President Donald Trump’s granddaughter, Kai Trump, recently took her followers on a tour of the White House, describing the famous landmark with nonchalance and a hint of sarcasm.
The Gen-Z internet personality showed off the White House in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxV0P0602M">video</a> posted on Wednesday and gave some more behind-the-scenes perspective of the White House UFC fight.
As she entered the White House, which she called &#8220;my house,&#8221; she gestured towards a portrait of George Washington, saying, “We got my best friend, George Washington. We’re real tight.” 

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Credit: Kai Trump via YouTube
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Kai also described the newly-installed statues of Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin in the Rose Garden as if they were old friends.
“This is my friend Alexander Hamilton. What a chiller,” Kai said. “Over here we have Benjamin Franklin, who’s also my dear friend. Old Boy Benji. We call him Benji. What a nice guy.”
As she walked through a hallway adorned by paintings, glass lamps, and an old grandfather clock, Trump&#8217;s granddaughter commented that she &#8220;used to play soccer in these halls.&#8221;
After dodging aides who were moving furniture on the second floor, Kai found a podium.
“I’m about to do a speech in front of everyone. Look, look at my crowd,” she joked to the few people filming her.
She continued showing other rooms in the White House, commenting with her deadpan sense of humor.
“This is the Red Room. As you can tell, it’s red and that’s why it&#8217;s called the Red Room.” Kai joked. “This is the Blue Room. As you can tell, it’s also blue.”
To conclude her White House tour, Kai went into the Oval Office, showing off the Declaration of Independence on the wall, the portraits, Trump’s Sharpies, and the various articles of gold in the office.
“All right guys. We’re in the Oval Office right now,” she said. “So everything is gold because my grandpa hates gold so he actually decided to add a lot of gold to the Oval Office. That’s a joke. He loves gold. It’s like his favorite thing on the planet if you guys haven’t noticed.&#8221;
“He has a very good attention to detail, so everything that he thought should be gold, he made gold,” Kai added. 
Kai has over three million followers on Instagram and 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube. She is attending the University of Miami this fall, where she is <a href="https://miamihurricanes.com/roster/kai-trump/">joining</a> Miami&#8217;s golf team.

Untitled design – 2026-06-25T132950.303

The White House Through Kai Trump’s Eyes

Gen Z

Kai Trump

White House

The internet is melting down. Politics is broken. Culture is spiraling. And Mat Nuclear is going live.
The Daily Wire’s newest show, “The Nuclear Reaction,” drops viewers into a post-apocalyptic shortwave broadcast where the only mission is helping those who are still Left … get Right in the head.
Part reaction show, part debate arena, part emergency transmission from the wreckage of modern discourse, “The Nuclear Reaction” puts Nuclear into the middle of the day’s dumbest, darkest, and most combustible arguments. Guests, callers, clips, chats, and assorted survivors wander through the broadcast as Nuclear tries to separate what’s real from what’s fake — and figure out who’s having the biggest public meltdown.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
The Nuclear Reaction starts tonight ☢️🔥
Meet The Daily Wire’s newest talent, <a href="https://x.com/MatNuclear?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MatNuclear</a>!
Part reaction, part debate, part broadcast from the ruins of rationality — Mat&#8217;s getting into it all.
Watch tonight on YouTube at 6PM, plus his guest appearance on Friendly Fire🔥 <a href="https://t.co/AkGPcbHbWh">pic.twitter.com/AkGPcbHbWh</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://x.com/realDailyWire/status/2067279309505524166?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 17, 2026</a></blockquote>
“It’s politics, culture, internet drama, and apocalyptic nonsense all treated with the level of lols it deserves,” Nuclear said.
The show marks a new chapter for one of the Right’s fastest-rising young voices.
Nuclear built an audience as a teenage debater taking on opponents across social media. What started with arguments against vegans on Discord quickly evolved into viral clashes on TikTok, where he developed a reputation for relentlessly questioning progressive assumptions and refusing to let opponents escape uncomfortable questions.
His national breakout came through Jubilee’s viral “Surrounded” series, where he faced activist Amanda Seales in front of a live audience. Clips from the debate spread rapidly online and introduced millions of viewers to the then-18-year-old commentator.
Soon afterward, appearances with major conservative figures followed. Figures like Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk praised Nuclear’s debating ability and composure.
Now, Nuclear is bringing that same energy to a nightly live format built around audience interaction, real-time reactions, and unpredictable debates.
Each episode of “The Nuclear Reaction” will feature a mix of breaking news, political commentary, livestream debates, audience call-ins, social media clips, and internet chaos. No topic is off limits, and no sacred cow is guaranteed protection.
For Nuclear, the appeal of debate has always been rooted in a simple idea: most political arguments become much less convincing when someone asks a straightforward follow-up question. Rather than relying on talking points or outrage, Nuclear built his audience by challenging claims directly and forcing conversations back to basic questions of truth, logic, and consistency.
That approach has resonated particularly with younger audiences, many of whom encountered him through short-form social media clips before following him into longer discussions and debates.
While the show embraces the absurdity of modern politics and internet culture, it also reflects Nuclear’s belief that persuasion matters — especially for a generation increasingly surrounded by ideological noise.
“The Nuclear Reaction” streams regularly across The Daily Wire’s platforms, delivering reactions, arguments, laughs, and chaos from the front lines of the culture war.
The world may be falling apart, but Mat Nuclear will be there to talk about it.

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WATCH: Mat Nuclear Gets Hot On His Daily Wire Livestream

