I haven't read this yet, but from the title and subtitle, I'm guessing that The Atlantic thinks it's okay to do this because it's not judging Trump by its own "standard of masculinity." It's fine with all sorts of gender expression and fluidity and all that complex stuff that elite folk believe or pretend to believe in. But it conjures up an idea of the Trump supporters, attributes troglodyte gender attitudes toward them, and then tsks over their hypocrisy? Why aren't THEY living up to their own standards?
Okay, let's read:
Why do working-class white men—the most reliable component of Donald Trump’s base—support someone who is, by their own standards, the least masculine man ever to hold the modern presidency?...Well, I was sort of right. The author, Tom Nichols, tells us he knows these people he is stereotyping because he grew up around men like that — "men whose fathers and grandfathers came from a culture that looks down upon lying, cheating, and bragging, especially about sex or courage." But it's not just those gender-neutral virtues:
They are, as an American Psychological Association feature describes them, men who adhere to norms such as “toughness, dominance, self-reliance, heterosexual behaviors, restriction of emotional expression and the avoidance of traditionally feminine attitudes and behaviors.”... Some of these traditional masculine virtues have a dark side... [but] I am noting that courage, honesty, respect, an economy of words, a bit of modesty, and a willingness to take responsibility are all virtues prized by the self-identified class of hard-working men, the stand-up guys, among whom I was raised.These people that he grew up with — they don't accept him (or so he imagines), so why do they accept Trump?
And yet, many of these same men expect none of those characteristics from Trump, who is a vain, cowardly, lying, vulgar, jabbering blowhard....
I should point out here that I am not criticizing Trump’s manifest lack of masculinity solely because he offends my personal sense of maleness. He does, of course... And truth be told, I am not particularly “manly.”... I freely accept that I do not pass muster by the standards of most Trump supporters....
The idea that insecure men support bullies and authoritarians is hardly new; recall that one of George Orwell’s characters in 1984 dismissed all the “marching up and down and cheering and waving flags” as “simply sex gone sour.” To reduce all of this to sexual inadequacy, however, is too facile....Nichols is almost only talking about childishness, but he is choosing to speak in gender terms, and in doing so, he is — interestingly — giving positive value to masculinity. That is unusual for The Atlantic, I believe.
Trump’s lack of masculinity is about maturity. He is not manly because he is not a man. He is a boy.... ... Trump is a hero to a culture in which so many men are already trapped in perpetual adolescence. And especially for men who feel like life might have passed them by... Trump is a walking permission slip to shrug off the responsibilities of manhood.... [T]he gratification they get from seeing Trump enrage the rest of the country is enough to earn their indulgence....
Can we talk about the masculinity of other male leaders? What do we think of Joe Biden's masculinity? How about Andrew Cuomo? What do we think of the females who offered themselves up as presidential candidates and whose names are now batted around in the vice presidential category? Do they need qualities of masculinity or are they good leaders if they epitomize femininity? Is it okay to talk in those terms... or is Trump a special occasion? If so, that's ironic, because the whole point of this article was that Trump supporters are wrong to see Trump as an exception to their usual standards.
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109 comments:
Bahahahhahha...That's rich!! Look up the picture of Obama riding a girls bike, or throwing the first pitch and tell me how manly he is!! Bahahahhahahahahahhahah!!!
"Why don’t the president’s supporters hold him to their own standard of masculinity?"
Why can't Democrats find a candidate who isn't so deeply distasteful and useless that working-class whites aren't forced to cast their votes for someone who's personal life choices they reject?
He is a boy.... ... Trump is a hero to a culture in which so many men are already trapped in perpetual adolescence
This is a common trope on the Left, one that shows up in my FB feed multiple times a week.
Even in the silly prog conceit of trying to make the other side live up to their own supposed standards, this doesn't work.
"someone who is, by their own standards, the least masculine man ever to hold the modern presidency?..."
Succeeded in three lines of work. Married three hot chicks. Plays golf. Doesn't care about his weight. Less masculine than the Bushes, maybe, but less than Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Clinton -- and O??
"They are, as an American Psychological Association feature describes them, men who adhere to norms such as “toughness, dominance, self-reliance, heterosexual behaviors, restriction of emotional expression and the avoidance of traditionally feminine attitudes and behaviors.”."
True, Trump is unusually chatty. But who is more tough, dominant, and self-reliant?
"I am noting that courage, honesty, respect, an economy of words, a bit of modesty, and a willingness to take responsibility"
Economy of words? No. But who has taken greater political risks, and taken more responsibility, than Trump?
"And yet, many of these same men expect none of those characteristics from Trump, who is a vain, cowardly, lying, vulgar, jabbering blowhard...."
After Obama, and compared to Hillary, they thought he was a refreshing change. A mean who honestly said what he thought.
