How Climate Denial And Proud Boy "Masculinity" Are Two Faces Of The Same Coin

[hatrack]

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I wondered about masculinity’s role in the climate crisis again when The New Republic published an article called “The Misogyny of Climate Deniers.” It cited research showing that climate deniers are not worried about the loss of a livable planet—they are worried about the loss of “a certain kind of modern industrial society built and dominated by their form of masculinity.” The study’s author, Martin Hultman, explained:

There is a package of values and behaviors connected to a form of masculinity that I call “industrial breadwinner masculinity.” They see the world as separated between humans and nature. They believe humans are obliged to use nature and its resources to make products out of them. And they have a risk perception that nature will tolerate all types of waste. It’s a risk perception that doesn’t think of nature as vulnerable and as something that is possible to be destroyed. For them, economic growth is more important than the environment.

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Link to tweet

In her 2018 paper on the subject, Daggett argues that traditional masculine identity is inherently tied to the fossil fuel economy. “The narrative of righteous fossil democracy is crucial not only to American identity writ large, but to its hegemonic white masculinities,” she writes. When the narrative of righteous fossil fuel democracy is challenged, it thus becomes interpreted as a challenge to those masculinities. “Through the rosy nostalgia afforded by petro-masculine identity,” Daggett writes, “the affront of global warming or environmental regulations appear as insurgents on par with the dangers posed by feminists and queer movements seeking to leach energy and power from the state/traditional family.”

Daggett specifically cites the Proud Boys as an example of petro-masculinity—not just because of their nostalgia for a regressive “traditional” society, but because of their devotion to…wait for it… avoiding masturbation. By avoiding masturbating, Daggett writes, “Proud Boys aim to enhance their masculinity, and in turn to become more successful with ‘real’ women, who nevertheless remain, as among the freikorps, off-screen and imagined figures who threaten humiliation.” This is one potential reason why so many right-wing militia extremists work in, support, and love fossil fuels so much, Daggett writes: “Fossil fuel systems provide a domain for explosive letting go, and all the pleasures that come with it—drilling, digging, fracking, mountaintop removal, diesel trucks. In the words of Sarah Palin, ‘drill, baby, drill!’”

Trump, a climate denier, shares the Proud Boys’ vision of what it means to be a man: strength-obsessed, fearful of looking weak, careless about risk, nostalgic about “the old ways.” So when he told the Proud Boys to “stand down and stand by,” he wasn’t just tipping his hat to a group of white supremacists. He was tipping his hat to a group of men with whom he deeply relates. Men like this are the ones Trump has always depended on to remain in power. They just so happen to be the ones setting the planet on fire.

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https://heated.world/p/proud-boys-and-petro-masculinity

[Chainfire]

1. Toxic masculinity is what would lead a Covid survivor

To claim that catching the disease was a "blessing from God" and that it was the "best thing that ever happened to them." Screw all of the weaklings that died from the disease, real men, like me, survive and are better for having had it.

It is the same kind of knuckle dragger who would brag about sexually assaulting women. It is the same kind of fool that can stare down climate change, lend aid and comfort to white supremist, and try to isolate the country from the rest of the world.

Some people know that fossil fuels will cause massive, maybe irrecoverable problems, but they think that because, they are so smart, so rich and so tough, it will not affect them; only weaklings will suffer.