Ruining a country near you soon: the beta males who think they’re alphas
After a week in which paddle-less Britain has found itself once more caught in dangerous transatlantic currents, it’s clear that there are two kinds of political men. Strong men and weak men. Which one is our most likely next prime minister? I’m afraid Boris Johnson is the worst kind: he’s a weak man who thinks he’s a strong man. See also selective antiracist Jeremy Corbyn, whose unshakeable conviction that he hasn’t been wrong in several decades has left him stubbornly incapable of being the bigger person. See also gratefully submissive Donald Trump fanboy Nigel Farage, who has spent much of the past three years hanging wanly around Washington on the off-chance of a half-hour 6pm burger with the alpha male to his beta. And see also Donald Trump himself, the leader of the free world, who spent about 48 hours this week tweeting like some homicidal 11-year-old Justin Bieber fan about the leaked comments of the British ambassador. Who, apparently, we now let him pick. More on toxic insecurity’s poster boy shortly.This whole talk of alpha males brings to mind the changing popular image of masculinity in my lifetime: it is genuinely weird, is it not, that the progression of popular perception of strong masculinity went from, if Hollywood was a guide, the "gentle but strong" masculinity of characters played by Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart, Paul Newman and Robert Redford (most of whom were, I think, liberals in politics in real life) to the fathead, muscle bound, shoot-their-way-out-of -trouble image of Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and perhaps even Mel Gibson. What exactly was going on in the 1980's into the 1990's? A last hurrah for over-the-top masculinity that the ageing support base for Donald Trump still longs for now? I felt it was weird at the time - how even toy manufacturers came out with muscled up versions of cartoon or movie characters (muscle bound Luke Skywalker, for God's sake.)
And the funniest thing is how the wingnut Right's figureheads for a return to the good old days of generic national strength and masculinity are both overweight, buffoon haired, patently bad husbands that are nothing like what normal people used to associate with an image of confident masculinity.
As for Boris Johnson, Marina writes:
Great leaders show, rather than tell, their skills. Yet Johnson never lets up with telling people that he is not “defeatist”, that he will “put some lead in the collective pencil”, that “energy” is needed, that what the EU really fears is a big strong man like him. Mm. I hear they talk of little else in the 27 European capitals. “O Fates, please spare us the dreaded ‘positive energy’ of a guy internationally ridiculed as the worst foreign secretary in memory; and the unplayable charm of a surprisingly indifferent orator who knows the Latin for ‘can we just take out the backstop?’”Because I don't see as much of Boris Johnson, I don't have any clear idea of how insecure he comes across, but Marina makes a good argument that he is as bad as Trump.
And Johnson does know Latin, as he never misses a chance to remind us. No one could accuse him of wearing his learning lightly – or, indeed, wearing any of it lightly. Witness his excruciating promise to reach out to something he pointedly referred to as “Oppidan Britain”. To which the increasingly despairing response has to be: YES YES! I KNOW WHAT SCHOOL YOU WENT TO! I KNOW WHAT HOUSE YOU WERE IN! I KNOW YOU GOT A SECOND CLASS CLASSICS DEGREE! I KNOW THIS SOMEHOW ENDS WITH YOU CONSIGNING OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY TO THE CATACOMBS THEN BEATING US TO DEATH WITH YOUR RELATIVELY MIDDLEBROW ACHIEVEMENTS! But mate: you are 55 – FIFTY-FIVE – years old. How, how can you possibly still be wanking on about any of this, in public, as though it was still the best thing you’ve ever done? Can it really be because it was? [Spoiler: yes.]...
...He may use longer words, but Johnson’s sledgehammer self-admiration does not differ materially from the US president’s diurnal reminders that he is a strong, good-looking and very stable genius.
Trump's insecurity, narcissism and lack of knowledge on so many issues is plain to see to everyone except (apparently) his base base. Or, as might be more likely, it's a case that perhaps half of his base see it but nonetheless celebrate it. Just as he embodies a poor person's caricature of what it would be like to live rich (gold toilet - cool), his Tweeting behaviour might be seen as ridiculous on one level, but they get a proxy thrill at seeing a jerk being able to say anything and no one can stop him. You sense this celebratory attitude at Catallaxy all the time - along with their admissions that they comment there specifically in order to say things they cannot say in front of their spouses, or at work without getting into trouble (for being obnoxious).
