I have always believed that hardening of arteries is far less dreadful than the narrowing of the mind. As a septuagenarian, I’ve tried to resist the creeping conservativism too often typical of advancing years. While no raging grandpa, I like to think that through the decades, my politics have tilted evermore leftward. Still, I increasingly wonder––am I really open to the emerging world as viewed by the young?

It is sobering for those of my generation to remind ourselves that in our adolescence, people in their seventies were teens when the Titanic went down. Some even younger than we are now were veterans of the First World War. In the 1960s, most old folk were bewildered by the ‘counterculture’ with which we identified.  To the small extent the elderly knew anything about the world of hippies, it seemed bewildering––if not threatening…

Nearly six decades later, I am bewildered by youth culture.  That is, to the small extent that I know anything about it.  Yet merely by not living inside a wifi-impenetrable bunker–– some exposure to popular culture is unavoidable.

I have never taken to social media. The open sharing of personal messages has always seemed an affront to the unique and private sanctity of every friendship. I occasionally browse Facebook but have never joined a network of ‘friends.’ I’ve also peeped into other social media as far as allowed without setting up accounts. Such curiosity sometimes exceeds research–– but ‘lurking’ has always felt creepy. In any case, as an old––but curious–– outsider, I have made the following observations:

The young (at least in North America) seem to have largely abandoned Facebook while flocking to video-sharing platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Therein they watch “trending” videos and sometimes post their own clips. Their uploads are commonly in response to “challenges,” e.g.: the cutest dancing step, the grossest gorging or the most death-defying stunt (e.g. acrobatics atop a speeding subway car). Many users dream that their performances might “go viral.” Some even strike it rich as “content creators” with their own popular YouTube channels. Unsurprisingly, wholesome family fare is not the most sought-after content.

Younger teens are apparently drawn more to apps like Snapshot–– specifically designed for ephemerality. Its user-posted media disappear within twenty-four hours. That feature not only caters to short attention spans but eliminates the dangers of internet permanence. A photo of drunken vomiting or flashing boobs can no longer be exposed, like an ugly tattoo, in some future reference check.

Meanwhile, there is a dark-matter universe of creepiness outside of social media sites. On any browser, sadistic porn and gory violence are but a few clicks away.  Little fingers are adept at bypassing net-nanny controls. For the generation effectively weaned on the internet, the longer-term effect of unbridled dark-side browsing are yet to be known…

Sadistic porn aside, even the most seemingly innocuous content (e.g. cats dancing on piano keys) has an insidious effect on young minds. Apps like TikTok are designed to dole out eye candy in endless sticky morsels. Studies already show a correlation between online ‘dopamine-binging’ and attention deficit disorder…  

Whether or not those of an internet-weaned generation are able to read––let alone able to think critically–– many are taking interest in politics. Evidence of that is in the mushrooming of political social media.

The takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk was ostensibly for the championing of freer expression. In effect, he removed the sewage filters.  Far right and racist postings now proliferate on his ‘X’.

When not losing themselves in gaming or fantasy roleplay, young men seem particularly drawn to political sites. The algorithmic feeds therein do not lend themselves to middle-of-the-road discourse. Platforms such as Parler and Gab tend to push their users into deeper frustration over perceived threats and enemies.  Quite aptly, these sites have been called “rage machines” wherein crazy notions and conspiracies flourish.

Loony-left strains are certainly among the mutating viruses. Yet an overview of social media and its popular influencers indicates that there is far more rage on the right. The seeds of far-right rage were planted long before the arrival of the World Wide Web. But with the advent of social media–– the metastasis has been super-charged…

I hardly knew of Charlie Kirk before September 10th, 2025. During the 2024 election, I knew his name only in connection with a Republican youth movement called ‘Turning Point USA.’  I had also heard about his controversial appearances on college campuses where be sought to deprogram students of their supposed indoctrination by liberal academia.  I had never seen him interviewed or ever listened to his Twitch podcasts. I could not even identify his photo.  

Suddenly, a shocking clip of his death by a sniper’s bullet was circulating on ‘X’.  In the flurry of messages from MAGAworld, Kirk was portrayed as a Christian warrior struck down in his glory:  battling lefties in open debate. Within hours, he was proclaimed a MAGA martyr.