To reduce all of this to sexual inadequacy, however, is too facile....
"Trump is a walking permission slip to shrug off the responsibilities of manhood.... [T]he gratification they get from seeing Trump enrage the rest of the country is enough to earn their indulgence...."
Interesting, isn't it, that progs who always claim to speak for the "underprivileged," in fact despise them. A portion of the working class now knows that they are "deplorable." Prog contempt helps Trump. As this piece comfirms.
[T]he gratification they get from seeing Trump enrage the rest of the country is enough to earn their indulgence.
He stumbled into some truth here, but not the rest of the country, just people like him.
Why do people likeTrump? You’ve had four years to figure it out.
Keep wondering.
Keep losing elections.
The play pretend macho macho macho Mens love Trump because his effeminate personality does not threaten their weak ass self esteem.
Speak loudly and carry a big schtick...
I'm going to get advice on manliness from someone who doesn't have tits bigger than my sister's.
I'm not sure there's much point in attempting to analyze this sort of outburst. Never-Trumpers seem to compete with each other in each trying to be the greatest Trumpophobe.
The simple answer to "Why Trump?" is "because the available alternatives are worse."
Another Dr of psychology, a graduate from the University of Wikipedia, who can diagnose from afar.
Aren't journalists awesome?
We won’t hold our breath waiting for the article wondering why the Left won’t hold Biden up its own standards of Believe All Women.
"I should point out here that I am not criticizing Trump’s manifest lack of masculinity solely because he offends my personal sense of maleness."
-- I actually agree. This has nothing to do with Trump offending the author's sense of maleness. After all, where's his critique of Obama's "maleness?" Obama fits several of those adjectives he gave Trump. Obama was the most vain modern president, "better speechwriter than my speechwriter," we know he was, like every modern politician, a liar and blowhard. He was a coward, never claiming responsibility for failure and always pushing his subordinates to take the fall claiming to have "just learned about this very bad thing." Really, the only difference is that Trump is much, much more vulgar in public and presumably private than Obama. So, why do I think the author is criticizing Trump's lack of masculinity and not every other politician who fit the bill?
This is solely some performative art because the author wishes to earn some brownie points for dunking on the President and speaking Truth to Power, because for some reason, journalists honestly think that dunking on Republican politicians and conservative organizations is speaking truth to power and not the accepted norm in their peer group, because frankly, many, many, many journalists and "elites" are quite dumb when it comes to the reality of the world around them.
The simple answer to "Why Trump?" is "because the available alternatives are worse."
They can never accept nor admit that because they are responsible for the available alternatives.
I may be slow, but why should "we" care about masculinity? Among this group of manly men, perhaps it is Trump's consistent ability to "stand up" to political correctness, a perceived bully to manliness, taunting this bully daily, getting away with it, and winning.
He may have a high pitched (unmanly) voice, with "softy" features (mainly his hands); but, he stands up and taunts the beast that threatens this constituency.
The piece by Tom Nichols is what journalists at newspapers used to call a "thumb sucker." He's not writing about Donald Trump. He's using Donald Trump as a device to write about himself.
Honestly, who cares about Trump's conformity to Nichols' cartoonish impressions of what's masculine and what isn't? Personality and public policy are two different things, at least to me. On a personal level, Trump is creepy. He's in a class of people I would never want to be associated with. Yet I voted for him because in terms of public policy, he seemed less likely to damage the country to the extent that Hillary Clinton would have.
in retrospect I'm glad that I did vote for him. And now that the Democrats have knifed the only candidates that had a chance of giving Trump some decent competition (like Tulsi Gabbard and Amy Klobuchar), I will vote for Trump again.
Voting for Trump is a no-brainer, unlike Biden, which would be voting for no brain.
If you were Nichols' editor, would you pay him more than $100 for that pos?
What's manly about President Trump is that he fights. He won't let either the Dems or the press bully him.
and he teaches at the war college, makes you all warm and cozy,
How many human beings, let alone politicians, have been so scrutinized by the most powerful intelligence agencies in history, have been attacked by the vast majority of the DC establishment, taken out of context and lied about, yet have faced everyday transparently in front of the press with such optimism and energy?
That's called balls Mr Nichols.
You lost me at "by Tom Nichols."
"...trapped in perpetual adolescence..."
That right there is straight from the vagina.
The vagina monologue: Why isn't this guy doing what I want? Why isn't he more useful? I know, he's a child!
I do nothing women want because women (or bitch-tit Nichols) tell me. I'm a man. They can wrap their vaginal around that if they can't wrap their head around it.
Is tom nichols gay?
If he is that might explain the article.
John Henry
Donald Trump would curb stomp Tom Nichols effeminate ass pretty quick. So there’s that.