Daily Wire

Debate

Poltiics

Entitlement reform is about to become a hot-button issue, again, due to imminent fiscal shortfalls.
And right now the politics don’t look great for Americans under 40. According to recent <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/social-securitys-finances-are-getting-worse-americans-dont-know-how-hard-choices-will-be">polling</a> by the Cato Institute, 89% of senior citizens would support raising taxes on younger workers in order to maintain their Social Security benefits. Now consider that the <a href="https://voteathome.org/new-report-on-primary-voting-highlights-path-to-increase-voter-participation/">median</a> primary voter is 65 years old.
Gen Z <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025/2024-presidential-election-voting-registration-tables.html">votes</a> at much lower rates than older Americans, especially in <a href="https://theharvardpoliticalreview.com/gen-z-voter-barriers-2024-election/">midterms</a>. Worse, many Zoomers don’t even know how Social Security works. Half think their payroll taxes are either saved for them in a personal account or invested in a trust fund on their behalf.
In reality, Social Security is a <a href="https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/social-security-trust-fund-myth">pay-as-you-go program</a>. That means today’s beneficiaries are funded through taxes paid by younger workers, today. While retirees say they “paid in,” those dollars were spent long ago. Social Security’s mythology has obscured the economic trade-offs it requires: between the incomes of younger workers and the retirement lifestyles of seniors.
For decades, Social Security spending has gone in one direction: up, up, and up, on <a href="https://epicforamerica.org/federal-budget/epic-explainer-discretionary-v-autopilot-spending/">autopilot</a>. As a result, it now accounts for <a href="https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-does-the-us-spend-on-social-security-is-it-sustainable/">over</a> 22% of the federal budget, costing nearly $1.6 trillion per year. That makes it the single biggest item in America’s federal budget, and it’s <a href="https://www.pgpf.org/article/top-10-largest-budget-functions/">not close.</a> If you add up all spending on seniors in the federal budget, it’s about <a href="https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/p/2026-04-01-how-federal-spending-is-distributed-by-age-group-in-fy2025/">$2.7 trillion</a> annually. We spend six times as much on senior citizens, the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/economy/over-65-congratulations-you-own-the-economy-5acea4c4">wealthiest demographic,</a> as we do on children and young adults.
Congress has made no major changes to Social Security since 1983, when President Ronald Reagan signed a bipartisan bill that saved it from imminent collapse. Contrary to today’s facile notion that entitlement reform is “a third rail,” Reagan signed bipartisan legislation that cut Social Security and Medicare spending in 1983, in addition to raising taxes. He won 49 states the very next year (when the economy jumps 7% in a single year, they let you do it).
Since Reagan, no president has been able to change the course of Social Security. Bush and Obama both talked about it. Neither got it done.
Something must change. The Social Security Trust Fund (technically it’s the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund) is projected to run out in late 2032. That’s just six years from now. It means senators elected or re-elected in the November 2026 midterms will confront this crisis within their upcoming terms.
And that’s not the only crisis on the horizon. Medicare Hospital Insurance is <a href="https://www.cms.gov/oact/tr/2026">projected</a> to run out in 2033. Chinese President Xi Jinping has directed the Chinese military to be able to strike Taiwan by 2027, though this does <a href="https://news.usni.org/2026/03/19/china-not-committed-to-2027-taiwan-invasion-u-s-intel-report-says">not</a> necessarily mean China will attack then. And the United States has been so occupied with <a href="https://americanmind.org/salvo/what-is-total-boomer-luxury-communism/">transferring</a> wealth to senior citizens that it forgot to match its defense production to its national security strategy. And that means significant production shortages of <a href="https://www.heritage.org/defense/commentary/chinas-naval-buildup-exposes-us-shipbuilding-gaps-and-fleet-weakness">ships</a>, <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/rebuilding-us-missile-inventory-multiyear-project">missiles</a>, and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/the-u-s-wants-to-break-chinas-drone-dominance-heres-where-it-will-struggle-39e69e18">drones</a>. America faces a rapidly complicated geopolitical situation, yet is maintaining <a href="https://econofact.org/u-s-defense-spending-in-historical-and-international-context">historically</a> low defense spending.
Making this all more intractable is America’s demographic collapse. We have fewer and fewer younger Americans <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/ratios.html">supporting</a> more and more older Americans. And this will get worse, impacting America’s ability to fund its entitlement programs — the fertility rate is falling <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/low-falling-fertility-means-social-securitys-funding-problems-are-worse-expected-0">faster</a> than the Social Security Trustees seem to think.
This will all come to a head, and soon. The U.S. must either significantly cut the growth trajectory of Social Security and Medicare spending or dramatically raise taxes. (Or some combination of benefit cuts and tax hikes).
There is no way to finesse our way out of this. It’s far too late to “privatize” Social Security, and any such plan would <a href="https://debtdispatch.substack.com/p/debt-digest-the-cassidy-kaine-social">dramatically</a> raise the national debt, making America’s fiscal problem worse, not better. And while AI promises to accelerate economic growth, excessive government regulation, grassroots backlash, and early demands for Universal Basic Income all cast doubt on the notion that AI will save us from the consequences of our own government spending.
By law, when the Social Security and Medicare trust funds run out, the programs’ spending will be cut significantly (by over 20% for Social Security and over 10% for Medicare Part A). But Congress is unlikely to allow these cuts to happen, given the political realities we have discussed.
American senior citizens know what they want: retirement benefits that keep going up forever, paid for by younger workers. Meanwhile, younger people don’t even know their own interests. Or what threatens them. Even among Americans under 30, 47% would protect current retirees’ benefits even if that means higher taxes on younger workers like them.
Expect more of the same. At least until America’s fundamental imbalance, between elderly power and youthful ignorance, changes.
America did not begin as a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gerontocracy-America-Hoarding-Power-Wealth_and/dp/0374607648">gerontocracy</a>. Thomas Jefferson was just 33 years old when he drafted the Declaration of Independence. Alexander Hamilton was around 20 in July 1776, but he was up north <a href="https://armyhistory.org/major-general-alexander-hamilton/">serving</a> as a captain in a New York artillery company.
With respect to America’s founders, however, if taxation without genuine political representation was a <a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/colonial-life-today/early-american-economics-facts">problem</a> back in 1776, it is a much larger problem now.
***
Russ Greene is Executive Director of the Prime Mover Institute and the <a href="https://americanmind.org/salvo/what-is-total-boomer-luxury-communism/">coiner</a> of the term “Total Boomer Luxury Communism.”