Few among the many who disagreed with that portrayal, failed to empathize with the 31-year-old’s bereaved widow and kids. Yet outside of the Trumpian hothouse, the comparisons of Charlie Kirk to Martin Luther King were hard to stomach. That was especially after a few brave reporters drew attention to vile remarks from Kirk’s speeches and interviews. Among them: “black women do not have brain processing power to be taken seriously.”  Another seemed particularly ironic, given the circumstances of his killing: “I think it’s worth to have a cost of… some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.“

Understandably, Trump world was reeling in the loss of a figure credited with bringing younger voters into their 2024 winning coalition. Yet somewhat less predictable was the swiftness with which mourning turned to retribution.

The killer turned out to be a white boy apparently in rebellion against his Mormon Republican family.  Indications were that he had acted alone. Cryptic messages engraved on bullet casings found at the murder scene suggested a disturbed 22-year-old who spent far too much time online.

Even before those details emerged, rage on the right had coalesced around a sinister them. “The problem is on the left,” Trump proclaimed.

His administration announced that anyone who “celebrated” Kirk’s death would be prosecuted.  ‘Celebrated’ was ominously vague.  In her statement, Attorney General Bondi implied that criticism of Kirk would be considered “hate speech.” Vice President Vance went further: He stated that anyone who posted negative comments about Kirk should be fired from their jobs. A website was subsequently set up for fellow workers to rat out offenders. A few editorials pointed out the hypocrisy of Republicans–– the self-proclaimed guardians of free speech–– engaging in the very “cancel culture” they accuse of the left. In response to that–– Trump’s sneering Svengali, Stephen Miller, warned that the new watchwords were not cancel culture: “but consequence culture.”

As the Kirk killing fades from the news cycle, its consequence will almost certainly not.  The Trump administration plainly intends to use the tragedy as a pretext for crushing its enemies.  As for the legacy of Kirk:  one can already envision the MAGA faithful waving his portrait in Republican rallies.

That brought to my mind the figure of Horst Wessel.  He was the young Nazi allegedly killed by communists during Hitler’s rise to power. Although the circumstances of his death were murky, Nazi propaganda portrayed Wessel as a martyr to their cause. ‘Horst-Wessel-Lied’ [song], written to glorify his memory, became a Nazi anthem. It is not wild to predict that the grand commemoration of Kirk at the 2028 Republican convention will include a soaring musical tribute…

In talking politics with my 33-year-old son, I sometimes sense a bemused tolerance. He tends to regard my views as predictable of an old-guard lefty. Under gentle prodding–– he has claimed to be: “…independent, open-minded and not beholden to any ideology.” That description was offered with a cryptic smile.

As a Canadian doing doctoral studies in the USA–– my son wisely stayed clear of politics. Still, in his having stayed in residence at Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley, I do wonder.  How could he be impervious to the ideas of the ‘new right’ fomenting there?  

Although we haven’t had much face-to-face conversation over the last few years, we regularly chat on WhatsApp. We share links to news analysis. He often devil’s advocates against my take on controversial issues. For a couple of recent examples: In response to my bemoaning the assault on multiculturalism, he recommended I read Yoran Hazony’s ‘the Virtue of Nationalism,’ As for my frequent scorching of conservative Catholicism along with evangelical Christianity––he suggested Ross Douthat’s: ‘Believe: Why Everyone should be Religious’… I have yet to follow through with those recommendations.

He can probably guess that I am troubled that not only young men who are ill-informed or unintelligent are drawn to conservatism. Of course, there is a world of difference between the conservative tradition of Edmund Burke and the vulgar nativism of Donald Trump. I recognise that there are thoughtful young conservatives who do not fit the toxic mould of the late Charlie Kirk. Yet I wonder––where are their counterparts on the left?

Among the phrases repeated in the tributes to Charlie Kirk, was: “he made being conservative cool again.”  Of course, MAGA, to which he bore first allegiance, is a very different beast than the old Republican conservative species. Moreover, in the run-up to the 2024 election Kirk was only one of the ‘superstars’ attracting younger voters to the MAGA fold. Cool podcasters like Joe Rogan and a score of cool athletes enthusiastically endorsed Trump. Young men watching a TikTok clip of a mixed martial arts match with you-know-who sitting in the front row––would have no doubt who was their presidential candidate.