Left wing extremist women swooned over Willie Jeff Clinton, but he had no record -none - of participation in organized sport. He was in the band in a small town high school in the early 1960s - and men of that age know what THAT means. But he did play golf, and the mass left wing media, filled with roots-soy boys, loved him.
There ought to be a name for this genre of writing, wherein person A, who is emphatically not a member of group B, attempts to analyze why members of group B aren't living up to person A's expectations of how group B should behave, based on A's comically faulty ideas of group B's tenets.
Usually, this is seen in some religious context or other. The extension into politics and personal gossip is clear, however.
Another Dr of psychology, a graduate from the University of Wikipedia, who can diagnose from afar.
A friend in high-school told his dad that he wanted to major in psychology, and his dad suggested that he subscribe to a magazine instead. Well, he did neither an soon developed full-blown schizophrenia and died in a county mental hospital.
and they wonder why there are mass layoffs,
I go to the article and it is posted today? Memorial Day?
That tells me all I need to know. I imagine the brainstorming at the Atlantic: what's a good angle to publish on the morning where we celebrate the incredible courage and manliness of Americans over generations?
Oh, yeah, piss and piss and piss again on Trump.
Happy Holiday!
“To reduce all of this to sexual inadequacy, however, is too facile....“
I read this as “ To reduce all of this to sexual inadequacy, however, is too flaccid....”. He missed the opportunity for a good line.
Apparently, Mr. Nichols cannot discern the nobility of a man (however flawed) who takes arms against a sea of troublesome swamp critters rather than suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune seekers.
vain, cowardly, lying, vulgar, jabbering blowhard
I question the premise, what's left? I suppose the "men" who read the Atlantic can feel better about themselves, perhaps imagine themselves as brawny lumberjacks.
"heterosexual behavior" Can't have that.
My favorite line ever by the execrable Tom Nichols: "And truth be told, I am not particularly “manly.”... I freely accept that I do not pass muster by the standards of most Trump supporters...." You got that right, cupcake!
I'm quite concerned about personnel management at the Naval War College.
well we know with sullivan it was hagiography worthy of early procopius,
well we know with sullivan it was hagiography worthy of early procopius,
The rotund pseudo-expert, Tom Nichols, joined NeverTrump early on and continues to write the same piece over and over, each with a different setting. He makes my skin crawl.
Testis envy mainly.
Trump, who is a vain, cowardly, lying, vulgar, jabbering blowhard....
The writer lacks a masculine sense of humor.
"There ought to be a name for this genre of writing, wherein person A, who is emphatically not a member of group B, attempts to analyze why members of group B aren't living up to person A's expectations of how group B should behave, based on A's comically faulty ideas of group B's tenets."
-- Sometimes it is called "gorillas in the mist" effect, but I feel that's unfair to the origin of the name.
I had to look up Tom Nichols. I see he wrote an autobiography, "Death of Expertise", a study of why people mistrust established knowledge and how this damages democratic stability.
Ann asks: What do we think of the females who offered themselves up as presidential candidates and whose names are now batted around in the vice presidential category? Do they need qualities of masculinity or are they good leaders if they epitomize femininity?
The dilemma women candidates face! If they are perceived as too feminine they will be considered too weak to be Commander in Chief.
In 2008 Hillary! ran as a man would. In 2016 Hillary! ran as an entitled woman whose time to rule was long overdue. Hillary was never ever feminine though.
Ann asks: What do we think of the females who offered themselves up as presidential candidates and whose names are now batted around in the vice presidential category? Do they need qualities of masculinity or are they good leaders if they epitomize femininity?
The dilemma women candidates face! If they are perceived as too feminine they will be considered too weak to be Commander in Chief.
In 2008 Hillary! ran as a man would. In 2016 Hillary! ran as an entitled woman whose time to rule was long overdue. Hillary was never ever feminine though.
Its been said up thread already, but Trump is better than the alternatives. And he doesn't appear to be on the Chinese Communist Party payroll, which is a big plus.
Real men, not the caricature of real men left wingers believe in, don't judge people on their perceived masculine or feminine characteristics. I know lefties will find that hard to believe. One reason for their confusion is because in their minds, respect must be paid just because someone is gay or female, or has brown skin. When a white male does not bow down to political correctness, the American left automatically attribute it to sexual orientation bias or racism or sexism, thus, sadly committing those sins themselves.
I guess we should give Tom Nichols some credit for admitting that he isn't exactly manly. But that is about all the self-awareness he seems to have: He wrote a whole book on the death of expertise, without realizing that the "death" was really more like suicide and was caused by the so-called experts amassing an astounding record of being wrong all the time. Similarly, Trump is not the most traditionally masculine president, but it's not as if the Democrats offered a more manly alternative.
