How single men and women are making politics more extreme

Freedom leads to sexual divergence — even in political movements.

The online alt-right grew out of subcultures that were already heavily male, where excess, angry men made ideal recruits to a cause — something noticed long ago by Stephen Bannon during his venture into World of Warcraft, when the future Breitbart boss said that “these guys, these rootless, white males, had monster power.”

And anecdotally, a lot of men who do partner up become more politically liberal or moderate, perhaps under female influence or perhaps because the Islamification of the West doesn’t seem like such a pressing issue when you have an actual girlfriend. And yet, modern life allows men to avoid pairing off altogether, once almost the only socially acceptable route available to them, and so these political subcultures are likely to continue to diverge.