As I have said before, this is actually a sign of frustration at being losers on issues they identify as part of a culture war - on matters of changing attitudes to sexuality, gender roles, masculinity and environmentalism. Unfortunately, though, it is at the cost of good government and policy for everyone.
And before I go, some funny comments that followed that Guardian column:
The juxtaposition of Trump MAGA guys banging on about masculinity and Trump is so funny.
They spent eight years throwing a fit at Obama being effeminate because he drank a Cafe Latte, but Obama was probably a pretty good example of what an "alpha male" would look like, if such a thing existed.
Trump, meanwhile, is a guy who has the personality of a bitchy cheerleader from a dated romcom, tweeting all day about how Anna Wintour's party was soooooo lame since he wasn't invited, or bullying Rosie O'Donnell for being fat.
But you have all these men saying "oh yeah, so good to have a Real Man in charge doing Real Man stuff. Finally!", as their hero obsessively messages Robert Pattinson once more imploring him not to take back Kristen Stewart.
Worth noting that every second one of these "alpha" guys is in hock to some "masculinity" guru like Peteron who is is selling their followers some sort of masculinity supplement, masculinity guide, special diet to make them more masculine or all of the above. This is what alpha males do, you see: buy books on how to be manly and take snake oil diet pills.
As women, we find it irrestistible when men are constantly whining about how they're disempowered by feminism, somehow. Even hotter is when they spend all day online and have obsessive faddy diets. So manly. Grrrr...
I'm surprised Sinclair Davidson hasn't endorsed his own range of supplements, now that I think of it.
38 comments:
Yeah we get it. If a manly man goes against the oligarchs agenda he's really just covering for insecurity. But then again if he's not so manly he's also a closet fag, or his manliness is to be undermined if he's a right-winger. And supposing he finds homosexual propaganda to be visual pollution directed at children, and he'd rather these people leave a private life and keep this stuff to themselves ...... Well of course he's a closet queer and he needs to get real with his true identity.
We get it already Goldstein.
Oh Obama is the real he man https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/putin-vs-obama-brilliantly-compared-in-10-brutal-pictures
Really, a crisis of masculinity?
Trump’s favorite ambassador ( to Germany) is openly gay and is just like blunt spoken version of Trump.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-favorite-ambassador-makes-a-very-trumpian-splash-in-berlin-11563029427
The euroweenies are complaining about him.
One wishes that Putin could confiscate all the wealth of the (((Russian))) oligarchs. Well he's not that big. But he'll shake them down if he needs to. Compare that to Soetoro with regards to the Bankers? Rolled over like the gay homosexual he is, and he gave the oligarchy everything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_BQaV13C6o
Its close to the tenth year anniversary of the "give me back my pen" incident. So there is more footage available. It must be remembered that the "oligarchs" .... former black market monopolists with a "license to trade" not available to those who weren't of the rabbinical persuasion ... It must be remembered that under the privatisation via auction method, the international financiers could pick gangsters as winners, jumble up the ponzi loans for them, and since everyone else was impoverished the international bigshots, got these local outlaws, all these assets for a song and at a guaranteed profit. It had to be a guaranteed profit since you don't ponzi up make-believe-money for anything else.
So if all this larceny cannot be reversed its legitimate to make this privileged class act in a socially responsible fashion. It seems they were all playing "chicken" to angle for a better negotiating position. Putin only needed to show up ONE TIME and these pampered synagogue buddies have behaved themselves for ten years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wxrTtBSrOE
But naturally he's got problems with his masculinity if he's not perceived as a bit of a lefty pooftah.
