‘A pretty disturbing picture’: why we need to talk about young, right-wing men

Andrew Tate, former kickboxer turned misogynist internet celebrity, has been banned from YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram for violating hate speech protocols.

No wonder. He has claimed women “belong in the home, can’t drive, and are a man’s property”, has openly discussed being accused of violence by multiple women, and is being investigated by Romanian authorities for allegations of human trafficking and rape.

But before he was banned, this loathsome provocateur grew worryingly popular. In July he was googled more times than Donald Trump or Kim Kardashian. Even now, as Crikey’s Cam Wilson reports, his move to alt-tech video platform Rumble sent it to No. 1 one on the Apple and Google app stores.

So who are Tate’s fans? And do they represent a broader wellspring of bigotry?

Angry young men

It’s hard to get reliable data on Tate’s audience because many of his videos were uploaded from an opaque network of fan accounts. But he recently described his fans as predominantly young.

Jordan Peterson, a similar (though somewhat less crass) reactionary “guru”, initially described his online audience as “80% male” and skewing young, though he now claims it has diversified.

Young people tend to be more left-leaning than older generations. But there is evidently a cohort of young men who are receptive to right-wing — and specifically anti-feminist — commentary. Research suggests this online “manosphere” thrives on social isolation, which has risen significantly among young men. Content creators like Tate seek to convert it into resentment of others, especially women.

But how big is this “angry young men” cohort? And do its views just manifest online, or does it translate to the ballot box?

New data shows Australian youth divided

Research presented at a recent Macquarie University seminar, using data for the Australian Cooperative Election Survey, clarifies these questions in the Australian context.

It showed young men and women are more starkly divided on gender issues than older generations. This is partly because older women have more socially conservative views compared with younger women, putting them closer to men their age. Conversely, young women are very socially progressive, whereas by some measures the average young man is actually more conservative on gender issues than his father’s or grandfather’s generation.

The data also showed a greater gender split among young people’s votes in the May federal election. Older people of these two genders tended to vote similarly, and more conservatively, as they aged. Young men were more likely to vote Labor than older men, but young women did so in noticeably greater numbers. There was also a significant gender gap among Greens voters.

A gendered campaign?

It’s not precisely clear whether the gender split among young people on social issues and voting is related. But a key event in former prime minister Scott Morrison’s tenure — Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations — show it might have been a factor. Women voters moved significantly towards Labor in the aftermath.

“Young women I wouldn’t say were radicalised, but definitely politicised,” said gender expert Michelle Arrow, who worked on the research. “But for men, [their voting intention] didn’t change much. The debate Higgins and [Grace] Tame started was about male behaviour. I wonder if that left many young men feeling uncomfortable or even personally implicated.”

Other possible explanations are income and education. “This also reflects a reconfiguration of who Labor’s core constituency is,” Arrow said. “The majority of university students are now women, and more jobs now require university credentials. But the main ones that don’t, but still provide a ticket to good incomes, are trades — which remain highly male dominated — and which have become more entrepreneurial.”

Increasingly, young women are more strongly invested in their labour, which aligns their interests with left-leaning, pro-worker parties.

“We saw this in the way the parties crafted their images,” Arrow said. “A lot of Morrison’s image was around the tradie, who is an aspirational figure for many young men. Contrast that with Albanese, who was interviewed by Grace Tame in InStyle magazine and forefronted the care industries.”

Global shift in gender politics

This isn’t just an Australian phenomenon. Young Americans are also politically divided by gender.

Shaun Wilson, another academic who worked on the research, cautioned against over-extrapolating the data: “Young men are still majority left-leaning, partly due to economic issues. But there is a curious persistence of conflict over gender roles that is not necessarily increasing but not going away either.”

Diverging social views suggest cultural reactionaries like Tate are succeeding in courting the young male demographic. Their success online might not yet be flowing through to the ballot box in great numbers, but their intentions are clearly political — Tate has hung out with far-right UK politician Nigel Farage, for instance.

“It’s a pretty disturbing picture around the world,” Arrow said. “We’re seeing the radicalisation of many young men. Figures like Donald Trump and the far right are looking to young men much more than young women.”

For those of us committed to equality, abating the far right’s appeal to young men demands promoting economic solidarity, combating social isolation and persuasively pushing back against bigotry. But unlike Tate, the views he typifies might prove harder to cancel.

Do you lean more left or right than your partner on social issues? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.