When confronted with a perceived threat, we often speak of having a fight-or-flight response. The men who now lead us, however, have found a third alternative: Fascism.
The cast of cronies President Donald Trump has surrounded himself with – as well as numerous others who sit atop our government and corporate worlds – are increasingly embracing the actions, philosophies and even aesthetics of a political ideology defined by militarism, oppression, and a central dictator figure.
If you can find them through the din of updates, you’ll see numerous recent examples from the men in charge, beyond their general demonstrated intolerance for difference.
Vice President JD Vance met with Alternative for Germany co-chair Alice Weidel – an individual who has minimized the Holocaust, and who leads a neo-Nazi political party. Meta Platforms CEO and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg demonstrably allied himself with Trump, while abandoning fact-checking standards on the massive social media platforms he runs, allowing for misinformation to run rampant – a boon for leaders with fascist aspirations, experts say.
Both former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and current White House senior advisor Elon Musk have this very year, on big stages, raised their arms high, stretched them out long and pointed their hands almost skyward. Call the gesture what you will – I call it a Nazi salute.
These men, and men like them, are glomming on to fascism in no small part because they are scared, and it makes them feel powerful in a world that has changed, even slightly, to accommodate a changing social order. One that would see non-male, non-white individuals having their own chances to thrive and climb, at long last.
This isn’t mere conjecture – recent examples of this abound, too, beyond their immediate targeting of the diversity, equity and inclusion programs that fostered opportunity.
Vance told this year’s CPAC audience that people are becoming “androgynous idiots,” asserting that “our culture sends a message to young men that you should suppress every masculine urge” – such as, in his view, making off-color jokes about minority groups. Musk made similar comments at the same event. And Zuckerberg recently told podcast host Joe Rogan that corporate America needs more “masculine energy,” because it’s becoming “culturally neutered.”
Boys Will Be… What, Exactly?
I am presently raising a young son in a world run by these men. And he is smart and aware enough to recognize that they are winning, over and over again. They have acquired vast sums of money; they presently hold the keys to the world. And from their high perches, they are encouraging him to be like them – branding their hatefulness, brutishness and duplicitous natures as “manly.”
I cannot think of anything weaker, or smaller, than that.
He and other boys need to hear from powerful men who contrast this messaging. Men like Minnesota governor and former Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz, who uses his power to feed hungry children and provide people with free menstrual hygiene products; actor Pedro Pascal, who vocally supports the transgender community; and tech billionaire Alexis Ohanian, who is quick to defend his wife, former tennis superstar Serena Williams, from online hatred – usually hurled at her from the type of men that need to be drowned out.
But more is required, especially of the men in our son’s lives – the teachers, coaches, uncles, friends and fathers who surround our boys. Indeed, the onus is on men’s shoulders to not just embody qualities like softness, but to lead with them, and to do so obviously.
To be emotional, and thoughtful, and tender in clear ways, ways our boys can see and latch onto. To teach my son, all of our sons, that open-heartedness and compassion have no gender – that such traits are simply born of love, and worth embodying for that reason alone. That this is what true strength looks like.
Our boys need to see the light – and our men, from the powerful to the personally connected, have the responsibility of being that light, amid the encroaching darkness. ◼️