Senior woman’s hands counting cash us dollars at home

The Boomer Ponzi Scheme Robbing Americans Of Future Prosperity

Boomers

DW Opinion

Medicare

Social Security

This summer has been anything but normal in La La Land.
Two indie horror films, one made for less than $1 million, are crushing the box office. A Steven Spielberg film about aliens visiting Earth can only dream of catching up. The same holds for a film franchise “in a galaxy far, far away.”
Nothing makes sense in Hollywood now, and that might be the best news possible for a flailing industry and audiences hoping for more voices, not fewer.
The Old Guard is fading to black. Enter the New Guard, weaned on YouTube and ready to tell fresh stories that connect with Gen Z.
Take director Curry Barker. The 26-year-old isn’t a household name like Spielberg, unless you live on YouTube. Barker cut his teeth on the platform, delivering viral hits like the creepy “Milk &amp; Serial,” an hour-long found-footage film no studio would touch.
That convinced Hollywood to let him direct his first feature, “Obsession,” about a lovestruck man granted one powerful wish: Make the girl of his dreams fall in love with him.
It works, and that’s when the macabre elements rush in.
The micro-indie opened to a solid $17 million in U.S. theaters, but it just kept growing. The film made significantly more money in its subsequent two weekends, a feat that doesn’t happen without adding movie screens.
As of June 11, the film snuck back to <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/date/2026-06-10/?ref_=bo_di_table_1">reclaim the top box office</a> slot nearly a month after it opened (May 15). Once again, that simply doesn’t happen.
But it did. And its worldwide total as of mid-June is north of $240 million. Hollywood already handed Barker the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise to revive. More gigs will follow, with one studio waving a <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/obsession-filmmaker-curry-barker-gets-7-figure-offer-1236606967/">$10 million check</a> in front of him to do something, anything, for them.
Here’s betting Kane Parsons will get similar offers. The 20-year-old director also flexed his storytelling chops on his YouTube channel (Kane Pixels), building on creepy stories that lurk across digital platforms like 4chan.
The result? “Backrooms,” which opened to $81 million stateside.
That comes on the heels of an early 2026 hit, “Iron Lung.” Once more, a neophyte director weaned on YouTube. Mark Fischbach, AKA Markiplier, wrote, edited, directed, and starred in a sci-fi/horror film that earned a stunning $40 million on a $3 million budget.
As if 2026 couldn’t get any more unpredictable, there’s “The Amazing Digital Circus.” The Australian animated series debuted the final two episodes of its first season in select theaters. That release, subtitled “The Last Act,” briefly topped the box office and ended its debut weekend <a href="https://www.boxofficepro.com/the-amazing-digital-circus-the-last-act-lands-standout-box-office-debut/">with more than $20 million</a>.
All for two TV-like episodes set to debut in less than a month, for free, on YouTube. We shouldn’t be shocked, though. The show’s pilot episode has generated <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwAPLk_sQ3w&amp;t=120s">440 million views</a> on the platform to date.
These films did more than just wildly overperform; they let YouTube storytellers have their say. They brought Gen Z back to theaters in droves. That’s what’s been missing in recent years. Something blamed on a generational shift, short attention spans, and a dearth of compelling content.
And it took a new guard of storytellers to make it happen.
Now, imagine this stunning success complemented by older, more established franchises and iconic directors. Except it’s not working out that way.
“The Mandalorian and Grogu,” the first new “Star Wars” feature since 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” is underperforming. Badly. The film is laboring to crack the $300 million mark at the global box office, a fraction of what a “Star Wars” movie should earn.
For comparison, “The Rise of Skywalker” brought in $1 billion worldwide, and that film got skewered by franchise fans. The least successful “Star Wars” film in the modern era, “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” brought in $392 million in 2018.
And then there’s the man who gave us “Jaws,” “Jurassic Park” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Spielberg’s new film, “Disclosure Day,” lets the Oscar winner revisit his most popular theme — aliens.
The thriller stars Emily Blunt, Colin Firth, and Colman Domingo, and early reviews are promising — north of 80 percent “fresh” at RottenTomatoes.com. Yet the film is expected to earn roughly <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/06/box-office-disclosure-day-projection-1236951773/">$35 million in its opening weekend in the U.S.</a>
Mediocre word of mouth could sink the film, and fast.
Once upon a time, a new Spielberg film felt like a cultural event, one that couldn’t be missed. That’s especially true for his summer-style features.
Not anymore.
Then there’s Clint Eastwood. The actor-director just turned 96, and various media reports suggest he’s either <a href="https://consequence.net/2026/06/clint-eastwood-may-not-be-retired/">retired or hasn’t decided yet</a>. Either way, the Hollywood legend has earned the right to sit back and marvel at his magnificent film legacy.
There won’t be another star like him, maybe ever.
Hollywood is in flux, and the new kids are in charge. It could also lead to more voices being heard and movie studios losing their iron grip on content. After all, technology is breaking down the barriers between artist and studio. Someone can shoot a movie on their iPhone and edit it on any number of cheap but powerful tools.
Plus, Fischbach self-distributed “Iron Lung,” bypassing the Hollywood gatekeepers — the same gatekeepers who often make sure select stories and voices aren’t heard on screen. We know which ones.
That won’t be the case for much longer.
The new, emerging Hollywood isn’t just saving the theatrical experience. It’s opening cinema up to fresh new ideas and, eventually, to more voices than ever before.
***
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of <a href="http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News&#8217; Big Hollywood. He&#8217;s also the host of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hollywood-in-toto-podcast-w-christian-toto/id1186449155">The Hollywood in Toto Podcast</a>. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto?lang=en">@HollywoodInToto</a>.

Los Angeles Special Screening Of Focus Features’ “Obsession” – After Party

Gen Z YouTube Creators Are Shaking Up Tinseltown

Entertainment

Hollywood

Independent Film

Star Wars

Steven Spielberg

The internet has been up in arms about one of the biggest Lego scandals in human history, involving a record-breaking Lego set and accusations of corporate greed, content farming, and police irresponsibility. 
 
Eric Mansell, along with his son Bryan, reportedly <a href="https://bricksandminifigs.com/blog/blog/2026/05/28/bricks-minifigs-salem-oregon-clarity-and-resolution/">collected</a> a Lego Star Wars collection consisting of 780 boxed Lego sets and 1,200 rare figures as an investment for his grandchildren. The collection was reportedly priced between $60,000 to $200,000. 
 
The family gave the collection to Bricks and Minifigs, an after-market Lego reseller, to sell on consignment. But when the store changed hands, the new owner refused Mansell access to the collection and denied even having it. 
 
