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.
Im a student tech doing rotation at an understaffed, underfunded public clinic seeing “Obamacare” patients who often wait up to five hours to see a doctor, sometimes having to leave for work & getting reschedule for another month in advance (if it isnt serious, obv we triage). & these alt-R people think that is too much! Nevermind that neglecting care would render them disabled and unable to work if it doesnt kill them.
ETA: guess its their fault for being born to former slaves in the ghetto created by white ppl /immigrating from colonized capitalist oppression
No, that’s just not true. None of the media was on Clinton’s side, they were on the side of clicks, likes and ratings. The virtual world has never SEEN clickbait like the Cheeto. He was literally the evil spawn of 4chan, reddit, Beck and Limbaugh. The media gave him a free campaign, and all he had to do was keep the outrageous blather coming. He got his mug on the front page 24/7 and didn’t have to do ANYTHING but be himself. I’m sure the people who were covering the news didn’t want him to win, although the moguls who sign their paychecks did. Unfortunately, they were too consumed with getting scooped on the latest atrocity to pay attention to common decency. The people we’ve seen casting the news for the past couple decades probably have career expectancies measured in weeks.
Oh yeah and Trump has about as much idea about ethics than Garbage Gropers.
http://twitter.com/CHueyBurnsRCP/status/797160207004606464
This, by the way, is not a blind trust.
ETHICS! SO MUCH ETHICS THAT I AM SHITTING BIGGER NUGGETS OF ETHICS THAN THEY CAN EVER MUSTER!
Would you fucking look at the amount of ethics coming out of this! SO MUCH NOT-ESTABLISHMENT.
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxATUY4XcAAXBW1.jpg
(Please note the presence of Pam Bondi. ETHICS!)
Also, Hitler was totes joking about that anti-Semitism thing, dontcha know, as NYT said in 1922.
http://boingboing.net/2016/11/11/hitlers-only-kidding-about.html
I think the thing I really hate about all this is that it has made me think in ways that I despise.
– I, a person who has never consciously wished harm on any other human being, I’ve thought, wishfully, (hoped, really, if I’m being totally honest), that Trump would be assassinated
-I’ve thought, “maybe this WAS a conspiracy! Maybe Russia is behind this!”
-I’ve considered that reports of backlash on the part of us lefties might be “false flag” operations by the alt-right.
I feel like I’m turning into a collection of all the things I hate and consider not only absurd, but unthinkable and inhuman.
@Scildfreja Unnýðnes
I’m fortunate that I live in Cali, so even random men on the street are most likely anti-Trump. Most I’ve seen is young women railing about “PC culture” or the pockets of rural conservatives. My Mom is from one of those pockets and according to her the prevailing attitude is “don’t think about it, just vote republican”. Naturally she does not share their political affiliation wore all-black on Wednesday in protest.
@dreemr
About the only thing we have in common with the bigots we despise is that we are both human beings, subject to the same human irrationalities.
Denial, projection and other psychological defense mechanisms live within us all. Hell, even bigotry is merely a form of disgust, an emotion we all experience.
But what makes us stronger is that we acknowledge these biases and we question ourselves. That emotional maturity is what makes us strong and will lead us forward.
@dreemr, that’s not a conspiracy. A Russian diplomat said yesterday that they were in daily contact with the Trump team. Sorry, they said that they had “reasonable” contact with the Trump team. The other two don’t have any support, but it’s pretty clear that Russia involved itself this election.
I hate it too. I hate thinking like this. It suggests a re-check.
@Moocow, I’m glad you don’t live in places where Trump support is popular! That’s gotta be miserable. I haven’t talked about it all that much with others, but opinions I’m seeing locally are way too mixed for my liking.
@ dreemr:
I continually find myself seriously questioning if this is real or if I had a breakdown… not kidding!
@Axecalibur: Middle Name Danger
@Weird (We’ll set this valley free before we’re through) Eddie
Flipping through their archives, you’re right. They are tons more articles about trump than Hillary, several times more in fact. I was wrong, my apologies.
@Nequam
Great job with your project. Please let us know on your progress.
