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Editor鈥檚 note: This article contains explicit language.

Election Day has always contained its share of surprises, but one that floored most pundits as the polls closed was just how strongly Gen Z鈥攅specially the men of that generation鈥攚ent from blue bastion to red redoubt.

But for Karen Ashcraft, the writing was on the wall. In fact, the writing was from , which warned that 鈥渧iral masculinity鈥� was a growing threat to young men and boys not just in the United States but worldwide.

鈥淚 think a lot of people picture the manosphere as individual content creators, or trolls and shitposters and such, but actually, it鈥檚 a movement鈥攁 form of digital organizing that has absolutely mushroomed over the last 20 years,鈥� said Ashcraft, a CU Boulder alumna and听professor of communication听at the College of Media, Communication and Information at CU Boulder. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a viral stew of aggrieved manhood鈥攖he seething sense that real manhood is under attack and must fight back. This feeling now saturates the environment to an extent that men and boys cannot escape repetitive contact with it.鈥�

Ashcraft is not a new voice on this topic. As she was earning her doctoral degree from CU Boulder, Hollywood was premiering 鈥淔ight Club鈥� and 鈥淭he Matrix,鈥� which set the stage for key tenets of the manosphere. But even before then, Ashcraft brought a perspective to the discipline that other scholars have not.

鈥淚 was born and raised a right-wing populist,鈥� she said. 鈥淲ell before Trump, my family was part of the religious right, we were preppers鈥攁ll of it. So, I come at this from a place that is not anti-populism, but pro-men and boys. We need to address the challenges they face, and we can do that in a pro-feminist way.鈥�

The challenge is how successfully right-wing populist movements have changed their approach to suit the digital age鈥攊t鈥檚 no longer just Rush Limbaugh preaching to a comparatively narrow audience on talk radio. But, Ashcraft said, this is not a case of 鈥渢he internet did it,鈥� nor is it just about the gravitas of personalities like Andrew Tate or Lex Fridman.

Instead, 鈥淭he sentiment of aggrieved manhood got rebranded,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t went from bitter old guys in their basements, plotting militia activity, to becoming this sort of punk, anarchist, edgy thing. It鈥檚 a new counterculture that happened through this explosion of online activity.鈥�

And while there are different flavors to that extremism鈥攆rom the United States听to Russia听to Iran鈥攖hey all start with the same ingredient鈥攁 light touch of misogyny and aggrieved manhood. It is, Ashcraft said, 鈥渁 gateway drug to the far right.鈥�

鈥淭he feeling that manly rights have been wronged鈥攎en versus women鈥攖ravels the world very easily, because it鈥檚 a simple binary,鈥� she said. 鈥淧eople all over the world鈥攎en, but let鈥檚 not kid ourselves, women, too鈥攃an get infected with this feeling that men have lost out to women. And because it鈥檚 everywhere, boys get enticed by this idea, and then it opens up into this larger far-right world.鈥�

Family ties

If you鈥檙e dreading the conversation at the kids鈥� table this Thanksgiving, Ashcraft said听you shouldn鈥檛. As someone who鈥檚 watched these attitudes become more common in her classroom, and as someone who works hard to maintain strong family ties with people who don鈥檛 share her worldview, she said the first鈥攁nd hardest鈥攖hing to do is to stop trying to persuade people.

Not only does that not work, typically causing people to retrench deeper into their beliefs, her research has found that arguing the facts and trying to fight disinformation is a source of oxygen to this particular fire. So, too, is the empathetic response of trying to understand the legitimacy of the anger and aggrieved feelings spewed by the manosphere.

Instead, Ashcraft鈥檚 research proposes the notion of lateral empathy, in which we put greater care on how people become 鈥渋nfected鈥� by the viral feeling of manly grievance听and less care on the content of what people say.

鈥淲hen I see this in class, or when I talk to young people, I address it at the level of feeling,鈥� she said. 鈥溾�榊ou seem agitated. Tell me about that鈥攚hat does that feel like? What really riles you up?鈥�

鈥淔or the sake of smart and new and adaptive interventions, we need to grasp that in today鈥檚 communication environment, feeling is in the driver鈥檚 seat. Content has become the secondary thing that gives feeling an outlet.鈥�

And teaching younger generations will require a shift, as well.

鈥楢 very big shift鈥�

鈥淲e teach people all about how to sift through good ideas but nothing about how to understand the circuits of their bodies that receive emotion,鈥� she said. At CMCI alone, she said, researchers in information science, journalism, media studies听and elsewhere know how feeling works when it engages with algorithms, news, movies and beyond.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very big shift, and not an intuitive one, but we need to cultivate lateral empathy in many different arenas, and education could play a big role in that,鈥� she said.

It already plays a role in her own life. While Ashcraft doesn鈥檛 subscribe to the populism of her family, she works very hard to keep her familial ties strong.

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e talking about family, love is on the line,鈥� she said. 鈥淎t the Thanksgiving table, stop the content, surrender that desire to argue head-to-head, and settle into that deeper level of feeling.

鈥淚 had a recent conversation with a relative, where I said, 鈥業 know we鈥檙e trying to avoid these topics鈥攂ut they keep coming up, my heart rate is increasing, I鈥檓 scared. I love you, and I hear your agitation. What is the agitation? Can you tell me how you鈥檙e hurt by my concern for women鈥檚 reproductive rights?鈥� So it鈥檚 at the level of the feeling that is relevant to preserving the relationship.鈥