Canada’s recent federal election suggests a growing gender divide in political preferences.
Polling indicated women voters leaned strongly toward the Liberals, while an increasing number of men — particularly younger men — gravitated toward the Conservatives.
This polarization was not simply a matter of partisan preference but reflected deeper social, cultural and economic realignments rooted in identity politics and diverging values.
The gender gap also mirrors patterns across western democracies, where far-right populist parties increasingly draw male support through nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-feminist narratives, while women — especially racialized and university-educated — opt for progressive parties promoting equality and social protection.
I am a Canadian man but not young. I’m baffled by the trend towards social conservatism by young men. They idolize Andrew Tate and abuse their female teachers. It’s pretty awful. It’s like the whole incel movement took over young boys’ minds.
I blame smartphones, social media and dating apps for the mess we’re in right now…esp dating apps. School age kids don’t go on dating apps, but they look up to people who do.
Most young of-age people these days hook up through dating apps, but the playing field on dating apps is so heavily tilted towards women that most normal young guys are invisible to most young women.
The apps don’t want anyone to succeed and leave the apps. They don’t want men to succeed, so they make them invisible. Then, social media is there to feed them lies about why they’re not having success on the apps.
The apps also don’t want women to succeed, so they feed them a constant dopamine fix of matches to keep them hooked. Social media and dating apps are just videogames for girls, and they cash in on it.
Neither side really has a chance. Guys are peeing into the wind, and girls are wading through shit.
In reality, it’s not actually these lonely guys, or these overwhelmed women, but the apps that are the problem. These lonely, radicalized guys are just a symptom of that problem.
Social media and the dating apps need to do better, but there’s too much money to be made for it to change. Maybe we just need another Carrington Event to balance the scales back to normal again.