Welcome to the Age of Lawless Masculinity (Great read)

[applegrove]

Welcome to the Age of Lawless Masculinity

Representative Paul Gosar’s murderous and misogynistic video takes a page—albeit an extreme one—straight out of the authoritarian playbook.

By Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Getty; The Atlantic

NOVEMBER 19, 2021

About the author: Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a professor of history and Italian studies at NYU. She is the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, and she publishes Lucid, a newsletter about threats to democracy.

Updated at 4:45 p.m. on November 20, 2021.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/lawless-masculinity-gop/620732/?newsletters=The+Atlantic+Daily&email=standingstill%40sympatico.ca

"SNIP.......

Exercising an autocratic style of governance within a nominal democracy, Berlusconi cultivated an image as a virile leader untouchable by the law and able to have whatever and whomever he wanted, on demand. The commercial-television networks and ad agencies he owned mirrored his misogynist actions, saturating Italy with images of women in submissive and degrading roles. By 2011, when the Eurozone crisis forced Berlusconi out of office, he had survived 20 indictments and seven convictions for corruption, and a sex scandal involving a minor, without losing the support of his base or going to prison. But a United Nations Commission report that year warned that persistent portrayals of women as “sex objects” by politicians and the media lowered women’s social status, leaving them vulnerable to discrimination. “This man offends women and offends democracy,” a feminist manifesto published in La Repubblica had warned two years earlier.

Authoritarianism has evolved over the past century, and old-school dictatorships are now joined by electoral autocracies. Yet at least one constant remains: Illiberal political solutions tend to take hold when increased gender equity and emancipation spark anxieties about male authority and status. A conquest-without-consequences masculinity, posing as a “return to traditional values,” tracks with authoritarianism’s rise and parallels the discarding of the rule of law and accountability in politics. We commonly associate autocracy with state restrictions on behavior, but the removal of checks on actions deemed unethical in democratic contexts (lying, thievery, even rape and murder) is equally important to its operation and appeal.

That’s why it’s unsurprising to see a culture of lawless masculinity developing within the GOP, which adopted an authoritarian political culture during the Trump years. Renouncing democratic norms, the Republicans have normalized disinformation, election subversion, and violence as a means of governance, as expressed in their support for the January 6 coup attempt and the fiction that Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, won the 2020 election.

..........

The ethos of lawless masculinity is a lubricant of corruption, normalizing behaviors and redefining illegal or immoral acts as acceptable, from election fraud to sexual assault. These new norms attract collaborators who find it thrilling to be able to commit criminal acts with impunity. (Gosar used promises of blanket pardons to recruit participants for the January 6 coup attempt.)


......SNIP"


Applegrove:

Lawless sadistic masculinity was the fuel that lubricated ISIS.

[BigmanPigman]

1. The GQP is the most sadistic group in government.

They get off on causing suffering and pain. Sick fuckers!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

2. Disgusting little men.

They need to be made to pay for what they do.
As harshly as possible.

These men are losers snowflake incel shit buckets.

There needs to be a louder more forceful democratic voice to drown them out.

I hope Biden can get rid of the filibuster asap
And get someone to grab attention and humiliate these monsters,publically where it counts,air out all the dirty laundry and drag the skeletons out of thier closets,and repeat it ad nauseum.


Biden needs an enemy,well the republicans are a big enemy that needs to be crushed by the weight of thier crimes.

[viva la]

3. And now apparently it's legal to wave a rifle around

and then when people try to keep you from firing it, kill them.

And you'll get to be a star in the GOP.

This really feels like some people are eager for a return to lynching.

[luckone]

5. +1

[H2O Man]

4. Recommended.

Very important article. Thank you for sharing it.

[Budi]

6. 👍Applegrove: "Lawless sadistic masculinity was the fuel that lubricated ISIS."

The ethos of lawless masculinity is a lubricant of corruption, normalizing behaviors and redefining illegal or immoral acts as acceptable, from election fraud to sexual assault.
These new norms attract collaborators who find it thrilling to be able to commit criminal acts with impunity. (Gosar used promises of blanket pardons to recruit participants for the January 6 coup attempt.)
----------

This is some chilling stuff.
Thanks for posting this very necessary read

[ymetca]

7. This is nothing new

That's how they used to recruit soldiers - with the promise of rape and pillage.

Such atavism lurks always beneath any so-called "high civilization", and more than occasionally brings its downfall.

Carl Jung wrote interestingly on the subject, suggesting that our collective unconsciousness, suppressed and oppressed by society, with no "mystery schools" to allow safe indulgence, can suddenly erupt into mass spasms of violence, when conditions are right. Calls to "restore" some ancient, glorious past are signs that such is again percolating to the surface.

For Cthulhu ever roils in the deep, waiting for his chance...

But then, there's always the poster here who insists we're all just masturbating with the wrong hand. So, yeah that could be it.

[Carlitos Brigante]

8. Or what some (too many, unfortunately) percieve as masculinity. But in reality

it's deep seated fears and insecurities wrapped up in a veneer of "toughness".

[applegrove]

9. False vitality for people who have been left behind by 40 years

of right wing trickle down economics. They used to daydream about having a cabin in the woods to retire to. Or an RV. Now that there are no union jobs they daydream of the next lib they can own and the next misogynistic online cluster**** they can join in online. The dream has to be attainable, and until the RV is, the base will continue with the Trump cult.

[Carlitos Brigante]

10. Oh no doubt. I was what, 7? When that prick Reagan got in the WH. I have

this memory of my mom crying a little bit election night in '80. She wasn't very political. And I always assumed she felt bad for Carter. More than afraid of Reagan Unfortunately never got the chance to really ask her. Or maybe she knew something deep down. Anyway, that moron Laffer with his goofy ass phallic graph found the perfect gullible stooge in St. Ronnie.

[applegrove]

11. My late brother got shown that Laffer napkin trick when he was

Last edited Thu Dec 2, 2021, 06:34 PM - Edit history (1)

at Harvard in the early to mid 1980s by Laffer himself. He and his friends had just read Ayn Rand. I think they trucked Laffer out to do the napkin trick everywhere where young people could be influenced. Didn't work. My brother got into an incident with anti-union forces at his university in Japan. Some anti-union stooge tried to get him, an English teacher, to sign something in Japanese. My brother, a union organizer there, could not read Japanese and suspected something. He grabbed the contract and the stooge grabbed my brothers book bag. My brother would not trade. He wanted to get the contract translated. Sure enough it was an attempt to get my brother to agree to be fired if he did any union organizing. Thankfully the courts in Japan take a dislike to ruining union organizing... or at least the laws there do. He sued the guy who took his bag. He had a sec to decide what was more important and union won out. They fired him anyways. Fortunately he had other Universities to teach at.

My mom was private about her politics. It was very personal to her. She hated gerrymandering in the US. I know that much. My Dad was the one who talked politics every day. They had election parties. They lived in the bureaucratic enclave in Ottawa so everyone was informed. Still my dad and 19 year old me got snowed into voting for Conservative Mulroney. I realized the error of my ways and never voted for them again.