Young men have always liked to think themselves rebels. Outside the American Deep South and Midwest, conservative and Christian students until recently have been a minority in non-religious academic institutions. They have been able to righteously regard themselves as rebels––bucking an entrenched liberal establishment. If they emerge as a new majority, they can wear MAGA hats and crosses in the same spirit as their grandparents wore peace symbols.

In the leadup to Trump’s return, many young men were in rebellion against so-called ‘political correctness.’  There was constant uproar on the right over Sunday-school-like rules of behaviour supposedly imposed by the left ‘establishment.’  Politically-correct restrictions purportedly ran the gamut from use of language, taboo of red meat–– even to etiquette of sexual foreplay…  

The bitterness of many young males against the supposed shoehorning by feminists reflected a growing gender divide in American politics. There certainly are keen young female supporters of Trump–– not all of whom are blonde ‘tradwives’ like Charlie Kirk’s widow.  Yet the striking down of freedom of choice in abortion by the conservative Supreme Court, was an inflection point for a majority of American women. In 2024, younger women overwhelmingly supported the Democrats.  Still, that support was not enough for Harris to overcome the surge for Trump by younger males.

At its core, MAGA has always been about white male grievance. The supposed injustice of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies was a common theme of Trump’s unhinged speeches. Harris was herself ridiculed as “a DEI hire.” Yet in 2024, significant numbers of younger blacks and Hispanics also voted for Trump. Many were rebelling against the Democratic “plantation” in which the subservience of “coloured folk” was supposedly taken for granted.  Like their white counterparts, many of those young non-white males were probably also rebelling against so-called cancel culture.

In the Biden era, no single issue provoked more right-wing rage than ‘wokeism.’  Nothing energized speakers like Charlie Kirk more than being drowned out by ‘woke’ college activists. To have a speaking engagement cancelled by lefty student activists was a badge of honour for figures of the right… Yet in the last nine months, ‘cancel culture’ has been turned on its head: 

A prime example is in the administration’s vow to wipe out antisemitism on college campuses. Since the Gaza war, there have been a few documented cases of cruel harassment of Jewish students by pro-Palestinian protestors. But very few. Now, even Palestinian flags are banned on some campuses in the justification that their display might distress some students. Claims of humiliation by mere exposure to symbols of Palestinian resistance are now prosecuted with the same laws that protect Jewish people from harm by neo-Nazis.

The right used to complain about the left’s oversensitivity to conservatives’ exercise of free speech. Who could have imagined a Republican administration undertaking firings, expulsions from college and deportations based on microaggressions?

Admittedly through the early 2020s, I felt some aspects of ‘wokeism’ were inviting backlash. However unfairly it is now maligned, I understand the pressure young men feel in conforming to what seems performative ritual. Old folks and probably many women feel it, too.

I cannot deny sometimes fidgeting during sanctimonious First Nations land acknowledgements. I have also struggled to remember the most up-to-date acronyms for sexual identities.  Getting gender pronouns straight has been another minor irritation. In some conversations, I’ve felt nervous about stumbling into a microaggression. I take issue with Ibram X. Kendi, that as a white male, I need anti-racist education. I suppose that if I were not an invisible old man–– my sense of humour would probably get me cancelled in some quarters…

Still, performative ‘woke’ gestures (which certain vulnerable people appreciate) require little effort. Anecdotes of extreme pressure for ‘woke’ compliance have been typically exaggerated for political aims. In retrospect, the whipping up of ‘anti-wokeism’ rage was a mean-spirited victory of the right. ‘Anti-wokeism’ has since become a justification for obliterating all policy remotely connected with promoting social justice.

Griping about wokeism now seems like kicking a dead horse…  

An old friend of mine recently texted that he prefers reading the columns of thoughtful American conservatives (David Brooks was his example) rather than those of liberals. ‘Why are journalists of the left always shrill?’ he asked.

 ‘Because their hair really is on fire,’ I replied.  

Never since Trump 2.0 have sledgehammers and flamethrowers been used against American institutions. Never have institutional heads reacted to government pressure by shamelessly kissing the ring of the Corleone-in-chief. Never before has an international community (what’s left of it) had to deal with the whims of an 80-year-old demagogue who behaves like a petulant 5-year-old.  