I think Trump probably has a camp appeal and maybe doesn't even care very much for appearing super masculine in any sense. (And the women he likes seem very strange). You can find videos of him online singing Broadway musical hits with the star of Will and Grace, or kissing a Rudolf Giuliani who is wearing drag - "You look beautiful tonight, Rudy". As for Boris Johnson, if he was a Labour politician, Grauniadistas would be openly celebrating his learning.
I think you're on to something about the change in the 'masculine' image, from the Carey Grants to the Schwarzeneggers. Maybe there was a lot of insecurity arising from the Vietnam War - anxiety that the soldiers of that war didn't measure up to the standard set by the soldiers of the Second World War (though the Greek God stereotype has been around in pop culture since the early 20th century). Complex subject though: Schwarzenegger himself first became famous as a figure of fun (in 'Pumping Iron'), and later took on a role as the Tooth Fairy. Men in drag - is it a Germanic thing?
Yeah, Tim: I was thinking after I posted this that almost certainly someone has pinned the Rambo and Arnold ultra macho thing as a reaction against failure in Vietnam (and Iran too.)
You are also right about Trump being prepared to play "camp" before, and you can say that he carries on a gay/camp concern about his appearance. The incredible thing, though, is that it does genuinely seem that a big slab of his base really do see him as a Real Man in charge again - which points more to their own insecurities than reality.
As for Jason - you've always made cracks about Obama crossing his legs and not looking very manly. Given that you love boxing (and watch UFC?), and think Batman is great, you'll be one of the first in my re-education camps, learning to tap dance and do watercolour until you revert to a liberal 1960's image of masculinity.
Putin is the most traditional masculine portrayal we'll find in modern politics. He is a murdering swine who acts more a like dictator than an elected leader. He is worth a fortune which is probably pay offs from the oligarchy. He works for them not the people. Too many leaders like him is a sign to start building your fallout shelters.
The Right's obsession with what it means to be a real man is as stupid as the Left's obsession with LGBTQi issues.
Obama is a homosexual who married a man who wears a dress and is much more masculine than he is. His girls are rented out from two other sets of parents.
There is a hint of father starvation in the rise of these 70's, 80's and 90's characters on the big screen. Prior to 74 or so, the labour market was sound, so the man of the house wasn't a wimp and full of fear. Jew feminism hadn't caught up with the men, so his wife was the house organiser. Consequently he served his wife OUTSIDE the house but she was the man's servant in front of the children. This is the key point. IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN.
That meant that the kids had a father, that had an air of authority and confidence about him. And enough energy to be present, distant, and authoritative all at the same time.
In the modern era the only male that really fits that scenario is the skilled tradesman who knows he is at the top of this game. The rest of us are frightened actors-come-politicians to some extent. Our sheilas have been corrupted so they don't play alone with the need to project an excellent version of manliness to the kids.
Everyone is in debt and so the man might hide in the bathroom crying after work and then take a hot bath and try to come out confident but the kids will see through his prevarications. Yet then the woman, also working full-time and exhausted, will whine at the man to help her carve the beef, or take out the trash and all that. Women have greater stamina for working and organising the house if they are put to the test, so the man comes off looking like a loser.
So perhaps it was the 70's when the kids felt this great need for the manly Man to be portrayed on their television sets. The phenomenon came just in time for Bronson who was on the wrong end of 40 when he did the enigmatic "Rider On The Rain" which made him a sex symbol.
Now note the nerdy first names of the fellows that were to portray the uber-male? Charles (Bronson) Clinton (Eastwood) Sylvester????? Sylvester? Could you get a more effeminate name than that? Bruce (Willis). So there is something going on there.
The lefty wimp male can snipe from the back-seat drivers point of view all he likes. But no leftist can fill the role of the hero in a drama unless he is a full-blown nutty revolutionary. You cannot have Quentin from the Vegan Co-op play the avenging Prince of Denmark because he won't be credible.
Under the lefty sixties they had to make Batman a non-rightist but it only ever worked as parody/comedy. To make the drama work, and to even BE a drama, something has to be "Rotten In The State Of Denmark". When things are rotten you need a back-to-basics dude to sort things out.
