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@bamfic @sidereal @peterbutler @Ashedryden @mekkaokereke White America has spent the past 70-odd years deliberately building an urban environment that's socially isolating: Car-dependent suburbia.
Detached, single family homes that are largely accessible only by car.
Even if there are footpaths, the only thing you can reasonably walk to is other houses, because of single-use zoning.
With strip malls, office parks, and drive-throughs that are surrounded by car parks, and utterly inhospitable to anyone not driving.
This home to car to destination to car to home pattern minimises the chances that you will bump into someone you know.
What's missing is the public realm. The local British-style pub. The cafe. The town square. The market. The park. The gardens. The pedestrianised high street.
You miss the chance encounters with people you know that you get when walking, or catching the train, metro, tram, or trolleybus.
Add the internet and automation, and it's quite possible to go weeks without any real human contact.
Home theatres, not cinemas.
Facebook, not meeting friends.
So yes, many people feel isolated. Not just men.
That sense of isolation is created by a built environment and a culture that encourages people to be isolated individuals, not citizens.
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@bamfic @sidereal @peterbutler @Ashedryden @mekkaokereke Now, it would be a gross oversimplification to say that we could solve misogyny with better urban planning.
It's quite possible to live in a nice apartment in a dense urban neighbourhood and still be a chauvinist prick — just ask Donald Trump.
At the same time, the solution to social isolation isn't to accept that "boys will be boys".
Instead, I think the answer is to remember how to create a built environment that encourages civic engagement, and at the same time root out structural inequity in all its forms.
That includes, but isn't limited to, sexism.
Because if we don't also solve racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, and at least reduce socioeconomic inequality, then we can't solve sexism.
And I think a big piece of that is to think of ourselves as citizens first, rather than as individuals.
Citizens have rights, duties, and obligations to their fellow citizens.
If power structures are inequitable, then it's a civic duty, and your obligation to your fellow citizens, to change them.
Individuals just have their own self-interest. And if that perceived self-interest aligns with the patriarchy, or white supremacy, or oligarchical capitalism, then it's only natural to support and uphold those power structures.
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@ajsadauskas @bamfic @sidereal @peterbutler @Ashedryden
I agree with all of the above points.
Some interesting observations:
* Despite "urban" being a euphemism for 'Black," most Black people in the US live in the suburbs. ~76%. Because in the US, almost everyone lives in the suburbs. 
* The "young men are increasingly diverging politically from young women!" trope is not generally true. It's true for young *white* men. There's a "data lie" that young Black men are "turning to Trump."
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@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io@ajsadauskas @bamfic @sidereal @peterbutler @Ashedryden
In 2016, ~80% of Black men polled said that they would "definitely vote for Hillary." On election day, ~80% of Black men did vote for Hillary. 
In 2024, so many Black men were disillusioned with Biden, that under 50% said that they were definitely voting for him.
2016, 100 Black voters:
80 Dem
0 sitting out
20 GOP/Other
Early 2024 (Biden)
60 Dem
20 sitting out
20 GOP/Other
Late 2024 (Harris)
70 Dem
10 sitting out
20 GOP/other
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@ajsadauskas @bamfic @sidereal @peterbutler @Ashedryden
So, in a classic US inversion of what's really going on to lie about Black men: Trump appeared to gain support not because of a shift to the right of Black men voters, but because of a shift to the left.
A lot of Black men voters were tired of Biden's nonsense. Even those of us that probably would have still voted for him. 
Dearborn and Detroit. Harris has won back Detroit. She will not win back Dearborn in the next few weeks.
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@ajsadauskas @bamfic @sidereal @peterbutler @Ashedryden
Ah, almost forgot the punchline!
If you run the numbers above, you can tell yourself a lie with data:
* Hillary won 80% of the Black men vote in 2016. As a group they didn't turn out for Hillary like they did for Obama, but the proportions were right! 
* But in 2024, over 25% of Black men plan to vote for Trump! All young men like Trump, including Black men!
* Harris must win back Black men! Offer them free weed and crypto!
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