Loudest, Most Obnoxious Opinion

CONSERVATIVE MILLENNIALS AND A MOUTHPIECE

It’s unclear who is louder: is it television personality Tomi Lahren or the boys who share her videos and sit uncomfortably close in class? Like her, they’re white, defensive, and can’t seem to see the veil of privilege that they wear like a crown.

Lahren gained traction with younger audiences when her video berating former San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kapernick went viral. This segment, filled with vicious name calling and obtuse one-sidedness—paired with an attractive young woman who follows football—circulated throughout social media and unofficially dubbed Lahren the voice of millennial conservatives. She’s everything they could ever want in a commentator: she’s beautiful, loud, and a vessel of bad opinions.

These young followers, usually fraternity brothers and “menist” activists and “Make America Great Again” hat-wear fashionistas finally have a spokesperson (remember, they believe that straight, white, conservative men are marginalized in the United States, especially on college campuses). When they’re not sharing Lahren’s videos—with captions like, “Beautiful AND smart too, couldn’t have said it better myself”—they’re speaking up in class, making it very clear that all of their opinions are based off of Lahren’s rants. Can’t find them? Just share an opinion and wait for one of them to cut in, starting their correction with “well, actually…”

The past year has been riddled with outspoken conservative men finding their voice through their blonde mouthpiece. Though their future relationship lies in question—since Lahren has recently been fired from her platform for expressing pro-choice beliefs—there’s no removing the massive waves of social media shares from internet heroes who just couldn’t find the correct words themselves. Lahren and these followers have at least one thing in common: they’re both loud, which is impressive considering their deafness toward social justice.