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Are the Taliban Really That Much Different From Us? The Rise (and Respectability) of Fragile Masculinity in the US |
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Trump supporters gestured to U.S. Capitol Police in the hallway outside of the Senate chamber at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6. Doug Jensen, an Iowa man at center, was jailed early Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021 on federal charges, including trespassing and disorderly conduct counts, for his alleged role in the Capitol riot.
Published July 12th, 2021
By John Freivalds
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Recent news reports have been full of stories about the vicious, male-oriented Taliban on the verge of taking power in Afghanistan. The Taliban exert their masculinity-on-steroids by having full beards, carrying heavy weapons and relegating women to a subservient role. Historical facts, science, democracy, shaving and public education are a no-go. We bask in the thought that we Americans are nothing like that.
But are we really that different with the fragile masculinity that seems to dictate what goes on in America's cultural debate these days? It is defined at ScienceDirect as "anxiety felt by men who believe they are falling short of the cultural standard of manhood. It can motivate compensatory attitudes/behaviors to restore the threatened standards of manhood." Violent road rage is but one example; gun buying and the public display of weapons is another.
For many years, fragile masculinity confined itself to theatrical displays. Owning a mud-spattered SUV with fat tires and dressing in tactical clothes was acceptable; these actions are what a Texas cattleman would call "all hat but no cattle."
It was uncool to be a bigot publicly until Donald Trump became president; now Mexicans, gays, Asians, immigrants, Muslims and Blacks are insulted and demonized often. Wearing a mask and getting vaccinated was not macho. America was changing; the Trump base's fragile masculinity could not keep up and handle it. Veteran and insightful TV hands, like Trump and Fox News, knew how to play up to this: Act tough and talk tough. No room for President Teddy Roosevelt's policy "to speak softly but carry a big stick."
Trump's best attack line, which really stirred up fragile masculinity, was that Hillary Clinton, an educated and reviled woman, was going to take all the guns away overnight (all 800 million of them and counting) if elected. Nowadays women like Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris and AOC are their foils. Who cares about Bernie Sanders? Chuck Schumer?
Finally, all the bigotry that Trump spouted resulted in a march in Charlottesville, Va., by a variety of conservative groups in 2017, including the KKK, Proud Boys and Nazis, where one person was killed. Yet Trump proclaimed many of them to be "fine people." Then we had the riots on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 this year in an attempt to overturn Trump's defeat; five people died and 500-plus people have been arrested. Most of the men at the riot were clad in tactical gear, armed with chemical irritant sprays and waving Trump flags. They used U.S.-flag-adorned poles as weapons, caused $30 million in damage and yelled that Vice President Mike Pence should be strung up. Trump decreed that they were patriots.
But now the domestic threat is growing. Christopher Wray, the FBI director, said in a Newsweek interview in March that "white supremacy is the biggest terrorist threat in the country." In other words, let's worry about our own version of the Taliban instead of someone else's.
With Trump fading, other politicians — like Ted Cruz — have picked up the cause of fragile masculinity. As reported in the Washington Post on May 21, Cruz contrasted two recruitment ads: one of the Soviet military showing skin-headed soldiers doing pushups while an American ad told the story of a highly educated woman raised by two mothers. This, according to Cruz (who never served in the military), made U.S. soldiers appear as "pansies." So, did he not know today's wars are fought by F-18s, gunships, malwares and drones, not by soldiers in trenches?
OK, so name one real man. Let's try: former President Harry S. Truman. First, the frail Truman, who no one thought could be president, had a wonderful motto: "The buck stops here." If you make a mistake, fess up, not like today's politicians are wont to do. Then we have Truman's other actions: promoting the Marshall Plan after World War II to rebuild Europe, creating the Berlin airlift to stop the Russian blockade of that city, destroying the Japanese military with atomic bombs, promoting civil rights before it was fashionable, integrating the armed forces and firing the most popular figure of his time, Gen. Douglas MacArthur. As Truman said, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."
John Freivalds lives in Wayzata and was a development worker in Afghanistan and Iran.
Here is what the people are saying!
- Bdavid
- Taliban are products with a vacancy of ignorance trained by Saudi Arabi Wahhabism trained and paid by Saudi Arabi.
