Couldn’t agree more and thank you for speaking out about this. I have two young boys and I encourage them to “act like boys” as much as possible – run around outside, get dirty, play army, build things, climb trees, etc. It’s not “toxic masculinity”, it’s actually just part of their DNA and 300,000 years of ancestral data confirms it. The past 15 years of humans having cell phones (although it would like try as much as possible!) can’t change who men are as human animals.
I played army, ran around and got dirty plenty as a kid. I really don’t think that’s the crux of the issue here. It’s young men that have been raised without positive role models or have been radicalized by toxic ones, especially the violent ones.
PARENTING or lack there of!
Also, to pile more on, you are right, it is so much harder for young people. The Federal Reserve and Federal Government cannot control their spending which creates inflation which stealthily steals the purchasing power. Look at home prices have more than doubled in the last 10 years. Look at the FEDs balance sheet, the trillions that they have printed.
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless – Thomas Jefferson (Maye be a Spurious Quotation)
Also wanted to make a comment on DEI, I thought that you were not supposed to hire someone based on their gender or skin color, but isn’t that exactly what DEI is? To me it seem so hypocritical and unjust.
@john Daniels, not exactly, DEI was SUPPOSED to help remedy the historical exclusion of women and minorities BUT became weaponized in too many circumstances. Diversity should be a value, but not by literally “any means necessary”.
Sorry but I had to make 2 comments which is actually one comment but is was over 1500 characters. I tried and tried to get under 1500 but felt a lot of the meaning was lost in the message.
Toxic 3rd Wave Feminism has broken down the American family dynamic. This is 100% fueled by the Democrat Party and now we’re living the repercussions specifically with young males. Of course, progressives will never admit this.
“… DEI assignment of incompetent female agents. Spoiler alert: More White men protecting White men from other White men isn’t the solution. ” The critique came from the now famous photo of the woman ss agent crouching down behind Trump while the men agents shielded him with their bodies. Nothing to do with skin color, but that’s the Democrat Identity Politics Playbook.
DEI is a poison, the sooner we eradicate this the better. I will die on this hill
I am sure that Scott wished he had not been proven correct about his stances on young men and their struggles in this way. However, this sort of violence has become all too common (and predictable). The lack of empathy for young men is evident in the accounts of how Crooks was taunted and ostracized by others prior to his violent act. Some caring, mentoring, and fostering of social skills could have made so much difference. Crooks is but one of many.
That would okay by me.
“The critique came from the now famous photo of the woman ss agent crouching down behind Trump while the men agents shielded him with their bodies”
The now-famous image I’ve seen everywhere is of a woman agent attempting to shield Trump with her body just as her male colleagues did – only she is much shorter than Trump and leaves his upper body visible. I don’t think it’s a bravery issue between the agents, but a physical one, which can’t be hand-waived away in a security role in the name of non-security goals. That (putting secondary goals before primary ones) is the main problem IMO.
Fund education in public schools. Fund summer education for teachers from different places so they learn from peers as well as professors. Increase teacher salaries to attract and keep better teachers.
Fund HS activities beyond sports. Have a library club for the book nerds, an art club, etc.
Of course we have lost children; they have nothing to do other than be online.
BTW, girls get lost also; they just don’t kill others as often.
So the states can make billions of dollars from the federal government. And not only does the child support system with the states make billions but also all the attorneys and the family court system I feel like it’s become corrupted. I’ve seen so many married couples where the wife gets bored and leaves and gets an attorney and then the father gets an attorney and then they go to court but in every case 100% of the time the wife or the mother gets the kids and the father is put on the child support system. And they paid a fortune in attorney fees but it doesn’t matter because it’s always the same outcome. The only people who win are the attorneys, the States collecting matching dollars and mother.
