\u201cOne-third of young men say that marriage and children are central to their idea of success, while only a tiny fraction of young women agree,\u201d a Sept. 15\u00a0Daily Kos\u00a0staff story<\/a><\/em>, \u201cThe Widening Gender Gap Is Fueling Far-Right Extremism,\u201d declared from its examination of a recent NBC poll.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Generation Z\u2019s gender gap on political and personal issues is \u201ctoxic and dangerous,\u201d the\u00a0Daily Kos<\/em>\u00a0story states. \u201c\u2026The manosphere and its influencers\u2014a sprawling network of podcasts, YouTube channels, and social media accounts\u201d are \u201cfeeding young men a steady diet of grievance\u2026 Radicalized young men are combustible\u2014history shows that societies that fail to channel their energy constructively often end up facing violence, extremism, or even authoritarian movements built on their resentment. And we\u2019re already seeing the warning signs in online threats, mass shootings, and the growing overlap between misogynist and extremist communities.\u201d<\/p>\n This view, disturbingly common in progressive commentary, represents both a major misreading of the\u00a0NBC survey<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0mischaracterizations of Generation Z men<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gen Z men did not elect Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n Far from being a right-wing vanguard,\u00a02024 exit polls<\/a>\u00a0showed Gen Z men were the\u00a0least<\/em>\u00a0likely of any male age to vote for Republican Donald Trump for president (49%, compared to 52% of men age 30-44, 59% of men age 45-64, and 55% of men age 65 and older).<\/p>\n This key fact is briefly acknowledged in the\u00a0Daily Kos<\/em>\u00a0story, then discarded:\u00a0The \u201chard-right\u2014and often fascist\u2014turn by many young men\u201d is \u201cone of the fundamental political challenges facing the left, and the trend line isn\u2019t improving.\u201d<\/p>\n To the contrary, the best information indicates young men\u2019s minimal support for Trump may have dramatically reversed. An April 2025\u00a0Harvard IOP poll<\/a>\u00a0showed men age 18-29 disapproving of Trump by a stunning 34-59% margin. More recent\u00a0surveys<\/a>\u00a0show young men\u2019s disapproval of Trump continues to rise to over 60%.<\/p>\n A major error<\/strong><\/p>\n Further, the\u00a0Daily Kos<\/em>\u2019s dire warnings about the \u201cgender gap\u201d result from a faulty comparison NOT between Gen Z men and women, but between the\u00a0Gen Z men who voted for Trump<\/em>\u00a0versus\u00a0Gen Z women who voted for Democrat Kamala Harris<\/em>. This misleading comparison has been common in media reports.<\/p>\n Again to the contrary, Table 1 shows that Gen Z men and women actually agree on crucial values.<\/p>\n For example, the results for all Gen Z men and women (left hand columns) show close agreement on their top four priorities \u2013 a fulfilling career, having enough money, financial independence, and using their talents and resources to help others. They also largely agree on five other measures of success, such as owning their own homes, having no debt, making their families and communities proud, being spiritually grounded, and being able to retire early.<\/p>\n Of the 12\u00a0issues surveyed, Gen Z men and women disagree the most on having emotional stability. Both sexes agree that getting married and having children are low priorities, with women ranking these measures lower than do men.<\/p>\n However, the real divisions are by\u00a0politics<\/a>. For examples, Trump voters of both sexes are 3 to 4 times more likely to see getting married and having children as important to their success than Harris voters, and large Right-Left divergences are seen on other priorities as well.<\/p>\n Of course, if a polarized comparison like the\u00a0Daily Kos<\/em>\u00a0story\u2019s is made only between Trump voters of one sex and Harris voters of the other sex, then yes, Trump-voting young men are\u00a0far more traditional than Harris-voting young women on issues like getting married and having children (6% and 6% for Democratic young women, respectively, versus 29% and 34% for Republican young men). Similarly, Trump-voting young women are\u00a0far more traditional than Harris-voting young men on getting married and having children (20% and 26% for Republican young women, versus 11% and 9% for Democratic young men).<\/p>\n So, yes, dating and marrying across political lines invites serious personal disagreements.<\/p>\n Are Gen Z young men \u201ccombustible\u201d and \u201cdangerous\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n This inflammatory assertion is\u00a0also\u00a0common in Left, center, and Right-wing media even though it runs counter to\u00a0solidly documented social trends: the mammoth declines in violent crime, including\u00a0homicide<\/a>,\u00a0gun killings<\/a>, and\u00a0all crimes<\/a>\u00a0by America\u2019s young people, especially men under age 25, over the last three generations.<\/p>\n Over the last 30 years, as young people became more racially diverse, the\u00a0violent crime<\/a>\u00a0rate among men under age 25 plummeted\u00a0by a staggering 73%, including a 72% plunge in\u00a0homicide<\/a>\u00a0and a 40% drop in\u00a0gun killings<\/a>, along with a 79% plummet in\u00a0overall criminal offenses<\/a>.<\/p>\n Today, men ages 30-34, followed by ages 25-29, display the worst levels of violence and crime. Where Gen Z\u2019s reduced rates of crime and violence remain high, the driver is high levels of young-age poverty overwhelmingly afflicting young men of Color, not toxic \u201cmanosphere\u201d attitudes.<\/p>\n In fact, men over 45, led by aging White men, our richest cohort, show the most far-Right politics. Young men are not driving the Right.<\/p>\n And while it is true that mass shootings (which account for fewer\u00a0than 1% of America\u2019s murders) have risen, the FBI\u2019s\u00a0latest report on mass shootings<\/a>\u00a0shows, \u201cthe 25-34 age category had the most shooters\u201d and \u201cthe shooters’ average age was 39 years old.\u201d Mass shootings, including school shootings, are frightening but extremely rare, in no way reflecting the larger attitudes of any age, race, or gender.<\/p>\n We have to be very careful before quoting today\u2019s often-inflammatory political and media claims about the violence, since they often reflect only the narrow anecdotes those in authority are willing to talk about while ignoring much larger issues they ignore.<\/p>\n![\"genzpollsex.png\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.prod.dailykos.com\/images\/1480917\/large\/genzpollsex.png?1758567967\")
<\/p>\nSources:\u00a0NBC poll<\/a>\u00a0of 2,970 18-29 year-olds, September 2025;\u00a0CNN Exit Poll<\/a>, November 2024. \u201cAll\u201d responses are weighted by the proportion of each sex voting for each presidential candidate.<\/em><\/h4>\n