It is hardly surprising that men are more susceptible to the allure of reactionary politics, considering that it’s much easier for men to romanticize the past than it is for women (or any previously oppressed or mistreated group, such as LGBTQ people). Patriarchy has long been the norm in Western and non-Western societies and cultures, and thus women are less inclined to feel nostalgic for some “golden age” in history when they were treated as second-class citizens.

Needless to say, in America there is another important factor that increases the likelihood of one adopting a reactionary political ideology: being white. This was evidenced in a recent Pew Research Center analysis, which found that although millennials are the most progressive generation (and lean overwhelmingly Democratic), white male millennials are more more likely to support the Republican Party.

Another analysis from the Washington Post provides further insight into this phenomenon, finding that white males are more likely to feel “white vulnerability,” or a “strong perception that whites are losing ground to other groups through no fault of their own.” This was demonstrated in one survey from GenForward Survey, which found that 48 percent of white millennials think that discrimination against whites has become as big a problem as discrimination against blacks, while 70 percent of Trump-voting millennials believe that “discrimination against whites is as big of a problem as discrimination against minorities.”

This victim mentality that many white men have developed today stems in part from what sociologist Michael Kimmel has called “aggrieved entitlement,” which he describes as “that sense of entitlement that can no longer be assumed and that is unlikely to be fulfilled.” click here to read more