This article is from about a month ago, before some of the recent… developments. But I think it’s aged pretty well in its analysis. Support for Graham Platner was not a purely grassroots phenomenon; it was also supported by notable members of the pundit class, who boosted his candidacy and covered for his numerous faults. It was a surprisingly diverse group of people as well, ranging from the economic left to the moderates. But what seemed to unite most of his elite supporters was resentment of a perceived feminisation of society and a fetishism of a certain working-class male aesthetic. Have you ever noticed how often the term “working-class” gets used by certain people to refer to West Virginian coal miners but not to nurses or baristas? Similar dynamic. They want to return to anything that reminds them of big men with big muscles hitting things with a hammer or drill. And for those kinds of people, Graham Platner represents not just that, but also a totem of backlash to feminist politics and woke culture.
It is good that we will be rid of him soon. Unfortunately, I do not think his many gender-insecure backers in the media will do any self-reflection about their role in this.
brianpv on
*For the antifeminist leftist, the HR Lady symbolizes the empty triumph of managerial liberalism and girlboss feminism; she is the embodiment of the class traitor who ruthlessly wields her narrow desk-murderer’s power in the service of capital.*
*For the reactionary centrist, she is the reason we keep losing elections; she wears the face of Hilary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren. Too concerned with “diversity” and “inclusion,” she repels the Real Men we need in order to win.*
Imicrowavebananas on
The video game Disco Elysium has a dialogue sequence on how resentment for women is the fundamental driver of modern fascism and a lot of reactionary ideology is a veneer for psycho-sexual gender frustrations. At the time I thought that misogyny and the aftereffects of the emancipation of women were obvious drivers of modern politics, but their importance in a certain critical leftwing thought was overstated. I will admit that I feel I was wrong.
I will include this kind of phenomenon in this line of thought, because I feel the impulse to a return of traditional masculine asthetics here is driven by similar patterns.
I think my main mistake was in not recognizing first the enormous force that represents sexuality in all its forms in human desire. Eros is a force equal to thanatos. Secondly how the subjugation of women was fundamental to society, in terms of things like labor but also generally reproduction and the core unit of family.
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This article is from about a month ago, before some of the recent… developments. But I think it’s aged pretty well in its analysis. Support for Graham Platner was not a purely grassroots phenomenon; it was also supported by notable members of the pundit class, who boosted his candidacy and covered for his numerous faults. It was a surprisingly diverse group of people as well, ranging from the economic left to the moderates. But what seemed to unite most of his elite supporters was resentment of a perceived feminisation of society and a fetishism of a certain working-class male aesthetic. Have you ever noticed how often the term “working-class” gets used by certain people to refer to West Virginian coal miners but not to nurses or baristas? Similar dynamic. They want to return to anything that reminds them of big men with big muscles hitting things with a hammer or drill. And for those kinds of people, Graham Platner represents not just that, but also a totem of backlash to feminist politics and woke culture.
It is good that we will be rid of him soon. Unfortunately, I do not think his many gender-insecure backers in the media will do any self-reflection about their role in this.
*For the antifeminist leftist, the HR Lady symbolizes the empty triumph of managerial liberalism and girlboss feminism; she is the embodiment of the class traitor who ruthlessly wields her narrow desk-murderer’s power in the service of capital.*
*For the reactionary centrist, she is the reason we keep losing elections; she wears the face of Hilary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren. Too concerned with “diversity” and “inclusion,” she repels the Real Men we need in order to win.*
The video game Disco Elysium has a dialogue sequence on how resentment for women is the fundamental driver of modern fascism and a lot of reactionary ideology is a veneer for psycho-sexual gender frustrations. At the time I thought that misogyny and the aftereffects of the emancipation of women were obvious drivers of modern politics, but their importance in a certain critical leftwing thought was overstated. I will admit that I feel I was wrong.
I will include this kind of phenomenon in this line of thought, because I feel the impulse to a return of traditional masculine asthetics here is driven by similar patterns.
I think my main mistake was in not recognizing first the enormous force that represents sexuality in all its forms in human desire. Eros is a force equal to thanatos. Secondly how the subjugation of women was fundamental to society, in terms of things like labor but also generally reproduction and the core unit of family.