Speaking of which, as you can see from the poll, “Israel/Palestine” and even climate change also ranked as issues of relatively low importance to young voters. The Middle East may be the exception that proves the rule — even if relatively few people care about it, those who do are obviously extremely passionate about it, and I don’t think people are bluffing when they say it could swing their votes. However, the reporting often treats protests on elite college campuses, or social media posts from articulate activists, as though they’re a proxy for the youth vote overall. Young voters do differ from older ones on some issues, including Israel-Palestine and free speech. But they do not care about these issues nearly as much as they care about more basic stuff like the economy and health care.

That distortion is absolutely magnified on social media, and especially sites like Lemmy and Reddit, which skew left, young, white, and educated. Meanwhile, the rest of the voting populace continues not to give a single shit about the things that rile up activists of any kind. People vote based on what’s happening in their wallet and 401(k), full stop.