The Adolescent Style in American Politics

[durangodawood]

....So you can call her a feminist Canth and she won't mind.

Is there a joke Im missing?

 

[7thKeeper]

Is there a joke Im missing?

It comes through a bit better when spoken, but the way Canth is pronounced sounds very VERY much like a certain c-word used at women in a derogatory manner.

 

[iluvatar5150]

It struck me today, after watching Trump’s abortion of a press conference with Zelensky, that, when faced with a man actually exhibiting the sort of masculine, ToughGuy leadership qualities that the Magadonian Right claims to value, all Trump and Vance could do was try to emasculate and subjugate him.

 

[rebornfree]

It struck my today, after watching Trump’s abortion of a press conference with Zelensky, that, when faced with a man actually exhibiting the sort of masculine, ToughGuy leadership qualities that the Magadonian Right claims to value, all Trump and Vance could do was try to emasculate and subjugate him.

Yes, Zelensky was the adult in the room.

 

[keith99]

I know the left beta males bobblehead yes to this verbiage is this a different angle to the toxic masculinty that I've heard in the past. Remember the debate you had two grown men calling each other names like children do?

It always confuses me when people treat betas as being wimpy.

I had 2 dogs. The beta was a 120 pound Presa Canario. He was smart enough to know he was better off following the 105 pound Belgian Sheepdog's lead. He was as far from a wimp as one could get. And the Alpha was a true Alpha, which meant he looked out for anything else in his pack, not a posturing bully like so many so called Alphas are.

Thinking back on it those 2 dogs were a lot more mature that a lot of American politicians today.

 

[FireDragon76]

https://archive.is/2025.02.26-203916/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/trump-masculinity/681828/#selection-695.0-695.41

​

To a certain kind of guy, Donald Trump epitomizes masculine cool. He’s ostentatiously wealthy. He’s married to his third model wife. He gets prime seats at UFC fights, goes on popular podcasts, and does more or less whatever he wants without consequences.​

​

That certain kind of guy who sees Trump as a masculine ideal? That guy is a teenage boy.​

​

Much has been written about Trump’s widening appeal to men, and to young men in particular. MAGA, the story goes, is making masculinity great again. But the version of manhood on display not just from Trump but from many of his closest advisers and appointees isn’t the kind of traditional manhood championed by his vice president, J. D. Vance; it’s a manhood imagined by adolescent boys. (Although of course, plenty of adolescent boys do not look up to Trump.) And at his core, Trump is an adolescent president, surrounded by adolescent flunkies, cheered into office by adolescent men.​

IMO, this article really nails what I and a lot of folks on my side see as problematic about the MAGA movement. It's not just that we disagree with its policies (we do); it's that their entire approach towards everything is so juvenile.

Trump appeals to damaged or immature men, and women that make a Faustian bargain with misogyny.

 

[FireDragon76]

Yes, Zelensky was the adult in the room.

This country has a lack of good Christian male role models. Because Trump and Vance aren't all that. Completely unchivalrous and craven. Soft men (literally), foolish, and obsessed with vanity.

 

[A2SG]

Is there anything more juvenile than this:

-- A2SG, yay, we're not giving any thought to what we're doing!!

 

[FireDragon76]

Is there anything more juvenile than this:


View attachment 361835

-- A2SG, yay, we're not giving any thought to what we're doing!!

Who would have thought Idiocracy would be a documentary?

I think there's something to the notion that low brow culture is at the heart of Trumpism. As Sam Harris once put it, Trump is "Jesus for deplorables". His behavior is so flagrantly awful, he makes lazy, crass people look benighted in comparison, and that validates them in their crass laziness. It represents a decline in the influence of real Christian values in US culture, not an ascendancy.

 

[FireDragon76]

I wouldn't say this is the same as "toxic masculinity" - one can be mature and extremely toxic - though I think they're related. I think it's more accurate to say that this immaturity leads folks to lionize the toxic elements traditionally associated with masculinity.

But the "left beta male" insult is nice and particularly laughable when you look at how the right is supplicating themselves to Trump, Musk, and their acolytes. Many (including Musk apparently) have completely reversed their worldview because of some butthurt over shifting cultural tides, and of the people on the right who know better (supposedly large in number), few are standing up to say that any of what they're doing is wrong. Profiles in courage, indeed.

For people that talk alot about masculinity... they display so few traditional masculine virtues. The vanity, the obsession with spectacle, theatrics, and appearance, are all things classical writers and philosophers treated with scorn as the vices of the effeminate and the soft.

And what's with Vance and the mascara look? He was dressing down Zelensky for not wearing a suit, but Vance always looks like a baby faced nancy boy who is literally soft, with a pudgy body hidden under an American-cut suit, and eyes that look like something from the 1990's emo scene (complete with a perpetual pouty scowl on his face).

 

[Laodicean60]

Thinking back on it those 2 dogs were a lot more mature that a lot of American politicians today.

I agree that both parties' politicians act immaturely. Regarding dogs, what you said is probably true until the Alpha is hungry.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Maybe this fits here? I don't think it merits a thread.

Per wiki: On April 20, 1990, Rose entered a plea of guilty to two charges of filing false income tax returns not showing income he received from selling autographs and memorabilia and from horseracing winnings. On July 19, he was sentenced to five months in the minimum security prison camp at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, and fined $50,000.[70] Rose was released on January 7, 1991, after having paid $366,041 in back taxes and interest and was required to perform 1,000 hours of community service.[71][72]

 

[Laodicean60]

OT, I feel Peet should be placed in the baseball Hall of Fame.