The father and kids are the losers. The father is also under a ton of pressure, for one, he rarely gets to see his children, and for second, he has to supply medical insurance which is skyrocketed and also a large portion of his paycheck is automatically deducted from the state. If he loses his job or gets sick he still has to make those payments he still has to supply insurance all the pressure is on him. If the mother loses her job or has any issues then the state will come in and help her with housing electricity, food etc. But for the father he will go to jail. What a horrible horrible corrupt system this is and as the kids see this happening don’t think it doesn’t affect them.
Great article, I agree with a lot of it. One other thing to take into consideration,. The family law system or more to the point the child support system is I think a cause to this issue you wrote about. If you’re unfamiliar with the system I will give you a rundown on how it works. The federal government under Bill Clinton wanted to incentivize the states to track down deadbeat dads and make them support any children that they left. The federal government started giving States child support matching federal dollars not quite 100% matching but the dollars could be used how the states wanted as long as the money who’s collected from the Father for the mother goes through the state child support system.
Once the states states started getting this this matching money from the federal government they quickly realized the more fathers they got on the child support system the more Federal money the states would get. Now if you notice, anytime there’s a divorce with children the vast majority of the time the wife gets the child and father father is put on the child support system. A system that was originally created for deadbeat dads, now all dads who get a divorce are deadbeat dads who are slaves to the child support system and who are alienated from their children.
As a former educator, I will tell you, the demise of vocational training programs in secondary education and beyond, as well as the mantra that ALL kids should/can go to college, which started during Obama administration, has failed so many kids, especially boys. Anyone who desires to go to college should, but having taught at university and secondary levels, university is not suited for everyone. Kids have been unfortunately going without fathers far longer than just this generation, but their options of what to do with themselves is narrowing further as each year passes. And I agree with one of the other commenters below, it’s not just wealth going to the elderly, but the wealth hoarded by the billionaires in this country. They own our government and seem intent on dismantling any program that might help our increasingly poorly educated population and disintegrating infrastructure through paying less and less taxes. And to top it all off, we threw social media at them, isolated them and allowed them to be armed. Are we totally f*cked? I try to be hopeful but…
The weapons argument is baloney. More young men die from fentanyl, hand guns and risky behavior then getting shot by security details guarding politicians.
There’s always one….
Bill Maher voices this same concern. A possible solution is TANGO. Argentine tango is popular worldwide. Classes and great teachers are available in major cities and even small ones too. Why? Immediately a man is holding a woman. Tango is a very physically close dance. No talking needed, but total contact from the embrace. AND, most classes need men There are always more women. Even uncoordinated men are embraced. And they can learn. Tango is really just walking. All the fancy moves are just for pros. At Milongas– dances– in Argentina most of the couples just embrace and walk.
Scott, I admire your dedication to bringing awareness to issues facing young men. I hope that your voice (e.g., books, TED talks, podcasts, etc.) find these young men when they are looking for guidance in times of uncertainty. You are an inspiration and a force for good and my life has been made better by the content you are creating and the messages that you promote. Thank you.
Stay in your marketing lane or run for office. People signed up for your marketing commentary not you socialist rants.
You must be new here
Amen. R. Yearly must be new, close-minded, or has a stick up his ass.
HOME. Unconditional love, acceptance, warmth, EMOTIONAL NEEDS being met , teaching empathy for others, parents’ involvement in child’s life and school would go far in raising responsible young adults . We need to teach parents how to be parents. HOME Is the beginning…mentors would be a good thing if you can keep molesters out …
One of the best things I’ve read in ages. Since you’ve had the opportunity to be able to write such a cogent piece, can you give me any suggestions in what I could do to help even save one more life from this outcome? I have a son and I think I’m doing ok with him but I think I should do more. Is it a school thing or a club thing?
Unreal comment, be better, please.
We need better leaders to solve these problems and give young men hope – young men can be a challenge but they are also the most important resource we have if motivated and encouraged.
