What’s the Fastest Way to Forge an Intergalactic Empire?
Technoscientific progress and alt-right resentment
In the Muslim world, many unemployed, angry young men are incentivized to join a terrorist organization like Al Qaeda that wages a militant jihad against the West for having caused many of the problems in that region.
In the West, similar dynamics play out, resulting not in jihad, though, but in a secular equivalent known as the radical politics of the “alt-right.” After all, there are plenty of angry, rural conservative men in places like North America too. Many flock to influencers such as Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and Jordan Peterson, and to trolling demagogues like Donald Trump. With its symbols of rugged patriotism and its mostly male politicians, the Republican Party caters to those who are fueled by what leftists call “toxic masculinity.”
Why are many young and old men angry even in the First World? Are they just spoiled, with their expectations set too high? Men ruled for thousands of years, and now that women, machines, and sexless AI have come to the fore, competing for dominance, men may resent their loss of status. More precisely, they may mourn the denigration of the values of masculinity, and loath the culture of left-wing political correctness.
