Support for LGBT in the Netherlands amongst children basically halved from 2021 to today. That's a pretty crazy shift. It seems like the days when the younger generation would be looked towards as...
The HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children) poll found that just 22% of boys aged 12 to 16 had a positive view of homosexuality, compared to 40% the last time the survey was carried out in 2021.
The survey found girls were still more accepting of homosexuality than boys, but the proportion had fallen from 78% to just over half (51%) since 2021.
Support for LGBT in the Netherlands amongst children basically halved from 2021 to today. That's a pretty crazy shift.
It seems like the days when the younger generation would be looked towards as being more to the left than prior generations is a thing of the past.
From my perspective left-wing movements from all over the world over the past few decades had this collective delusion that leftist politics were a natural progression instead of constant work. I...
It seems like the days when the younger generation would be looked towards as being more to the left than prior generations is a thing of the past.
From my perspective left-wing movements from all over the world over the past few decades had this collective delusion that leftist politics were a natural progression instead of constant work.
I know so many people here in America coming off the heels of Obama's term that thought we had the future in the bag, that it was smooth sailing and we could all just sit back and let nature take hold of progress.
They assumed younger generations would become more progressive naturally, so they stopped putting in the work, and the right has now filled that void in a way we have to fight right now.
And because of that, a lot of people got lazy when they thought about politics. IF they even chose to vote, they'd vote for status quo options on ballots instead of progress options, and it eventually put a lot of people in power in left wing politics that kind of let things rot from the inside.
Those same people who got lazy with politics have now had the rudest awakening possible for the past 10 years realizing just how fragile progress is and how progress is not in fact natural, it's something we have to fight for continuously every single day of our lives tirelessly, because if we don't those that want to destroy progress are sure as hell working their every moment to destroy it.
Frustratingly I still think people have had a hard time catching up to this realization.
The fact is, right wing movements all around the globe have taken advantage of younger generation's feelings of instability and uncertainty and provided them with a reassurance that left wing movements haven't been able to replicate since Obama and similar leaders. The closest thing we have right now is Mamdani showing that politicians can still work for the people and provide hope to the bleak empty future our slabs of glass relentlessly warn us about.
We've seen this here in America with both Clinton and Harris who's campaigns basically hinged on "Not Trump" instead of mirroring Obama's campaign of "Hope". People are angry and uncertain about the future, but more than anything people need reassurance about the future, they need a plan forward. These campaigns did not provide that.
Right wing movements have been providing "solutions", stupid and idiotic "solutions" based on discrimination, bigotry, and lacking any logic, but "solutions" nonetheless. They identify problems and tell people that if they get rid of those problems things will get better for them, whether it's LGBTQ+ people, Immigrants, liberals, litter boxes in schools, feminism, etc. And unfortunately those kinds of things can sound really reassuring, it can sound like the solution to all your problems is within your grasp.
I feel like progressive politicians like Mamdani have caught up to all this and are now providing those hopeful solutions and are getting good at providing an alternative to growing right wing ideology. And politicians like AOC, Bernie, and Mamdani all understand that the fight is constant and you see that through their actions.
But a lot of establishment left-wing political leaders are not stepping up to fight this surge in right-wing sympathy in any kind of genuine capacity and that's what makes me so frustrated. Often times fighting progressives harder than fighting the right.
Edit: Apologies if I kind of went on a US based tangent on an article based on the Netherlands, it just sparked some thoughts that might extend outside of the US.
I think a lot of your points apply to several european countries. Touching on the "lazy" point, I think that applies to many other different topics as well. Speaking about my country specifically,...
Exemplary
I think a lot of your points apply to several european countries.
Touching on the "lazy" point, I think that applies to many other different topics as well. Speaking about my country specifically, Portugal, there are two main parties and have been the main ones for half a century. But then, suddenly a few years ago, a new far right party showed up and is now the third biggest one, with real and tangible power in the parliament.
Our country has several problems that have been getting worse since I can remember. I was a kid when I learned we are mainly importers and export relatively little - it's still true today -, that we are among the poorest in EU and our salaries a far below average - still true today -, that public sectors are underfunded - still true today -, that our public companies need to be bailed out by the government every so often - still true today -, that forest fires happen every year and no real attempts are being made to prevent them - still true today; among many others.