@Skiriki
That article is all the proof I need on the dangers of naivete. That needs to be posted more often than it already has.
@dreemr
Well on that first part I don’t blame ya, this guy’s another despot and alot of times people wonder why no one killed said despots before it was far too late. Even though knowing the state of affairs I wonder if that would cause a second civil war. Your second point has more merit considering Trump’s ties to the Russian Mob, Assange getting praise from the KKK and Russia bragging about making the US a vassal state. Your third point, well this site has documented enough phony false flags to show that alt right making sock puppets is their modus operandi.
@Weird (We’ll set this valley free before we’re through) Eddie
I would love nothing more than for us to all wake up and we can all go on with our merry lives.
Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about applying for a passport and a student visa, however, I’ve decided I’m going to stay and brave this out because the members of my friends and family that are LGBT can’t and I don’t think I could live with myself if I left and something happened to them. I’m going to have to make time to try to oppose the scheiße Mike Pence will try to push through.
And now Pence handles the transition thing, and the ESTABLISHMENT! is beaten, yeah?
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/drain-swamp-trump-s-potential-cabinet-fills-out-washington-insiders-n682341
Sorry. It seems that my brain is stuck on sarcasm mode, now that I’ve cleared up a bit.
I’m tired, I’m angry. I’m angry because right now Finnish politicians are trying to import the shittitude of tone policies and “you’re so meaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan” bawwings over here. Stop being a meanie, you’re hurting my feefees (while I’m cutting student benefits, healthcare and all that stuff you told that was important to y’all). Fuck you, Sipilä, you despicable wad of dingleberries.
@dreemr
I know how you feel. Admitedly, even though I know they aren’t true, a part of me has always been, like, “what if it’s true though”? But I don’t think you need to be beating yourself over it right now. Denial is step one in the grieving stages, and conspiracy theories are apart of that. The fact that you know they aren’t true is good too, accept for the Russian bit.
I don’t know if anyone saw them but I and someome else posted Samantha Bee videos where she interviewed professional Russian trolls whose jobs are to go on American sites and spread misinformation. There’s also proof that Russia has been hacking and leaking American information, and someone posted an article about Florida’s polling places being hack for info. Dump’s flattery of Putin (and remember how he suggested that Russia hack the American public?) is just the tip of the iceberg in this shitshow.
@Moocow
I happen to live in the part of California in which Trump is popular. I’ve never seen one Clinton/Kaine anything. It’s all been Dump/Pince. I hate it.
I love the new subtitle, header, and mission. Just, I’m a bit scared, too. We all know how Trump likes to sue for libel. And a law suit from someone with big pockets is scary even when the law is on your side. Here’s hoping that even he won’t have enough energy or resources to sue everyone who will be flooding the internet with negative comments about him.
You have no idea how much this upsets me.
You know, I always thought it was kinda silly how up in arms people were about Russia through the 60s and stuff. I mean, it seemed that a lot of the stuff was unfounded because it turned out they were “incompetent” but fucking all if I can’t help but think was it a long con afterall?
I shouldn’t FEEL like one of those caricatures of that dude who doesn’t know the Cold War isn’t over. It shouldn’t FEEL like it was continued in Russia but it does. I shouldn’t FEEL that we only felt like it was over but Russia never did, regardless of what was agreed and written.
I hate it. I hate it I hate it I hate it.
@Oogly
It’s cool! You know me, I’ve been waiting to unleash on that particular subject for quite some time. Like, we’re talkin February. Shouldn’t have sploded at ya. My B 🙂
And oh, hey, any Louisiana peeps! Your marching orders. Don’t let Kennedy win the runoff in December
Oh, wow. Thank you all so much, I needed to hear that I’m not having a breakdown or losing all touch with reality.
This has shaken me up, obviously, I’m rattled to the point where I don’t trust my judgement or how I view the world. I’m glad to know I am not the only one, and that it’s understandable.
