Democrats ponder the 'manosphere'

Yahoo

6 days ago

Democrats know they have a problem with men, particularly the young men who have drifted away from them in recent years.
But six months after the gender gap contributed to the party's disappointing showing in last year's election, top Democrats are still throwing spaghetti at the wall, lacking a unified theory on how to win these voters back.
Some are trying to break into the culturally conservative podcasts that have thrived at building big audiences of Gen Z men. Some are ceding ground on issues Democrats have long seen as sacred in the culture war, while others insist that the party's current message will work. Some are pitching grand plans about funding a new influencer ecosystem that subtly boosts the left.
At the center of all of this is an acknowledgement that public opinion on the Democratic Party has dipped to an all-time low, men are souring on the party especially quickly, and losing ground with about half the voting population isn't a recipe for success. It's weighing heavily on the minds of Democrats while making Republicans giddy: On Friday, President Donald Trump needled Democrats for wanting to 'spend money to learn how to talk' to men.
Jeff Horwitt, a Democratic pollster with Hart Research Associates (who conducts the NBC News poll with a Republican counterpart), told NBC News that a look at recent presidential exit poll results shows that 'when Democrats do well broadly with men, they are competitive. When Democrats are not competitive with men, Democrats lose.' And while Horwitt doesn't believe Republicans 'have a lock on young men,' the GOP spoke to their economic anxiety in 2024 in a way that loomed large in 2024.
'There was one party that was really addressing that and feeding that anger — I would argue in an unproductive but, unfortunately, ultimately more compelling way,' Horwitt said, 'while the Democratic Party was focusing more on other issues and not addressing some of the uncomfortable reality of what was going on.'
Much of the attention of Democrats in the aftermath of the 2024 election has centered on young men. While younger voters lean more liberal, the recent NBC News Stay Tuned Poll powered by SurveyMonkey found the largest gender gap of any generation was among Gen Z, with the largest gaps in that cohort on Trump's approval rating and key cultural issues.
The poll also included one potential partial explanation for why: differences in how men and women consume news.
Younger women were more likely to turn to TikTok. Younger men were more likely to say YouTube and X were their favorite news sources.
The YouTube, social media and podcasting universe exploding in popularity with young men has been nicknamed the 'manosphere' — a spectrum of podcasts hosted by men that generally cover sports, internet culture, dating and sometimes politics.
'The Joe Rogan Experience' has become the exemplar of the genre. The freewheeling three-hour podcast features interviews with a variety of guests. It doesn't structure the unscripted conversations around politics, even if an often right-leaning worldview sometimes colors the conversation.
Other shows in this space also garner hundreds of thousands to millions of views per episode, ranging from shows focused on comedy (like the 'Flagrant' podcast hosted by comedians Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh and 'This Past Weekend' hosted by comedian Theo Von) to shows focused on military veterans and strength (like the 'Shawn Ryan Show') to those focused on sports (like Barstool Sports' 'Pardon My Take').
The lengthy-yet-revealing Rogan-style interviews are a popular feature on these shows, often covering new ground about a celebrity or a taboo topic. Some of these podcasts have also faced accusations of misogyny and racism, while other, more controversial figures on the fringes of the 'manosphere' have been accused of sexual harassment or rape.
Jackson Katz, a gender violence prevention activist and educator, said that young men aren't necessarily drawn to the podcasts because of their perceived politics, but for the other topics they discuss.
'They don't see themselves as political actors, if you will. A lot of these hosts, they see themselves as … guys just hanging out with the guys, you know, talking about sports, talking about relationships, talking about working out, eating, eating healthy, you know, things like that, and throwing in some politics,' Katz told NBC News.
Engaging on these platforms was part of the Trump campaign's strategy last year, with Trump appearing on more than a dozen 'manosphere' podcasts during his 2024 campaign. His October appearance on 'The Joe Rogan Experience' alone generated almost 60 million views.
Trump and his closest allies have also flirted with the darker corners of the 'manosphere.' Trump appeared on a livestream with controversial influencer Adin Ross. Trump's two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, spoke on social media with Andrew Tate and Russell Brand, respectively, in 2024. At that time, Tate had been charged with human trafficking in Romania and Brand had been facing allegations of sexual assault for which he has since been charged. Both men deny the allegations against them.
Trump talked not only about politics but also about football, drugs, aliens and UFOs on the shows — conversations Katz said were 'about proving that he could be relatable and could hang with the guys.' And the conversations reverberated across social media, reaching a wider audience than just regular listeners.
Trump thanked some of those podcasts and hosts by name during his victory speech. Some Democrats were quick to blame Vice President Kamala Harris' comparative lack of appearances on podcasts and unscripted platforms as part of the reason why she lost, and some have argued that engaging on these platforms is part of the pathway back.
'A lot of young men were attracted to spaces that weren't as buttoned up, were more free-flowing and open to unstructured conversations,' Rotimi Adeoye, a political writer and Democratic strategist who used to work on Capitol Hill and for the ACLU, told NBC News.
'People like Theo Von and Joe Rogan came up through a culture that prioritizes detours over script and emotional honesty over polish. But Democrats have, at times, leaned on polish because it does well with constituencies like college-educated liberals,' Adeoye continued.
