In another comment in this thread I list some of the specific problems of boys and young men with good leftist solutions.
Sure young men join the left. I wouldn’t dismiss this as “edgyness” as I said their brains aren’t fully developed and that’s just how they express themselves at that stage of development. But then they’re generally recruited as “allies” rather than as champions of their own leftist causes.
We definitely haven’t captured enough leftist men and pointed them to fight their own fights. That’s the whole concept of the left. Everyone fights the patriarchy in the ways they need, and we help eachother’s causes as allies. Only in all of our efforts combined do we destroy the structures that harm us all. What keeps a demographic here imo is having their own fights to fight. I think that’s what’s not addressed, the pipeline to channel curious dejected young boys and point them to their own leftist struggles while learning about the struggles of others isn’t as well developed as other pipelines. I think this is because it’s only in the last few decades that the left has had more to offer than the right for this demographic. To me that’s a call to work on the pipeline not to shrug and dismiss the situation.
Also I think you dismiss too quickly what the right has to offer women and minorities. Yes they openly hate them, but they offer them their own hierarchies under which to hate and control others. That’s why the right is so attractive to minorities such as immigrants who are used to thriving in the privileges offered to them in these structures. That’s why it’s so attractive to many older women who want power in local community social and political spheres. Although this is how their participation looks like in these structures, they usually see it as “improving societal norms” and “preventing moral decay and corruption of the youth”. This is important because people need to feel like the good guys. I’m not saying these people are better off under the right. I think EVERYONE is better off with the left. But there is a lack of understanding of what the right has to offer and why it’s attractive to people. It’s easier to tailor our message when we empathize with people and cater the message based on that.
Edit: I would also add being good allies to young men and boys fighting the leftist fight. Sometimes we tend to fear that helping them means somehow there will be less for everyone else, but it’s not a zero sum game. We destroy the patriarchy by dismantling it where it hurts us and by being a good ally to all of those who seek to dismantle it where it hurts them.