Future Nostalgia: Why Bringing Back the Past is a Bad Idea

Last updated:2 octobre 2025

For the conservatives, the start of their online dominance was Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, where he and his team demonstrated a masterful use of social media. The left has also used social media to their advantage, but they cannot come close to the populist conservatives. Data supports this as well: a recent piece by John Burn-Murdoch reported that online extremist views are overrepresented compared to traditional news media. It’s another piece of evidence that supports the idea that online echo chambers have been instrumental in today’s political polarisation, creating a new firebrand of conservatism.

Conservation efforts

Irrespective of their nationality, traditional conservatives share similar core values: belief in a transcendent order or hierarchy that governs life, attachment to social norms, and most importantly the conviction that change, at most, should be slow and non-disruptive.

Ironically, the new Trumpian-style populist conservatives derive their success from calling for the overthrow of this last core value, seeking to radically erase decades of societal transformation, as evidenced by the repeal of Roe v. Wade and Brexit. In a complete role reversal, liberals and centrists have backed themselves into the corner of defending a status quo that everyone dislikes, in a failing attempt to fend off populist conservatism.

Future Nostalgia

Populist conservatives sell their return to the past through Future Nostalgia (Sidenote: thank you Dua Lipa for providing this term). It’s a collective sentiment that life was better in the past and that we need to return to it. The strength of the argument lies not in logical but in an emotional appeal-appeal to people’s ideas of the past, misguided by popular fictional narratives rather than informed by real-life accounts.

Reality, for most Americans, Europeans, or indeed any group on Earth, was never the “white picket fence, breadwinner husband, housewife, 2.5 kids and a dog” idealized narrative. Still, it has become a cultural symbol of a happier past, especially, for those struggling with today’s fast-changing world.

Future nostalgia easily soothes those who identify with traditional values and realise that the ideal of the nuclear family has become a luxury-one increasingly difficult to attain in a society that now is acknowledges the exclusion (and the suffering of the excluded) inherent to the old system. So, when those who cling to these values, primarily, heterosexual, conservative white men lament that everything was better in the past, most other demographic groups are reminded of what they have fought for since then.

Women, racial minorities, and queer people were all second-class citizens in the past. Liberals either supported them in their struggles or, at the very least, acknowledged their achievements in hindsight. The only group that could genuinely want to reverse these developments, is the one that held the power back in the day (and that has been fighting to reclaim it ever since).

What was once theirs by “right” is no longer exclusive. Now, they must choose between fighting and working hard for those same values on a much more level playing field or retreating, by regressing society to a pre-egalitarian state.

Those who cannot fight easily fall prey to grifters and hateful political demagogues, who preach that all their woes would vanish if only we turn the ship back around.

Data

The data supports this disconnect as well. NBC Decision Desk surveyed young adults about what they think is most important for personal success. The only group that had ‘being married’ and ‘having children’ in their top five priorities were young male Trump voters, while those same priorities ranked ninth and sixth, respectively, for their female counterparts.

Noticeably, ‘financial independence’ outranked either of the other metrics for young female voters and was even the top priority for female Trump voters. In contrast, young female Harris voters have marriage and children second and third-to-last, exemplifying the ongoing gender divergence.

And yet, an online influencer machine steadily pumps these values into young people’s minds. Nothing exemplifies this more than online antifeminism and the tradwife trend topics that have been conservative breeding grounds for at least ten years. But when it’s time to commit to these values, things can go awry fast. Warning for Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault & Suicide.

High Heels & Lipstick

Lauren Southern is a right-wing ideologue and, by all standards, a hardline conservative who rose to prominence on social media by promoting the right-wing lifestyle during the 2010s. In contrast to most of her grifting colleagues, she put her money where her mouth was marrying at 22 and becoming a tradwife. She embraced her new traditional role, and soon the family of three moved to Australia for her husband’s unspecified government job. Now in Australia and isolated, she not only supported him in the traditional housewife role but also, at his request, reduced her online presence, as her public image negatively impacting his career prospects. Sacrifices were required, and she complied.

But more problems emerged. He became increasingly distant, and what had initially been only a difficult time turned darker as he began to display abusive behaviour. She recounts:

“He’d lock me out of the house. I remember having to knock on the neighbour’s door on rainy nights, because he’d get upset and drive off without unlocking the house. It was very strange, to go from being this public figure on stage with people clapping, to the girl crying, knocking on someone’s door with no home to get into, being abandoned with a baby.”

She, of course, reached into her tradwife bag of tricks, pulling out the metaphorical lipstick and heels, but no amount of traditional values could erase such experiences. Still, she dug deeper searching for both and explanation and a way to fix their relationship. She would pray besides his bed, trying to meet his every demand, yet it was never enough. The COVID-19 pandemic marked her breaking point. She openly recounts contemplating suicide. Ultimately, they divorced, and she returned to North America with her child.

Their relationship serves as a prime example of the twisted promises of nostalgia: both entered it blinded by different illusions.

Southern, who has preached this lifestyle, later described herself retrospectively “the closest thing to a western slave”. She drank her own Kool-Aid and finally got a taste of how life was for many fifty years ago. And she was appalled by it. Sometimes, appreciation comes only through absence.

Her husband, too, was misled. When Southern began to feel like her marriage unravelling, she attempted to return to the version of herself he had first fallen for, his “influencer boss babe.” She recalls that he was much sweeter at that time.

There are no reasons to doubt his attraction. A prominent, even powerful, woman falling in love with him surely did wonders for his ego. But after they married, had a child, and she gave up her career for his, what was left?

