Great piece, excellent proof points throughout. I see how his acolytes idolize him as an alpha male - but find it staggering given what a blubbering crybaby he is - not to mention the girdle, lifts, ladies’ watch, makeup, hair etc. as you and Noel point out!!!
But we do see him continually try to assert his dominance in his bizarro body language - that weird handshake war with Macron (and others), continually dusting Melania, circling Hillary like a shark in that debate, shoving the PM of Montenegro out of the way to have more room to puff his chest out at NATO…. Ugh I’m creeped out just thinking about all of it.
Embarrassing way beyond any understanding. And it’s the kid and grandkids of the “greatest generation” that are selling out to the fascists. With the help of the most “virile” of propagandists, Rupert Murdoch. HAHAHAHA
It's all so weird, and so obviously fake to anyone who knows the emperor is naked. The little games he plays with handshakes and stuff are all part of it. Good call.
Sue, you'd appreciate the cosplay my daughter and I indulged in when we were renovating our little house in an Albuquerque barrio. We wore our tool belts and pretended our balls were clanking as we stomped around. Great life moments.
OMG, Greg, the hits just keep coming. I'm going to have to come down...and finish reading your piece...and do some thinking before I can comment. Incoming!
Ironically, Mussolini’s and Petacci’s bodies were strung up from girders of an under-construction ESSO service station. WWII began the global petrochemical industry, and its genesis might be symbolized in Mussolini’s death.
From Julius Caesar to Mu’ammar Gaddafi, it’s always the same. The “alpha male” isn’t, eventually. We see it in all primate societies, except possibly the bonobos. Certainly it’s that way among baboons—the Mitch McConnells of putrid reactionaries.
At the beginning of human time, the scarcest resource of all was access to fertile females who could bear children and live long enough to rear them. Since then, it's always about competition for resources, about who controls the women.
There's a line in MIDDLESEX where he says something like, "When we're at war, it's easy to see which is the more valuable of the two sexes." I'm badly paraphrasing, but you get the idea. This is an excellent point, Sharon.
"...liberal men, progressive men, feminist men, bisexual men, gender-fluid men, trans men, gay men..." all friends and defenders of women. What a coinkydink!
Women fall into the strongman trap pretty regularly themselves. After all, we need protection for ourselves and our children. In the modern world, women and children seem to be more victimized than sheltered. I was lucky growing up. My Daddy was only 5'6", but he was an authentic strong man. Wrestling champion of Pennsylvania in his youth. A trained fighter. As my brother used to say, "The difference between a trained fighter and a street brawler is all the difference in the world." When Daddy landed in Cajun Dogpatch (south Louisiana), he didn't put up with no hillbilly shit. I had a menacing, titty-grabbing "uncle". (We called every adult male "uncle".) That stopped abruptly and (to me) mysteriously. Said brother recently explained why. Daddy went to this pedo and said, "If you ever touch one of my girls again, I'll cut your dick off." He meant it. And it wasn't the first time he'd had to do it. Cajun Dogpatch was a cesspool of sex pests. Cousins by the dozens. My humble daddy, son of a coal miner, was a real strong man. Downside is I wasn't asked on a single date all through high school. LOL
I'm not sure things aren't much better for women and children in he modern world than before...which speaks to your point. Good for your father, protecting you guys!
Daddy was a western Pennsylvania coal miner's son. Hard as a rock. He taught his three sons to be the same. They and most of his grandsons became trained fighters. Nobody messes with Dunn boys, and there's nary a bully among them. All humble, gentle, fiercely committed family men. I thought one of my brothers (dead now) could have gone into politics. He genuinely liked everyone and could talk to anybody. He was dyslexic and a zen master machinist. He compensated for dyslexia by being a careful listener, and he had a phenomenal memory. While "hate radio" blasted through the shops where he worked, he carefully listened to NPR. He could talk to the guys in the shop. He'd say, "Aw, Rush Limbaugh don't know nothin'. He's just an entertainer with a big mouth. Don't believe that shit." Because he was the best damned machinist in Louisiana, maybe in the south, they listened. Jamie always said, "If Texas turns blue, the rest of the south will follow."
I don't imagine they have any idea that all this posturing is not only silly or "creepy", as Erin noted, but for many women, it is absolutely hilarious. When a strange wimp like Hawley pumps his fist, or a smarmy wimp like Gaetz swaggers into the SCIS, or a dimwitted Boebert poses in front of her guns, it comes across as pitiful attempts at play-acting, much like teenagers do when they are "trying on" various personas during their growing up years. If only these machismos and machismas realized what fools they make of themselves...but whatever they "see" reflected back from their audiences apparently is enough to persuade them to continue parading around naked.
