Despite their differing ideas on the sort of reforms they’d like to see, there’s a palpable desire among most young people for drastic change – on both the left and right.
“On a global scale, we are seeing a huge volatility in politics, with the only common denominator being a rejection of the status quo,” explains Dr Jilly Kay, senior lecturer in Communication and Media at Loughborough University. “At some level, people of all genders and backgrounds are responding to the same thing – the economic, ecological and social instability and despair of our current capitalist regime.”
Dr Kay adds that growing support for right-wing parties like Reform among young men can be understood as part of a reactionary response to this mounting instability and social atomisation.
“Platforms can funnel people to the alt-right by showing them increasingly reactionary and misogynistic content to keep them on the platform.”
“For complex reasons, it seems that more men’s anger and frustration is being channelled in a reactionary direction than women’s – and for that, we need to look to cultural reasons and the resurgence of misogyny in our networked culture,” she says.
In recent years, there’s been a marked backlash to feminism, often stemming from right-wing figures and movements. Notably, speaking on a podcast in February, Farage described self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate as a “very important voice” for young men who are being “emasculated” by society.
This chimes with Ward, who says he believes there’s a sense it’s become acceptable to “attack young men”, with modern culture perpetuating the idea that “going to the gym or having a few pints are somehow traits of toxic masculinity.” So, he says, “many young men will see someone like Nigel saying it’s OK to have fun in life and connect with that.”
Glover refutes the idea that feminist movements are “attacking” men – but can understand how people (and specifically young men) come to this conclusion. “If you speak to the average person who’s interested in feminism, they’ll talk about how the patriarchy affects men,” she says. But she adds that this is “usually left out of the conversation online,” and as a result, she’s hesitant to “shame people” for misunderstanding ideas which aren’t fully explained in snappy social media posts.
Ige agrees. “This gender divergence is exacerbated by algorithm-driven social media platforms that create echo chambers, reinforcing gender-specific biases,” she says. Concerningly, in these increasingly segregated echo chambers, inflammatory takes are often amplified over more nuanced, measured opinions.”
Algorithms tend to reward content that is ‘transgressive’, and research shows that anger is the emotion that circulates most readily within social media networks,” says Dr Kay. “Platforms can funnel people to the alt-right by showing them increasingly reactionary and misogynistic content to keep them on the platform.”
Notably, Reform’s success in winning over a significant share of young male voters has been partly attributed to their impressive TikTok presence. On the video-sharing app, Reform has amassed 236,000 followers – just 2,000 shies of the Labour Party’s 239,000 – and has the best rates of engagement and views of all other parties.
It’s easy to see how a young, impressionable man might offhandedly like one video of Farage swigging a pint and be subsequently targeted with innumerable videos from the Reform Party account and other, more extreme right-wing content.