Tucker Carlson and the Crisis of Masculinity

… as a man, i balk a little at what this article informs me of, but there are some astonishing statistics backing it up… maybe we have reached the matriarchal age after all… if the men don’t blow the place up because the planet without men in charge isn’t worth living on anyway…

Girls are now outperforming boys at nearly every level of education. They earn 60 percent of bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and comprise 70 percent of high school valedictorians. Women are also dominating many workplaces. Women today hold a majority of the nation’s jobs, including 51.4 percent of managerial and professional jobs—up from 26.1 percent in 1980. They make up 54 percent of all accountants and hold about half of all banking and insurance jobs. As for men, they are dropping out at alarming rates. More prime age males are out of the b force today than during the Great Depression.

20220420.09

Lies Are the Building Blocks of Trumpian Authoritarianism, William Saletan, The Bulwark

… an extensive article on the lies people, including a large number of independnts, believe about the current state of affairs… facts really do matter, but only if we can get the people to believe them…

… excerpts from the article…

These numbers, combined with the corresponding patterns in Trump’s, McCarthy’s, and the RNC’s propaganda, teach an important lesson. We’re in a battle to save democracy, but the battleground isn’t values. It’s facts. We’re up against a party that spreads, condones, excuses, tolerates, and exploits lies—lies about our political process, and lies about an attempt to overthrow our government—in order to make Americans think that the party of authoritarianism is the party of democracy. And we’re in serious danger of losing.

In a country immune to authoritarianism, this campaign of lies would fail. But the campaign isn’t failing. It’s working. Rank-and-file Republicans, joined by many independent voters, believe the lies. They’re ready to put Republicans back in charge of Congress. They’re ready to support McCarthy when he shuts down the Jan. 6th investigation. And many are ready to re-elect Trump.

20220207-02

US added to list of ‘backsliding’ democracies for first time

_ The organisation’s secretary general, Kevin Casas-Zamora, said: “The visible deterioration of democracy in the United States, as seen in the increasing tendency to contest credible election results, the efforts to suppress participation (in elections), and the runaway polarisation … is one of the most concerning developments.”¹

… this article was noted by MSNBC last week… it made an impression on me, but truthfully, i already knew what it was telling us… we are backsliding and furthermore, i believe the next three years will decide whither democracy in the USA… there is far too little alarm about the slide and the tools for countering it seem to be lacking, or perhaps, the situation is at the precarious edge of the cliff with one having to be very careful of what levers they try to pull as the wrong move could plunge us over the edge…

… over the holiday weekend i had two brief but eye opening conversations, both with close family members…

… one believes that we will be able to resist the extremes of either end because we are, basically, a centrist country… they believe that the people in the middle, of which they are one, will save the day… i am not optimistic on that point… it might be true if the voting landscape were not in the process of being skewed to favor a radical minority on the right… voting rights legislation is required if there is to be hope of the middle being able to stave if off…

… another was anxious to defend the idea that the January 6th riot/insurrection was nothing more than an impassioned protest that was mostly peaceful… it was the first time i have experienced a close family member believing something that is utter nonsense…

… together they made me more alarmed than ever…