“All you have to do is let me in back. We can go that route or we can go to court,” Mansell said he told the store owner, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wscQpkcwgNU">adding,</a> “And the guy there just looks at me, crosses his arms and goes, ‘Let me tell you what’s going to happen. If we go to court, we’re going to drag this thing out so long and you’re going to end up spending so much more money than your collection is ever worth or what you ever would have gotten out of it, then it ain’t worth it, man.’”
Bricks and Minifigs denied &#8220;knowingly&#8221; stealing the Lego collection, stating, “The actual origin of this dispute lies in an unauthorized, local consignment arrangement between an independent former franchisee of the Salem store and the Mansell family.” The company stated that the collection was not even in the store when Johnson and Brandon Best took it over, as the collection was moved to an &#8220;offsite secure location.&#8221; 
Bricks and Minifigs stated that it found between $2,000 and $5,000 worth of the sets in the store that could possibly belong to the Mansell family. It stated, “We offered to return these items to the Mansell family though BAM had no legal obligation to do so, but it was refused.”
“Neither corporate nor the incoming owners (Josh Johnson and Best) ever took, sold, or concealed this collection,” the company added, claiming that inventory logs show the collection was already missing at the time of the takeover of the franchise.
Ben Schneider, who is known on YouTube as Reckless Ben, brought the case to the public&#8217;s attention after he sought to help the family get compensation for the massive Lego set. Schneider even went to the Bricks and Minifigs store to look into the case, but the police were called and he was ordered to stay off the property after being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wscQpkcwgNU">accused</a> of harassment. Schneider was also accused of trespassing after he attempted to go to the office of Ammon McNeff, the CEO of Bricks and Minifigs.
After Schneider reportedly tried all forms of discussion with Best and his business associate Joshua Johnson, he managed to win a default judgement in a small claims court against them for the Legos. However, Best and Johnson closed the Bricks and Minifigs store shortly after the controversy erupted.
Schneider then tried to personally sue Johnson and Best to recover the money, but said he had difficulty having a good faith conversation and serving the court papers required to personally sue. 
Schneider said he waited outside Johnson’s house away from his property so he could talk with him about the lawsuit while not being accused of trespassing. Johnson reportedly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxZPfj8AlmY">refused</a> to leave his property and called the cops multiple times on Schneider, one time allegedly accusing him of having heroin in his car, which turned out to be false. 
After Schneider was released on bail, the police later raided the house where Schneider and his friends were staying. The police arrested them all, and Schneider accused officers of dislocating his arm in the process.
Schneider and his friends were interrogated, and the police tried to keep Schneider in jail with no bail, but a judge allowed him to go. When Schneider was reportedly notified that there was another bail out for his arrest on the pretext that he was a physical threat to Johnson, he fled to Mexico to wait until things were sorted out.
In response to the ongoing problem with Schneider, Mansell, Johnson, and Best, Bricks and Minifigs filed a lawsuit against Schneider for conducting a harassment and extortion campaign against Bricks and Minifigs in Utah and Oregon. The company also <a href="https://bricksandminifigs.com/blog/blog/2026/05/28/bricks-minifigs-salem-oregon-clarity-and-resolution/">released</a> an official statement defending their side of the story.
The Bricks and Minifigs website has called Schneider and his content creator friends “zealous online profiteers” who have been engaged in “viral mischaracterizations” and &#8220;sensationalization&#8221; of their actions, and the actions of Johnson and Best.
Bricks and Minifigs also denied receiving verifiable copies of the signed contract, receipts of payment to the Mansell family, and a true listing of the inventory. It also said the store was closed “because our staff — including local teenagers — faced severe real-world safety hazards, targeted in-person stalking, and explicit bomb threats driven by viral videos.”
The American Fork Police Department posted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcVmSQpIPRY">video</a> detailing its perspective on the events, including previous claims about harassment, stalking, forging of signatures, and theft of Legos. The police department also stated it wanted to stop Schneider&#8217;s attempt to contact Johnson about the Legos because Johnson &#8220;reported that he was going to shoot someone as a result of the ongoing harassment.&#8221;
Schneider has also issued a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YEzhDn0jY8">response</a> to the police video, stating that the police raided &#8220;my house for stealing the Legos when there&#8217;s an overwhelming amount of evidence that Josh stole the Legos&#8221; and that the police &#8220;redacted everything&#8221; that supported Schneider in the body cam footage, saying that the reason was &#8220;to protect the victims.&#8221;
Schneider also started a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-bryan-recover-his-lego-collection">GoFundMe</a> to help the Mansell family recover the cost of their collections and to pay for legal fees as he is considering suing Best, Johnson, and the police department.
Most recently, Bricks and Minifigs released a statement <a href="https://bricksandminifigs.com/blog/blog/2026/06/04/bricks-and-minifigs-salem-joshua-johnson-brandon-best-resignation/">declaring</a> that it was permanently closing their Salem location, parting ways with Johnson and Best, and &#8220;personally reached out to Bryan Mansell and family to meet, to review documentation revealed in the investigation, and to come to a mutual and positive resolution.&#8221;

Legoworlds in the Bomann-Museum Celle

GRAND THEFT LEGO: How One Man’s ‘Star Wars’ Collection Set The Internet Ablaze

Corporate America

Corporations

Corruption

Internet

Lego

Oregon

Utah

For decades, Americans have viewed their primary adversaries as foreign nationals or international terrorist organizations. Yet this perspective has proven dangerously naive. Over the past 60 years, socialist and Marxist ideologies have taken root within our own borders, often hiding in plain sight. This internal threat operates not from distant shores but from within.
Recent events only underscore this concern. The arrest of a would-be assassin at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — reportedly a former “Teacher of the Year” — is deeply disturbing. It raises a critical question: how have individuals entrusted with educating our children become radicalized to such extremes? And more importantly — where is the line when freedom of speech ends and subversion begins?
<h3>Quietly Reshaping Society From the Inside Out</h3>
This enemy is not a shadowy cabal of spies but a network of socialist and Marxist-influenced elites who have methodically gained influence over key pillars of American life: universities, the legal system, media, political parties, and even religious organizations. Operating under the banners of progress, equity, and social justice, they have advanced while many citizens focused on daily responsibilities. The outcome has been a slow erosion of foundational American values and a deliberate division of people along lines of ethnicity, religion, and sexual identity and even splits amongst once close family members. The result is the gradual weakening of the nation’s core institutions and social fabric.
<h3>The Decimation of the Nuclear Family</h3>
One of the most striking impacts appears in the decline of the nuclear family. This trend began prominently in the black community. In the 1960s, roughly 80% of black children lived in two-parent homes. Today, that figure is reversed with 77% of black children born to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/693212/77-black-births-to-single-moms-49-for-hispanic-immigrants/">single mothers</a>. The problem has since spread nationwide. Pew Research Center <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/12/12/u-s-children-more-likely-than-children-in-other-countries-to-live-with-just-one-parent/">data</a> show the United States has the highest rate of children living in single-parent households among developed nations — 23% of U.S. children under 18 live in fatherless homes, more than three times the global average.
Marriage rates have also hit historic lows, undermining the stable family structures historically linked to prosperity, child well-being, and social mobility. A prosperous country cannot long thrive without strong families as its foundation.
<h3>Academic Excellence Subverted into a Marxist Trojan Horse</h3>
Nowhere is the transformation more evident than in education. In public schools, social justice curricula emphasizing systemic racism, gender ideology, and equity have often displaced core academics. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores — the Nation’s Report Card — reveal reading and math proficiency at historic lows, with declines affecting students across demographic groups. Resources flow into DEI initiatives and “restorative justice” programs that prioritize emotional outcomes over measurable skills.
The human cost is profound: <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/most-us-would-fail-u-s-citizenship-test-survey-finds-n918961">surveys indicate</a> only about 19% of Americans under age 45 can pass the U.S. Citizenship Test, with many unable to name the three branches of government or explain the Bill of Rights. Older Americans pass at much higher rates (around 74% in some studies), underscoring that this reflects educational shifts rather than inherent generational differences. 
Teachers’ unions have sometimes embraced ideological language. During the 2022 Minneapolis strike, a union leader framed the effort as a fight against “the patriarchy” and “capitalism.”
Universities, once centers of free inquiry, now exhibit stark ideological imbalance. Faculty ratios have shifted dramatically, with liberal-to-conservative balances moving from roughly 2:1 in the mid-1990s to far wider margins today — often 10:1 or higher in many studies, with even greater disparities in humanities and education departments. In the national survey, Departments of Education faculty self-identify as Radical, Activist, Socialist or Marxist. This is especially concerning because they instruct the next generation of public-school teachers.
<h3>Propaganda Masquerading as Journalism and Advocacy</h3>
This academic capture influences media, law, and advocacy. Organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) have faced scrutiny, including allegations in legal contexts of questionable practices while labeling mainstream groups. Media outlets often amplify such frameworks, shaping narratives through selective coverage. In politics, socialist ideas have moved from the fringes to mainstream Democratic platforms.
In November 2025, New York City elected Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, as mayor — the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of America’s largest city. His administration prioritizes expansive government and redistribution. Similar dynamics appear in Minnesota: Minneapolis City Council includes self-declared Democratic Socialists of America members advancing related priorities amid ongoing challenges with crime and services. The 2020 unrest in Minneapolis, involving organized elements, accelerated “defund the police” experiments rooted in these ideologies.
<h3>Undermining Service to Citizens</h3>
Elected officials advancing such agendas can weaken state capacity and national cohesion. When civic education falters, informed citizenship declines — an outcome aligned with views that see the Constitution as an outdated instrument of oppression.
Religious institutions have also been affected. Some mainline Protestant and Catholic circles have incorporated critiques of “systemic sin,” shifting emphasis toward social justice over personal redemption. Sermons increasingly echo academic and media talking points on privilege and reparations.
<h3>Pattern Recognition and the Path Forward</h3>
This is not paranoia but observable pattern recognition. Socialist and Marxist influences advanced not through overt revolution but via tenure committees, HR departments, grants, and activist networks. They reframed compassion-based concepts like diversity, inclusion, and equity into tools against dissent.
Evidence surrounds us: politicized campuses stifling debate, advocacy groups facing credibility questions, socialist elected officials, schools prioritizing socialist ideology, unions opposing capitalism, coordinated protests and riots, and churches emphasizing liberal politics.
Americans must awaken to this reality. The adversary lectures from podiums, edits content, drafts laws, grades papers, and serves on councils — seldom wearing foreign uniforms. Reclaiming institutions require vigilance: restoring academic excellence and viewpoint diversity in universities, demanding transparency from nonprofits and unions, electing leaders focused on merit and results, and ensuring schools prioritize fundamentals — reading, writing, history, and civics — over grievance.
The republic was not lost overnight but inch by inch. The time to push back is now. Our children’s future and the nation’s character depend on it.
* * *
Kendall Qualls is an Army veteran, business leader, and the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota. TakeCharge is a national nonprofit organization led by Kendall and Sheila Qualls focused on restoring strong families as the foundation for opportunity, dignity, and upward mobility.

