this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five
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It’s called the manosphere, and it’s a bunch of bad podcasters and YouTubers giving shitty advice on how to be a man to insecure kids. It’s annoying because it’s so stupid on its face and yet it’s working.
Can you blame them, though? I can’t think of a single person speaking for young men who is also widely accepted by the liberal left - or however you want to define the "good guys." Even here on Lemmy, anyone slightly deviating from the narrative is met with extreme hostility. It’s not that young men are naturally drawn to figures like Andrew Tate - they’re being pushed there.
How about the hundreds speaking to 'people' in general instead of young men? Making your target audience 14yo boys is kind of fucked up on its own.
Edit: as people habe pointed out, this comment is too generalized and not valid out of context. Of course there needs to be media for all ages. We should focus on limiting misuse in the form of indoctrination and manipulation.
This is an age group that does need guidance through, and it's looking for it, and if not provided with a positive role model will latch on to any that they can find.
As an example, look at "Gregory's Garden Goofballs" episode from Abbott Elementary. A group of the older kids start hanging out in Gregory's classroom because he's the "cool teacher" and he gets uncomfortable with it, especially when they start asking him advice about girls and because he doesn't have his free time anymore. But then he realizes this can be a good thing and that if they are hanging out with him and he's giving them advice, at least they are with a positive role model. So he sacrifices his free time to be the positive force for the older kids that aren't even his students, because otherwise they might gravitate to a less positive source.
Thank you for the positive comment. I agree that my initial comment was too hasty and I havent thought it through before posting. The real problem is not targeting teenagers per se, but rather trying to push an agenda by taking advantage of their insecurities