Based on my experience, I get it. I get the frustration, for I feel it as well. I get the complete lack of faith on our main parties, for as long as I lived they've done nothing that I could point and say "hey, that was a good thing that changed my life for the better".* I get/understand the sentiment of wanting to vote on a different player as protest, or the "wanting" to believe that they somehow will be different.
Where I differ is that I know reactionary parties are trouble. They lack ideology, for they do whatever is more advantageous for each different situation. "Troublemakers" (criminals as far as I am concerned) keep popping up every now and again among their ranks for some reason - like thieves stealing bags from airports (yes really) and pedophiles. And perhaps more importantly their party is their leader, it will implode as soon he gets out of the equation - as it was demonstrated during our regional elections, almost no one voted for them - people vote for the man, not the party.
He will not solve our issues. He will not "save" Portugal. He will steal and be corrupt just like the others. He will bring a lot of pain - especially among minorities - in his quest to solve our problems, perceived or otherwise.
Our politicians have one job: get off their asses and be more proactive to tackle our problems, and improve our lives in general. Instead, now we got a (unpopular) prime minister that seems to resent being elected? Some of his comments in the past months give me the vibes of "not my problem, it wasn't me who created this situation, and the markets will sort it out themselves anyway." It really feels like he wants to give the other party free votes in the next elections. Heck, he basically had get his arm twisted to finally address the current petrol crisis.
So, I think you're right, but on a more broad sense as well. People and politicians got too comfortable and now got caught with their pants down, and don't really know how to deal with these far right movements.
*To be fair with them, before the new millennium we did have a drug epidemic, and they did solve it with a novel approach - that is now mentioned every so often when talking about war on drugs. But I was too young at the time to feel the difference, and it was almost 30 years ago. I would expect more life-changing measures since then.
Not sure about the Netherlands, but I wonder if its based on the parents? I know here in Germany the schools have a lot of immigrant/refugee children from the recent crises and it'll take a few...
Not sure about the Netherlands, but I wonder if its based on the parents? I know here in Germany the schools have a lot of immigrant/refugee children from the recent crises and it'll take a few more years for many of them to integrate, if they ever do.
From speaking with colleagues who have children in their teens/tweens, there's definitely been a shift
In 2025, 16,8% of the Dutch population was not born in the Netherlands. That leaves 15 million born in the Netherlands. Of those 15 million born here, 11,7% has one or two parents born outside of...
Even if you completely ignore where those come from, what belief system they might have, and how long they've been here, I don't see how it's feasible they move the needle as much as 20% by themselves in this four year timespan.
Taking that a step further, the largest share of the aforementioned 4,5m comes from within Europe, about 1,1m. While that doesn't immediately confirm whether or not they have favourable views towards LGBTQ+, it does make it more likely they do not have a religious background that makes acceptance.. challenging.
I don't see how migration plays into this to such a large degree. What I do see, is that right wing populist parties and Christian conservatism are gaining ground. This happens through the "manosphere" or just generally harmful American theocratic cultural influences and Russian (orthodox) flame fanning. Or perhaps, or maybe even likely, a mix thereof.
I'm willing to bet Germany has similar statistics as migration is often spread around the EU (somewhat, there are countries not accepting their agreed upon share).
Though I'll concede that people migrating from countries that have no LGBTQ+ acceptance probably do impact the base level of acceptance overall, however, I simply don't think it does that by itself for this large a decline.
Edit: the number I wrote wasn't even close to correct for some baffling reason.
P.S. for people confused about the notation, the Dutch separate by comma.
Looking at the statistics for Bavaria its 30% of children in the schools in total, and the teen-aged schools have 50% kids with at least one immigrant parent
Looking at the statistics for Bavaria its 30% of children in the schools in total, and the teen-aged schools have 50% kids with at least one immigrant parent
Then why did the support among girls fall even harder? The "manosphere" seems to be "the immigrants" for the left at this point. Extremely unfortunate news in any case, but I guess it coincides...
