Angry men problem is bigger than racism…

[anxioussister]

I was speaking to a close friend this morning who is part of the leadership at a local mosque. He was expressing despair about what the world could do with all these angry young (and not so young) men

It reminded me of the Scott Galloway quote ‘there is no one on earth so dangerous as a young man who is poor and alone’ - and by alone meaning not attached to a meaningful career, purpose or community. I think he’s right.

Obviously racist attacks are abhorrent - but what on earth is society supposed to do about all these people?

they are so angry, seem largely extremely poorly educated + unable to emotionally regulate themselves. How can they be plugged in to society so they can contribute something + feel part of something rather than just raging about what they aren’t given?

YABU - this is mainly a race issue

They've been entirely let down by the tories but need someone to blame

They've been entirely let down by the tories but need someone to blame

eh-
i am disabled I have been let down time and time again by the bloody tories but I don’t have any plans to go out and and turn into a thug

Congrats

These are people living in very deprived areas, who have had all services stripped from them, lost jobs and job opportunities and been told, repeatedly, that it's due to immigrants and not because of the government

YABU
there is always anger towards the Gov, the world, and discontent.
the problem is scapegoating people worse off than you as the cause of the above.

The riots today are racist scapegoating, just like the witch hunts were misogynist scapegoating.

I've been told that repeatedly too, it doesn't mean I have to believe it. What's stopping them from blaming the people who are actually to blame?

The Muslim, Hindi and Catholic east European have communities, lots of children and young people and shop locally in their own shops so they are thriving.

White British men are rare in churches and shop in private equity multinational places so all the profits get hived off to offshore tax havens with less and less available to local authorities to run traditional British things and the churches are more and more pockets of very old people who no longer have the energy to run youth groups etc

WTAF? Disability hate crime is a huge issue because those same people have been told and being told that disability benefits are bankrupting the country, that they will make work pay, that normal ups and downs are being medicalised, we have a sick note culture, and that we have those who can work but don’t work they go off on the sick instead..

This country has been trotting out several scapegoats

• Immigrants
• Ethnic and religious minorities.
• Disabled
• OAPs

All of these are being blamed for the tough times that “hard working (white British) families” are facing.

@dropoutin poor education due to the lack of provision for their communities, mainly. It's not just my opinion, it's a sociological fact

I think if you are from an ethnic minority then you would probably disagree!

The people rioting have generally got low educational attainment and don't understand or comprehend how they are being manipulated by social media.

We see angry young men In many communities causing trouble including the Muslim community. I don’t know how to address it but it’s not just coming from one place.

I don't think it's just angry men, though. We like to think it's only men that behave like this but there were loads of women at the riots (or 'protest' if that's what we're going to keep pretending they are) I've witnessed and just as many women as men inciting hatred on social media.

In my experience of witnessing far-right violence over the years, the women in these situations are less likely to involve themselves physically in the violence, but will happily turn up to applaud, condone and encourage it.

It reminded me of the Scott Galloway quote ‘there is no one on earth so dangerous as a young man who is poor and alone’ - and by alone meaning not attached to a meaningful career, purpose or community. I think he’s right.

It's a really interesting question. The incel movement, now classed as terrorist, is exactly that; a load of men and boys who are very angry and are scapegoating women for everything wrong in their lives. I believe the common denominator in all individual terrorist attacks has been a history of misogyny and domestic abuse.

Extremism divides the world into very simple divisions. With religious extremism for example, I am serving god and everyone and everything else is evil. It's easy for someone with a vacuum in their life to get sucked up in black and white thinking.

Yes, there is a wider issue of angry, aggressive men. Sometimes it does feel like they do nothing to help themselves, though. What's the answer? Better male role models? Men's groups? More responsibility? More loving childhoods? More disciplined childhoods?

I think it could just be the way they deal with misery. Many women are miserable and angry, too (much more likely to attempt suicide than men), but we obviously aren't violent.

Life in Britain today isn't conducive to happiness. There are too many people everywhere, too many cars on the road, too much stimulation everywhere. Most people don't have space to recover and live a good life, or THE good life. Working all the time doesn't even pay for a home.

I don't know why humans choose to live like this when we could have idyllic lives as a global population of 1 million and infinite resources to share and enjoy. But no, it's always "more, more, more".

Young men full of energy and anger with no outlet but agression and violence.

National service doesn't seem such a bad idea now.

You’re not wrong there!

All of the above are the answer

I agree with that but also let's not diminish the racial aspect of it. This is what's most terrifying to many people.

Not Finsbury park mosque I hope, OP

Somebody will be along just now to tell you that young men are justified in their anger because men as a whole have been demonised by modern society, blamed for everything etc, and the dissolution of the nuclear family has meant they have lost male role models blah blah blah.
Totally ignoring the fact that:

• any decent young man could do 30 minutes of research and learn basic things about feminism and the patriarchy and understand that the message is not 'men are evil'
• the 'role models' that are lost by the breakdown of the nuclear family model are the men who abused their families, cheated on their wives, saw children as a woman's job, saw housework as women's work, had addiction problems that impacted their families... all those 'role models' who 50 years ago, mothers would have had to put up with (and thereby unfortunately setting a damaging example of relationships to their children who would then go on to repeat the mistakes they viewed in their parents and normalised as a child) a huge percentage of these men can now be kicked out as societal shame and female financial independence are not as big of barriers as they once were. But women are meant to feel ashamed that their son doesn't have a male role model in the house, when the option available was their ex partner, Dave who never changed a nappy for any of his kids, never attended a single family day out, bullied his male sons under the guise of banter...

Single, young men are a huge problem in many countries around the world.

Throughout history they were usually taken off to war, and either died or the process "made men" of them and they returned with honour.
Or tribal cultures have rituals of "war-bands" for young men to burn off their testosterone (metaphor), and initiation rituals.

In the modern world, their is nothing in society for young men who can't earn enough to start a family, and no socially sanctioned outlet for their aggression. Even sports now try to dampen down the aggression in their fans.

They are justified to be angry, the anger doesn’t justify their actions is the issue. It has been misdirected.

Successive governments & the ultra rich have been propping up the privileged, widening inequality, robbing working class of their share of profit and productivity gains, draining and dismantling public services…

Their anger is justified…and look here Farage and his ilk are there to re-direct the anger away from those who are at fault and towards convenient scapegoats instead. They’ve done this for so long while fixing nothing such that the anger has simply grown.

For what it’s worth - suicide rates are significantly higher in men than women, and always have been. Your points stand, but young men in crisis harm themselves as well as or instead of people around them.

Yes and no.

I think there is a racial/racist element to these riots. People looking for someone to blame for their dissatisfaction.

Also agree that there is a wider issue with angry young men (in all communities) with poor education, poverty, poor upbringing, exposure to criminality. I am a secondary school teacher and we have boys (and a few girls) who come to us age 11 already with violent behaviour and it is very difficult to see the path for them

This. It's invariably rooted in poverty.