LGBT tolerance slumps in the Netherlands as debate turns vicious
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2026/09/lgbt-tolerance-slumps-in-the-netherlands-as-debate-turns-vicious/
Posted by soriskan
LGBT tolerance slumps in the Netherlands as debate turns vicious
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2026/09/lgbt-tolerance-slumps-in-the-netherlands-as-debate-turns-vicious/
Posted by soriskan
27 Comments
yeah, this is what social media is doing to the world. Fuck the manosphere and the algorithms that feed this garbage to young boys.
>The HBSC 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.
This is not a “single statistic” saying “Teenage boys thing being gay is weird”, but shows a development.
You can blame (dependent on your political view) failed immigration policies, social media, underfunded schools, russian propaganda, or whatever else comes to mind.
USA exporting their cultural war everywhere.
American social networks should be banned
How are we going this far backwards?! Jesus Christ.
>>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.
Damn, I had no idea it was THIS low. What has happened?
-social media algorithms
-extreme alpha male content through media
-patriarchy brainwashing
-sometimes even internalized homophobia
-uneducated: low attention span: can’t read even comic anymore
Pendulum swings. The harder it swings forward, the harder it swings back. It’ll take a while to go forward again. Inevitably, some people will be left behind in their mindset.
A lot of it is also parents not giving a shit about their kids and letting their phones raise them instead. Same reason gen alpha are cognitively worse than past gens and also have massive basic literacy problems.
No sane, normal intelligence parent would let their kids watch or parrot manosphere/sex offender slop.
Note that it fell for girls too. From 78% to 51%
If you’re someone that finds yourself intolerant of the LGBT community. Can I invite you to explain why.
I genuinely want to listen and understand why you have that viewpoint.
What “debate”? Nobody is debating anything.
People think the Netherlands is a progressive, liberal country, but outside the bigger cities, people are generally pretty conservative in my experience. It’s actually pretty similar to the US in that regard.
Tolerance is very different from “viewing LGBT positively”. I’m sure most people can tolerate others even when they don’t like or agree with them.
What does positive view and negative view mean? Does it mean hostility towards individuals, a lack of tolerance, or just a preference? What were the actual questions?
Is there a racial/ethnic breakdown? I’m curious if it is primarily immigrant communities or across the board.
Americans need to understand that a lot of social media “Euros dumping on AmericaBad” are trolls fomenting helter skelter dividing and conquering. Right wing fascism is still building in Europe. The US is at tipping point for institutional fascism or, a resurgence of democracy and civil rights.
Europe is racist and homophobic also. Their right wings are active now, and would vote for Trump if they could
I have four concerns:
1) Shouldn’t our governments realize that social media circles are becoming a threat and act on it?
2) Not having a positive view of homosexuality does automatically imply a negative view? Why wouldn’t a neutral view be accepted? (What I understand by neutral view: I am straight, I am not discriminating anyone, but I am not fighting for their rights either)
3) Weren’t societies with high education standards like the Netherlands be less prone to social media brainrot?
4) Ties into the first question – shouldn’t online behaviour hygiene be a legitimate subject in school, according to the needs and urgencies of our reality?
Most interesting to me is the line: “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.*”
A lot of the boys-becoming-reactionary discourse has highlighted the divergence with their female peers, who are moving in the other direction and becoming more progressive (whether in the USA, Netherlands, or South Korea). But this is worryingly an exception even to that 🙁
with 40% before, that means 60% already had a non-positive view, and ‘non-positive’ covers a very broad spectrum. Currently, the most intense hatred towards LGBTQ+ people in the West comes from immigrants and far-right groups/voters. Furthermore, likely due to the culture war, the general societal shift toward right-wing populism is partly a reaction to the tolerant rainbow policies of recent years. This sentiment is being weaponized against a more tolerant culture, which represents one aspect of the issue.
Another aspect and, to be fair, a smaller one is the imported conservative culture of many immigrants. For example, in the Netherlands, there are large Indonesian and Moroccan immigrant populations, both predominantly Muslim, who are not particularly known for being tolerant toward LGBTQ+ individuals. So, if you already have an domestic issue and continue to import and overlook another problem, the two will naturally combine to drive up the numbers. You would have to be willfully blind not to see that.
I’m having a little trouble with the Dutch. It mentions statements used to determine a ‘positive’ attitude towards homosexuality but I can’t locate what those ~~appendixes~~ edit: statements are in the annexes.
At the same time, on a more positive note, I’d point out that 63%/74,4% of primary schoolers and 44,4%/74,5% secondary schoolers (M/F) answered ‘yes’ to ‘homosexual young people may be my friend’ (“Homoseksuele jongeren mogen mijn vrienden zijn”). In other words, plenty who don’t think ‘positively’ (I’d very much like to know how that’s determined) would be willing to be friends with a homosexual person.
I also think it’s interesting that while it’s around 40-45% of children rating homosexual kissing as ‘nasty’ (with a much smaller gap between lesbian and gay kissing than I’d have expected) 18,4% of primary schoolers and 11,2% of secondary schoolers also believe it’s ‘nasty when a girl and a boy kiss’ (“Vies als meisje en jongen zoenen”).
So, the right wing thrives on finding people to hate. No news there then. This is why parents need to be more aware of what their kids are doing on the Internet, and what they’re listening to.
I’m hopeful I can keep my boys away from the manosphere…
This is worrying, but in order to have a complete picture it would be really useful to have a better description of the study and its results. Say, how many people expressed a neutral view (if that was possible), and how many were outright negative. After all, having a “neutral” view is not necessarily bad either depending on how one looks at it.
This polling…
Its bullshit.
Remember the polling in America that found
“30% of American younge people think the Holocaust is a hoax”
And when that came out it made national (US) and international headlines because…OBVIOUSLY but then that “poll” was exposed as being a BS poll that had terrible methodology and the actual numbers are like below 10% of younge UE people think the holocaust was fake which…god thats 10% too many but still a far cry from the 30% plus on that bullshit poll which all the headlines talked about.
This is the same situation here.
You do not see percentage drops (or rises) like the ones seen in these polls. Its literally not a thing that statistically happens.
Not even Trump’s disapproval rating or Mark Carney’s approval ratings have dropped or risen that fast and in politics public opinion shifts FAST and with social issues it is ALWAYS slower (no exeptions I’ve never encountered that disproves this)
I study fucking statistics, I think I know a thing or two.
I would put real money on this poll being bullshit or manipulated in some way to push a agenda of some kind
Honestly think this is a somewhat counter culture thing. LGBTQ rights and so on has, for better or worse been a huge deal for many years now.
Whenever anything reaches that level of relevance it eventually get people fed up with it or against it, paradoxicly
I was a teenager/early 20s when same-sex marriage was legalized, and the LGBT movement was in full swing.
If you’re that age today growing up in western Europe LGBT acceptance is the view of “the man”, which teenagers have always had a reflexive dislike of.
Besides which, the goal of that movement was legal equality, that was never going to equate to everyone agreeing with it on a personal level.
The Netherlands has a rich history of “*tolerance*”, which isn’t the same as having a positive view of something. You might be convinced to a certainty that your neighbour’s burning in hell for their religious views, but you tolerate them.
Yall need to see what’s happening in Trump country and then wake the f up
How much of this is just down to them interviewing 14 year olds? 14 year olds suck, being 14 years old sucks. Most people do grow out of it.