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Editor’s note: While many are talking about why young men moved toward Trump in 2024, Lincoln Square is committed to providing a platform for young voices to speak for themselves. Evan Fields is a veteran who holds a master's degree and finds himself dealing with the same challenges that have led many young men to embrace the far right. Support his work at News From Underground [ [link removed] ].
Millions of young men across the country are finding themselves angry and alone. A society that has left them to suppress their feelings and drive on with the necessary work to provide for themselves and a family if they have one.
Husbands stressed about the next mortgage payment after hours scaled back at work, 20-something men leaving the military and looking for gainful employment from a civilian world that doesn’t value them, being hamstrung to the working class by the lack of opportunity or prestige of an Ivy League education. Every day across this country, young men turn to violence, suicide, or Trump…
And I get it.
We were raised to treat others how we want to be treated, not to steal, not to cheat, not to lie, and to practice empathy for others. Despite some rough teenage years, I largely followed through with those principles and added a strong dose of loyalty to them. But there is something that is missing in the return department when I’m standing on this side?
The so-called people who share like-minded values and principles that I do are nowhere to be found when it comes time to rally around someone.
I have reached out to everyone you could possibly imagine on tv and the news looking for internships, writing jobs, anything.
“I’ll work security for you at your speaking engagements”
“Here’s some of my work. Do you know of any ways that I could get into writing or get something published?”
“How could I start at the ground floor in this industry?”
“Do you know anyone at a think tank or policy institute? I’ll work for free to start; I just want a shot. I’ll interview. Anything.”
And the response?
“That’s awesome! Thank you so much for serving our country!”
“Good luck!!!”
*Crickets*
Because at the end of the day, no one wants to be the one to actually do the work. They want to smile in your face and tell you how great you are and how they hope everything works out for you, and then move on while hoping the next person doesn’t leave you out in the cold.
Society leaves young men to pull themselves up by their bootstraps unless they have familial connections or an education from a prestigious university.
People like me want to be part of that world. We have the ideas, knowledge, and will to help affect change on a large scale.
But there’s no room for us.
We are gate-kept from access to more.
You serve your country, you maintain a 3.8 GPA across undergrad and graduate school after you get out, you have tried to make connections with the people who are involved in society on “your side” and *crickets*.
You would think that the Democrats or people in public service would be jumping at the chance to hire a tall, charismatic young man who was honorably discharged from the Army and is educated?…. *crickets*
No interviews, no callbacks, no offers of assistance, no real engagement whatsoever.
“He’ll figure it out, he’s got this.”
No, I don’t.
I’m on the edge with my toes hanging off the cliff, looking for a lifeline, and everyone is expecting the next person who walks by to step in and help or assume that a guy like me would never have those problems.
This is how we get an entire generation of young men who are lonely, depressed, and turn to violence and Trump.
Am I going to do that? No.
But I certainly understand why people do. The so-called people with empathy and kindness and in positions of power have not once gone out of their way to help me secure a better future when I asked them. I’ve had people help minimally, and I appreciate their effort in guiding me, but it’s not enough. It’s not going to pay the mortgage, it’s not going to get my wife to stop asking me about jobs, it’s not going to make my PTSD or depression better, it’s not going to temper my rage at the moment, and it’s not going to keep the lights on in the future.
Imagine being 37 years old, handsome, smart, capable… ready and willing to give everything you have to the fight for a better future for the country and…
*Crickets*
I’m almost positive that if I channeled all of this rage and anger into the right-wing ecosystem, it would get a hell of a response. There is something about those people who accept the broken members of society who were downtrodden and thrown out from the other side. That’s certainly how I feel right now.
But like I said earlier, I was raised right and that voice inside my head will not allow me to do it. Morally I cannot be a part of those people even though I know they would accept someone like me who is ready to fight.
So, those left without political affiliations or a drive to do better and affect change, what do they do?
They silently drift away into the abyss while society carries on like nothing ever happened. Those people with disaffected dreams and no one who listens end up depressed and unable to move on. Those people who don’t get calls back or never receive the outstretched hand end up like me, sitting here questioning the existence of it all and if it is really that important or not.
I’m tired. I’m fed up. I’m sick of being an afterthought in a world that I have put everything into. I’m tired of people pretending like they give a shit but really not willing to put the effort into me that I am willing to put into the world.
I’m the guy out in the cold with clothes that aren’t ratty enough for charity, but I’m not clean enough to be let in the house at the rich party.
I’m stuck.
I can’t go back and re-do the timeline or the circumstances that my life began with. I can’t jump in a Time Machine and shove a silver spoon up little Evan’s ass and make things better. But I have done the work to be an outstanding person for this portion of my life and to put myself in a position to do better, only to be ignored over and over again.
So, I get it. I get why people turn to anger and hatred and join MAGA or end up taking their own life. They get to this point, and they don’t have any fight left, and there is no one there to reach a handout and say, “Come on, I’ve got you.” But I’ll die out in the cold before I give up morals and values that let me sleep at night.
Therefore, I sit outside in my old yet clean sweat suit, waiting for some spare change or a ride to a better life as I keep a smile on my face and make sure everyone else feels better than I do.

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