Item one is Steve McQueen in the following scene. Are the leftist girly-men really able to suggest to the rest of us that his serious fear-free doubt-free authority, is some sign of the desperate covering up of insecurities or indeed some sort of sexual ambivalence? I don't THINK-so.
I have recently had my adrenals shot and exhausted. So I know what its like NOT to be an alpha type, not to be confident, and as I said the job market hasn't been right since about 74 for banking and finance reasons. So I won't pretend that I'm always as depicted in the Steve McQueen clip. This is a man in a doubt-free zone with good adrenals. But who are the men out there in society today with that sort of moxie?
I think we really are only talking about skilled tradesman with a good reputation and all the tools. The confidence such people have radiates outwards. Their job doesn't require them to be servile, or scared of the future, or actors or politicians.
Lets say you fought in Korea. You are just totally confident in the dark arts. But you've been back ten years and your health and adrenals are recharged. Why wouldn't you be like Steve McQueen below?
Whenever the Director put a rifle in Steve McQueens hands, Steve could portray extreme authority in a doubt-free zone. In real life, even when Steve was on the verge of being beaten senseless by Bruce Lee, he kept his cool.
Check it out. This is how a real mans demeanour and we cannot see it so often any more. Its social degradation because a big chunk of the male population could be like this in a better world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kTPOpuA_f8
I have long endorsed supplements - scotch, wine, gin ...
That Brandy is good for you Sinclair as well. Like when you have a bad cold. And that Cinnamon Whiskey. The Cinnamon is medicinal and it stops you drinking too much. Matter of fact I might try and source some of this gear soon.
You know the IPA is far more up my alley than you guys were 12 years ago. Maybe its because you guys have taken up hard liquor. The new Chairperson, cutie that she is, shows up and gives Andrew (The Streetfighter) Bolts boy some hard liquor as a present. Hard liquor makes you dwell on things that perhaps you should have dwelt on years before. I'm prepared to believe that you guys are not the enemy you once were.
12 years ago I would have expected the IPA to be reflexively anti-Brexit. Now they are hitting all the right notes. Also I'm particularly impressed that you had one of our very good journalists there, reviewing his book and sticking up for the Christian paternity. The IPA struck me as anti-sovereignty and doctrinaire in the past. But now they seem to be going for the protection of the greater Western cultural heritage.
I don't detect any "come-to-Jesus" moment. I just see you scholars slowly coming to the bright side of the road.
Things are not what they were. Sooner or later you may have to admit that I was right about a great many things.
GMB thinks Steve McQueen is what men should be like. I don't recall Einstein holding a gun, or Godel brandishing a machete or Turing the homosexual concocting poisons. That is the problem with people who get too caught up in trying to define what a real man is. If you have such a desperate need to define what a man should be like then measure individual men not by their visual presence but by their contribution to the world. When we do that the onscreen "alpha males" pale in comparison. Except Paul Newman, contribution hundreds of millions to charity. And Jimmy Stewart because he joined the air force, found out they were hiding him from combat, and demanded to go into combat over Germany. Trump and Bolton both went to great lengths to avoid being drafted. So by GMB's account they are omega males.
Drama by its nature runs against good civic policy. There is no Hamlet unless something is rotten in the state of Denmark. So you've missed the whole thing. Its gone over your head.
Godel was a great logician but was he not something of a troubled man? Einstein was completely full of shit and a brand-name for a conspiracy of science fraud. A tawdry little incestuous life-long loser chosen to head up a conspiracy constructed for the purpose of social control.
Turing had a lot of problems of his own. None of them really qualify as fearless competent men dealing with their circumstances in a dignified way. I say that TODAY almost the only people doing this are the skilled tradesmen with a good reputation.
Look Trump is a closet Jew locked into his position. He's okay but he's a disappointment on foreign policy. But he's doing some good work on the home front. He's working maybe 18 hours a day I hear. Bolton is living in a dream world. He is a man who believes in Unicorns. I wish he was on my side but he still thinks that 9/11 was done by Arabs and not Jews. In other words he's mislead and delusional.
