Surging Popularity of Online Right Drives Voters to Trump
After Donald Trump won the presidential election in November last year, many were taken by surprise. Everyone knew it would be close, but he swept all the swing states, and took the popular vote, too. How could that have happened? The signs were rather clear in a place no one thought to consider: social media trends, especially superficial ones.
There had been a rise in conservatism on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram for months, perhaps years, before November. This is not solely why Donald Trump rose to power, but underlying cultural tones do indicate a larger shift of general opinion. The undertones of posts and widespread trends seemed harmless, but indicated a widespread shift in fundamental beliefs, especially within younger generations.
Before diving into the world of conservatism, what is it? If you google the word, it will tell you that conservatism is:
1. The commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation, or
2. The holding of political views that favor free enterprise, private ownership, and socially traditional ideas.
In the United States, conservatism is based on the belief in individualism, traditionalism, and limited governmental power over the states. Conservatives typically believe in economic liberalism and free markets. Of course, there are much more complicated aspects of conservative beliefs, but these are the most prominent of them.
Trends on social media have subtly--but substantially--incorporated these ideas in small, initially unassuming ways. After all, trends on the internet are for harmless fun. However, things that are popular online often indicate a larger cultural shift.
One of the earliest examples of this is the “clean girl” aesthetic, which first started gaining traction around early 2022. Its values of simplicity and silent sophistication are central to what it is. A clean girl is fresh, well-rested, and glowing. She is paradoxically perfect: she is flawless, but effortless. This trend contrasts almost directly with trends seen in the 2010s. 2016 makeup is a trend that some miss, but has not gained significant traction for a revival. This look was intense. Lots of makeup, with bold eyes, vibrant colors, and heavy contouring, was in. This was arguably one of the most spirited eras of makeup, where creativity and individual expression thrived.
This shift in makeup trends might point to the subsequent shift toward conservatism. The clean-cut, minimalist appearance of the clean girl is rather similar to ideals of conservatism in their shared emphasis on a sense of traditionalism and lack of innovation. Additionally, it is important to consider the exclusive nature of this image. One search on Pinterest is all it takes, so it begs the question, who is allowed in this image of the clean girl? If you aren’t skinny, white, and wealthy, you might not be in luck. Just take a look at most of the Republican women in Congress.
Speaking of traditionalism, perhaps the best example of a move toward conservatism has been the surge of “tradwives” on social media. Ah, yes, the perfect 1950s woman who stays home, bakes bread, and takes care of the cleaning and children. If only it were that simple.
Tradwives emerged directly from the image of man-hating, ugly, terrible feminists. Feminists and suffragists were among many targets of propaganda in the early 1900s, often depicted as uncaring parents, misandrists, bad wives, and sometimes even monsters or demons. Women’s suffrage was made the direct enemy of family values, masculinity, and traditionalism. This image of feminists as a threat to the natural order of society persists even today, coming hand in hand with modern feminism.
The archetype of the quintessential American housewife began to really emerge in the 1950s, concurrent with suburbanization, the baby boom, and the new patriarchal expectation that women were made to be homemakers. It was like a return to tradition after World War II.
In this relationship, women stay at home and men are financiers who provide for the family monetarily. And the dynamic is not expressly bad: it’s completely fine to assume these roles in a relationship if that is your desire. What is not acceptable is to advertise this life to other women, while not warning of all the risks that come with it.
Tradwives online sell their lifestyle to others: a glamorized version of something that is sometimes regretted, often risky, and always more than it seems. There is real danger in giving the man you marry all the cards, making everything supporting your life contingent on him being a “good guy.” But I’m not sure people realize how terrifying it is when a man is made to believe that the submission of his wife and children is his God-given right.
Jennie Gage, an ex-tradwife of twenty-four years, said on the Tamron Hall show, “You don’t have your own income; you don’t even have your own thoughts. It’s his choices: what are his favorite foods, so you can cook his favorite dinner? So you don’t even know what foods you like anymore. After ten years, I couldn’t even pick out toothpaste at the grocery store.”