Former President Obama Joins NYC Mayor Mamdani On A Visit To Child Care Center

The Quiet Campaign Weaponizing America’s Youth

Education

Family Values

Leftists

Legacy Media

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Propaganda

Teenagers

A new poll finds that a plurality of Gen Z would hop in a time machine and leave their life behind as many young people grow disillusioned with modern technology and increasingly pessimistic about their economic futures.
If given the option, nearly half (47%) of 18-29-year-olds said they&#8217;d choose to live in the past, according to an <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28059030-genz-nbc-news-decision-desk-poll-march-2026-topline/">NBC News Decision Desk Poll</a>. One in three surveyed said they’d pick a time period less than 50 years ago, while another 14% would choose more than 50 years in the past. Only 38% of young people said they’d prefer to live in the present.
Members of this generation, born in 1997 or later, yearn for an era “right before social media and computers mediated life,” Clay Routledge, a nostalgia researcher and existential psychologist, said in an <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/discomfort-modern-technology-gen-z-desire-live-past-poll-rcna340897">interview with NBC News</a>.
Ben Isaacs, a 20-year-old Colorado student, said he’d choose to live in the 1990s, arguing smartphones are eroding young people’s ability to connect face-to-face and live beyond “the realm of the phone,” according to NBC.
The survey captures Gen Z’s deepening dissatisfaction with the country’s trajectory, social cohesion, and their financial futures.
A whopping 80% of Gen Z—more than any other generation—said the United States is headed in the wrong direction, according to the NBC poll, and 62% expect their lives will be worse than those of previous generations.
Plus, a majority rated the economy—especially inflation and the cost of living—as their top political concerns.
Artificial intelligence, which is transforming the higher education landscape and entry-level job market, is adding to the uncertainty and economic anxiety. <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/704087/college-students-weigh-impact-majors-careers.aspx">One in six college students</a> has changed their major because of AI, and 48% of Gen Z workers now say its negatives outweigh its benefits—an 11-point increase from 2025, according to a recent Gallup poll.
Unemployment among recent college graduates has risen since the pandemic, reaching 5.6% at the end of 2025 and extending well beyond the humanities, according to the <a href="https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market#--:explore:unemployment">Federal Reserve Bank of New York.</a> Computer engineering now has one of the <a href="https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market#--:explore:unemployment">highest unemployment rates</a> among college majors at 7.8%, a sharp reversal from 2021, when it ranked among the lowest at 3.2%.
Economic, cultural, and political turbulence is helping drive a cultural shift among some young people, especially men. Another Gallup poll released this month indicates that young men have become more religious in recent years.
<a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/708410/young-men-religious-young-women.aspx">The survey</a>, released April 16, finds that 42% of men ages 18–29 now say religion is “very important” in their lives, up sharply from 28% in 2022–2023. Monthly religious attendance among young men also rose to 40% from 33%, the highest level in more than a decade, surpassing women for the first time.
&#8220;When there’s a lot of disruptions — political divisiveness, or, you know, worries about AI or other kinds of societal, technological or social, cultural changes — people tend to become more nostalgic for the past to help them with the things that they’re worried about,” <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/discomfort-modern-technology-gen-z-desire-live-past-poll-rcna340897">Routledge told NBC</a>.

