Exploiting Male Rage

Paul Krugman: “The thing is, there are real reasons for the upsurge in resentment by young white males. American men have in important ways been hurt by the changes in our society over the past several decades. Richard Reeves published an excellent book about the subject, Of Boys and Men, in 2022… He discusses a wide variety of topics. What I want to focus on, enlarging his analysis, is the economic side of the problem of men in America. The most important aspect of that side is the growing number of men in their prime working years who are not in the labor force…”

“Clearly, something has gone wrong for prime working-age American men. And the demoralization caused by the decline in economic opportunity fuels political radicalization.”

“Despite the unremitting chaos, there is an underlying unifying theme in Trump’s economic policy: that he will avenge men’s loss of status and bring back ‘manly jobs’ by going after those he considers the villains — cheating international trading partners, lying environmentalists and supporters of renewable energy, the federal ‘deep state’, and sneering intellectuals.”