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The conservative counterculture is taking hold among young men.
A new Monitoring the Future survey conducted by the University of Michigan found that in 2022 roughly a quarter of 12th-grade boys identified as conservative or “very conservative.” Only 13% identify as liberal.
It’s a major shift from the 2000s, when liberal boys at times outnumbered conservatives. But the Gen Z. political shift isn’t universal. Most higher schools identify as apolitical or moderate.
Meanwhile, 12th-grade girls, who historically trend liberal, are moving further to the left. Thirty percent of senior girls now identify as liberal, more than a 10-point increase from 2012. Only 12% of senior girls said they were conservative.
The liberal drift among young women is so strong that Gen Z as a whole favors liberalism to conservatism 48-to-33, according to a 2022 NBC poll. Ten years ago, young adults were evenly split.