It is harmful to advertise the life of a traditional wife as something freeing or relaxing, when it is often quite the opposite. Women not wanting to work or learn financial independence is not the right kind of freedom. I’m not pushing for hyper-independence for every woman, but there are basic things that anyone should know to survive in the modern world. What if the person providing for you dies, or leaves? What then?
It is okay to want to take on a more traditional role, but shaming other women for not doing so and expecting it of everyone without warning of the dangers is simply irresponsible.
Women can disconnect themselves from society if they want. It is a privilege to throw your hands up in defeat and take a step back from the world and its issues. But what about the others, who simply cannot stop caring in the same way?
People in general are loathed for speaking up out of turn, but women are especially scorned in society for taking up space. Do not be scared to be loud, because it is absolutely a better alternative to shutting up.
It is even more interesting to consider that, for many women, being a housewife was not ever traditional for them. Many women of color, or women in a lower social class, for example, never truly had the opportunity to stay home and let their husbands go to work.
Let’s not forget about the men, though. The move towards traditional gender roles has happened in both directions, and some may claim to an even more extreme extent with “traditional” men.
Alpha males have been around since the beginning of time, surely, but there has been a recent resurgence in their abundance. It gained acclaim originally when Andrew Tate became a well-known figure in the public eye. To many, he was a comical podcaster who was too outrageous to take seriously. But to numerous wide-eyed boys, his bravery to put down women and feminism as the source of all evil truly resonated with their insecurities. He put exactly what they were feeling--and were too scared to say--into words. Feminism had weakened so many strong men, and Andrew Tate was something of a figurehead for all those “oppressed” alphas.
It’s not an isolated incident any more, though. Tate had his run, and others now take his place. Street interviews, with leading questions to make the people of the internet realize that all women are hypocrites, to podcasts that are like echo chambers, where people who share the same views or can be used as a scapegoat to reinforce them, are constantly employed.
It does not take a lot to see the ridiculousness of these alphas, but impressionable young boys fall for this every day. Maybe they are angry because their girlfriend just broke up with them, or a girl rejected them. It gives them an excuse to blame women for all their problems, instead of focusing on self-reflection and healing.
These self-proclaimed “alpha” males are by nature conservative because of what they say and seem to believe. Zooming out for a moment, a core practice and lesson taught by these guys is the idea of reaching the “top.” The top being rich and successful and typically with a traditional wife (but it’s okay to cheat on her sometimes). This is often also at the expense of other people.
But the left tends to value the opposite of that. Equality is one of the ideals of the left, and the idea of reaching the top at the expense of others around you is antithetical to leftism. Feminist men, Democratic men, Marxist men: these are all men who are shamed by their right-wing counterparts for being virgins and weak, “beta” males. But is supporting women’s rights, peace, or equality in general a “beta” practice?
The right typically places value in established hierarchies, while the left wants to restructure them or eliminate hierarchy completely. This is not the belief of all of those on both sides, and there are many who do not hold them. However, this is a clear division between those on the right and those on the left. Those who benefit from the hierarchies want to climb them, an example of what we see in many alpha males and their endeavor to reach the top.
I do not think this is specifically why Donald Trump rose to power once again, but it certainly was a cultural shift that could indicate that conservatism was becoming young and hip again.
The thing is, Trump often does not even stand for the traditional ideals associated with conservatism. He has had multiple children with multiple wives, and he clearly doesn’t seem to believe in the limited power of the government. But that doesn’t matter. Donald Trump has become the face of what a Republican is. If someone in the Republican party does not support Trump, they are a “fake” Republican. He is synonymous with what it means to be conservative. It does not matter whether he embodies conservatism or not, because people will support him either way.
As the internet continues to rise, it is increasingly evident that everything--politics, opinion, world events--can be predicted and influenced by trends on social media. Even if the trend is something as small as a new fashion statement or makeup look, it can have larger implications for the future. And certainly, the rise of internet trends like alpha male podcasts need to be taken seriously for what they are: not jokes, or life advice, but blatant bigotry. The internet, at its rapidly developing pace, will play a primary role in the evolution of things like politics, and it's up to us to recognize those signs and figure out what to do about them before they come knocking on our doorstep.