Teens in circle holding smart mobile phones – Multicultural young people using cellphones outside – Teenagers addicted to new technology concept

Why Gen Z Wishes They Could Time Travel

Economy

Polls

Social Media

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If you&#8217;re a liberal Gen Z commentator, the last person you want to see on the other end of the debate stage is Isabel Brown.
And yet that&#8217;s exactly the position influencer Harry Sisson found himself in at the University of Virginia, when he joined The Daily Wire host for the latest installment on CBS News and <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/watch-the-gen-z-debate-with-harry">The Free Press&#8217;s</a> &#8220;Things That Matter&#8221; debate series. Brown and Sisson sparred on culture, economics, and the direction of Gen Z politics, with Brown pressing an argument rooted in culture and faith and Sisson leaning on conventional liberal talking points.
Brown opened by framing the debate at a civilizational level, rejecting the idea that current political and economic frustrations can be pinned solely on former President Donald Trump.
“It may be flashy and easy to say it’s all Donald Trump’s fault,” she said, “but in reality where we have arrived at today is because of the systematic removal of God from our society.” She returned to that theme repeatedly, arguing, “We lack the common shared humanity that bound us all together — that is, God.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/harryjsisson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@harryjsisson</a> and his leftist counterparts like to chase clicks by blaming all of Gen Z&#8217;s problems on President Trump.
But <a href="https://twitter.com/theisabelb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@theisabelb</a> identifies the root of the crisis facing Gen Z: the systematic removal of God from our society. <a href="https://t.co/LJBlDv1tlQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/LJBlDv1tlQ</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/2047284604017492384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">April 23, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Sisson, by contrast, focused on attacking Trump&#8217;s rhetoric, claiming “Trump said Kamala Harris is going to import a million, gazillion people … and he said I’m focused on affordability … and none of that has happened.”
The debate sharpened when it turned to foreign policy. Sisson asked, “What war did Joe Biden get into?” Brown fired back: “Joe Biden directly propped up and funded foreign wars around the world … we sent money to the Iranian regime — we sent $200 billion to the war in Ukraine.”
While the exact figures are debated, it is well-documented that the U.S. committed over $180 billion in aid to Ukraine since 2022, according to a Defense Department<a href="https://media.defense.gov/2025/Mar/10/2003663371/-1/-1/1/OAR_Q1_DEC2024_FINAL_508.PDF#page=28&amp;zoom=70,-372,685" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> inspector general report</a> from 2024, alongside controversial financial transfers tied to Iran and the aftermath of the Afghanistan withdrawal — making Sisson’s implication of non-involvement difficult to sustain.
On domestic economics, Sisson claimed, “We now have less workers than jobs open right now,” echoing a common labor shortage argument. Brown immediately countered: “So why are 10 million Gen Zers unemployed?” As youth unemployment has remained persistently higher than the national average, and labor force participation among younger workers has lagged, complicating the simplistic “more jobs than workers” narrative.
“Immigrants in virtually every piece of economic data makes our country better, they make our culture better, they make us better as people,” Sisson claimed, drawing a sharp contrast with Brown’s argument that mass immigration can suppress wages in certain sectors, a concern supported in part by labor market research showing localized wage pressure in low-skill industries.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/harryjsisson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@harryjsisson</a> DENIES that mass migration hurts Gen Z <a href="https://twitter.com/theisabelb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@theisabelb</a>: &#8220;It is a system that has been consistently selling out the opportunities of our generation for everyone else around the world.&#8221;
HS: &#8220;The idea that immigrants are coming in and stealing jobs is just NOT TRUE.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/HeXoo8Kvow" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/HeXoo8Kvow</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/2047307000313225667?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">April 23, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Brown then shifted the conversation to culture and social stability, noting that “Young people, especially young men are looking for unafraid, on offense conservatism,” she said, outlining a platform of limited government, reduced foreign intervention, and education reform against “woke slop.”
Throughout the exchange, Sisson often defaulted to dismissiveness, responding, “I don’t even know what woke slop means.” Brown tied her argument on education reform to a deeper argument about meaning and social cohesion, warning against what she described as a drift toward “radical Marxism.”
As The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/education-dept-slashes-600-million-in-grants-promoting-divisive-ideologies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">frequently</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-doj-spent-over-100-million-pushing-dei-restorative-justice-in-classrooms-report-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, the Biden administration spent millions promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in public schools, efforts the Trump administration has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-privilege-not-a-right-trump-admin-gives-k-12-schools-ultimatum-on-dei" target="_blank" rel="noopener">worked</a> to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-takes-sledgehammer-to-dei-in-latest-round-of-executive-orders-targeting-education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">roll back.</a>
She also leaned on <a href="https://ifstudies.org/in-the-news/conservative-women-are-happier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research</a> from scholars like the Institute for Family Studies’ Brad Wilcox, noting that “married moms are three times happier than unmarried childless women,” and arguing that declining family formation correlates with rising mental health struggles among young people — a claim that aligns with broader data showing higher reported happiness and stability among married populations.
Sisson’s arguments, by contrast, reflect a more familiar institutional liberalism that often assumes its premises rather than defending them. Claims like immigration universally improving outcomes or dismissing concerns about foreign entanglements land differently with a generation that has grown up through economic instability, pandemic disruption, and now renewed geopolitical tension.
The Trump administration, while still dominant within Republican politics, is navigating a complicated stretch, particularly on foreign policy as tensions with Iran continue to hang over the national conversation. For younger voters, especially those wary of prolonged overseas entanglements, that creates an opening and a risk. There’s a clear demand for a version of conservatism that is assertive at home but restrained abroad, something Brown explicitly nods to with her emphasis on “no foreign intervention” and keeping “American tax dollars at home.”

Isabel_Final-1

Isabel Brown Schools Liberal Harry Sisson In Free Press Debate

CBS News

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Up-and-coming singer D4vd, known for his viral R&amp;B pop hits, is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a 14-year-old girl — months after a decomposed and dismembered body was found in the trunk of his Tesla on September 8, 2025.
D4vd, whose real name is David Burke, is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez — with additional charges of sexual abuse, lewd and lascivious sexual acts with an individual under 14 years old, and mutilation of human remains — the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday.
Rivas Hernandez was last seen by her family in 2024, when she was only 13. She was described Monday by officials as a &#8220;runaway&#8221; and was 14 when she was allegedly killed by the 21-year-old singer. During Monday&#8217;s press conference, prosecutors alleged D4vd killed Rivas using a sharp object on or around April 23, 2025, according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/d4vd-charges-celeste-rivas-hernandez-a5ae08c1dda921dad1750d3ceda16c47">Associated Press</a>.  She went to the singer&#8217;s house in the Hollywood Hills on that date and was never heard from again. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman alleged that D4vd mutilated her body about two weeks later. Months later, on September 8, her body was found decomposed and dismembered in two bags in the front trunk of a Tesla registered to D4vd.
&#8220;The condition of her remains delayed the medical examiner&#8217;s ability to be able to determine cause of death,&#8221; Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Monday at the press conference. &#8220;Despite these obstacles and despite intense public pressure, our robbery homicide division detectives remained steadfast in their duties. They recovered and analyzed a substantial amount of digital and forensic evidence. They stayed focused, disciplined, and committed to uncovering the truth.&#8221;
Hochman said during the news conference that the murder charges included special circumstances, which he explained were lying in wait, committing a crime for financial gain, and murdering the witness in an investigation — charges that could result in the death penalty.
&#8220;These charges include the most serious charges that a DA’s Office can bring, first-degree murder with special circumstances,&#8221; Hochman said.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rapper-arrested-months-after-dismembered-teen-found-in-his-tesla?author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Rapper+Arrested+Months+After+Dismembered+Teen+Found+In+His+Tesla">RELATED: Rapper Arrested Months After Dismembered Teen Found In His Tesla</a>
Hochman said evidence will show in court that the financial gain in this case is D4vd&#8217;s lucrative music career, and because Rivas Hernandez was a &#8220;witness&#8221; to something, killing her eliminated the risk that she could talk. Hochman said that D4vd was under investigation for the lewd and lascivious sexual acts, and Rivas was the witness to this. Per <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2026/04/20/d4vd-prosecutors-expected-to-announce-charges-in-celeste-rivas-hernandez-case/">TMZ</a>, the DA suggested that Rivas Hernandez had threatened to go to police or go public regarding their sexual relationship, so he invited her over and then killed her — which led to the &#8220;lying in wait&#8221; charge.
&#8220;I&#8217;m a parent of three children, and a parent&#8217;s nightmare is a situation where your daughter goes out one night and never comes back,&#8221; Hochman said.
An attorney for the singer told <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2026/04/20/d4vds-family-speaks-out-after-murder-charges-in-celeste-rivas-hernandez-case/?adid=social-tw">TMZ</a>, &#8220;We are disappointed but not surprised that the District Attorney made this decision. David&#8217;s family stands behind him 100%.&#8221;
D4vd was arrested last week at his Hollywood Hills home after lying low for months. He canceled the remainder of his &#8220;Withered World Tour&#8221; after Rivas Hernandez&#8217;s remains were found.
It&#8217;s not clear yet whether the DA&#8217;s office will seek the death penalty, and Hochman said that would be decided at a later date. The coroner&#8217;s report is expected to be made public as well.
D4vd pleaded not guilty hours after the charges were filed, and demanded an immediate preliminary hearing, <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2026/04/20/d4vd-pleads-not-guilty-celeste-rivas-murder/">TMZ reported</a> on Monday.