There's an old saying that floated around when I was a youth - I can't remember the exact wording, but it went something like "those who have real wealth, do not flaunt it." It was used in those days to distinguish between what was called "old money" and the nouveau riche, who wore their money like a banner. I think that applies equally well here: those who are REAL men or REAL women (whatever that means - virility?) do not need to flaunt it. The person who comes to mind is the bike riding Biden whose respect for women is visible in his every interaction with Jill. I'd put Joe up any day against a diaper wearing dude with lifts who cannot even hold a glass of water with one of his tiny hands.
Huzzah! Well said, Ellen. In early adulthood I was told something like, "A rich person doesn't buy a hat. A rich person has a hat." I will never forget that scene in Working Girl when Joan Cusack pulls that dress out of Sigourney Weaver's closet, looks at the tag, and exclaims in wonder, "Five thousand dollahs? And it's not even leathah!" Moi.
OMG, yes! They are all ridiculous with their play-acting. You absolutely have to laugh AT them because they have no self-awareness at all. I suppose their audience may have something to do with that, but still, I'd much prefer these "men" (and women) would just act like human beings instead of neandertals.
The "if you have it, DO NOT flaunt it" adage applies to so many things in life, like "real" Americans, "real" patriots, "real" Christians, "real" rich people.... One of the first things Trump said in public to his soon-to-be cult was, "I'm really rich. Okay?" That "Okay" at the end is the challenge to his claim. I've heard it in a lot of other contexts, and I think it usually means, "I'm not really X, but I'll fight you if you try to say I'm not." How ONE MAN was able to pull off what he has is astounding! He's the Miracle-Gro of hate, fascism, racism, and division, with his little seeds of discontent just waiting for his attention. It's revolting in the extreme!
To think our “United” is divided by such as him is a test that too many of us have flunked. Of course, he was aided by master propagandist Rupert Murdoch, who has been masquerading as a journalist for decades
It IS hilarious, and yet a lot of these people fall for it somehow. I think part of it is just the will to act that way at all. It's very strange. Totally agree about Joe and Jill.
The magic sauce Clinton had is he could talk to these people (like the brother I mentioned earlier). That working class authenticity chapped the New York Times raw. How could they welcome such rustics into the parlors of dazzling urbanites? NYT gleefully aided and abetted trashing the Clinton brand. Though I was a fierce supporter, I never wanted Hillary to run for POTUS. Her brand was irretrievably shop worn. (Sorry, girl. It is what it is. I can't make myself young and skinny either.) There's a lot of blame to go around. Most belongs to the right, no small part to Bill's wayward penis, and the rest to the fucking New York Times. I had THE Paper of Record dropped on my lawn in New Orleans during the Clinton presidency. I was an eye witness. NYT hasn't asked for my forgiveness. Until they do, I don't.
Ohhh…this was so great! I love Ben-Ghiat because she is so straightforward and her definitions of these “strongmen” is perfect. Thanks, Greg for doing the podcast with her and then transcribing it here.
Dictators are grown-up babies, grown-up toddlers. Crybabies in uniforms and suits. Dictators like Hitler (and the Hitler-wannabe Trump) usually have very permissive mothers, mothers who are doormats. So from early childhood they are used to getting away with everything. They carry that into public life.
My take on stereotypically male gender-identity imaging: they are stuck in the past. These people have invested their hearts and souls in maintaining the society of the past, which here has been males superior, whites superior, straights superior.
They will do anything to control society, including lie cheat and steal. Democracy, the law, and the rules of society and social behavior do not matter, especially if they can bend and coerce those rules into changing society to conform their way. Hence the culture wars, and controlling judicial placements, and controlling elections, and voter suppression to enhance the white vote, etc. etc.
The virility factor looks to me like the old male + straight stereotype. The Cowboys in old Westerns, for example. Straight males are the social paradigm of the past. The past, the Stone Age, is where these fossils are still imagining they are living. They are unable or unwilling to make the switch to an egalitarian society, whose hallmark is diversity and power sharing and equal voices for all racial, ethnic, and gender identities.
A dictator is generally an insecure, immature man trying to use force to maintain the old social order. They are weak. They rely on a society which favors them to prop themselves up. A society that puts males ahead of females gives a weak man something to lean on, because you have to be a strong man, a man with maturity and character, to succeed in a society where (straight) men do not have the advantage anymore.
