Some old-school conservatives say that the problem of young people failing to launch is nothing more than a failure of personal responsibility. Personal responsibility is certainly good and necessary. But it seems unlikely that today’s young people are inherently different and less responsible than people used to be. And indeed, a new Institute for Family Studies study finds “nothing of the sort.” Most young men, it says, “have worthy goals, including for marriage, children, and financial independence,” and they “value a sense of belonging, warm relationships, and being well-respected.”  The most compelling reason for failure to launch, according to the report, is a loss of social structure: “Over time, there has been a sharp decline of prescribed roles, inherited life courses, clear occupational and educational trajectories, and the like. Where there was once a given social pattern, an ‘institution,’ like sustained work for the same company, there is now a more open and indeterminate field of options and choices.” Put another way, social norms used to give men a road map to success. There was a sort of cultural default to the American dream: If you stayed on the path, you’d get a good job, a family, and so forth. Personal responsibility was seen as the culprit when a man strayed from it because, essentially, he had been set up for success and had squandered it. Those men who have hewed the closest to what remains of the pathway, that is, getting some form of higher education, are the ones with the best social outcomes. “By nearly every metric,” the report says, “men who took this route and stayed with it to graduation — college, trade school, apprenticeships — are faring the best … it opened doors or widened horizons to stable employment, friendships, marital partners, household establishment, community affiliation, and much else.” This runs contrary to the advice of some conservatives who say going to college isn’t worth it. While there is much to deplore about the state of higher education — and the Trump administration is doing yeoman’s work attempting to fix it — casting it aside seems to do more harm than good. Community is also harder to achieve. It’s still out there, but it’s a pathway that now needs to be consciously chosen and sought after, rather than the default. It’s easy to fall into a familiar pattern. Wake up, go to work, come home, scroll social media or play video games, go to sleep, repeat. You don’t actually need to do anything else. And once that’s your life, it’s a difficult spell to break. Start a new hobby? Why? You’re tired from working all day, and it’s much easier not to. Absent some epiphany, some realization that better things are possible if you take a different approach to life, why put in more effort for the same outcomes? This leads to a compounding problem: many young men aren’t confident that, even after putting in the work, they’ll achieve their goals. More than seven in 10 agreed that “who you know is more important than ability or hard work in getting ahead,” and over half said they “never seem to do enough to please people.” That doesn’t mean, though, they’re giving in to nihilism. At least not yet. Although “many young men may have lost faith in meritocracy and felt the sting of structural obstacles to their attainment of adult social goals, they still retain a faith in their own powers to get them through … they are still young and have not necessarily given up on themselves, or on the possibility that things might develop in their favor. They are, we might say, alienated from the system but optimistic about themselves.” A coping mechanism? Maybe. But it’s also the only attitude that can, on an individual level, extricate them from their situation. The source of existential frustration or, as the report puts it, alienation, is that young men want better but often aren’t sure how or even if it’s possible. When I was in elementary school, my father once scolded me for acting like a child. “I am a child, Dad,” I retorted. “What did you expect?” My saying so didn’t earn me anything beyond a time-out, but the underlying logic wasn’t completely off base. Can we really expect people who haven’t been given the tools to navigate modern life to succeed? “Never have young people been asked to shoulder such burdens of autonomous self-making,” the report concludes. Each individual is responsible for his own life choices and life outcomes. However, it is entirely expected that fewer people will succeed when incentive structures make it more arduous to do so. That some of them are staring down that challenge with quiet dignity doesn’t mitigate that something significant has been lost, and too many of our young men are paying the price for it. *** Stephan Kapustka is a writer. Follow him on X @SteveKapustka. This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

President Donald Trump responded to the latest potential threat against his life with a notably upbeat reaction during his first public comments on the incident.   “Well the only thing I get a little solace from is they say only consequential presidents [are targeted for assassination] and I am definitely consequential,” Trump said when asked by Fox News’s Trace Gallagher about the ongoing concerns over assassination threats. The remarks were Trump’s first public comments on the incident and were notably briefer than his responses to previous threats. The Secret Service is investigating whether the armed man arrested outside of Trump’s National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on Sunday intended to harm the president.  Jeanine John Taele, 38, was arrested after FBI agents allegedly found him carrying a 16-round magazine in his pocket. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Taele was also seen taking photographs and videos near the property. If investigators determine that Taele was targeting Trump, it would mark the third widely reported threat involving the president this year, following the Secret Service’s fatal shooting of an armed individual carrying a shotgun and gas canister near Mar-a-Lago and the arrest of a man who breached security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Before 2026, President Trump survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, when a gunman grazed his ear with a bullet. Weeks later, another armed suspect was discovered hiding with a rifle near Trump International Golf Club in Florida before authorities said he could carry out an attack. Trump said he considers himself “consequential” because of his handling of the economy and Iran. Trump’s comments come after the Justice Department in 2024 charged Farhad Shakeri, whom prosecutors identified as an asset of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in connection with an alleged murder-for-hire plot that included plans to assassinate President Trump.   