GMB: "Now note the nerdy first names of the fellows that were to portray the uber-male? Charles (Bronson) Clinton (Eastwood) Sylvester????? Sylvester? Could you get a more effeminate name than that? Bruce (Willis). So there is something going on there. "
I thought the first action hero was John Wayne. and his real name was Marion Robert Morrison. MARION
what is up with that??
John Wayne was another alpha male who avoided WW2 but perhaps with good reason because large family to support. We need to get over these celluloid heroes.
Godel had OCD of the paranoid kind. So what? Turing had issues but again so what? You are finding reasons to condemn people who have achieved more in a year than you will do in a lifetime(don't take that as a criticism, most of us are in that boat).
A fearless man is a stupid man. If you go into war without fear you'll come home in a box.
Yeah there is an established pattern right? But this idea that Marion Morisson was a fag is typical (((leftist))) cultural war. Its based on one photo where the Duke was wearing tight shorts around the house. Ludicrous. I can remember my last girlfriend teasing me about wearing these green tight shorts and I just pointed out it was only me and her in the house. Its notable that this one photo is all that they had. So if thats all they had it proved the contrary thesis. We hear all these rumours. And John Wayne was a great actor. But he wasn't THAT good. There had to be something of himself in the roles he played for a good half century.
"Thats my steak Valance"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mejzuQ9kVbs
Sinclair teased me for sticking up for anti-communist J Edgar Hoover. But on further reflection it was clear that Sinclair was right and I was wrong. J Edgar was a homosexual and just in passing he had a lot of negro ancestry. A very efficient bureaucrat so we must not see black man's genes as any sort of taint.
But this gear about John Wayne has short legs.
Why do you bring up irrelevancies? I made no mention of Wayne's sexuality and treated him more kindly than many others who called him a coward for not going to war, including soldiers during WW2 when Wayne was touring combat regions.
Since we had the Steak Standoff, its probably worthwhile to have another stand-off of the same calibre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ7LXiaYTm4
To be fair John, Godel and Turing were true geniuses. Now maybe in a better world, people like them would be relaxed and confident. They would serve their wives in the overall sense and their wives would serve them IN FRONT OF THE KIDS... and thats a better world. Thats a world I want. But thats not the world I grew up in. And if you were smarter than everyone else sooner or later you had to beef up and beat them at their own game. But these are school-boy remembrances. In the end all good men can be real men but not if this artificial job-deprivation that we have had since about 1974 continues. So we need our economists to get real, confront the finance sector, and take us to a better world. Because its the financial sector, taxation policy and the public sector overhead that deprives us of job creation.
John whatever you think of Putin in other areas at least he didn't back the head choppers in Syria like the idiot West did
I mean for chrissakes we went from hunting al Qaeda to giving them weapons to genocide Christians and Yazidi in Syria. And let's not even mention the disaster that is now Libya. On foreign policy alone Hillary has been a greater mass murderer than Putin
Now maybe in a better world, people like them would be relaxed and confident.
Perhaps but the sad truth is very IQ people are alienated from the broader community and possibly were abused at school for being so smart. In adulthood they are often ostracised because the very intelligent think very differently; there is even a study arguing that beyond a 30 IQ point difference it can be impossible for the two individuals to effectively communicate. Another issue is high rates of autist like behaviors in the high IQ range. Psychological disorders in the intellectually gifted are higher than the general population, and is not just by lifetime experience rather innate tendencies. I can't make any sense of that.
So we need our economists to get real
Oh ye of great faith.
Jason,
I hate HRC at a subatomic level. What happened in Libya was despicable. Countries moralise for going into these situations and never mention that the commitment of the military to these adventures is often about strategic geopolitical goals than moral concerns. We'll support the freedom fighters but next year we'll declare them terrorists.
What I appreciated about Russia's involvement is that they sent in dedicated ground attack aircraft that didn't need to wait for permission to pull the trigger and were flying at altitudes where they could eyeball the enemy. The West had aircraft at 30,000 feet dropping a bomb or two but not before being given permission from the the politicians. It is a ridiculous situation when politicians dictate military strategy but that's where we are at in these days. It was a disaster in Vietnam and if anything it is now worse.
