\n<\/p>\n
When Donald Trump first ran for president, many of us on the Right reveled in the thrill of the brazen businessman swinging a chainsaw at the bureaucratic beast that had spent years grinding down conservatives, families, and young men.<\/span><\/p>\n In the years that followed, we often felt vindicated. The Left had lied for years. Institutions failed us. COVID \u201cexperts\u201d betrayed the public, Russiagate was a horrific hoax, and 2020\u2019s summer of riots confirmed that rules only applied to the non-woke. Distrust was earned.<\/span><\/p>\n But recently, young conservatives \u2014 especially men \u2014 have traded righteous anger at the Left for a toxic victimhood that mirrors everything we once fought against. They parrot conspiracies and insist that everything \u2014 America, young men, the world \u2014 is doomed and the cards are stacked against them, no matter what.<\/span><\/p>\n This isn\u2019t anti-establishment courage. It\u2019s the same grievance politics the Left perfected, now wearing a red hat. As <\/span>Daily Wire<\/span><\/i> editor emeritus Ben Shapiro warned during his recent <\/span>appearance<\/span><\/a> on the Hoover Institution\u2019s \u201cUncommon Knowledge\u201d podcast, this internal rot \u2014\u00a0conspiracy culture, corrosive cynicism, and a Marxist-style obsession with exploding \u201cthe system\u201d instead of fixing our own lives \u2014\u00a0is how conservatism loses its soul.<\/span><\/p>\n Shapiro warns that the Right\u2019s biggest threat isn\u2019t the Left anymore. It\u2019s us falling into the same victimhood trap.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t want to solve your problems,\u201d he told host Peter Robinson, \u201cbecause you say, they\u2019re not my problems, they\u2019re society\u2019s problems and I can\u2019t solve those problems unless society is exploded. It\u2019s almost a Marxist vision of history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This turns the Right away from traditional American ideals of individual agency and toward emotional, anti-institutional rage. I see this with my friends: it\u2019s hurting relationships, crushing success, and handicapping personal ambition.<\/span><\/p>\n Young men specifically are suffering, and the Left bears real blame. Male <\/span>suicide<\/span><\/a> rates remain four times higher than women\u2019s. For men ages 15-24, rates jumped 26% between 2010 and 2023. Millions of young men are falling behind in education, struggling to launch careers, and checking out of relationships. The Left\u2019s oppressor-oppressed matrix, its war on masculinity, its celebration of broken families, and its assault on merit have left a generation of boys, and more and more females, feeling like the villain in their own country. That pain is legitimate.<\/span><\/p>\n But wallowing in it, embracing black-and-white \u201cthey all lie\u201d thinking, and letting resentment replace agency, is surrender.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Shapiro calls this \u201cdepixelation\u201d \u2014 the collapse of nuance after three trust-shattering blows happened near-simultaneously: the media\u2019s Russiagate lies, COVID\u2019s contradictory mandates, and the Black Lives Matter double standard that let cities burn while the rest of us were locked down. Suddenly, everything became binary. No evidence needed; just rage. That\u2019s dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n Shapiro illustrates this perfectly using an episode of\u00a0 Joe Rogan\u2019s podcast. In it, Michael Shellenberger debunked Jeffrey Epstein blackmail claims against Trump. Rogan\u2019s response? \u201cJust because there\u2019s no evidence doesn\u2019t mean they won\u2019t find it later.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n