Credit: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Coachella

TikTok Singer Racks Up Disturbing Charges In Murder And Dismemberment Of 14-Year-Old Girl

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This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
Increased rates of sexlessness have been documented around the world, among all age cohorts, regardless of marital status. But what’s most astounding is that this trend is particularly pronounced among younger generations, including millennials (born from 1980 to 1994) and Gen Z (born from 1995 to 2012), with roughly one in three men and one in five women saying they haven’t had sex in the past year.
From research I’ve conducted, it seems the sex recession is the culmination of <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sextinction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sextinction/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Igdoodn9vaNNolHcsa_QH">a number of factors</a>, including social media and dating apps, new cultural norms post-#MeToo, and technological advancements in romantic surrogates such as AI companions, sex robots, and platforms like OnlyFans, to name a few.
Although all ages risk falling prey to these artificial replacements for sex, members of Gen Z are particularly vulnerable because they grew up enmeshed in this technology before experiencing the real thing. While social conservatives may celebrate the recent celibacy of young singles, the reasons they are abstaining from sex should be concerning.
Interventions that have the capacity to modify our biology, mating psychology, and mental health are driving these trends. For example, two common types of pharmaceutical drugs — selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs, a class of antidepressants) and the birth control pill — are known to decrease libido as a side effect.
Although these interventions have the potential to aid many, we must ask what their influence has been on young people. Many begin their usage in childhood, and this has the potential to affect them profoundly.
<a href="https://www.harmonyhit.com/state-of-gen-z-mental-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.harmonyhit.com/state-of-gen-z-mental-health/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw03jrcZTkqiZaM6Y-hz6nY9">More than a third</a> of Gen Z report taking prescription medication for a mental health condition. If an individual is uncomfortable in social situations or when required to have face-to-face interactions, they will be less inclined to want to meet new people in the context of dating. Sexual intimacy requires being comfortable in your body, being present in your head, and being willing to put yourself in a position of possibly being judged or rejected by someone else.
Rumination, negative self-perception, and self-consciousness, which are hallmark symptoms of depression and anxiety, can additionally convince a person (erroneously) to prefer online avenues as a sexual outlet because they exist behind the safety of a screen.
So, it is a positive thing that young people are seeking help to improve their situation. If a person is not emotionally healthy, even if she does desire companionship, it will be challenging to vet a partner properly and find the right person for herself.
We know little, however, about the long-term effects of SSRIs on adolescents’ sexual development. This is concerning, considering SSRIs have been approved for use in children as young as <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/teen-depression/in-depth/antidepressants/art-20047502" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/teen-depression/in-depth/antidepressants/art-20047502&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0BjwRTOhps2BhfIzUxTVLd">6-years-old</a>, and <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/psychotropic-medication-among-children-adolescents">nearly 4%</a> of children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 in the United States take them.
One recent <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40063219/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40063219/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3fo61QtqB1bYSBRUf-DMVU">study</a> using a rodent model showed that exposure to an SSRI was associated with changes to a part of the brain that is involved in emotion regulation and stress management.
There are also data emerging about a condition called post-SSRI sexual dysfunction, which describes sexual side effects from SSRIs (and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) that persist after a person has ceased taking the medication. This can include a loss of sexual desire and arousal, numbness in one’s sexual anatomy, and sexual dysfunction, including erectile dysfunction and difficulty reaching orgasm.
In some cases, individuals who began these medications during their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/magazine/antidepressants-ssris-teen-sexual-side-effects.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/magazine/antidepressants-ssris-teen-sexual-side-effects.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2mHVmEHsQZ_rQlhXE0V7oQ">teenage years</a> report a blunting of emotions and an inability to feel crushes, foreclosing their desire in adulthood to be sexually active.
The birth control pill may be contributing to the use of SSRIs because taking the pill is associated with an increase in mood disorders like <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9218393/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9218393/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw12xICqKrlZ7A6G7dsyy_lA">depression</a>.
In the U.S., more than <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/contraceptive.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/contraceptive.htm&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2dRuVxMZQXIj14TPCRqGoh">one in 10 females</a> aged 15 to 49 are taking the pill. Many young girls will initially start for non-contraceptive reasons, such as regulating their menstrual cycle or alleviating associated cramps. Although these teenage girls may not be sexually active, their mating psychology is nevertheless being affected.
If an individual’s emotions and personality are biologically altered during their formative years, this can lead to long-lasting changes. Similar to SSRIs, little is known about how the pill affects adolescent brain development. It has been hypothesized that taking the pill may affect the process by which girls’ brains become feminized and the way they <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41245982/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41245982/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw07kPYy_n9jOS_n00oYWGDQ">process information</a>.
Because the pill halts ovulation and thereby a woman’s ability to become pregnant, it can dampen not only her interest in sex and interacting with men but also the sexual signals she sends out to the men she does encounter. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22245227/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22245227/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1KJjqtWiLrkYy_fz28dT0k">Men can tell</a> when a woman is ovulating, and if she is, they are more likely to pursue her.
This is not to blame women on the pill for the sexual inactivity plaguing young people, or to suggest that women should not take hormonal birth control. Instead, I would argue that women and girls deserve access to factual, unbiased information about the potential consequences associated with taking this medical technology, especially during critical developmental windows.
Those who eschew pharmaceuticals may still be unintentionally consuming these drugs through the water supply. Studies in fish have shown that synthetic estrogen in birth control pills can induce <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1874176/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1874176/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1uYMYFslD9xC6EzL-UeFcq">intersex conditions</a>, and early-life exposure to antidepressants, including SSRIs, can alter the programming of the <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9245512/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9245512/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1gnYContk5nRNOLeUEDHim">endocrine system</a>.
Although more research needs to be done to know whether the same disturbing effects apply to humans, I wonder to what extent this exposure is contributing to men’s declining testosterone levels. To bring things back full circle, low testosterone is commonly associated with depression and reduced sex drive.
Until we address the true causes of the mental health epidemic flourishing today, no amount of technological distraction will cure this issue or alleviate our sexlessness. The purported technological solutions for our social and sexual disconnection will only make us sicker.
Physical activity, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/experts-say-ditch-screens-before-bed-i-tried-these-six-tricks-instead">adequate sleep</a>, effective psychotherapy, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-tried-the-one-thing-big-tech-hopes-you-never-do">minimal use</a> of social media, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-you-may-be-in-a-toxic-relationship-with-your-leggings-and-what-to-do-about-it">endocrine-disrupting products</a>, and ultraprocessed foods are relevant places to start. Those of us who were blessed to grow up in an era predating smartphones and internet toxicity must support younger generations in finding a path back to normalcy.
***
Dr. Debra Soh is a sex neuroscientist and the author of “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sextinction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sextinction/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Igdoodn9vaNNolHcsa_QH">Sextinction: The Decline of Sex and the Future of Intimacy</a>.” She was featured in Matt Walsh’s film “What is a Woman?” Visit her at <a href="https://www.drdebrasoh.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.drdebrasoh.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776257052842000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0DRbi58bw_pNgY_OO8jaRx">DrDebraSoh.com</a>.

