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‘Nigel Farage feels real’: why young British men are drawn to Reform (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Once, anti-establishment youth disillusioned with mainstream politics headed left. Now increasing numbers are tilting right. Why?

Josh is 24 years old and works as a carer. It’s not easy work, but he prefers it to his old job in a supermarket: most of his clients are elderly and “just want someone there with them, because they’re lonely”. In his spare time Josh used to be into boxing. But lately he’s got into politics instead.

Like many of his gen Z contemporaries, he’s thoroughly disillusioned with the mainstream kind. “The two parties that have been in power for 100-plus years have done nothing. The economy’s a mess,” he scoffs. But if he sounds like the kind of anti-establishment young person who once rallied to the radical left, Josh’s frustration has taken him in another direction. An ardent leaver in his teens, who backed Boris Johnson in 2019, he now belongs to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I really don't get these people. This guy sounds and looks as phoney as they come. How dumb do you have to be to fall for his act?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

I don’t ’get these people’ either. But clearly, popularist politicians everywhere do get them. All their lives they’ve heard promises from the ‘traditional’ left and right wing parties that have made little impact on their daily lives that they can see. They’re still in a terrible job, still hearing the media rattling on about how terrible things are, etc.

So they’re ripe for the taking when someone comes along, tells them that the promises they heard from others are trash, that this new person knows who or what is really to blame, and luckily. It’s a group that’s easy to scapegoat and ‘other’.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

The average Reform voter's unhappiness isn't a matter of 'scapegoating an other' over a media construct.

The consequences of the electorate refusing to accept this will only cause Reform's voter base will grow.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago

That’s valid. I vastly simplified things I know, and there’s lots I don’t understand about it. People want to feel heard and they aren’t getting that from most of the traditional political parties.

I’ve voted both Labour and (in the past) conservative in my time and I think both parties are currently guilty of taking a lot of things and a lot of people for granted who expect better.

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