Florida law enforcement rushed to the home of media personality Perez Hilton Tuesday night following reports that the gossip blogger appeared to be repeatedly cutting himself and engaging in self-harm during a TikTok livestream.  According to The Sun, viewers who watched the livestream contacted emergency services after Hilton appeared to harm himself on camera. Disturbing and graphic videos on social media, which The Daily Wire is not publishing, appear to show Hilton, the longtime chronicler of Hollywood scandals, bloodied from head to toe.  The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office confirmed it received numerous calls about the incident. “The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office received multiple calls regarding an individual who was live-streaming acts of self-harm on social media,” the agency said in a statement to The Sun. “Deputies quickly located the individual’s residence, where they spoke with family members on scene, and confirmed he was alone inside.”  The sheriff’s office said deputies opted to use de-escalation tactics rather than immediately enter the residence. “At this time, deputies have tactically disengaged while continuing to monitor the situation,” the sheriff’s office said.  Authorities have not released additional information about Hilton’s condition, and it remains unclear whether he later received medical treatment. Hilton, 48, rose to fame in the 2000s through his celebrity gossip website before expanding into television and other media. He is the father of three children.  This is a developing story. Stay with The Daily Wire for updates.

Former far-Left Squad member Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) failed to reclaim Missouri’s deep-blue 1st Congressional District on Tuesday, losing a rematch against the Democrat who unseated her two years ago. With about 26% of the vote counted, Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) held a commanding lead over Bush in their hotly contested rematch of the explosive 2024 Democratic primary, winning 70.7% of the vote to Bush’s 25.8%. The Associated Press called the race at 9:02 pm ET. Since the St. Louis-area district is overwhelmingly Democratic, Bell is heavily favored to win this fall and return to Congress. The race flew under the headlines but served as another test of whether the Democratic Party’s leftist shift — fueled by victories from socialist-aligned candidates in New York, Washington D.C., and Denver — could propel one of the movement’s most recognizable national figures back to Capitol Hill. Bush’s defeat suggests that with the help of the party’s establishment, some popular incumbents can still fend off challenges from Left-wing insurgents. In her bid to return to Congress, Bush tried to exploit the same issue that cost her a House seat: her anti-Israel views. In 2024, Bell defeated Bush in what became one of the most expensive House primaries in American history after pro-Israel groups, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, poured $9.3 million into the race. Following the Hamas-led October 7 terror attacks, Bush emerged as one of Congress’s most outspoken critics of Israel and was one of the first to introduce resolutions calling for a ceasefire. Bell, on the other hand, has continued backing military assistance for Israel while arguing the United States must support allies confronting hostile regimes. “I think we have to support our allies not only in Israel, but in Taiwan and in Ukraine,” Bell said during a recent joint appearance with Bush. “They are on the front lines of our sworn enemies.” Over the past year, several socialist-aligned candidates promising to upend the Democratic Party’s leadership have won competitive primaries. Bell’s victory, however, marks a rare triumph for the party establishment, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) all backing his re-election bid. The rejection of Bush comes months after she posted a picture with Christopher Winston, a self-described Maoist streamer who goes by the name “BlackRedGuard.” Winston has a history of violent rhetoric and has argued the United States needs to be overthrown through revolution, The Daily Wire previously reported. The photo, flagged by Manhattan Institute investigative reporter Stu Smith, showed Bush meeting with members of the St. Louis Democratic Socialists of America on July 8. Winston can be seen standing next to Bush wearing a shirt reading “armed minorities.” Sharing the photo, Winston wrote, “comrades.” “I’m so proud to have DSA by my side, united in our fight against price gouging, big real estate, and billionaires influencing our politics,” Bush said.

Authorities arrested an armed man outside President Donald Trump’s Southern California golf course ahead of the president’s scheduled visit Tuesday, officials announced.  Jeanine John Taele, 38, was arrested Sunday outside Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes after FBI agents allegedly found him carrying an illegally modified AR-style rifle, a .45-caliber pistol, and ammunition.  According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Taele was also seen taking photographs and videos near the property. After executing a search warrant at his home in Downey on Monday, investigators said they discovered a notebook containing what they described as “concerning statements.” The Secret Service is reportedly investigating whether Taele posed a threat to the president.   White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said Trump traveled to California Tuesday to highlight what the administration views as the contrast between Republican and Democrat leadership. Trump is expected to attend a Republican National Committee dinner at the club Tuesday evening. “The President will draw a sharp contrast between his commonsense agenda and the radical policies of Democrats like Gavin Newsom, who keep raising taxes, inviting rampant fraud in taxpayer-funded programs, and protecting illegal immigrant drug dealers, rapists, and murderers,” Wales said. The sheriff’s department emphasized that there is “no credible threat to our communities.”