Gen Z men have been becoming more and more conservative politically, maybe it also translates into more conservative views on drugs and alcohol.
i'm not sure that's the right way to read that.
if you cut out the extremes (of the content Gaussian) you see that much content geared towards GenZ males is of self-care nature: go to the gym, take care of your own body, avoid alcohol and other drugs, take care of your mental health and go to therapy if you can, read philosophy.
it's a beautiful change since i was a teenager (~15 years ago), way much healthier than what i was exposed to as a teenager.
it's not problems-free of course, but still, i view it as positive change.
Of course it's not really true, just a bit true. Going to the gym won't make you stop hating yourself, any bodybuilder will tell you that. Going to the gym, no-fap, etc are all chosen as channels because they provide an immediate sense of accomplishment while being relatively easy. But they don't materially improve the circumstances of your life.
It's simple to spend an hour at the gym and you will immediately feel better. But you didn't magically gain friends, a community, a sense of belonging or a reason to live. Those require being uncomfortable and pushing yourself mentally, emotionally, and socially. That's much more difficult than pushing weight.
Ultimately young men just want to believe and feel like they're doing something right.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but I do want to say that we're much more aware of mental health issue than we were 10 years ago. I was quite depressed myself as a teenager, yet it was just a common thing to "man up" and don't express that.
Current teenagers might be more open about what's going on in their head, and i think it's beautiful.
I think it's one of those issues that we used to ignore in the past, and now that we don't do that anymore, we're perceiving it as an new emergency. But it's not "new".
The inability to sense the collapse in support for democrats among young men of all types (especially strong among black/latino young men) is why democrats seem to be structurally unable to win over any kind of non traditional voting groups en mass.
Left leaning folks have also been sticking their head in the sand about the rapid evangalization/anti-catholic reaction that is sweeping through American latino communities right now. I am witnessing this both among personal friends and again and again in the news/sociological articles. Democrats are reacting to this by trying to move to the right on immigration. It's not working, and we are doomed as a result.