For the good of their relationship, Southern stripped away what had made her attractive to him in the first place. And over time, he realized his career mattered more than even his wife and child. In a final act of cruelty, he revealed to Southern, who had sacrificed so much, that he himself had no intention of trying to make things work. He only believed in traditional values when it suited him.

If there is any consolation, it lies in the fact that the blame rests squarely with her ex-husband. Had she found someone who genuinely appreciated her and allowed her to be herself, it might have worked. Social progress doesn’t mean we can’t live traditionally, it means we can improve upon past.

Southern’s online career could have supported a stay-at-home role while giving her enough independence to leave if necessary. Had she realized she could maintain both her independence and her tradwife identity, she might have avoided being trapped in a controlling relationship altogether or at least suffered less. Like a lamb blinded by her own words, she walked straight into the slaughterhouse.

She got out, and that’s what matters. What happened to her does not absolve her of the horrible things she did, but she does now appear more reflective and is doing some good in the world. For instance, she operates a WhatsApp group that function an underground railroad for conservative wives.

Fetish

Southern’s story shows how acting on future nostalgia can revive the harsher realities of the past. At best, it leaves people disillusioned; at worst, permanently traumatized. Still, populist conservative rhetoric is built on it. It’s key to success is that it remains an idea, where it retains its emotional power and seductive promises to fix everything.

In the case of the tradwife, sexual fetishism (and sexual insecurity) is certainly part of the story. But nostalgia, fetishized in the broader psychological sense, has grip far more expansive and terrifying.

Future nostalgia holds its power primarily due to its perceived desirability and easiness of achievement. It doesn’t require personal development and hard work, only the surrender to its supposed superiority and blind devotion.

Yet even with hard work, it’s rare to even get in the ballpark of perfection. That is why those that peddle with future nostalgia only curated snippets. Anything longer than a few minutes would expose the ugly truths lurking in the shadows.

But the necessary effort will never be made, because those seduced by future nostalgia, especially the target audience, believe they deserve it by right. The difficulty in obtaining it is seen as a fundamental injustice. Such people can never put in the effort required to realize their ideal and, like Southern’s husband, will eventually reveal their weakness and give up.

The Trumpian Solution

This is the foundational mechanism of populist conservative messaging, epitomized by Trump’s slogan: Make America Great Again. Trump’s most infamous policy, tariffs, was wrapped in the same narrative: bringing back old jobs. Though those jobs were monotonous and undesirable, they are nostalgia coded.

In contrast, modern manufacturing nations (like Switzerland) have moved far beyond the need for such labor. Today, manufacturing is a technical field requiring far less manual effort.

There are also other stable, available jobs, especially in healthcare and social services. Unfortunately, these remain gender coded as feminine and thus cannot serve as a substitute.

What remains are white-collar jobs, largely de-gendered, but mostly concentrated in progressive urban areas, requiring effort, education, and social skills. As a result, there are no jobs easily tied to masculine identity, leading to a collapse of purpose, identity, and self-worth.

As a side note, the absence of men in these professions has deprived young males of critical role models, men who could have helped shape their sense of self-worth in harmony with the wider society. The result is a self-perpetuating cycle. Not to mention the hypocrisy: although many claim factory jobs are noble, no one wants to work them. At least here, they acknowledge that nostalgia serves them no good.

Self-worth

I genuinely don’t believe these reactions, beliefs and desires come from inherent racism or sexism. Instead, I believe it comes from a feeling of insecurity and lack of self-esteem. Everyone measures themselves, and their self-worth, according to some scale. And a large part of conservatism is this very strict, universal measurement scale of achievements such as good job, wife, house, kids….

What makes this belief in Future Nostalgia so dangerous is that you surrender yourself to its value scale entirely and give up any agency in building your own value scale. Usually, self-esteem comes from the people we love, may that be a romantic partner, family or just friends. Such relationships are earned and require care, understanding and mutual respect. Another very important way to gain self-worth is through yourself, by succeeding in what you want to.

So, when self-worth takes the path of least resistance many people keep clinging to the values they were raised on. No need to examine your desires and expectations, just follow its promises and claim what you think is rightfully yours.

But these goals are now out growing out of reach for even those that once held the power to profit from them. A large group of the population has managed to progress, as shown by the NBC Decision desk survey. Only the demographic that, to the detriment of everyone else, held all the power in the past is still stuck and unable to let go.

It’s what makes the tradwife have such a powerful appeal to young conservative men. They’ll get everything they want, the cooking, the children, the costume…, yet that alone is (and always was) at best care, and care is not love. Thinking it is, is like thinking a prostitute genuinely means it when she says she loves you. And as we have seen, even then, the men won’t necessarily be satisfied. They need love too.

Conclusion

A growing political force has made it its mission to rewind time, destroying not only decades of progress but also its own well-being. What future nostalgia correctly identifies is that the 1960s looked like “golden years”, but only in contrast to the 1930s and 1940s. They were never as good as today. Progress made the past great, just as it makes the present liveable.

Doesn’t all of this seem pathetic? For millennia, great thinkers and leaders pushed forward in times of crisis. There are a reason Lincoln and FDR are remembered as great: they didn’t retreat, they advanced. And now we are told the answer is to go back? That is not realism, it is cowardice.

Liberals, progressives, libertarians, socialists, even some conservatives, argue that we’ve come far and can go further, or that we need to transcend the present system. Only this reactionary, populist strain of conservatism longs for a past that never truly existed. Trump was the beginning, but parties like AfD or Reform UK echo the same message.

We can celebrate the culture and achievements of earlier eras. But when it becomes impossible to envision a future where we can both cherish the best of the past and enjoy the freedoms of the present, we should steer far away from that vision.

Jonas Bruno