Meanwhile, right-wing populism is on the march throughout the western world. No longer operating behind the scenes, puppet-masters are brazenly pulling the strings in the open. A new order appears to be emerging in which a handful of trillionaire technocrats plan to exercise power, unrestrained. Never has the survival of democracy seemed so in doubt.  

Never has a political moment seemed so apocalyptic at this one. But if apocalypse is at hand, it is not the version eagerly awaited by evangelical Christians. ‘The rough beast’ is not ‘slouching towards Bethlehem to be born.’ It rather looks like it’s squatting in its gilded Oval Office surrounded by sycophants…

Is it any wonder why so many voices from the left are shrill?

I have never been a ‘glass half-full’ kind of guy, but I gladly latch onto every sprig of hope. Among the more recent shoots:

In London, eight hundred sign-carrying protestors were arrested for objecting to the banning of a Palestinian support group. Many were elderly grey panthers. Undeterred, many went back on the street upon release where they were rearrested. They vowed to keep returning.

Then there was another flotilla, sailing across the Mediterranean in attempt to bring aid relief to Gaza. Predictably, the vessels were seized by the Israeli Navy and the occupants detained. Among them was climate activist, Greta Thunberg. She was reportedly singled out for humiliation while in captivity. That experience will no doubt strengthen the 22-year-old’s resolve…

Unsurprisingly, that story was hardly reported in American mainstream media. Yet even as corporate media grovel to Trump and pay out millions in extortion, some journalists are still taking on MAGA. Many journalists have left legacy media for the greater freedom of politically-themed podcasts. Substack features ‘never-Trumper’ moderates. Most popular among the younger and more radical voices is that of Hasan Piker, podcasting on Twitch. He has been threatened with banning–– but is as yet, undeterred.

There are lower court judges who have stalled several of Trump’s sweeping orders. Even though the Supreme Court had repeatedly upheld expanded presidential authority, some judges–– even Republican appointees–– valiantly continue to block several. Meanwhile, public pressure resulting from media coverage has led to the release from custody of a few attempted deportations. Prominent was that of Mahmoud Khalil–– who continues to speak “truth to power.”

Then there are protestors who are confronting the ICE agents and the soldiers deployed to their streets. In one recent video clip–– a man on a bicycle in Chicago weaved away from ICE agents chasing on foot–– making his masked pursuers look ridiculous…

Those are just a few sprigs pushing up through the concrete.

A key question is: can all the scattered shoots of green be nurtured into a forest of resistance? The right seems to have little difficulty in uniting. Indeed, far-right populist movements are either in power or at the gates of power throughout the world.  

In America––the belly of the beast–– the centre-left opposition is feeble and unpopular. Plainly, the Democratic Party cannot regain any semblance of credibility until it gets priorities straight. It needs to offer more than merely being the anti-MAGA party.  It needs an alternative vision. Old lion of the left, Bernie Sanders, continues to eloquently make the case for democratic socialism but is too often shrill. Most urgent for the Democratic Party (in the estimation of one elderly Canuck given to obsess on American politics) is to attract the young.

I would further venture that best hope for America in 2028 in for the emergence of a new figure with the charisma of Obama. Before the currently youngest voters were even born, he built a majority coalition driven by youthful enthusiasm. A new leader able to generate his initial excitement, could make fighting for democracy, environmental protection and social justice ‘cool’ again. However, for any hope of building a winning coalition–– virtue signalling must never again be a requirement…

The three years before the next US election will no doubt be long and rough. The deployment to the cities of soldiers and national guards will probably continue. Such escalation will hopefully be met by ever larger protests. There may be violent confrontations. Whatever pressures the Trump administration should bear upon non-compliance with its authoritarian policies, hopefully, the resistance will not be intimidated.   

Up to the present, protest gatherings have been scattered and marchers relatively few. The risks of joining in what may seem a futile effort may even seem reckless. (In such regard one might think if the quixotic flotillas to Gaza). Still, the worthiness of seemingly futile acts of resistance are never determined until the final outcome…

One hopes that the young will be increasingly moved to non-violent public protest. After all, the future is theirs. As for the old:  many of us simply want to be spared the agony of a last glimpse of a world which appears hopeless… 

More public participation of young men currently burrowing into online rabbit holes would be especially reassuring. To them, I would make the following rhetorical appeal:

 ‘Tear away from your screens and rise up from your gaming chairs… You have nothing to lose but your joysticks!’

–2025, October

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