Opinion | Masculinity, Podcasts and Trump: 12 Men Discuss

America has misplaced its means relating to males: the teachings they’re taught as boys, the conduct anticipated of them at work and socially, the expectations of what being a person are. The return of Donald Trump as president would possibly begin setting issues straight — that’s the hope, not less than, among the many 12 males in our newest Occasions Opinion focus group. All of them voted for Mr. Trump in November not solely as a result of they preferred his views on the economic system, crime and immigration but in addition as a result of lots of them consider he’s “a person’s man” whose authorities management and method to American tradition will assist many males who really feel devalued, neglected, misplaced or remoted.

“One of many causes so many younger males in all probability voted for Donald Trump is that they’re having hassle discovering their means in our present society,” argued one among our contributors, Matthew, a 43-year-old from Tennessee.

With Mr. Trump making ready to take workplace on Monday, we needed to dig into why one among his core constituencies — males preferring Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, YouTube and X over the mainstream media — put a lot belief in these sources of data and consider that Mr. Trump, specifically, has their backs. We spoke with a mixture of Republicans, Democrats and one impartial of assorted ages, races and ethnicities and professions.

Why do these males belief what they belief? Repeatedly, they mentioned they had been drawn to qualities like frequent sense, curiosity and freewheeling debate and to folks with robust beliefs who’re prepared to go toe-to-toe with anybody. Listening to the boys, you may see why Mark Zuckerberg, who not too long ago appeared on Mr. Rogan’s podcast, shelved the fact-checking operation at Meta: They mentioned their views had been formed partially by dialog and debates on podcasts that might final hours and never from information and social media sources that offered fact-checking that the boys didn’t think about.

Essentially the most strong debates within the group had been about what constituted a “man’s man” — a theme that saved arising — and why some males really feel remoted or depressed in society in the present day. For essentially the most half, although, they had been optimistic in regards to the future below Mr. Trump and his allies. “I’ve been an Elon Musk fan since earlier than in all probability most of you knew who Elon was,” mentioned Jon, a 45-year-old from Pennsylvania. “And the truth that I’ve an opportunity to reside in an America the place Elon and Vivek Ramaswamy are charged with ridding the federal government of fraud, waste and abuse — that’s the America I need to reside in.”