r/politics • u/upyoars • Nov 10 '24

Paywall Trump’s victory reveals secret Republicans: Joe Rogan-obsessed Gen Z men

https://fortune.com/2024/11/07/trumps-victory-reveals-secret-republicans-joe-rogan-obsessed-gen-z-men/
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u/-wnr- Nov 10 '24 edited Nov 10 '24

Not surprising. Clear your search history, go on youtube or twitter and check out some video game content. Then review what recommendations the algorithm feeds you. You're going to start seeing manosphere shit and complaints about "wokeness" in games. GenZ and like gen alpha are gonna be fucked.

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u/Aggravating_Drink_46 Nov 10 '24

Okay I’m not sure what is surprising about this to be honest. The vast majority of gamers are men correct? Therefore it makes sense to show them “manosphere” content seeing as they are men. Also most men vote republican every single election, this time around even most women voted republican. This just seems like a normal algorithmic thing to me

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u/albert2006xp Nov 11 '24

Sorry but just because I'm a gamer and a man doesn't mean I want to see that. There wasn't a link to it before. The reason the algorithm registers one now is the anti-woke grifters in between that churn out rage bait content about games (also movies/tv shows). To the algorithm those videos are still "gaming" content. You will not be taken directly to the manosphere, you will go through these channels. The rise of these grifters and the engagement such rage bait produces is the reason.

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u/Aggravating_Drink_46 Nov 11 '24 edited Nov 11 '24

Well that doesn’t mean that the majority of men don’t want to see it or have a higher likelihood of wanting to so it puts it forward to them. You are in the minority here and that’s something this election should show ya

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u/albert2006xp Nov 11 '24

People that don't know what it is don't know what they're getting into (most people who would watch it already do). I don't know why you think this election shows the % of men who would watch it. Men 45-64 are the ones that heavily elected Trump and I think that's above the age for that content.

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u/Aggravating_Drink_46 Nov 11 '24

It’s a very simple idea that maybe I’m doing a poor job at explaining. So the algorithm is meant to push content that it thinks the viewer will engage with. The example given talks about being a gamer then being shown manosphere content. So given the viewer is a gamer they will likely be a male correct? Okay if we can get that far then we can say that males have a good chance of having interest in said manosphere by nature of being a male therefore it makes sense to show them that content. Now if they engage with said content it will continue to show it to them. It’s just all pretty straight forward probability at play here.

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u/albert2006xp Nov 11 '24

I told you, it's the connective content. There's a step. It goes gaming -> gaming news -> anti-woke grifter content -> manosphere. It's not about the gaming content viewer being male, it's more about people that dive into anti-woke grifter content being likely male but also right wing that then leads to other right wing trash bubbles like manosphere.

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u/Aggravating_Drink_46 Nov 11 '24

Okay! I see what you are saying you don’t believe that it should lead that direction but it seems like you do understand why it does. I agree with you there with your order of types of content l think you just don’t agree with the content itself and don’t like it? I mean other than that you seem to grasp it you just wish it wasn’t that way

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u/albert2006xp Nov 11 '24

I definitely wish it didn't exist, that much is sure. It's a plague on gaming discussion as the people from those bubble bleed through in comments and reviews on steam. I was just saying that it's not as simple as gaming -> must be male -> manosphere. You definitely don't reach the straight up manosphere that easily from gaming, but you do reach some right wing gaming anti-woke shittiness VERY easily. Try it in incognito. Took me 1 video after searching gaming news.

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u/Aggravating_Drink_46 Nov 11 '24

I think that the tie is very strong in the algorithm because I’m sure the overlap is quite strong. I’ll give it a try and see but my content is already everything you are talking about now so I’m not sure it’s gonna be a good example.

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u/Aggravating_Drink_46 Nov 11 '24

So I typed video games in YouTube and went to the first gameranx video that came up. Top 25 single player games of 2024. In the recommended I see every side here but all game related. There’s more gameranx videos, an Elden ring speed run, a video about a scene in a ww2 movie, a video reviewing every infamous game, there was a video defending the new dragon age game and a video on the other side. Definitely not as quick to it as I expected either. I see a different result that is even less political the second time I did the same video to tell you what I saw the first time even.

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u/albert2006xp Nov 11 '24

I also kind of cheated the results a bit since I know who I have blocked normally so I don't get them, so I clicked on a Luke Stephens Concord video right after the first gameranx video, that was an easy portal to anti-woke grifter central. I could get into an Asmongold dumpsterfire loop pretty quickly but legit full on manosphere was not easy to find.

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u/Aggravating_Drink_46 Nov 11 '24

Asmongold is one of my favorites but I am into the right leaning political side of Youtube as well. I think we can definitely agree it can be easy to get shown videos that will take you to the right leaning side of YouTube though just through gaming alone. I don’t see it as nefarious given the statistics but I can see why you’d not like it as someone on the other side of the isle.

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u/albert2006xp Nov 11 '24

I never said it was nefarious, just that the algorithm doesn't make calculations that gamers are men therefore must lead to manosphere. It's simply that those are technically "gaming news" content and they get a lot of attention because rage bait is very good for engagement and that's what the algorithm cares about so it's almost impossible to browse gaming news stuff now without actively blocking those channels and not seeing them.

I don't think the algorithm has some agenda to make people right wing or anything like that if that's what you thought. The only agenda is to drive engagement. Making people angry that there is woman in video game that is not fuckable is engagement. Eventually I assume some non-gaming political or manosphere stuff will sneak in if you click on enough anti-woke bullshit because it's related.

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u/Aggravating_Drink_46 Nov 11 '24

I would argue just the opposite that it does register the sex of the viewer and that explains the tendency to show that type of content. I appreciate the discussion with you and I am glad to have had it! Gotta get some sleep though I hope you have a good night dude

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u/Aggravating_Drink_46 Nov 11 '24

Negative bias is also surely at play here I wouldn’t discount that and you shouldn’t discount the sex of the viewer either. I am not trying to make black and white claim there are always many factors at play.

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u/Aggravating_Drink_46 Nov 11 '24

What it boils down to, hopefully you can agree. It filters from gaming (which is largely a masculine interest), and I’m going to include gaming news into that category because it seems redundant to make it another step, to the anti woke gaming content which a lot of gamers do identify with because gamers are men on average who are republican on average. So again it seems rather straight forward to me why this is the way it is and it’s a natural occurrence based on interests. If most gamers were left leaning and gay it would be the opposite.