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The ‘Sex Recession’ Hitting Gen Z And What’s Quietly Killing Their Drive

Mental Health

Upstream

America’s age of unaccountability was supposed to free its inhabitants of the shackles of stress, sorrow, and self-loathing. Instead, it has tightened them.
A survey of 2,000 young men between the ages of 18 and 29 conducted by the Institute for Family Studies (ISF) found that 42% of young men say, “All in all, I am inclined to think that I am a failure.” Just 32% outright reject this unflattering characterization of themselves.
Attitudes differ based on age (46% of those between the age of 18 and 23 feel like a failure, while just 38% of those between 24 and 29 do), employment status (33% for full time workers, 43% for part time ones, and 56% for the unemployed), and living situation (26% for those married with kids, 46% for those who are married without kids, 49% for those who are unmarried with kids, and 43% for those who unmarried without kids).
The obvious conclusion here is the right one. Productive men with intact families who are better established in their adult lives have a healthier self-conception than unproductive ones without families at an earlier, uncertain point. This observation, when accounted for alongside declining marriage and fertility rates, as well as women’s ever-increasing share of the job market and outstripping of their male peers in education, bodes dismally for America’s men and their sense of self-worth.
As the Institute for Family Studies&#8217; Joseph E. Davis, Michael Toscano, and Ken Burchfiel <a href="https://ifstudies.org/report-brief/americas-demoralized-men-part-1">note</a>, men now account for only 41% of earned college degrees, and they have proven more susceptible to all manner of pitfalls.
<blockquote>Young men have higher rates of conditions such as ADHD and autism and have more problems with drugs, gambling, pornography, and the law. Many young men today have lower earnings and career prospects compared to earlier cohorts &#8230; They have fewer friends, socialize less, and are less civically engaged. Fewer are making a timely transition to adulthood by meeting such milestones as having a full-time job, being financially independent, living away from their parents’ home, and getting married and having children.</blockquote>
The question is: why?
To be sure, there are structural culprits for these trends. Davis, Toscano, and Burchfiel point the finger at society’s “deemphasis on role transitions.”
<blockquote>After all, from a young age, they have heard a cultural message of emancipation from the old constraints of social roles and forms of life. Now, their future is open, and they can be whatever they want to be and live however they choose. There is seemingly no stigma attached to delaying family formation or choosing to remain unmarried and not have children.</blockquote>
And by all accounts, men crave — and know that they desperately need — the structure of family life and the old benchmarks of adulthood to achieve self-satisfaction. Fifty-nine percent of young men are single, but 74% of that cohort are open to dating. Sixty-eight percent of unmarried men hope to be married, and 62% of those without a child want to be a parent. Eighty-nine percent recognize strength, responsibility, and leadership as qualities associated with manhood, and 85% say it “requires a willingness to sacrifice for others.” They say they want good jobs with which they can live independently and eventually provide for a family.
Young men are not apathetic about their future. Considering all that has been stacked against them – The New York Times and its peer publications’ monthly odes to polygamy, the emergence of the toxic, far-right manosphere, and a whole-of-society effort to convince young people that spouses and children are burdens rather than blessings — that is no small thing. They want that which is meaningful and can make them happy. That is a necessary condition for an improvement of their lot. It is not sufficient.
Keyser Söze observed that “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn&#8217;t exist.” His second greatest trick was convincing those who are aware of him that he works only through others. There is no shortage of boogeymen Americans can choose to blame for their own shortcomings. The Right offers up feminism, the sexual revolution, DEI, affirmative action, and the media. The Left suggests toxic masculinity, religion, big business, white privilege, and a panoply of isms. Both profit off the idea — which of course comes with a grain of truth — that individuals lack agency; that in order for their lives to improve, it’s society, not themselves that must change.
It’s true that men face a current pushing them downriver of the good, true, and beautiful. But many, despite their recognition of the desirability of swimming against it, have let themselves be swept up.
Pornography, gambling, drugs, slothfulness, dependence: these aren’t ills that force themselves upon men, they’re temptations that they give in to. The world may offer them the tools with which to ruin themselves, but still, it’s they that must use them. And use them, they are.
It’s they who waste money on parlays, their own time on idle pursuits, their parents’ on continuing to provide for them, and their brains on narcotics. Nobody else makes the bet, smokes the joint, sleeps in, skips class, or mails-it-in for them.
Men understand this as intuitively as they long for the families they’re not forming. They might publicly join in the popular political blame game, or even convince themselves that they believe in it. Deep down, though, they know they are the authors of their own destiny, and they resent themselves for not making more of it.
As well as the society that’s made an industry out of the lie responsible for their misery.
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Isaac Schorr is a staff writer at Mediaite and a 2023–2024 Robert Novak Journalism Fellow at the Fund for American Studies.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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