Some people want a woman and mother for president, I would love that if it was the kind of mother that I look up to. The kink of mother who makes me think, smother, is not the kind I'm looking for.
perhaps imagine themselves as brawny lumberjacks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FshU58nI0Ts
Articles the NYT will never run:
1. Why won’t feminists hold Biden to their standards of acceptable behavior, or at least criticize him for taking retaliatory action against women who accuse him of improper behavior?
2. Why won’t anti-law enforcement, anti-ICE activists applying their standards to the FBI, or at least to rogue agents who spied on a presidential campaign?
3. Why don’t the Watergate fetishists and historians who claim spying on opponents is criminal and threatens democracy itself apply that simple standard to Obama?
4. Why don’t anti-Trump activists ever notice that China actually is a totalitarian dictatorship that jails its political enemies and puts minorities in concentration camps and enslaves foreigners?
5. Why is “Democratic” the only only affiliation that shields an adherent from any and all criticism, except for the only democracy that exists in the Middle East?
" I had to look up Tom Nichols. I see he wrote an autobiography, "Death of Expertise", a study of why people mistrust established knowledge and how this damages democratic stability."
-- The simple answer. People don't really mistrust actual experts. People will listen to their doctor about how to treat something more often than not. But people are very wary "experts" who have been wrong about global cooling, warming, no more snow for decades, the end of mild summers, 2 million dead "just like Italy," etc., because those experts *are so consistently, fantastically wrong.*
hey marko hows the horse,
Ive seen Obamas golf swing. Ive seen Obama throw out the first pitch. How quickly they forget.
Q: How many times has the left insulted the opposing party with homophobic references?
A: Far too many to believe they really are true supporters.
Howard said...The play pretend macho macho macho Mens love Trump because his effeminate personality does not threaten their weak ass self esteem.
Our phony internet ex-Marine is projecting again.
Working class folks don't mind a braggert as long as he's entertaining and gets the job done.
Because working class folks are woke to the fact that people like Tom Nichols are full of shit.
Does Tom Nichols even know any working class people? If he did, he'd be aware as to why they voted for Trump, despite all the things he claims.
Nichols is reverting to the old "strong, silent" masculine type instead of the White male privilege stereotypes of our own day, but neither stereotype sums up our past. Most of us are boys (and girls) compared to those who landed at Normandy and Guadalcanal or settled the plains, and we will remain so. Among those true men (and women?), though, were plenty who were blowhards and egotists. What were Paul Bunyan, Mike Fink, and Pecos Bill (assuming that they weren't doubly mythical, having been invented by scoutmasters or Harvard folklorists, rather than lumberjacks, keelboatmen, and cowboys)?
For every Abraham Lincoln there was more than one Jack Armstrong, who challenged the gangly nerd Lincoln to a wrestling match. For every bookish John Quincy Adams, there was a wild, uneducated Andrew Jackson. There is much that is problematic for us about Jackson, but the Adamses could be prickly for prickliness's sake, beyond the point where it could be justified. What movie fathers taught their sons didn't always correspond to the reality or to what real fathers told their sons.
“True, Trump is unusually chatty. But who is more tough, dominant, and self-reliant?”
The absurdity here is that Trump is THE dominant male on the planet right now. Xi has maybe as much power, but if you ever see the two together, you know which one is dominant. It is clearly Trump, with Xi papering submissively to get Trump’s approval. Only Putin seems capable of standing up to Trump when they are in the same room.
It doesn’t hurt that Trump has long enjoyed the perks of being a dominant male. Marrying three supermodels doesn’t hurt. Dowdy Michelle Obama always looked like she could break her husband in half. He did what he was told. Malania knows her job - to be the eye candy on Trump’s arm, restore the glamor to the White House that we haven’t seen since Jackie Kennedy, and by her looks and style completely dominate the wives of any other men in the same room as the the Trumps. Always.
Men respect dominance, esp if earned. Trump earned his. Beta males, soyboys, and Bernie Bros instead look at other men like women do. Because they know that they are rarely the dominant male in the room. But they also know that that is the only way that they will ever be laid, as contrasted to men like Trump whom women have been flinging themselves at for decades. That was what his grabbing them by the crotch statement was about - people like him don’t have to work for sex with good looking women. Rather, their problem is fighting it off. What most regular guys dream about.
This really is too much!
“... men whose fathers and grandfathers came from a culture that looks down upon lying, cheating, and bragging, ....”
Men who would be forced to choose the lesser of evils who would never be Democrats because these men could not approve sedition as an alternative to elections, abortion as an alternative to fatherhood, despotism (or safety) as an alternative to freedom, invasion as an alternative to borders, etc. It’s quite a long list that doesn’t appear to include any of the Democrat “values.”
Trump's lack of old school male bona fides questioned, chickenhawks hardest hit. Film at 11.
