Conservative Life Advice For Young Men: Learn To Deep Fry

Many prominent conservatives think smart white men should accept downward mobility

A hilarious new copypasta emerged on X this week. For those who might not know what that is, Wikipedia defines it as “a block of text copied and pasted to the Internet and social media. Copypasta containing controversial ideas or lengthy rants are often posted for humorous purposes.”

This copypasta highlighted the glories of young men not going to college. “My son is 22 yrs old, works at UPS since high school @ 70k yr, girlfriend is 10 yrs older. No college. Talking marriage and kids and yes, he's fit,” read the report from a conservative account. It quickly became fodder social media, inspiring hundreds of posts mocking it.

The post might sound silly, but it’s part of a very serious conversation among conservatives. It’s become a cliche for conservative pundits–who all went to college, don’t do manual labor for a living, and dwell in high-income areas–to tell young men to abandon college, get a blue collar job, and move to a downscale rural area. They were once again engaged in this lecturing this week.

In a debate over whether the problems facing young men are really that bad, Christopher Rufo argued that things are actually pretty good and suggested that there are great jobs at Panda Express and Chipotle. It’s one thing to tell kids to go to trade school; it’s quite another to start celebrating demeaning service sector jobs. Of course, people need to work at places like Chipotle. But telling smart white men to settle for them is tone deaf beyond belief.

Rufo may have only been highlighting the “decent” pay at these jobs to demonstrate “full employment.” But the implications of posts like this and others in the current debate demand that young white men need to accept declining status. Their parents had respectable, white-collar jobs that provided for a family. Now the sons (never the daughters–they’re told to follow their dreams and go to college) have to settle for a dead-end job.

Older conservatives offer a disturbing message to young men. Rather than giving them advice on how to make themselves better, conservative pundits want Zoomers to embrace “prole drift.” These political commentators think young guys should be happy with serving burritos and fixing toilets while “high-skilled” immigrants take all the good jobs. It’s a deeply unappealing pitch–and one that’s designed to make young Americans accept dispossession.

Most, if not all, life advice given to young men on social media is terrible. What’s given is not advice that the one offering it even did themselves. They’re just the fantasies of middle-aged men shouted at the young to own them in internet debates. Housing prices too high? Just buy a home in the middle of nowhere! Have trouble getting a girlfriend? Just do cold approaches at rural truck stops! Feel your ambitions are thwarted at work and struggle to make ends meet? Just find meaning as an assistant manager at Panda Express!

Despite conservatives wanting to increase the marriage rate, their advice to young men ensures they’re removed from the dating market. A guy with no college degree, living in the middle of nowhere, and working at a low status job is not going to be a hot commodity. The majority of young women went to college and live in an urban area. They want a man of similar status to them. Studies show women prefer to not marry men with less education than them. They certainly don’t want to marry a man out in the boonies running the local Chipotle.

This advice is insidious when paired with the number of prominent voices demanding more “high-skilled” Indian immigrants. Elon Musk, a huge fan of increasing foreign labor, tells young American men to avoid college. He recently argued before a young audience that college is “overrated” and it would be much better to do manual labor. This is a curious argument to make for someone who complains that Americans lack the skill and intelligence to work for tech companies. H-1B visas, which Elon wants more of, require a recipient to have a college degree. By telling Americans to not go to college, Musk ensures they stay out of the hiring pool and more immigrants take these jobs.

It would be much better if Musk encouraged young Americans to get STEM degrees so they could be hired by Tesla, SpaceX, and other prestigious tech companies. But he doesn’t. This makes his “don’t go to college” argument all the more subversive.

Elon and other tech guys who love H-1B Indians and telling Americans to not go to college have a clear ulterior motive. Most conservative pundits who offer bad advice to young men are just being stupid. Whatever the motive, the effect is the same. Young white men are told to embrace downward mobility while other groups take the good jobs. While immigrants and other college-educated groups get to rule the country, right-leaning men are told to be content with proletarianization. The new Americans get all the chicks, while young white men should be happy with wifing up a 35-year-old single mom.

Young men are falling behind in our society. They lack purpose in an increasingly feminized America. They need good advice on how to make their lives better and avoid downward mobility. They need our leaders to restrict immigration so good jobs go to Americans rather than cheap foreign labor. We want right-leaning Zoomers to be the leaders of tomorrow, not the DoorDash drivers of the future.

There are plenty of good jobs that still require a college degree. Billionaires like Elon aren’t demanding more student visas and more high-skilled guest workers simply for fun. They want to fill these jobs with college-educated foreigners who will work for less. Telling Americans to not go to college and aspire to work in fast food reinforces this nefarious tendency.

A lot of young men do need to take some responsibility and get their lives in order. If older conservatives told them to work hard, avoid toxic habits, figure out what their aptitudes are, pick a marketable degree in college, and do the best they can, that would be good advice. Instead, they tell them to move to the middle of nowhere and work at Chipotle. Downward mobility becomes the ideal.

If young white men accepted this terrible advice, it would accelerate their own dispossession in the country their forefathers built. The only way to preserve their inheritance is to achieve success in our society–and that doesn’t look like contentment as a line cook.