So fair enough Jason, kudos for Putin recognising that if you're sending people into battle let them decide how to conduct the battle.
"Perhaps but the sad truth is very IQ people are alienated from the broader community and possibly were abused at school for being so smart."
I understand that in a very deep sense. But what you guys have got to get to grips with is that ISIS were always an international Judean front group from the very start. And as grownups you ought to have known that from the very beginning. Because no-one can capture territory, in a burnt-over community against the aligned forces of the global powers. And no-one can gain territory without government funding, against all the powers that be, with an evil and cartoonish diplomacy.
Now I can see you want to say you are high IQ and manly John. But here we see you have missed something. When we are grown up we put our childish things away. And we stop believing that ISIS is a Muslim operation when its clearly a Jew undertaking, financed by the American taxpayer, and with Japanese heavy vehicles. Believe me this sort of thing would not have escaped Turings attention as it has escaped yours.
The West never once dropped a bomb on ISIS. ISIS was a Western entity. You don't bomb your front groups. We have to let these Leprachauns and Unicorns free.
Helen Razer may be a commie but she has the right instincts
https://twitter.com/HelenRazer/status/1150566617769660416
What instincts am I supposed to take from that typical stream of Razer consciousness?
I see Assange gets a mention in it. If he were Russian, Putin would have had poisoned by now...
The Yellow vests are the European equivalent of the deplorables, if the left were smart they would have their votes.
And no Assange does not deserve to be executed by the US for treason just because he didn't back that evil witch HRC but that's how the ABC wants payback.
We live in an age in which old style communists like Helen Razer have more principle and integrity than fuddy duddy middle class bedwetters who have become late converts to the centre left
"The Yellow vests are the European equivalent of the deplorables, if the left were smart they would have their votes."
Oath. If the left aren't there to help improve the conditions of small business, the worker and old people what are they good for.
"We live in an age in which old style communists like Helen Razer have more principle and integrity than fuddy duddy middle class bedwetters who have become late converts to the centre left..."
Thats what I'm finding too. The paleo lefties have shed a lot of communism-era extremism and now they seem to be exhibiting benevolent human values. The modern left, by contrast, are the slipperiest, hateful culture-degrading lunatics around. Nothing will please them that won't lead to disaster. They alone cannot be reasoned with, to find enough common agreement, to put together some sort of strategy that could lead to improvement.
Here is a Paleo-lefty and clearly his concerns lie with the well-being of that sector of society he identifies with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIZb1dCc8AA
"...who have become late converts to the centre left"
Um, they just had to stand still while the Right went further Right, actually.
As for Assange - a liar as well as a weirdo, it seems a credible take that some of his releases have caused loss of life; he also didn't just "not support" Clinton - he worked actively with Russia to see her politically hurt. (Which is not a reason to go after him, but just correcting your mealy mouthed defence of him.)
I see no reason to have much sympathy for him.
so assange was supposed to suppress any adverse info until HRC had won? The evil witch has to stop complaining about Russia stealing her election. she only has herself to blame. Hopefully with Epstein in jail we will be getting some revelations soon if this feminist star has been covering up for her hubby
I see no reason to have much sympathy for him.
Because you don't understand the psychological consequences of spending your entire adult life being hunted down by the most powerful nation on earth. To be constantly on the move, to be prepared to take flight at a moment's notice, mMost people couldn't survive that so I am not at all surprised it has created psychological issues for Assange.
He did some stupid things but it is laughable to make noise about the effects killing people when the USA has been killing innocents for decades.
Naturally he sought to retaliate against the USA and HRC because they wanted to lock him up for the rest of his life and probably subject him to torture. What person wouldn't take the opportunity to retaliate against those who had made his life so incredibly difficult?
He didn't foresee that he would be chased around the world by the US for the leak?
It also is pretty silly to argue that the carelessness (or worse) of his leaks causing more deaths is excused by exposing wrongful deaths by the US. No, it's not.
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