At least they're not conflating sex and gender. That would be em-pathetic and transphobic. They have already looted the pot of gold at the end of the Rainbow. It wouldn't be politically congruent.
those experts *are so consistently, fantastically wrong.*
Not just fantastically wrong but suffering no consequences for being fantastically wrong.
Not just suffering no consequences for being fantastically wrong but rising in the esteem of other fantastically wrong experts.
@sebastian A man who honestly said what he thought? He's walked back several statements and lied 1900 times if I'm not mistaken. There's no way he gets past the honesty test.
I'll give you that the Atlantic is a bit hoppocritical to put him to a masculinity test but they're also judging the people who see him as manly and exposing the flaws in that.
It's admirable that he doesn't drink and that he knows a lot of celebrities, but a lot of those celebrities have been turned off to him. What was originally a penchant for taking good risks has turned into a penchant for taking bad risks as he's reached old age and become a vindictive ego-seeking monster. I don't think anything about golf is admirable to working class people and he's most certainly not self-made.
Biden's son was gifted with a billion dollar + hedge fund by the Chinese government which would produce $15 - $20 million in "management fees" every year. So I guess that's pretty manly.
The author, Tom Nichols, tells us he knows these people he is stereotyping because he grew up around men like that — "men whose fathers and grandfathers came from a culture that looks down upon lying, cheating, and bragging, especially about sex or courage."
Ah, but they often appreciated entertainers and politicians who were like that, and their descendants still do. It was good that such fathers and grandfathers appreciated honesty and modesty, but they often felt so oppressed by those in charge that they celebrated men who were anything but honest and modest: Huey Long, James Michael Curley, Adam Clayton Powell.
That is the tradition of the "Rascal King" who beats the big boys at their own game. Such "sacred monsters" were valued as fighters who took on the Establishment. Grandiosity and even corruption were valued when it meant beating "The Man." That tradition goes on today among men and women. Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton were rascals, but in their followers' eyes what they could achieve made them worth supporting, in spite of their moral flexibility. Success in politics does require a degree of showmanship or narcissism or grandiosity.
Comments on the comments. "Because gay" doesn't really work as an explanation. Gays are being assimilated (or straights are). "They are insecure about their masculinity" doesn't really work as an argument. "They" may be, or maybe it's the person who uses the argument who is.
https://nypost.com/2019/10/10/6-facts-about-hunter-bidens-business-dealings-in-china/
"...the least masculine man ever to hold the modern presidency?..."
Really? Methinks the man doth protest too much.
The ineffable emptiness of the Leftist Mind is a seminar in projection and self-delusion playing out in real time for all of us to see.
bragging
As well known effeminate male person Muhammad Ali said "I'm king of the world! I'm pretty! I'm a bad man! I shook up the world!"
@sophomorecritic: The article is stupid, petty and cheesy. If you think it worth defending, come back when you re a senior critic and ready to graduate to a higher level of critical thinking.
Hey Trump shoots, he scores! With the good looking chicks that is. In the view of some of those toxically masculine deplorables, that's a good thing.
As for the least masculine man to occupy the Oval Office, the author of this piece of codswallop need look back just four years to find the "One". He looked awfully good in a helmet riding a girl's bike.
Ah well the Atlantic is always open for a another dump truck full of writerly garbage, and Nichols delivers.
hombre said...
@sophomorecritic: The article is stupid, petty and cheesy. If you think it worth defending, come back when you re a senior critic and ready to graduate to a higher level of critical thinking.
5/25/20, 10:45 AM
Hear, hear!!
“ And truth be told, I am not particularly “manly.”
That was lol funny. Because did anyone think otherwise?
I remember when "liberals," "progressives" and other State-fellators were offended (or at least expressed offense) by pro-Trump ridicule and derision directed at "soy boys," "Pajama Boy" and fancy lads like Beto O'Rourke and Georgia's Jon Ossoff. Now the party line has changed, appatrently. Oh, well: business as usual--statism uber alles.
Howard: "Trump's lack of old school male bona fides questioned, chickenhawks hardest hit. Film at 11."
If you write that about a hundred more times you might even come to believe it.
Now tell us more about Slow Joe's cool aviator glasses....
Here's a fun video of obama in mom jeans "throwing" out a first pitch like a little girl:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrdcSO3JxSw
And this one is even worse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri8BOynRGnc
And you can pull up on youtube obambi "the great basketball player" pretty much missing every shot in a playground shoot around, including missing a layup.
Why can’t the right hold Trump to the principles that Nichols imagines they hold dear?
A moronic article by a moron. But it got me to respond, so there's that.
Its just another standard Never-trumper, left wing "Orange man bad" article. First, set up some goofy standard, or straw-man, that doesn't exist, then say why Trump fails. And, of course, during your "analysis" call Trump names over and over again. Like, they've been doing for 4 years.
