Why are Young Women Becoming Radicalized?
In the past, women in the U.S. have been instrumental in protecting the family, the vulnerable, and social stability. Women played a significant role in fighting for child welfare; advancing public sanitation and order; and opposing socialism/communism.
Today, women—especially young, single women—have swung hard in the opposite direction. It is women who are most likely support the killing of unborn babies, the mutilation of adolescents (calling it “gender-affirming care”), the creation and purchase of designer babies as commodities for anyone with the money to pay, and the release of criminals out onto the streets. Recently, women were key in electing an Islamic socialist as the mayor of New York City.
What has caused this? Here are a few contributing factors:
Women are more susceptible to drawing conclusions based on their feelings rather than on facts, and the Left has done an outstanding job of marketing their bad ideas by appealing to the emotions. They sell criminality as compassion, theft and racism as justice, and anarchy as mercy. The create pithy-yet-meaningless slogans that fit on lawn signs, play easily-shared sound bites on repeat, and show 5-second video clips with a call to help the oppressed. And women are buying into it.
Women have bought into Critical Theory, which defines individuals by groups in which they are placed, based largely on skin tone, sex, sexual preference, “gender identity,” and religion. Anyone who belongs to a group that has historically been successful is labeled an oppressor, and anyone who belongs to a group that has historically been discriminated against in the West is labeled oppressed. Everything we need to know about a person is determined by immutable characteristics and sexuality, regardless of character. This worldview eliminates all the complexity inherent in relating to people well and creating good public policy. It allows women to feel like they’re fighting for the oppressed without doing any real work to understand situational complexities or historic outcomes; it allows them to feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves without having to do any hard work, make sacrifices themselves, or practice self-discipline.
Many young women have been given everything in life without having to earn it, which has led them to believe several falsehoods: 1. Life should be easy for everyone, 2. Utopia is within reach, 3. If someone else doesn’t have as much as I have, it should be given it to them (How? “Just take it from someone who has more than I have”). Once again, this view demands no study of real-world economics, ethics, theology, or history, and it requires no work or sacrifice from them. These ideas are absolutely out of touch with reality and contradict all of world history. Utopian ideologies have never worked and never will. Rather than getting degrees in grievance studies, young people need to be educated in basic economics, the history of socialism, the U.S. Constitution, Christian theology, Islam, and apologetics—subjects that will serve them far better than learning to play the victim while living the wealthiest and most comfortable lives in all of human history.
Young women have largely bought into the victim mentality that says everyone else is to blame for everything they don’t like. This is a natural result of a feelings-based orientation, Critical Theory, and being given everything for free, as well as a lack of discipline and intentional parental discipleship. It’s disastrous because it stops people from seeking to figure out why something isn’t working, learning what it takes to make better choices, and then acting on that information. If it’s always someone else’s fault, then the proper response is to scream and yell, not make better decisions. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing from young women (and Leftists generally) today.
Women tend to be relationship-oriented and nurturing, which also makes them more susceptible to toxic empathy. Typically, though not always, it’s the mother who makes sure everyone gets along, assumes the best of one another, and shares everything freely with one another. As long as the father is a firm (but loving) disciplinarian, this peacemaking quality is an asset inside the home. It is a danger and a liability, however, when it comes to dealing with criminals, making immigration policy, or creating the national budget. Being nurturing is wonderful, but it needs to be used where it can be used well, and that is primarily in the home and the local community.
Women (and men) have been miseducated for 50 years now. Socialists and Muslims are very good at playing the long game, and they have played it well. Socialists a largely responsible for the public education system we have in America today, which focuses on indoctrinating young people in their formative years, before they have the critical thinking skills or life experience to question what they’re being told. Women are more likely to major in liberal arts studies, which lend themselves most easily to false ideologies since those majors are more about ideas and less about outcomes. After college, women are more likely to take government jobs that don’t require practical skills, measurable outcomes, or competitive advantage to retain customers. They tend to go into fields like teaching, social work, non-profit work, and administration, where their false worldviews are less likely to be challenged by the realities of the real world.
This certainly doesn’t describe all women, but this is the trend. And if the trend doesn’t change quickly and drastically, we are going to find ourselves living under the totalitarianism of either Islam or socialism, neither of which honors human dignity, recognizes human rights, or leads to human flourishing.