I was struck by Tucker Carlson’s speech last night – he thinks of the ‘Trump story’ is an attempt to return democracy (he defines it as leaders doing their constituent’s bidding, he’s wrong, but I get it) to the USA – I think he does not understand what Trump is about, but you can understand why he thinks our leaders have not done what we want or cared about what we care about. I am confident that Trump is not the answer, I am just as confident that Biden is not either – we need real thinkers with a backbone, common sense, moral compass and capabilities to lead – Scott, you’d do well here.
If Trump wins he will have some power but take into consideration, that the Party has the real power and the agenda they are trying to push.
After reflecting on this essay as written, I concluded a balanced perspective that fairly describes the horrific political tensions in America. Both sides of the aisle have contributed to this malaise, and the lack of firm economic plus social programs of substance have absolutely given rise to a restless youth. Minus hope and resorting to violence, we should not be surprised at these tragic moments. Scott, I honestly disliked your last column but on this one I am sure that many will find resonance and approval.
The fight of this life is lonely, empty isolation. There is cultural cooperation aided by vitriolic social media and the coarsening of societal dialogue. Is there a top down answer or bottom up pursuit? Mentoring, strong male to male relationships, vulnerability, pursuing development of the whole person….mind, body and soul! Reach out men, connect with a younger man or boy in virtue and honesty. We all suffer trials. There is a drama behind every face. Hope is transformational. It is not found in societal government programs. Here is a truth every young man needs to hear whether from a father or older man…..you are a beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Pass it on!!!!!!
Once again Scott, please explain how your constant dick jokes and demented drooling over supermodels on Pivot isn’t inconsistent with your pearl clutching over the lack of valuable role models for young men. Hypocrisy, no?
I sent Scott an email yesterday noting my inability to pass along many of his insights because of the continuing crass coarseness of his introductions. The nobler man reaches higher in language and ideas. Credibility and wider audience would be expanded with more discernment. Humor has a razor’s edge to elevate or detract from the content of Scott’s other insights and wisdom. Let’s encourage a higher loftier pursuit in language and decorum. Let’s build not tear down. Virtue has value, even in the marketplace.
Please Prof G, while I agree that wealth has been xsferred to the elderly, the biggest transfer has occurred to the ultra rich rather than the elderly. There is no inflation, there is only greed-flation. The rich get richer and richer and richer. Please, we have to address this before we can move on, we must. The great American joke is that no one is watching the uber wealthy craft legislation and make tax law. We have to address this if we ever want a future for our young. And of course, get rid of the “weapons of war”.
Agree
Trump apparantly found his “physical courage” only after it was declared that the shooter was down. It was a moment of promotional brilliance, though, the ultimate photo op. The perfect reaction from a born con man.
or…adrenaline.
Like or hate Trump, it was genius move
your appearance on the daily show actually made me think “Scott would make a far better alternative democratic candidate than any other option they have right now”. Please actually consider running lol you’re framing progressive politics in a reasonable manner that makes it easy to get on board and crosses party lines. #Galloway2024
Young white males are constantly being devalued with institutions, politicians, teachers, leaders – virtually every industry except sport and music – forming concrete tangible barriers to success. The refrain of “you’ve been in control long enough…too much of your type” is exactly what causes an entire generation to feel worthless and left behind.
Thank you, Scott.
On point. And heartbreaking. Thanks, Scott.
So many negative factors are facing young white males. I hear often young white males feel abandoned by society and the workplace especially as DEI mandates discriminate against them in profound ways.
While I agree that the “whiteness” of males is an increasingly important issue in all of this, I can also say as a principal of a diverse high school that “male-ness” transcends more than one might imagine. Younge men are in trouble. But the trouble they’re in morphs easily. Gangs, for example, don’t hold the sway they held thirty years ago, but “toxic masculinity” has both beaten down young men who deserve better, and inspired young men to get their backs up when they need to listen. Ham-handedness is the problem. Strategic care and a degree of humility inspired by self-awareness would do all of us, including parents AND school administrators, some good.