Manosphere
Stevens said there was a clear link between deepening intolerance and the rise of trends on social media such as the “manosphere”, which provides a platform for aggressive and discriminatory messages about women and gays.
Then why did the support among girls fall even harder? The "manosphere" seems to be "the immigrants" for the left at this point.
Extremely unfortunate news in any case, but I guess it coincides with overall shift to the right. For my money the issue is that the left wing progressive politics have just gone too far and the pendulum is now swinging back. Though I don't have anything specific to back this up other than my general feelings and my experience with a very militant type of progressive in online communities.
Support for LGBT in the Netherlands amongst children basically halved from 2021 to today. That's a pretty crazy shift.
It seems like the days when the younger generation would be looked towards as being more to the left than prior generations is a thing of the past.
From my perspective left-wing movements from all over the world over the past few decades had this collective delusion that leftist politics were a natural progression instead of constant work.
I know so many people here in America coming off the heels of Obama's term that thought we had the future in the bag, that it was smooth sailing and we could all just sit back and let nature take hold of progress.
They assumed younger generations would become more progressive naturally, so they stopped putting in the work, and the right has now filled that void in a way we have to fight right now.
And because of that, a lot of people got lazy when they thought about politics. IF they even chose to vote, they'd vote for status quo options on ballots instead of progress options, and it eventually put a lot of people in power in left wing politics that kind of let things rot from the inside.
Those same people who got lazy with politics have now had the rudest awakening possible for the past 10 years realizing just how fragile progress is and how progress is not in fact natural, it's something we have to fight for continuously every single day of our lives tirelessly, because if we don't those that want to destroy progress are sure as hell working their every moment to destroy it.
Frustratingly I still think people have had a hard time catching up to this realization.
The fact is, right wing movements all around the globe have taken advantage of younger generation's feelings of instability and uncertainty and provided them with a reassurance that left wing movements haven't been able to replicate since Obama and similar leaders. The closest thing we have right now is Mamdani showing that politicians can still work for the people and provide hope to the bleak empty future our slabs of glass relentlessly warn us about.
We've seen this here in America with both Clinton and Harris who's campaigns basically hinged on "Not Trump" instead of mirroring Obama's campaign of "Hope". People are angry and uncertain about the future, but more than anything people need reassurance about the future, they need a plan forward. These campaigns did not provide that.
Right wing movements have been providing "solutions", stupid and idiotic "solutions" based on discrimination, bigotry, and lacking any logic, but "solutions" nonetheless. They identify problems and tell people that if they get rid of those problems things will get better for them, whether it's LGBTQ+ people, Immigrants, liberals, litter boxes in schools, feminism, etc. And unfortunately those kinds of things can sound really reassuring, it can sound like the solution to all your problems is within your grasp.
I feel like progressive politicians like Mamdani have caught up to all this and are now providing those hopeful solutions and are getting good at providing an alternative to growing right wing ideology. And politicians like AOC, Bernie, and Mamdani all understand that the fight is constant and you see that through their actions.
But a lot of establishment left-wing political leaders are not stepping up to fight this surge in right-wing sympathy in any kind of genuine capacity and that's what makes me so frustrated. Often times fighting progressives harder than fighting the right.
Edit: Apologies if I kind of went on a US based tangent on an article based on the Netherlands, it just sparked some thoughts that might extend outside of the US.
I think a lot of your points apply to several european countries.
Touching on the "lazy" point, I think that applies to many other different topics as well. Speaking about my country specifically, Portugal, there are two main parties and have been the main ones for half a century. But then, suddenly a few years ago, a new far right party showed up and is now the third biggest one, with real and tangible power in the parliament.
Our country has several problems that have been getting worse since I can remember. I was a kid when I learned we are mainly importers and export relatively little - it's still true today -, that we are among the poorest in EU and our salaries a far below average - still true today -, that public sectors are underfunded - still true today -, that our public companies need to be bailed out by the government every so often - still true today -, that forest fires happen every year and no real attempts are being made to prevent them - still true today; among many others.
