Yes, the movements were small to start but grew and effected real change. Some of the tenets took hold and became the norm, it was more than a blip and a way for news corps to sell papers.
The fascists are currently the minority and they are having some success of their own. I just expected fewer of my age group to be supporting them.
Yes, but even then, it was a minority, especially with regards to white men. The thing that really drew in people was after Johnson expanded the war after Gulf of Tonkin. For some people, the anti-war movement was more about their fears about the war (which of course were not unfounded at all) and less about a moral stance about the war itself. The draft more than anything else, lit a fire under people, especially under young white men.
Some of that was just the general liberal consensus too, though. And in fact, I’d argue that the anti-government element was the strongest part of the outcome of those protests, and not all of that has been positive.
They are, but they have powerful forces on their side (especially the judiciary, especially SCOTUS and the libertarian leaning silicon valley). And there difference there is that the left of the 60s was not trying to “take over” the country (not the majority of the movement) and impose their values on everyone. They were simply looking for greater freedoms for all.
You got to go back to the general anti-government sentiment that came out of those movements (especially those with participation of white, middle class people). That came from the left and right, and the far right has taken advantage of that. See also this book:
https://www.graceelizabethhale.com/nation-of-outsiders
Being of a particular demographic doesn’t gurantee anything with regards to political beliefs, I guess is my larger point. Gen X men also seem to be more conservative leaning…
That book looks very interesting, thanks.
No, there are no guarantees about anything, anytime, anywhere. But I am allowed to be surprised, pleasantly or otherwise, at how things shake out.
ETA: I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore your excellent points.
Yes, that was a big boon for the anti-war movement, Canada too for that matter. I like to think that for those who joined for fear of the draft had some other progressive ideals rub off on them.
Yes, but galvanized and given voice at that time,and prompting discussion about doing something about it.
That kind of support would’ve been really helpful back then. 
In 1970 I was 12 and these folks were among my heroes.
No True Boomer?
I encountered a sea lion on reddit yesterday. I recognized what they were doing, thankfully, very quickly, so I stopped even trying to argue with them and basically called them out. And then they started in with “I’m just playing devil’s advocate and trying to understand” blah blah blah. I directly said, “No, you’re not. I didn’t just join the Internet yesterday.” And then they started in with the “Why are you so offended?” I don’t remember what I said, but then they slipped up and came back with “I’m just trying to understand the other side. Why are you so angry?” And I shot back with “Oh so now you admit you’re on the other side? I thought you were just playing devil’s advocate?” It was actually a rather satisfying exchange.
This is just so true.
And anti-government can mean a lot of things, especially in the south.
I think people overestimate the importance of the political and ideological in people’s identities and social expressions. Some percentage of these boomers were just a part of counterculture for drugs and sex because those are pretty strong motivators. Some may just actually have been angry at their family and rebelling etc.
Maybe they regret it or maybe they don’t but if they were such a person they likely see all that protest as excuses for delinquency and/or if they continued on to have bad substance abuse issues the subsequent alienation as burnout and abuse can isolate them over time. This can then make them prime targets for grifters and political cultists. But then maybe they relate to the sense of being rejected unfairly because they recall being treated negatively for being soldiers etc. Alternatively some folks overcompensate/overcorrect either in themselves or, more perversely, in others. Shame fucks people up.
And if you play your cards right conservative culture often offers a re-entry point for men that can be quite compelling. Women less so maybe but… them too. Imagine having access to status and privilege that would have been unthinkable as a young person. Imagine getting to feel good about keeping some one from making the same mistake as you did years ago. There are good solid motivating reasons to rethink any youthful assumptions that may assert themselves multiple times for an aging person in the form of real opportunity.
People like to talk about their life in terms of politics and ideologies but I’m not so sure those are really the things that matter in terms of how groups of people actually live their lives.
A lot of things probably add up to drive men from that age group deeper into the rabbit hole while those men probably don’t think they have changed that much I guess is what I’m trying to say. Sometimes they really actually just haven’t changed that much since then too.
I wonder if some of this decline is the result of felon45 killing off some of his supporters from covid?
I’m wondering how many have jumped off websites and into Telegram, etc.?
Yes, you heard that from a lot of the previous generation. Young people didn’t have any sincere beliefs, they were just chicken for not marching off to war the way their parents did. Funny that the youth of Canada and western Europe were protesting the war even though they weren’t subject to the US draft, almost as if they actually meant what they were saying.
“Young white men?” People were aware even at the time that the burdens of the war fell disproportionately on Black men.
And yet someone says “boomer” and here we are again (not you, Mindy) playing “Tell me your age and I’ll tell you your politics”, trying to keep the generations from working together.
Which isn’t what I meant. Unlike my grandfather’s generation, where there was a good bit of clarity about what the war was about (a direct attack on the US, saving the world from fascism, etc) the aims of Vietnam were far less clear. So, they were being asked to die (and to kill) for an unclear objective… some in the US protested the war prior to Gulf of Tonkin, but the saw a dramatic increase in anti-war sentiment AFTER that, when half a million young men were going in and out of the country.
Yes, I’m aware, primarily because many young white men could get deferments more easily, especially if they were middle class. And it was probably easier to flee the country if you were white and lower/middle class. Not all of them. My step father did several tours as a young man. So I DO understand that side of things too…
I wish we had a emoticon.
'66 vintage here. I have become increasingly left wing, and increasingly angry re: the lack of empathy and profusion of injustice as I age, as did Mom (1943-2020).
So how about Fox News? Traffic there down since 2020 too? I’m off to search.
eta: Well, it seems Fox News viewers in prime time have declined from 3 million in 2020 to 2 million in 2024. However, Fox News is still the top cable news source (at least in daytime)
CNN’s prime news time slot (8 to 11 p.m.) audience decreased by 25% from 1.1 million in 2021 to 828,000 in 2022.
So, 25% decline vs. 30% decline for Fox. Likely more a factor of television viewership? This is different than what is described by the post, I suppose.
Off Topic Note relating to discussions elsewhere: I used Perplexity.ai for the search, just for fun. I checked the cites directly afterwards. As proponents have explained, I was able to refine my original search easily in a way that was very helpful. Previously I was firmly in the boolean search and human research, but this is one good result.
That’s mainly because CNN and MSNBC consistently “split the vote” for non-conservative news, and because OnAN and Newstrash are still fringe operations with much smaller marketing budgets and smaller entrenched viewer bases. That’s been the state of play in cable news for a long time.
This article is mainly about right-wing Internet outlets, where there are lower barriers to entry, more competitors, and less inertia. More people, especially younger people, are getting their news and opinion fixes through Internet than cable TV, so you’re right that this is about declining TV viewership and an aging/dying audience for Faux.
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