Not long ago, conservatism wasn't culturally fashionable. Society's wealthiest and most influential figures rarely aligned themselves openly with the political Right. The assumption was simple: conservatives protected the powerful, liberals championed the underdog. Then, as a college student at the height of the Obama era, I watched — along with many other Right-leaning people — identity politics take over the discourse.
It stopped being about defending the underprivileged and started being about imposing a set of values on the public while calling it compassion. The bullied had become the bully. My debates with friends across the aisle usually ended with me explaining why I put my moral convictions above race and gender — a stance that puzzled them, given my own gender and ethnic heritage.
The accusations of bigotry never stuck, because the people in my educational and church communities, who shared my convictions, were some of the finest I'd known. Fast forward to 2026, and I am struggling to recognize the movement I have long supported. A new extremism has taken hold in parts of the Right — what's now called the Right-wing version of grievance politics, and it's spreading fast among Gen Z men.
This group says it's been cast as the enemy, branded inherently bigoted by the culture around it. Some have responded by embracing the “bigot” label outright. Digital creators like Joshua Haymes have built an audience on that resentment. Unconventional opinions are his brand. On his podcast, The Reformation Red Pill, he has repeatedly called for repealing the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
In one episode, “Christian Nationalism, Misogyny, Homophobia and Epistemology w/PF Jung,” he says, “we won't be able to truly fix our country until the 19th amendment is repealed.” He's also revived defenses of slavery. In an October 2025