Based on my experience, I get it. I get the frustration, for I feel it as well. I get the complete lack of faith on our main parties, for as long as I lived they've done nothing that I could point and say "hey, that was a good thing that changed my life for the better".* I get/understand the sentiment of wanting to vote on a different player as protest, or the "wanting" to believe that they somehow will be different.
Where I differ is that I know reactionary parties are trouble. They lack ideology, for they do whatever is more advantageous for each different situation. "Troublemakers" (criminals as far as I am concerned) keep popping up every now and again among their ranks for some reason - like thieves stealing bags from airports (yes really) and pedophiles. And perhaps more importantly their party is their leader, it will implode as soon he gets out of the equation - as it was demonstrated during our regional elections, almost no one voted for them - people vote for the man, not the party.
He will not solve our issues. He will not "save" Portugal. He will steal and be corrupt just like the others. He will bring a lot of pain - especially among minorities - in his quest to solve our problems, perceived or otherwise.
Our politicians have one job: get off their asses and be more proactive to tackle our problems, and improve our lives in general. Instead, now we got a (unpopular) prime minister that seems to resent being elected? Some of his comments in the past months give me the vibes of "not my problem, it wasn't me who created this situation, and the markets will sort it out themselves anyway." It really feels like he wants to give the other party free votes in the next elections. Heck, he basically had get his arm twisted to finally address the current petrol crisis.
So, I think you're right, but on a more broad sense as well. People and politicians got too comfortable and now got caught with their pants down, and don't really know how to deal with these far right movements.
*To be fair with them, before the new millennium we did have a drug epidemic, and they did solve it with a novel approach - that is now mentioned every so often when talking about war on drugs. But I was too young at the time to feel the difference, and it was almost 30 years ago. I would expect more life-changing measures since then.
Anyway, sorry for the long rant.
Not sure about the Netherlands, but I wonder if its based on the parents? I know here in Germany the schools have a lot of immigrant/refugee children from the recent crises and it'll take a few more years for many of them to integrate, if they ever do.
From speaking with colleagues who have children in their teens/tweens, there's definitely been a shift
In 2025, 16,8% of the Dutch population was not born in the Netherlands. That leaves 15 million born in the Netherlands. Of those 15 million born here, 11,7% has one or two parents born outside of the Netherlands. That's roughly 4,5m combined.
Even if you completely ignore where those come from, what belief system they might have, and how long they've been here, I don't see how it's feasible they move the needle as much as 20% by themselves in this four year timespan.
Taking that a step further, the largest share of the aforementioned 4,5m comes from within Europe, about 1,1m. While that doesn't immediately confirm whether or not they have favourable views towards LGBTQ+, it does make it more likely they do not have a religious background that makes acceptance.. challenging.
I don't see how migration plays into this to such a large degree. What I do see, is that right wing populist parties and Christian conservatism are gaining ground. This happens through the "manosphere" or just generally harmful American theocratic cultural influences and Russian (orthodox) flame fanning. Or perhaps, or maybe even likely, a mix thereof.
I'm willing to bet Germany has similar statistics as migration is often spread around the EU (somewhat, there are countries not accepting their agreed upon share).
Though I'll concede that people migrating from countries that have no LGBTQ+ acceptance probably do impact the base level of acceptance overall, however, I simply don't think it does that by itself for this large a decline.
Edit: the number I wrote wasn't even close to correct for some baffling reason.
P.S. for people confused about the notation, the Dutch separate by comma.
Yeah, I have no had numbers to compare, I'll have to dig them up for Germany to see. We've been having a wild time politically as well
Looking at the statistics for Bavaria its 30% of children in the schools in total, and the teen-aged schools have 50% kids with at least one immigrant parent
Then why did the support among girls fall even harder? The "manosphere" seems to be "the immigrants" for the left at this point.
Extremely unfortunate news in any case, but I guess it coincides with overall shift to the right. For my money the issue is that the left wing progressive politics have just gone too far and the pendulum is now swinging back. Though I don't have anything specific to back this up other than my general feelings and my experience with a very militant type of progressive in online communities.
What can I say, it' quite a depressing trend.