When I began this blog six years ago, the Men’s Rights Movement was little more than a curiosity. I’ve watched, with both amusement and alarm, as this small movement has inspired, and ultimately has been eclipsed by, a broader anti-feminist, anti-woman backlash, online and off, driven largely by the same white male rage.
Each new iteration of this backlash has been more toxic — and, sadly, more influential — than the last, ultimately culminating in the rise of the alt-right. Which is to say, the newest incarnation of fascism.
Now the openly racist, openly misogynistic idol of the alt-right has been elected president. Obviously, not everyone who voted for Trump was white or male. But his candidacy was powered in large part by the same kind of white male rage I have been writing about virtually every day for the last six years.
While Trump’s election is, without question, a catastrophe — in ways I will be chronicling in detail over the next few months and years — Trumpism isn’t built to last. Trump’s victory was a narrow one — indeed, he actually lost the popular vote — and the demographic group that served as the backbone of his movement (white men) is shrinking relative to those groups Trump has railed against.
In many ways, Trumpism seems to be a classic example of an “extinction burst,” a term used by behavior psychologists to describe a weird and seemingly paradoxical pattern of behavior. As Popsugar summed it up in a post earlier this week:
[W]hen a certain type of behavior or action isn’t really getting its desired results any longer — say, a child’s tantrums failing to get Mom or Dad’s attention — there’s often a period when a subject struggles even harder, makes more noise, and generally throws an extremely loud fit. In other words, extinction burst is that last-ditch ramping up before an inevitable flame-out.
Trumpism, like all backlashes, is doomed to fail. Unfortunately, it is likely to do a tremendous amount of damage before it goes, not so gently, into that good night. In the meantime, I will do my best to make sense of the toxic stew of racism and misogyny at the heart of Trumpism, and to provide support for those fighting against it or just trying to get by). And so I’ve changed the tagline of this blog from “the new misogyny, tracked and mocked” to “surviving the Trumpocalypse” to reflect this broader focus.
Don’t worry: I will still be writing about MGTOWs and MRAs and the other strange misogynistic creatures that I’ve been writing about from the beginning. While I recognize they are but a sideshow in the era of Trump, I just can’t quit them, and I suspect that a lot of you can’t either.
For you, David, all my respect and love. To everyone else here, the same.
Thank you, David. On Wednesday I did not want to go to work (tutor at the university I attend). But I went, because I knew that my tutees, most of whom are freshmen, had been as scared about the election as I was. I did not want to leave them alone, and when I arrived they were indeed hurting, scared, grieving. I am less than a decade older than them and I had to go into full-on mom mode: promising them that their futures mattered and comforting them while they cried. My passion to become an educator has redoubled after what I experienced that day. We have to stay strong, for each other. We can never stop working to make this world one worth passing on.
Perspective from a Trump voter, paraphrased: “You’re telling me that I shouldn’t be intolerant, but you’re telling me I need to agree with you and be just like you so you’re the one who is being intolerant.”
I just want to do my work. I shouldn’t be expected to be my colleague’s emotional support and help him feel better about how he hurt a friend who had to make the difficult choice to get a late term abortion and how he feels she should be more tolerant of his voting against her rights. And I have to hold my tongue because it’s not safe for me to speak my mind.
@kupo, I am not religious, but I pray that the day soon comes where you are able to tell those people exactly what they deserve to hear. Your situation reminds me of when I worked up north, surrounded by macho assholes. Shut up, head down, do your work, don’t get noticed. It nearly killed me. I didn’t have any outlet, though – you have this place at least, and hopefully others. Don’t be afraid to vent whenever you need to, we all understand.
“Surviving the Trumpocalypse” sounds like something that needs to be on t-shirts.
Again, all the hugs and support to everyone in the US who needs it, and everywhere else too. America being what it is, we’re all in this together whether we live there or not – so those of us watching that mess from afar need to be there for those on the front row.
I have nothing good to say,
I’ve spent the past couple of days either in bed or walking around like a zombie, more afraid and despairing than I’ve ever been, even when W was elected. At least while W was dim, he wasn’t a malignant narcissist with his lips attached to Putin’s butt. And my husband and I won’t even get the worst of it. We’re white, cis people in a blue as hell state with blue state buffers around us.
At least I finally applied for my passport. You know, just in case.
Mom is more sanguine about it, despite being a lifelong Democrat. She’s an avid political junkie (and it literally saved her life around Super Tuesday, long story) and she points out Elizabeth Warren came out swinging and breathing fire. Both sides of Congress, while still red, are much less than they were. And the whole checks and balances thing is there for a reason. Never mind Cheeto Hitler is going in widely hated. And a few other things I don’t have the time to go into.
I hope she’s right. That it won’t be as bad as it seems.
I may not check this site as often as I have though. I don’t think I could physically handle the alt-right gloating right now. 🙁
I didn’t want to go to work Wednesday, either. Most depressed and depressing staff meeting ever. At some point in the afternoon, the hospital manager and two others of us started googling countries to move to, emphasis on whether we could take our pets with us. I know I’m not going anywhere, but both my coworkers are gay and one is also nonwhite. They have much more to deal with than I do. I don’t think either one is going anywhere, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.
Another coworker is getting married tomorrow, and has joked about not coming back from her honeymoon. At least the wedding should be fun. Dancing through the apocalypse and all that.
From an article by Masha Gessen in the NY Review of Books:
Whole thing
i am glad you all are still here. this is kinda my first day back in the real world. and as always, david and the commenters here make me feel a little warmer, safer, and hopeful.
thank you all.