I DO question these thoughts I’m having, and like @Scildfreya, and @Weird (we’ll set this valley free before we’re through) Eddie, and @Handsome “Punkle Stan” Jack, I hate that my thoughts have turned this way. This is what fear and despair can do? And I’m not even part of a group that will suffer all that much. Yes, I’m a woman, but I’m white and I’m over childbearing age.
I even felt fucking thankful that guns are still legal in the U.S. Yeah, I have sunk that low. I have been non-violent to my core all my life. And yet. And yet.
In my area, most of the racism, sexism, xenophobia – it’s under the surface. It’s “Minnesota Nice”, if you know what I mean. It’s subtle, it isn’t good ol’ boys in pickup trucks dragging someone behind a truck (for the most part). That would, possibly, be easier to confront and protect against, in some ways, if it was blatant hatred. But we have a significant Muslim population in the larger city just north of me – refugees and university students. I’ve often wondered how they fare when I visit “the big city” and have seen them cashiering or waiting tables. I worry about them now, too, and I think, “maybe I should get a handgun…what if someone is harassed or held at gunpoint?”
That I have had this thought…I am so disappointed in myself. I know I would not act on these things, but ugh. I hate this.
Thank you Dave. WHTM feels like an oasis of calm right now. We’re all terrified, but we can all fight this in our own ways.
@dreemr don’t judge yourself up for having troubling thoughts. Thoughts aren’t actions, and this is your how the mind tries to make sense of these things. Be kind to yourself.
A little ray of sunshine for you guys down south.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2016/11/10/seven-reasons-move-massachusetts-instead-canada/LNy3P3GcWxbAmgoCFGiKrJ/story.html?event=event25
Thank you @Ghost Robot, and @Moocow, @Ooglyboggles, always @Scildfreya (a role model if ever I had one), @Handsome “Punkle Stan” Jack, and @Weird (we’ll set this valley free before we’re through) Eddie.
And everyone else here. And especially David.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Jack,
I know what you mean. I think it’s perfectly valid to be suspicious of the Russian government and oligarchs. They’ve given us good reason. We just have to make sure we don’t let that turn bigoted against all Russian people and remember that not all evil because of Putin anymore than USians are all evil because of Trump.
I’ve got thoughts turning about in my head from @dreemr’s comment, and I’m not sure what to make of them. Not the gun thing, or the violence – I get angry easily, and I’m used to recognizing that those impulses are just thoughts that can be controlled.
No, it was about the muslims and minorities in the city, under the regime of “Minnesota-nice.” Whether, next time you go to the city and are waited by them, whether it would be right to let them know – you’re on their side. A note written on the bill beside a larger-than-usual tip, or a friendly comment.
It presumes that they’re beset by an oppressor, and has hints of the Great-White-Saviour to it, which I detest. But solidarity has to be expressed somehow, and in these weeks and months, expressing it to strangers may be just the medicine America needs to galvanize some optimism and vigour for positive change.
I dunno, just thoughts. I’m stressin’ out here so can’t really assess them clearly.
Edit: <3 @dreemr. If you're gonna take me as a role model, please make sure you edit out the bad bits!
@Shikiri: I’ve heard lots of internet jokes along those lines, but it strikes me as a little weird because it’s not something which ever comes up for me in real life. Most of the people I know can’t stand anything stronger than black pepper, if even that. I eat things far stronger that jalapeños, but my digestive system doesn’t have a problem with it. Okay, when I get into million-plus scoville territory I sometimes get a mild intestinal pain for around 10-15 minutes a few hours later, but nothing more than that. Apparently my body and/or my intestinal flora managed to fully adapt to what would be a serious capsaicin overdose to most people, somehow. Well, I did ramp it up very very slowly over the decades. It’s like my personal version of iocane powder. (Note: iocane powder is fictional, just in case someone doesn’t know that.)
Oh my god. CNN just had that Dilbert artist dude on and didn’t even bother to ask him about his insane misogyny and crazy conspiracies. Trump is bringing out the nuts and they are being treated legitimately.
@losername
You are godsdamned awesome.
Here’s hoping Gravatar worked.
ETA: Guess not. Help?
ETA 2: Or I could have just needed to refresh. Derp.