Ronald Reagan. Played one of those guys in the pictures, presented as John Wayne, began the country on its Fascism spiral. Nostalgia for a past that never existed.
Great piece, excellent proof points throughout. I see how his acolytes idolize him as an alpha male - but find it staggering given what a blubbering crybaby he is - not to mention the girdle, lifts, ladies’ watch, makeup, hair etc. as you and Noel point out!!!
But we do see him continually try to assert his dominance in his bizarro body language - that weird handshake war with Macron (and others), continually dusting Melania, circling Hillary like a shark in that debate, shoving the PM of Montenegro out of the way to have more room to puff his chest out at NATO…. Ugh I’m creeped out just thinking about all of it.
Embarrassing way beyond any understanding. And it’s the kid and grandkids of the “greatest generation” that are selling out to the fascists. With the help of the most “virile” of propagandists, Rupert Murdoch. HAHAHAHA
We are collectively too far removed from Fascism in the West to understand how bad it is. Eastern Europeans know--and push back on it.
But my dead nephew knew, Italy, 1943, dead at 18
I weep
It's all so weird, and so obviously fake to anyone who knows the emperor is naked. The little games he plays with handshakes and stuff are all part of it. Good call.
As MTG and Boebert illustrate, bullies can be either macho or not - there is a distinction between virility and bullying.
I should have used that word in this: bully. That's part of it, for sure.
it was a _great_ piece - and the 'ad' jingle! - I wasn't picking nits, just trying to tag that aspect of the dynamic
Sue, you'd appreciate the cosplay my daughter and I indulged in when we were renovating our little house in an Albuquerque barrio. We wore our tool belts and pretended our balls were clanking as we stomped around. Great life moments.
Great piece. Thank you both. And she's right. I can barely contain my lust when Trump is out there on stage dancing to YMCA ..jk... fascinating read.
OMG, snort, cackle, laugh, titter, tee-hee, squeal, gasp, gag, choke, wheeze, hoot, hee-hee, ho-ho, ha-ha, guffaw, holler, howl, spit, lol, giggle, chortle, cough, lol, lulz, roflmao, doubled over, wet my pants.
@Sharon, or "the dictionary definition of D J Trump"
He's got such amazing rhythm. He missed his calling...
Doesn't he. The classic white man's over bite.
Blue eyed soul.
OMG, Greg, the hits just keep coming. I'm going to have to come down...and finish reading your piece...and do some thinking before I can comment. Incoming!
I recommend castration . . .
My daddy recommended the same. See below.
Tyrants end the same.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dc2l5R34V5k/Wr6FrzTAv8I/AAAAAAADEeI/rAdYmVCxjHYhIbJOO12-p5lzEXCE2D9AwCEwYBhgL/s1600/the-death-of-mussolini-and-clara-petacci-2.jpg
Ironically, Mussolini’s and Petacci’s bodies were strung up from girders of an under-construction ESSO service station. WWII began the global petrochemical industry, and its genesis might be symbolized in Mussolini’s death.
From Julius Caesar to Mu’ammar Gaddafi, it’s always the same. The “alpha male” isn’t, eventually. We see it in all primate societies, except possibly the bonobos. Certainly it’s that way among baboons—the Mitch McConnells of putrid reactionaries.
Provocative column. Thanks, Bud.
At the beginning of human time, the scarcest resource of all was access to fertile females who could bear children and live long enough to rear them. Since then, it's always about competition for resources, about who controls the women.
And the theft of women was also the cause of most early wars. The Iliad is an archetype of human culture—including the death of strongman Achilles.
Rape of the Sabine Women. On and on.
The face that launched a thousand ships was not the face of Kimberly Guilfoyle.
OMG! Snort, cackle, laugh, titter, tee-hee, squeal, gasp, gag, choke, wheeze, hoot, hee-hee, ho-ho, ha-ha, guffaw, holler, howl, spit, lol, giggle, chortle, cough, lol, lulz, roflmao!, double over, wet my pants.
There's a line in MIDDLESEX where he says something like, "When we're at war, it's easy to see which is the more valuable of the two sexes." I'm badly paraphrasing, but you get the idea. This is an excellent point, Sharon.
Myself, I'd re-write it thus: When we're at war, it's easy to see which is the more expendable of the two sexes.
I didn't know that, about the ESSO station. And yes: the thing about dictatorships is that the end.