How PRECISELY is Trump a "Bully" or an "Authoritarian". How are POTUS "Bullies" or "Authoritarians"? And how does Trump differ from Obama, Clinton, or Bush in that regard? Was Ike or FDR a "Bully"? Were they Authoritarian?
Finally, did Nichols, a liberal bourgeois, call Trump a "Racist" Because they always do.
You know who was "Unmanly" in the 2020? Mayor Pete. He's not only gay, he's the wife in the marriage. Or at least that's what those -made up - "Macho" guys that Nichol's claims to know would say. Of course, if you want "macho" there's Hillary. Maybe that's why Nichol's liked her.
The Clinton's Destroy their enemies. Obama wiretapped Trump and tried to destroy Flynn using the FBI. Bush started a needless war based on fake "Weapons of mass destruction". And yet, Trump is the "Bully" and the "Authoritarian". LOL!
He says he knows Trump supporters and how they think. He's either lying or stupid. Why not actually ask his supporters what they think is manly and how Trump qualifies?
The best president in history at keeping promises. I think that's pretty important.
Guts. No president has ever faced the relentless character assassination he has. And his guts, emotional strength, and "don't give a f*** what the assholes think" is stronger than anything I have ever seen. I can't think of any president in my lifetime who could have withstood the assaults he has. Had Obama been subjected to it, he'd have died in office before his first term was up. Biden? He'd be in a strait jacket in an institution screaming that the lying dog-faced pony soldiers were eating his underwear.
Trump's supporters love, love, LOVE that he calls out liars for their lies. That he is a genuine patriot. That he thinks political correctness is total bullshit. You want to identify a working class, male's attitude about masculinity? Ask him about political correctness. Embracing PC is the ultimate sign of a vagina hat wearing male pussy.
You'd think the NYT (as in 'NYT-picking'?) would have noticed that "the least masculine man ever to hold the modern presidency" isn't even the less masculine of the last two, and that the difference there is huge.
As for Howard's 'chickenhawk' slur, I'll just post the same link I posted the last time someone here (possibly Howard) used it: compare-and-contrast pictures of an actual chickenhawk and a bird very much like Howard: link. Some people really need to update their arguments, instead of just repeating slurs that were already stupid in 2002.
Trump is not cowardly, Trump is a real man, an honorable man. Trump has taken on the liberal media and the deep state, that is not the behavior of a cowardly men.
"virtues prized by the self-identified class of hard-working men, the stand-up guys, among whom I was raised."
This guy is a weak man who apparently wishes to get above his raising, to be liked by the right people, the perceived cool people so he's projecting. He's just showing his ignorance and exposing his poor ability to judge character.
His liberal suck-up, pile on behavior is contemptuous.
@sopjho: "A man who honestly said what he thought?"
On the off chance you're not here to join the bad-faith commenters: compared to just about any politician, and on the major political issues that concern him, Trump speaks more openly and honestly. Not always wisely, often hyperbolically, rarely covering the whole truth, occasionally bullshitting in the Frankfurter sense: but more honest than the lot on what he wants, where he stands, what he thinks. I wish he were more guarded.
Dr Weevil: "As for Howard's 'chickenhawk' slur, I'll just post the same link I posted the last time someone here (possibly Howard) used it: compare-and-contrast pictures of an actual chickenhawk and a bird very much like Howard: link. Some people really need to update their arguments, instead of just repeating slurs that were already stupid in 2002."
One of the toughest Marine Corps pilot trainees in my combined Navy/Grunt aviation ground school class was nicknamed "chickenhawk" because he literally looked like the cartoon character. Including the tuft of hair in the front!
And like the cartoon character chicken hawk, and the real life chickenhawk, this guy was one tough SOB when we were fighting in the ring (boxing was a required activity in those days).
Howard said...
Trump's lack of old school male bona fides questioned, chickenhawks hardest hit. Film at 11.
Whew! The Ds were losing but here is Garbage Howie from the 1st KYBDIV to turn the tide with his many excellent careers in marining and other manly man stuff! Quick Howie, repel the chickenhawks with your Youpeople Ray!
Or have another drink, whichever.
rcocean asks:
"How PRECISELY is Trump a 'Bully' or an 'Authoritarian'?"
Statists accusing others of being bullies and authoritarians: priceless.
Some people really need to update their arguments, instead of just repeating slurs that were already stupid in 2002.
All the more so, as kink subculture recognizes "chickenhawk" as slang for pedophile. The other Democrat pizza-lovers aside, it is their own standard-bearer/figurehead, Biden, who for decades has been unable to stop himself from pawing children, girls boys and diapered infants, and women too (so long as they are not black, because his hero and mentor Robert Byrd would regard that as a bridge too far).
