This article originally appeared in the Toronto Star.
By Peter Copeland, August 5, 2025
Young men are searching for their place in a world that regards them with suspicion. I’ve known what it’s like to experience this myself.
Shaped by the equity-seeking left and the individualistic liberalism of both left and right, culture today often blames masculinity for society’s ills, while locating moral authority in “authentic” self-expression. But after a brief period of real accomplishment, this culture now resembles the rebellious icons that are its exemplars: washed-up rock stars and aging celebrities, thrice-married and estranged from their children, replaying the old hits, oblivious to the new tune in the air.
The right, meanwhile, has always affirmed the reality of sexual difference and complementarity, seeing healthy masculinity as noble and necessary, something that can offer stability, security and moral leadership to family and community alike. No wonder many young men are turning to more conservative ideas.
Voting conservative — whether by ballot or by lifestyle — is an act of opposition. Progressive liberals still imagine themselves as the underdogs, but they’ve become the establishment: culturally dominant, institutionally entrenched, protective of the status quo. And what a status quo it is, a society in which feelings and personal identity are mistaken as foundationally important, in which unbounded autonomy and a technocratic elite reign supreme.
Rather than freedom, this social order has given rise to anxiety, loneliness and a civilization-threatening demographic crunch, the confluence of an aging population and declining birth rates. It has also contributed to mental-health crises, family breakdown and spiritual emptiness. A worldview that promised liberation for all by erasing boundaries has delivered only alienation and incoherence, and now, progressives must reckon with the cost of having built a world in which life is unaffordable, the threads of civil society are fraying and the individual is profoundly alone.
Many have sensed a need to correct course. Although women may appear to be flourishing on paper, for example, with higher earnings and greater professional opportunities increasingly available, they report record levels of mental distress and lower life satisfaction than their mothers and grandmothers experienced, perhaps in part because progressive feminism encourages women to be more combative, more traditionally masculine. Meanwhile, conservatives and those who maintain religious beliefs consistently report greater well-being.
That’s no surprise either, and it’s something I came to understand personally. Raised in a society that believes values are subjective and ultimate meaning unknowable, I turned to philosophy in search of wisdom and the good life. What I found in academia was deconstruction, cynicism and formulaic power analyses masquerading as insight. I entered politics in my mid-20s with a chip on my shoulder, refusing to accept that vision for society, and discovered faith along the way — a framework to make sense of our desire for truth, virtue, family and reverence. I’ve met many young men who are also searching for these concepts, who want to live ordinary lives in pursuit of extraordinary ideals.
At its best, progressivism demands compassion, equality and dignity for the vulnerable. At its worst, it denies nature and pursues so-called liberation to the point of absurdity. Many young men long to strive, compete and earn their place in life by serving and protecting the people and institutions they care about. The strongest men are not domineering; they’re emotionally attuned, sacrificial, loving. And young men who want to attain these qualities need a society that values masculine virtues and doesn’t treat them as liabilities.
Progressives can rightly claim credit for having cultivated a more emotionally intelligent society. Men today are more open, more sensitive and more aware of other people’s needs. But progressivism has also led to helicopter parenting, safetyism and cancel culture, as well as ever more infantilized boys. Understandably, many men are reacting — some by turning to extremes. But there’s a deeper problem at work here: the narcissism and alienation that result from our obsession with liberal expressive individualism.
Many young men yearn for more than this. They yearn for responsibility, for meaning, for belonging. And progressives would do well to recognize this because it comes from a masculinity that all men can aspire to — one that embodies strength and service and that society sorely needs.
Peter Copeland is the deputy director of domestic policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
