Without Empathy, the Future of Men is Bleak

The rise of MAGA was a sign of hopelessness among young men. They identified with Trump and Musk and the brand of callous and wealthy masculinity that they admired and craved. The men who fell for MAGA were blue-collar men who had been marginalized by the rise of knowledge work, globalization, and a general failure of men to thrive in educational settings.

It doesn't surprise that the Trump administration attacks education, public health, the arts, basically every institution that women and foreign-born workers are rapidly dominating. I don't believe the young men who join MAGA and celebrate Trumpism do so out of ignorance or malice. They do it from a position of hopelessness, where they've been locked out of a society that shames them, devalues them, and offers only underemployment as a means of survival.

The "Again" that the MAGA man longs for is when he was valued for strength and consistency. A man could work hard in a factory and make a decent living. His life was consistent; he worked all week, bowled on Fridays, played poker on Saturdays, and went to church on Sundays. He had a rhythm, he had a family, and he belonged. As traditional blue-collar roles disappeared and the belonging began to erode, he saw his worth and dignity disappear. Strength mattered less than education and intelligence in the desk jobs that still offered consistency. Community eroded as society became more self-involved, and cities decayed. Society began to devalue the traditional traits most admired in men, like strength, solidarity, and the certainty of belonging.

Now, even similar jobs require intensive training, so many men are locked out of even manufacturing work, and companies can't fill positions. [WSJ - Will Anyone Take the Factory Jobs].

Elon Musk appeals to men who aspire to his success because, despite his lack of empathy, he's been able to build a brand around working hard intellectually. He sets lofty goals and aims for perfection, even if the process is cold and uncaring. [Tesla's 'Ultra Hardcore' Work Culture - Told by its Employees].

He built a myth around strong intellectual work and boosted the MAGA movement by aligning it with young knowledge workers who have at least made some gains in the modern economy. AI threatens all that. With AI, knowledge is free and instantaneous. The only bastion left where humans can excel will be empathy, and many men struggle with it.

In the same way that strength mattered less and men were pushed out of the workforce, knowledge will matter less, and in the next 20 years, those men who built their careers on knowledge work will be pushed out in the same way blue-collar workers were pushed out in the past 20 years.

Empathy will be the core skill of the future, and men need to start working on it to survive.