It's one reason why a flood of Democrats are starting their own podcasts or are putting themselves through the wringer in hour-plus interviews with these popular personalities. But even those conversations illustrate how the party is grappling with bigger questions on its communication and outreach strategies.
One example is California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who started his own podcast in the wake of Democrats' loss in 2024. Newsom promised listeners that the show would feature conversations with 'voices from across the political spectrum, including those I fundamentally disagree with.'
The deep divisions among Democrats about how to engage men, how to juggle that outreach with more controversial pieces of the 'manosphere,' and even the definition of masculinity itself were all on display during Newsom's recent chat with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — a discussion between two men weighing bids for higher office.
Questioning Newsom's decision to invite Trump allies like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon onto his podcast, Walz told Newsom, 'I can't message to misogynists.' The 2024 vice presidential candidate later asked, 'How do we push some of those guys back under a rock?'
Newsom replied that he wants to 'understand what their motivations are' and pushed back on the idea they were solely motivated by racism and misogyny, calling back to earlier in the podcast when he told Walz that 'not everybody that disagrees with us is a misogynist.'
'I think there's a lot of that, but I don't think it's exclusively that,' Newsom said, adding that Bannon's talk about the working class reminds him of his grandfather.
Shortly before that exchange, Walz lamented how during his time on the 2024 presidential ticket, conservative media would do segments like one that mocked him for drinking a milkshake with a straw.
'How do you fight it? I think I can kick most of their ass[es]. I do think that, if they want to, I know I can outrun them,' Walz said shortly afterward, questioning the wisdom of getting into a 'WWE fight' with conservatives.
Walz, a Midwestern governor who was tapped for the presidential ticket after gaining prominence among Democrats for his straight talk on the stump, did make attempts to reach out to men during the campaign. He appeared at the national convention with his former football team, he played Madden on a Twitch stream and went hunting with influencers as part of a charm offensive toward men.
But during a recent interview with the Harvard University Institute of Politics, he admitted the efforts came up short, even as he said a lesson from Trump's win is 'if you leave a void, Donald Trump will fill it.'
'I also was on the ticket, quite honestly, because I could code talk to white guys watching football, fixing their truck, doing that, that I could put them at ease. I was the permission structure to say: Look, you can do this and vote for this. And you look across those swing states, with the exception of Minnesota, we didn't get enough of those votes,' he said.
Katz, the researcher who also appeared on a later episode of Newsom's podcast, told NBC News he understood Walz' hesitance to appear on 'manosphere' podcasts, but he argued Democrats should be entering these spaces.
'I think some Democrats have been reluctant, because you can't control the message coming from the other side. In other words, you don't know what the podcasters are going to say,' Katz said. 'They might say things that wouldn't pass muster on the ... progressive, liberal side of the house. But if you want to engage people, you have to engage people, and you have to have dialogue with people.'
'If we truly believe our own ideas, why are we afraid to be challenged on them?' he added.
Some prominent politicians are already bringing their message to these spaces, like former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who each recently appeared on 'Flagrant,' which Trump also joined last year.
While the 83-year-old Sanders, a two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, isn't likely to run for the White House again, the 43-year-old Buttigieg is clearly eyeing higher office.
Buttigieg and Sanders embraced the wide-ranging, off-the-cuff nature of 'Flagrant,' with Buttigieg sharing his opinions about the finale of HBO's 'White Lotus' and discussing his journey toward coming out as gay, while Sanders mused about his childhood love of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Both politicians offered sharp critiques of Trump but also of the Democratic Party, with Sanders drawing the ire of some Democrats for agreeing with the hosts when they argued the Democratic Party hasn't run a 'fair primary' since 2008.
Buttigieg lamented Democrats' reticence to appear on podcasts and other nontraditional forms of media, arguing Democrats have rested on their laurels after being early adopters of social media.
'We have to be encountering people who don't think like us and don't view the world the way we do, both in order to actually legitimately become smarter and better and make better choices and have better positions, and just in order to persuade. There's no persuasion now, or there's not enough persuasion,' he added.
While Buttigieg and Sanders recently traveled to appear on one of the more popular shows in this space, some want Democrats to bankroll their own media ecosystem. They hope to poach male listeners and viewers from these podcasts and build their own space that's friendlier to liberal voices and perspectives while maintaining some of the trappings and attraction of shows like Rogan's.
The New York Times recently reported on one such pitch, a $20 million plan called 'Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan' that aims to 'study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality in these spaces.'
Adeoye, the Democratic strategist, said he fears Democratic donors trying to take their ball and go home won't ultimately be successful because that lacks the authenticity that drew men to these spaces in the first place.
'They have good intentions, but if they just want to throw money at the problem and create new podcasts instead of engaging with people where they already exist, they are breaking the core rule of politics: meeting people where they are,' Adeoye said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com