He does this both in private, as with Tara Reade, and most blatantly in public to victims in the presence of their own apparently powerless families, daring anyone to oppose him. I'm extremely disappointed in Jeff Sessions foe hia service as AG, but I will give him credit: he hauled Biden off his granddaughter, the only instance of this in any video of the various fondlings, murmurings, gropings, nuzzlings, sniffings and frottings, displayed to national audiences, but ignored, unnoticed, or acquiesced to by those closest to his prey.
Really? Thomas "Manboobs" Nichols?
Anyone who believes anything Tom Nichols says has only himself or herself to blame.
Read his twitter feed. Catcalls from a blowhard.
The only way Tom Nichols's sudden celebrity ISN'T like what mass adoration did to Lonesome Rhodes is that there's no line Nichols can step over his new admirers won't applaud.
Nichols doesn’t understand his own progenitors. That much is clear.
SAM MALONE: A real guy doesn’t have to jump on sharks and dodge poison darts to prove he’s a guy.
DIANE CHAMBERS: I’m astonished.
SAM MALONE: A real guy just needs to score heavy with the babes, that’s all.
Drago: Chickenhawk is also the title of a book by an Air Cav Huey pilot in Vietnam. It's an excellent read. The title comes from how he dreaded taking fire in hot LZ insertions and retractions. The way he describes the experience makes your hair stand on end and asshole pucker closed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickenhawk_(book)
I see Howard is successfully trolling the thread today.
Good work, Howard.
Give Trump heck for "acting heterosexual."
If I thought Ru Paul in drag would be better President, I'd vote him, her, zi.
I'm not alone among the troglodytes in wishing we had a chance to elect a right wing woman, who is feminine, smart and tough. She will not have to be manly, although that's OK too. I just don't care about the left's obsessions on race and gender. It's your problem - not ours.
Scott Gustafson said...
What's manly about President Trump is that he fights. He won't let either the Dems or the press bully him.
5/25/20, 8:12 AM
That's because they are one and the same.
It's quite obvious Mr. Nichols slept through the Obama Administration.
Maybe someone could show him a clip of President Precious attempting to throw out a first pitch.
It's not exactly effective to haul out a laundry list of insults regarding Trump's character and then they behave in precisely the same way they say he does. Insult-laden, incoherent babyrage. NeverTrumpers have never been able to figure that out.
I havent seen Tom Nichols stand in front of two-three dozen people asking 'So you have stopped beating your wife?'-style questions for 2 hours a day for months on end. Trump did. Where does that rate on the masculinity scale?
Nichevo:
I have never seen a picture of Biden molesting a boy or young man. He seems to be a strictly heterosexual pedophile. Someone like Tom Nichols might think that would make right-wingers dislike him a little less - hey! at least he's not gay! -, but it actually (assuming I'm right) makes him look much worse. He could try to claim that he (a) really like kids in a totally-nonsexual way and (b) is just a touchy-feely physical kind of guy, again in a totally-nonsexual way, so it only looks bad. However, if he only gets touchy-feely with youngish women and little girls, that excuse won't fly: it makes his touching and feeling and hair-sniffing more obviously sexual.
President Trump is on the side of actual men
The Democrats are not
President Trump is on the side of actual Christians
The Democrats are not
If the Democrats want those groups to stop supporting Trump, all the Democrats need do is stop being anti-male and anti-Christian
Since they're not willing to pay that price, they can continue watching Trump get those votes
The masculinity or femininity of any candidate for office, or officeholder, is way down on my list of concerns--given that they have no fixed meaning anyway, as Nichols' flailing attempts to delimit the term according to his own sketchy understanding demonstrate.
I'll grant Trump doesn't seem interested in the manly art of Bracketology like the previous occupant, and I daresay most of Trump's critics on this score are sorry specimens of American couch-potatohood for all the big talk.
Trump DESTROYED the Republican establishment and might do the same to the other bums.
Narr
That's masculine manly and macho enough for me.
I have a Yiddish-English Dictionary, and to illustrate the word "putz" there is a picture of Tom Nichols.
I am a bit of a traditionalist, and anybody who can stand up to the vicious assaults from the media, academe, and people like Tom Nichols is a "man" in my book.
And in their time that included Margaret Thatcher and Phyllis Schlafly. And now, Candace Owen is not a bad example.
Barack Obama is decidedly NOT.
You people concede trump is no Christian but does the bidding for Christians therefore Christians like him.
The same goes true with his lack of actual manliness. Because he panders to phony toughguy macho manliness, you cosplaytriats like him. Simpaticos
Guys who try to act manly do it for the same reason some of them act like betas: to get the chicks. Trump already won that contest. He can act anyway he wants. Nothing to prove, except how easy it is to troll TDS.
Howard said...
You people concede trump is no Christian but does the bidding for Christians therefore Christians like him.