Good stuff here, tysm The name u searched for of the SEAL pardoned by djt is Chief Gallagher, a disgrace & dirty bastard
Gallagher! Right. I'm glad he never resurfaced. That scared me.
I was aghast
This is an old post on a related theme: http://algonquinonthebayou.blogspot.com/2013/03/girls-are-smarter-than-boys.html
"...liberal men, progressive men, feminist men, bisexual men, gender-fluid men, trans men, gay men..." all friends and defenders of women. What a coinkydink!
...but not cave men. Yes! Defenders of women.
Ruth is teaching class at noon Central Time. Go to her Substack to register while you can.
Women fall into the strongman trap pretty regularly themselves. After all, we need protection for ourselves and our children. In the modern world, women and children seem to be more victimized than sheltered. I was lucky growing up. My Daddy was only 5'6", but he was an authentic strong man. Wrestling champion of Pennsylvania in his youth. A trained fighter. As my brother used to say, "The difference between a trained fighter and a street brawler is all the difference in the world." When Daddy landed in Cajun Dogpatch (south Louisiana), he didn't put up with no hillbilly shit. I had a menacing, titty-grabbing "uncle". (We called every adult male "uncle".) That stopped abruptly and (to me) mysteriously. Said brother recently explained why. Daddy went to this pedo and said, "If you ever touch one of my girls again, I'll cut your dick off." He meant it. And it wasn't the first time he'd had to do it. Cajun Dogpatch was a cesspool of sex pests. Cousins by the dozens. My humble daddy, son of a coal miner, was a real strong man. Downside is I wasn't asked on a single date all through high school. LOL
Best post ever. Love “The difference between a trained fighter and a street brawler is all the difference in the world,”
I'm not sure things aren't much better for women and children in he modern world than before...which speaks to your point. Good for your father, protecting you guys!
Daddy was a western Pennsylvania coal miner's son. Hard as a rock. He taught his three sons to be the same. They and most of his grandsons became trained fighters. Nobody messes with Dunn boys, and there's nary a bully among them. All humble, gentle, fiercely committed family men. I thought one of my brothers (dead now) could have gone into politics. He genuinely liked everyone and could talk to anybody. He was dyslexic and a zen master machinist. He compensated for dyslexia by being a careful listener, and he had a phenomenal memory. While "hate radio" blasted through the shops where he worked, he carefully listened to NPR. He could talk to the guys in the shop. He'd say, "Aw, Rush Limbaugh don't know nothin'. He's just an entertainer with a big mouth. Don't believe that shit." Because he was the best damned machinist in Louisiana, maybe in the south, they listened. Jamie always said, "If Texas turns blue, the rest of the south will follow."
I don't imagine they have any idea that all this posturing is not only silly or "creepy", as Erin noted, but for many women, it is absolutely hilarious. When a strange wimp like Hawley pumps his fist, or a smarmy wimp like Gaetz swaggers into the SCIS, or a dimwitted Boebert poses in front of her guns, it comes across as pitiful attempts at play-acting, much like teenagers do when they are "trying on" various personas during their growing up years. If only these machismos and machismas realized what fools they make of themselves...but whatever they "see" reflected back from their audiences apparently is enough to persuade them to continue parading around naked.
There's an old saying that floated around when I was a youth - I can't remember the exact wording, but it went something like "those who have real wealth, do not flaunt it." It was used in those days to distinguish between what was called "old money" and the nouveau riche, who wore their money like a banner. I think that applies equally well here: those who are REAL men or REAL women (whatever that means - virility?) do not need to flaunt it. The person who comes to mind is the bike riding Biden whose respect for women is visible in his every interaction with Jill. I'd put Joe up any day against a diaper wearing dude with lifts who cannot even hold a glass of water with one of his tiny hands.
Huzzah! Well said, Ellen. In early adulthood I was told something like, "A rich person doesn't buy a hat. A rich person has a hat." I will never forget that scene in Working Girl when Joan Cusack pulls that dress out of Sigourney Weaver's closet, looks at the tag, and exclaims in wonder, "Five thousand dollahs? And it's not even leathah!" Moi.
OMG, yes! They are all ridiculous with their play-acting. You absolutely have to laugh AT them because they have no self-awareness at all. I suppose their audience may have something to do with that, but still, I'd much prefer these "men" (and women) would just act like human beings instead of neandertals.
