Editor’s Note: This is a part of YourTango’s Opinion section where individual authors can provide varying perspectives for wide-ranging political, social, and personal commentary on issues.
I wrote about how Baby Boomers are going through a major regression in terms of beliefs — or at least, that’s what it looks like to so many of us. However, there is always another group that has historically been more prone to radicalization.
I’m talking, of course, about Angry Young Men. I’ve often heard that one of the most common signs of political instability is a large percentage of single young men. This does not surprise me. Let me explain why Angry Young Men are.
The trope of the Angry Young Man is a real one.
It’s been the name of a group of youthful, bitter working-class writers in 1950s Britain. Billy Joel wrote a song about it. It may just be one of the oldest tropes in history.
Men, more so than women, have been the ones who have historically raged against the machine. They’re the ones who have famously beat the turds out of one another.
Here are the 5 disturbing traits of an Angry Young Man:
1. He’s often a loner
As a person who society turned into a loner, I can tell you that being an outcast brings with it a certain level of anxiety and anger. Most people are happy as long as they have well-adjusted friends around them. Angry Young Men usually don’t unless they are fellow Angry Young Men.
2. He was often told that his life would be better than it is, and he is struggling with the disillusionment
This is why so many Angry Young Men clamor for the white picket fence and wife. They were told things would get so much better after they did X, Y, and Z, only to realize that’s not true.
3. He’s often tight on money
This makes him particularly bitter. If he were wealthy, he’d just be a rich douche who got everything handed to him.
4. Women don’t like him too much.
His social currency, at least in his eyes, is zero.
5. He wants something to have meaning to him.
This is often where he gets his rage from. It all just seems so dull to him.
An Angry Young Man is a dangerous young man because he’s so easily influenced and so ready to rage out.
Did you ever meet a person who had a lot of promise but ended up wasting their lives? In most peoples’ stories, it’s usually an angry but talented kid who joins a gang or starts dealing drugs. Eventually, life tends to pop off for him in a bad way — and the kid who could’ve been a politician is behind bars.
I ought to know. A lot of my friends are Angry Young Men in that sense. And if I’m honest, I was an Angry Young Man, too.
The truth is that there are a lot of Angry Young Men who are one bad step away from mutually assured destruction. Most people see outcasts and loners and think, “Oh, he’ll never hurt anyone” or “Oh, he’s fine.”
But most of the time, they’re not fine. They’re hurting, desperate for a crowd, and will do anything for people who give them the time of day. Most of the time, these guys eventually find them in online gaming or the gym.
I initially found it with the worst of the worst, then moved to a far less dangerous (but still dangerous) crowd. According to research, the experience of loneliness seems to be associated with an increase in aggressive behavioral tendencies.
When you’re an Angry Young Man, you’re looking for a promise of a better tomorrow. You’re looking for a promise of glory, of community, of power that you didn’t ever really feel. And you know what? A lot of Angry Young Men will step on everyone’s throats to get it.
The propaganda and promises you give to an Angry Young Man don’t have to make sense. It just has to make them feel seen.
Angry Young Men are derided, but they are a terrifying force to deal with.
Too often, I see older parents and teachers shrug off an angry student or a quiet loner. They say that he’s “going through it,” but eventually say he’ll “get a job and a wife, oh you know.”
I’m so sick of seeing this because it ponies off the problem of their anger, disillusionment, and pain to everyone around them. And in most cases, no one helps the Angry Young Man. So he’s left alone, to deal, until he explodes or finds his crowd.
And those crowds? Speaking from personal experience, they can get ugly. The crowd I initially ran off with in college were traffickers who almost murdered me. Many of my friends from that time in my life are missing. Those who aren’t are not in a good way.
People underestimate Angry Young Men in a way they absolutely shouldn’t.
I’m so tired of people writing off angry teens as “edgelords” when it’s a cry for help. They are turning into Angry Young Men and they are asking for help — whether they like it or not.
Angry Young Men are not the guys we should shrug off and assume they’ll get better. They are the people who are looking to prove something to someone and people should try to figure out what to do to make them less angry.
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Angry Young Men have strength. They have intelligence that is often doubted and mocked. And they want to prove a point about it. That’s why so many right-wing groups are successfully recruiting them today and why so many fully rely on them.
Angry Young Men will tear down the village that pushed them away and burn it to feel its warmth. This is why the Iranian revolution that turned the nation into a theocracy started with young male students. Before that, Iran was a very progressive country.
In America, the best examples of Angry Young Men I can think of (aside from the alt-right) are gang members. Walk into any gang, and you’ll find a handful of Angry Young Men who genuinely could be some of the best human beings you’d meet — if only people had cared to see it.
America is starting to feel the wrath of the Angry Young Men.
Angry Young Men are not getting the help they need when they need it. They’re not given social skills help. They’re not given a real chance to make something of themselves. They’re not learning how to connect with others and have nowhere to mix with others.
And we’re somehow shocked, shocked that so many Angry Young Men are turning to right-wing extremism, school shootings, and conspiracy theory groups to get their needs met?
Emerging research reveals that extremist groups adopt the conception of ‘what it is to be a man’, offering them a sense of respect, recognition, and meaning.
Get outta here. This terrifying reality is just starting … unless, of course, we stop it.
Ossiana Tepfenhart is a writer whose work has been featured in Yahoo, BRIDES, Your Daily Dish, Newtheory Magazine, and others.