>>>>What are Christains "bidding" that he do for them? Seeing to it that states continue to honor the promise of Free Exercise of Religion under the First Amendment?
The same goes true with his lack of actual manliness. Because he panders to phony toughguy macho manliness, you cosplaytriats like him. Simpaticos
>>>>lack of actual manliness. Heh. Here's a guy who has dealt for years in real estate in New York, working with contractors, sleazy politicians and mob/union bosses. Yeah. that's really beta-male territory!!! Howard, our resident basement dweller, could handle that line of work easily---just ask him!
>>>>Then there's Trump giving every bit as good as he gets with the NeverTrumpers, the crazed "woke" left, hostile journos, and world leaders like the Chicoms and the Norks, not to mention getting NATO to pony up for their defense. Yeah, he's a real pushover!!
S N O R T
"We all" concede nothing to Howard and his absurdly false statements. We (Christian or otherwise) don't claim to know what's in Trump's heart, but we do judge his actions, and mostly like what he's done. Two simple examples: 1. Trump is not the one trying to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to either pay for what they consider murder or shut down their valuable charitable work. Lots of Democrats are trying to do just that, including some ostentatious church-goers and hypocritical mouthers of pious words. 2. Obama allowed ISIS to capture half of Syria and a third of Iraq, killing and torturing tens of thousands along the way, and then to set up public slave-markets in which they openly bought and sold Christian and Yazidi women as sex-slaves. Without most Americans even noticing, Trump (with the help of local allies, and at a very low cost in US or allied lives) totally crushed them and shut down their slave-markets. Did he do that out of Christian love for his far-away neighbors, Satanic pride in achieving near-miracles of military-political skill, envious spite in undoing one of his admired predecessor's biggest "accomplishments", or some combination of those things? Who knows? Who cares? He did a good thing.
Of course, what Trump does is also the exact opposite of "pander[ing] to phony toughguy macho manliness": he doesn't hire a voice coach to help turn him into a basso profundo, or an acting coach to make his gestures more manly, he just gets things done. An actual man doesn't have to perform manliness. (Rudy Giuliani is confident enough in his masculinity to be able to put on a dress and wig and play Marilyn Monroe now and then, without anyone except fools thinking he's gay or a wimp.)
I've never seen Trump in mom jeans.
The doyens of gender fluidity are suddenly experts on masculinity? Clearly, they are wheezing to the November finish line with barely any invective left.
Howard said...
You people concede trump is no Christian but does the bidding for Christians therefore Christians like him.
5/25/20, 4:26 PM
I concede no such thing. He was a secular hedonist in New York for some decades: but then, the New York elite would be less afraid of open vampirism than Christianity, for some strange reason. Donald Trump has delivered for Christians at a level unmatched since Reagan: maybe even better than Reagan. And he's not ashamed to stand with us in major events, when no other Republican elite ever would. That means a great deal. I suspect his very Catholic wife has a substantial role in that change, but I could be wrong. I'm not much invested in the answer, only the results.
At any rate, Howard, your trolling is so half-hearted I'm not even mad. Christianity, masculinity, even chickenhawkery- these are issues that no nationalist is going to take seriously coming from the swamp where Tom Nichols, David Frum, and Ben Shapiro lurk. Ha, ha, ha.
Actually, no matter what else, you're not human garbage like ARM or his ilk. I suspect this will cause you any number of problems during the American Cultural Revolution. But you see Joe Biden for what he manifestly is, and that might be enough truth to get you by. Keep on keepin' on.
Howard said...
You people concede {Biden] is [not black] but does the bidding for [blacks] therefore [blacks] like him.
Fixed it for you, Howard
I do not believe that Trump is a serious Christian. I DO believe that Trump is not an enemy to serious Christians, is in fact an ally to actual Christians, that Democrats ARE enemies to actual Christians, and that therefore any Christian who actually values his / her faith should vote for Trump.
Now, do you think that non-white Democrats should vote for Biden? How about gays? The "trans"? Muslims?
If so, why?
How is it "legitimate" for them to vote for Biden, but not equally legitimate for believing Christians to vote for Trump?
It seems like everything nowadays is written to attract clicks and provoke discussion -- not always intelligent discussion -- to the point where, even if Tom Nichols devoutly believes what he's saying, one has to ask if he "believe believes" it or if it's just part of the act.
The premise of the article is as ridiculous as it is homophobic.
He insults Trump by saying he has unmanly attributes -- essentially a homophobic trope.
I admire Trump. Chiefly because he has enormous righteous courage. How much courage does it take to build a skyscraper in NYC? How has he endured attacks from his own party, the press, and the DNC for 3 years+ while constantly operating under the narrative of Russia Russia Russia? And creating phenomenal outcomes at the same time? How much courage does it take for he a Melania to get out of bed in the morning?
He's the epitome of courage and manliness.
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