Here’s the full link – the above is not working. And good news: when I searched for this, so many sites came up that were reposting it. 🙂
http://www2.nybooks.com/daily/s3/nov/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival.html
I’m also seeing a bunch of people saying that the protesters want Trump to fail and that the protesters are stupid because we’re all on the same ship if it sinks. I just can’t even. Show me one example of someone saying they want him to fail. Fail to implement the atrocious policies he promised? Absolutely! Fail spectacularly and send the country into ruins? No, that’s the exact reason they’re protesting.
Well, at the very least, any trolls claiming that we live in a ‘post-sexism world’ and that equality has ‘already been achieved’ can go fuck themselves in a pile of LEGOs.
Skiriki’s stories of people already facing gendered violence is so gross. It’s like, how I felt hearing of Gamergate stories but 100 times worse since this time America was set back rather than just video games.
@losername
That’s horrible! I’m glad you managed to escape that environment.
Sending hugs your way. I cannot even imagine what any of that must be like, and I think you’re right that a surprising number of women excuse virulent misogyny based on the idea that an abusive man is displaying “strength” and that this is somehow a ‘good’ thing.
Seeing women (online, so might be actually trolls; have yet to meet a woman who voted for Trump) show enthusiastic support for Trump has constantly baffled me.
EDIT: Heads up to David, love the new WHTM header, but clicking on it doesn’t redirect to your homepage; it links to the URL of the image:
EDIT EDIT: ok, I forgot simply pasting the URL would display the URL as an image.
nah… I’m a drug addict, can’t do that. Not so much that when I wake up (if I do) the Cheeto will still be the prez-elect… not so much that I’ll have to deal with who-knows-what mayhem I caused… not even because (very early Wednesday morning, anyway) it seems like a viable alternative. No, can’t go there ’cause there’s people who need me. Fuck, in the town next door, I have friends who are going shopping for their friends because of all the nazis in the streets. If there really is a goddess in charge, protect us…. please.
Thanks, Fishy Goat!
Agent Orange and his posse are planning on throwing us overboard in any case. At least if we sink the ship, we can cling to the wreckage, paddle toward each other, and lash it into a raft without them on it.
@kupo
We’ve been hearing the same bullshit here (and we’ve had A LOT of protests this year).
It’s kinda telling that those people can never argue for themselves or their candidate without using dividing tactics…
You know the people that keep saying that the media would have a field day with Trump, well I guess they’re going on to the fuhrer’s side.
Oh CNN, you were on Clinton’s side since the Primaries, but the second she lost you decided to portray anyone against Trump as bad. Praise be the brownshirts.
@eli No problem. 🙂
I would also suggest saving the doc in case it ‘disappears’.
@moocow, white middle-class women basically handed Trump this election. I’m really glad you don’t know them, but I’ve seen enough interviews with Trump supporters to know that there are plenty of women who are more than happy with this. They’re wealthy enough to be stay-at-home moms or to work only part time jobs, so they don’t deal with the public as much. Traditional Conservatives who don’t like them feminists because they like being at home and baking pies, so why don’t you? You’re all uppity, and you’d be much happier at home with a nice man to take care of things for you, you know.
a.k.a. so desperately unable to empathize with people who don’t think exactly like them that they handed America to a gold-leafed proto-Fuhrer just to make the country more like the one they imagine.
hisss
@Oogly: More like “Ratings über Alles”, me thinketh.
Meanwhile, I keep wondering if the fact that I still want to do my little electronics experiments and projects in the face of everything is denial, blithe indifference or necessary sanity preservation.
@Nequam
With Trump TV, we’ve pretty much have that fascist transition in motion, I hope good prevails before the damage is done.
Well imo it’s good that you continue doing them, it’ll give you some semblance of control. Yes doing what we can politically in urging our representatives and the remaining electoral college members to instead side with Hillary pre and post Inauguration, but it’s also important to have something to keep your mind occupied. I’ve been putting more effort in learning Japanese ever since Tuesday, mostly to have some semblance of normalcy. And a way to personally push back against this feeling of utter helplessness I often find myself in.
Good luck with your projects, we’ll make it past this.
@kupo
Oh, fuck right off. Muffugas wanted to throw us off the ship preemptively, but, now they have, we’re supposed to be quiet about it? Nah, I don’t think so…
@Oogly
Bullshit! I fuckin wish! Emails, emails, emails! What did Trump do today? Doesn’t matter, emails! Fuck it, we’ll keep bringing on/actually hiring Trump surrogates go spread their bullshit almost entirely unchallenged! With contracts and everything! ‘Balance’ must be maintained…
Fuck the media for ever allowing that festering shit even a second of airtime
@Oogly: I admit I was pretty happy to have better understood breadboarding finally (how power rails worked was not sparkling clear), though then my ambition raced a bit ahead of itself as I considered a circuit made to test the polarities of transistors that I’d seen online. I gotta step back and be sure I really understand the smaller stuff first (diodes of the non-LED types, transistors themselves, IC datasheets).
And I’m very pleased that the homemade modular multimeter leads are doing the job!
@Weird (We’ll set this valley free before we’re through) Eddie
I’ll drink for ya then, I don’t make it a habit, but right now I just need a reset button and I figure that getting my once-a-year hankering for some salmari done is what I need right now.
It was almost working too, went to bed after pleasantly buzzed and sleepy, and then my stomach said:
“Knock, knock!”
And I said:
“Who’s there?”
And my stomach said:
“YOUR LOVE OF SPICY JALAPENOS AND YOUR EXCELLENT BEANS-AND-MEAT NACHO SAUCE DIP!”
And I said:
“Wait, that’s not how knock-knock jokes work.”
And my stomach said:
“No, but you got about ten seconds to run into bathroom, and then you should play some Johnny Cash.”
And I said:
“Shit.”
And my stomach said:
“Yes! That’s what!”
And then I ran like mascara in the middle of typhoon.