The "if you have it, DO NOT flaunt it" adage applies to so many things in life, like "real" Americans, "real" patriots, "real" Christians, "real" rich people.... One of the first things Trump said in public to his soon-to-be cult was, "I'm really rich. Okay?" That "Okay" at the end is the challenge to his claim. I've heard it in a lot of other contexts, and I think it usually means, "I'm not really X, but I'll fight you if you try to say I'm not." How ONE MAN was able to pull off what he has is astounding! He's the Miracle-Gro of hate, fascism, racism, and division, with his little seeds of discontent just waiting for his attention. It's revolting in the extreme!
Too funny! I needed this! Thanks!
Oh yes, Steve. The Miracle-Gro of hate. Solid gold! The Okay was a tell anybody with half a brain should have spotted from a mile away.
To think our “United” is divided by such as him is a test that too many of us have flunked. Of course, he was aided by master propagandist Rupert Murdoch, who has been masquerading as a journalist for decades
The seeds of discontent are not the only thing little about Trump... ; )
The guy is a bankrupt. He squandered his vast inheritance. Complete and total loser.
WORLD'S biggest loser, not only America
It takes an exceptional country to produce an exceptional loser fo sho.
The real heroes don’t pretend or blow their own horn, as my Mama used to say.
Gauche. He's gauche. People like that are gauche.
Include his "followers" or cult nuts, especially the repub pols
"Artless" as LB would say.
It IS hilarious, and yet a lot of these people fall for it somehow. I think part of it is just the will to act that way at all. It's very strange. Totally agree about Joe and Jill.
They are all big losers too, haven't seen one who is not.
The magic sauce Clinton had is he could talk to these people (like the brother I mentioned earlier). That working class authenticity chapped the New York Times raw. How could they welcome such rustics into the parlors of dazzling urbanites? NYT gleefully aided and abetted trashing the Clinton brand. Though I was a fierce supporter, I never wanted Hillary to run for POTUS. Her brand was irretrievably shop worn. (Sorry, girl. It is what it is. I can't make myself young and skinny either.) There's a lot of blame to go around. Most belongs to the right, no small part to Bill's wayward penis, and the rest to the fucking New York Times. I had THE Paper of Record dropped on my lawn in New Orleans during the Clinton presidency. I was an eye witness. NYT hasn't asked for my forgiveness. Until they do, I don't.
Trumpturd fits in as a cheap imitation "strong" man -
#MangoWanker #Turdking Mobster
#GOPtraitors against humanity
#MurdochWanker
#PutinIsDancing
Ohhh…this was so great! I love Ben-Ghiat because she is so straightforward and her definitions of these “strongmen” is perfect. Thanks, Greg for doing the podcast with her and then transcribing it here.
Thanks! Yes, she is terrific.
Dictators are grown-up babies, grown-up toddlers. Crybabies in uniforms and suits. Dictators like Hitler (and the Hitler-wannabe Trump) usually have very permissive mothers, mothers who are doormats. So from early childhood they are used to getting away with everything. They carry that into public life.
My take on stereotypically male gender-identity imaging: they are stuck in the past. These people have invested their hearts and souls in maintaining the society of the past, which here has been males superior, whites superior, straights superior.
They will do anything to control society, including lie cheat and steal. Democracy, the law, and the rules of society and social behavior do not matter, especially if they can bend and coerce those rules into changing society to conform their way. Hence the culture wars, and controlling judicial placements, and controlling elections, and voter suppression to enhance the white vote, etc. etc.
The virility factor looks to me like the old male + straight stereotype. The Cowboys in old Westerns, for example. Straight males are the social paradigm of the past. The past, the Stone Age, is where these fossils are still imagining they are living. They are unable or unwilling to make the switch to an egalitarian society, whose hallmark is diversity and power sharing and equal voices for all racial, ethnic, and gender identities.
A dictator is generally an insecure, immature man trying to use force to maintain the old social order. They are weak. They rely on a society which favors them to prop themselves up. A society that puts males ahead of females gives a weak man something to lean on, because you have to be a strong man, a man with maturity and character, to succeed in a society where (straight) men do not have the advantage anymore.
I catch your drift, Roland, but watch it with that shit blaming it on Mama.
"...you have to be a strong man, a man with maturity and character, to succeed in a society where (straight) men do not have the advantage anymore."
BINGO!
Ronald Reagan. Played one of those guys in the pictures, presented as John Wayne, began the country on its Fascism spiral. Nostalgia for a past that never existed.
He's a drug store truck drivin' man...
Chump as a virile man is the biggest joke on America. I laughed but the fools voted. How sad and pathetic we are
He is so NOT an alpha. Pathetic.
You're an alpha. I know my alphas.