lennybird

I predicted that as more Trump supporters realized they've been duped and grifted that they would be mightily upset.

This is stochastic terrorism in action.

To him, it's win-win. Either he expands territory and genocides Ukraine, or her consolidates power as a wartime dictator and commits internal genocide by purging dissidents, ethnic minorities, etc. All the while further concentrating power.

Our modern Hitler.

For sure but I'll sure as shit pocket this for a discussion with swing voters and the apathetic.

So let's entertain the eating of pets thing was real (it's not)... How do these help with that? In what way is disrupting hospitals obviously leading to patient care declining not 10000% worse than, eating a duck or cat or whatever...?

Fuck sake.

My software engineering major was about 15:1.

Society isn't failing young men hard — let's be more specific — Republican toxic masculine rhetoric is failing young men hard. There's a reason there is so much overlap between MAGA and Inceldom, and it revolves around the false perception of what it means to be a manly man. They stifle their own emotions, yet rage on roids, get buff, and treat women like pieces of meat and then turn around and ask, "why can't I connect with anyone!?" Well, because drank the bullshit kool-aid of Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan and Donald Trump and jumped fully onboard with frat-bro culture.

And let me just as a relatively young white male — you have no idea. You have no idea how hard it is for women right now all the same. After all, does the reversal of Roe really impact you or me the same way? Of course it doesn't. And another thing: All the economic woes facing men are also facing women just the same, I hope you understand.

One key factor is changing whom they idolize. Time to start idolizing the likes of Tim Walz and not Andrew fucking Tate.

Whole new meaning to, "Please clap."

From Jeb to Vance's donut shop stunt to Leon Musk... Those words are just so versatile in describing the desperation of the Right.

It's times like this where I sometimes feel people need a license to surf the internet.

Following the Debate I had a Trump supporter come to my door. We have yard signs but, uh, the dude went a step deeper and knew our names. Weird but okay I guess that shit is publicly available in registration dbs after all...

Anyways, he seemed innocent enough but boy would he hop skip around point to point. Just as you corner on one thing, they jump to the next. "I'll show you the source on my phone!" yet he wouldn't and jumped to the next subject. I asked him to identify his sources for information and he dodged that as well, just vaguely alluding to, "googling." Really fascinating and kind of fun to interact. I can see why Klepper does it so much lol.

On the flip-side it's just a bit sad to see people who seem like decent people but are completely led astray and living in an alternative reality. "You've been... Living in a dreamworld, Neo."

Let's not kid ourselves...This article isn't being read by Trump supporters or even fence sitters. It merely identifies the problem; it doesn't prescribe a method of outreach.

Read further down in other comments, but:

• It's important to identify the problem.
• It's important to identify the target audience of this piece.
• The crowd that this article is referring to isn't reading an editorial editorial piece from The Conversation.
• This is thus mainly internal dialogue pointing to an example of the problem.
• How we convey the problem to those ensared by it is a totally separate thing.
• divisive for them; unifying for us, and helps the occasional apathetic bystander identify the bullshit before they themselves are ensared by it.

Well said and fair points. Ultimately I can agree that this entire article could be written as-is but for the exclusion of white. No doubt toxic masculinity is a problem. And no doubt there a considerable amount of white privilege; though the two probably should be separated as opposed to conjoined in discussion. Trump is a spoiled, silver-spooned manchild whose position has come about through a considerable degree of white privilege. Though as you said, one must be careful to narrow the scope of the conversation. That strictly applies to him, and probably should not be generalized more broadly.

Whereas toxic masculinity is more widespread and certainly not unique to white men (although in the moment under the MAGA banner and the audience of Jordan Peterson or Joe Rogan, it just so happens to predominantly be this group). I've read several articles about how inroads are being made with hispanic and black young male groups just the same — again, due to right-wing propaganda making inroads.

This where Walz could come in and why the VP Debate may be a bigger deal than many people realize. Walz has the capacity to do just as you said and project a certain male confidence. In his speech just yesterday he explicitly said, "Don't mistake kindness for weakness." If he carries through with this message as a military veteran and as a coach who can speak the frat bro language... Well, it may resonate with some and bring some back.