Here is a short essay presenting an interesting hypothesis seeking to explain the ongoing cultural ferment and discord in the Western world: https://americanmind.org/salvo/pink-shift/.
This hypothesis is consistent with the basic explanatory mechanism recently also propounded for the “ongoing cultural ferment and discord in the Western world”: https://larryturner.substack.com/p/april-27th-2021.
Note especially this quote from the “Pink Shift” essay,
And then there is the alarming set of cultural trends in recent years that involves declines in support for free speech, due process, open debate, free scientific inquiry, and other pillars of modern Western liberalism. Surveys suggest that women, compared to men, are markedly less supportive of these liberal ideas, so it’s hardly a stretch to attribute their erosion to cultural feminization. There is no consensus as to why women are this way, but again, this may reflect psychological adaptations for child-rearing—which, if my own experience is any guide, tends to be rather undemocratic and peremptory. That women are more averse to debate and confrontation may also stem from their greater emotional sensitivity—a sensitivity that makes verbal swordplay more stressful for them, on average, than it is for men, and may help explain why they often use phrases like “made me feel unsafe” to justify their suppression of debate or dissent.
Note also this observation from the “Pink Shift” essay,
It’s probably also worth mentioning that the female traits that seem most important in this ongoing cultural “pink shift” appear to manifest most strongly in single women. Single women in recent decades have become much more numerous as a percentage of the population, as women have worked more, married less, and in general have grown more independent of men. Single women may also be overrepresented in culturally influential professions.
I wonder what male traits single men (also becoming more numerous in recent decades), rather than single women, are pressing into the current cultural stew. Any ideas? Or has the dilution of male effect by increasing female effect crowded out the possible influence of undomesticated single males? My impression of single younger males is that they tread this particular ground quite carefully as a strategy for maximizing their probability of developing temporary, if not long term, relations with members of the opposite sex.