Call me woke, but I do believe XXXtensioncord’s popularity is what inadvertently lead to the rise in Gen Z conservatism.
X was frequently lambasted for being a wifebeater, misogynist, homophobe, New Age woo believer, social conservative (he spoke out against anti-racist activists), and pretentious asshole. The mainstream media didn’t want to touch him because he was too controversial. Yet, the more he was “cancelled” and despised for all his ills, the more it added to his allure among zoomers. X’s image was that of a deeply disturbed troubled genius whose pain and anger lead him to violence and nihilism. He was cold and cruel but that’s exactly what made him so appealing as a rapper to begin with.
This, I believe, was the gateway drug that turned a lot of zoomers (in particular, zoomer men) into far-right conservatives and fascists. All those zoomers who were listening to X back in 2017-18 while in middle school or high school voted for Trump in last year’s election. They are the same people who listen to Joe Rogan, Andrew Tate, and Jordan Peterson. It’s identical to how all the Gen X nonconformists who idolizes Kurt Cobain went on to become a Big Tech innovators or how millennials who spent their teen years listening to emo rock ended up becoming SJWs (since the essence of emo music is trauma and mental illness/neurodivergence). It’s all because X was cancelled time and time again before he was clout martyred, then smeared over and over again after death. Zoomers who loves him saw that and began internalizing X’s persona as well as resentment towards a morally-obsessive cancel culture.
It makes perfect sense once you think about it.
I was a zoomer in HS when all of this happened I think you've got it a bit backwards. X didn't cause anyone to drift to the right but unsurprisingly it turns out people who form parasocial relationships with celebrities to the point of not caring, denying or straight up supporting beating your partner are also right wing. I've met the dude your describing a dozen times at least and X didn't change there world view that much and as of now the running joke is how overwhelmingly cringey,white and annoying the X and juice fanbase has become there basically in the same tier as $B fans nowadays. X was much like Kurt Cobain since both blew up by taking a pre-existing sound in underground music and created a more watered down version with poppier sound structure. Also the resident /pol/yps we did have were all lewronggeneration classic rock fans that wouldn't even listen to rap in the first place. The X fans gravitated more to forex pyramid schemes, finance gurus,crypto get rich quick schemes and/or christonarcissism since they're all wanna be "hu$tlers" despite literally being the targets of the actual gangbangers since someone who thinks they're way harder than they actually are is the perfect pluck.
>T.was literally sitting around in a HS cafetaria when X got shot
>>16047X made music for Hot Topic kids, not hyper-masculine dudebros.
The way you put it, Twitter was the root cause, and XXX10 simply delivered the payload.
>>16047Not a big loss for music.
Even if he was the cause, how can this explain the rise in non-anglophone countries?
XXXTentacion was also a pedo who fucked a 15-year old girl when he was 19 and already a successful rapper. She committed suicide and he used her name as a song title (“Jocelyn Flores”). Her family opposed it but he didn’t care.
>>16047It's not a bad take, I can see the relation, but I also think it's way too U.S-centered.
XXX is(was) likely no more than a piece of a larger movement, the rise in Gen Z conservatism is stretching all over the world, in Latam, Asia, Africa and many other places where he was not 'famous' at all.
>>16124So what do you suppose is the real reason zoomer men are so conservative?
Zoomer women tend to be very leftist-oriented by comparison.
Its not one thing persay but rather a series of things over the course of the last decade
>>16125they're not even particularly conservative its just that the neoliberal center for all the under 25s has completely collasped so all the conservatives are either magacultists, cryptobros, religious traditionalist(the tradition is twitter aesthetic pages lol) or outright fash. The amount of conservative men didn't change but the rhetoric and beliefs got more aggressive and over the top since "moderate republicans" are nonexistent unless you count ruralite libertarians. The same thing is true in the opposite direction where all the people who would be clintonite neolibs are functionally keynesian socdems now.
>t.zoomer male who was literally in a HS cafetaria when X died and watched his fanbase react to it(very cringe, parasocial bonding bad)