Trumpism is just the latest interpretation of racism.
I'd like to think the Civil War was settled law.
- Taliban are products with a vacancy of ignorance trained by Saudi Arabi Wahhabism trained and paid by Saudi Arabi.
- Gleasonage
- The Taliban are more than 100 years behind the world.
- Qqq
- Are the Taliban really that different from us? = = = We don't kidnap women from schools and forbid them to move about unless a male relative is with them.
See treatment of women helping women by the Taliban.
- Are the Taliban really that different from us? = = = We don't kidnap women from schools and forbid them to move about unless a male relative is with them.
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- Twspt7
- And you need to look up child marriage in the United States. Yes, it is still a thing in this country, with most of the marriages being an adult man and minor girl. In many cases, minors in the US marry before the age of sexual consent. Is it as egregious as the excesses as the Taliban? No, but the principle is the same - female as property.
Further, you would do well to investigate the “incel” phenomenon going on in this country and worldwide. These maladjusted males are every bit as misogynistic as the Taliban. Some of the things they write about women will turn your stomach, and they live among us.
I am not defending the Taliban here. I am merely trying to point out we stand on no great moral height in the way women are treated here. We have made great strides, but we have a long, long way to go yet. Are the Taliban really that different from us? Of course not. Male fragility knows no national or cultural boundaries.
- And you need to look up child marriage in the United States. Yes, it is still a thing in this country, with most of the marriages being an adult man and minor girl. In many cases, minors in the US marry before the age of sexual consent. Is it as egregious as the excesses as the Taliban? No, but the principle is the same - female as property.
- Twspt7
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- Quizkid
- Moral has left the building to be replaced by amoral.
- Quizkid
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- BobBill
- I like the way you think.,,,but it is the church goers who go maskless and too often unvaccinated, too,,.
- BobBill
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- Qqq
- Are the Taliban really that different from us? Of course not. = = = you need to learn more about the Taliban.
- Qqq
- Gleasonage
- The Taliban are more than 100 years behind the world.
- Bdavid
- Taliban are products with a vacancy of ignorance trained by Saudi Arabi Wahhabism trained and paid by Saudi Arabi.
Trumpism is just the latest interpataion of racism.
I'd like to think the Civil War was settled law.
- Taliban are products with a vacancy of ignorance trained by Saudi Arabi Wahhabism trained and paid by Saudi Arabi.
- Gandalf48
- Yes, the Taliban is very different from anything we have in the USA, they just executed a couple dozen Afghan special ops troops they demanded surrender. That just happened and there is nothing in the USA that could compare to that action. Anyone who even attempts to compare that moment to any group in America has let politics rot his brain, the bias in this article is so incredibly clear.
Truman was a fine president, most of those actions mentioned in the article were just and warranted but you cannot nitpick and misrepresent the words of your political opponents and gloss over the nuclear bombing of two major cities causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians and hope to portray the idea that you're fair minded.
- Yes, the Taliban is very different from anything we have in the USA, they just executed a couple dozen Afghan special ops troops they demanded surrender. That just happened and there is nothing in the USA that could compare to that action. Anyone who even attempts to compare that moment to any group in America has let politics rot his brain, the bias in this article is so incredibly clear.
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- Qqq
- gloss over the nuclear bombing of two major cities causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians = = = The fire bombing of Tokyo caused more deaths.
900 US servicemen a week were dying at the time of the bombs. Japan was preparing to go down in flames and were even more prepared for invasion than we knew.
What would YOU have done? Figured an invasion was kinder???
- gloss over the nuclear bombing of two major cities causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians = = = The fire bombing of Tokyo caused more deaths.
- Qqq
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- Jdellis1
- ..Be so kind as to not show your niavatie when speaking of Truman's decision to use atomic weapons.
Specific to Japan's behavior.
. ~ 300,000 deaths in Nanking
~ 90,000 deaths in the Bataan death march
~ Tens of Thousands when trashing Singapore
~ Koren s-x slaves
As qqq points out, their forces on the mainland were far more prepared for an American invasion than we had envisioned. Thousands of stored airplanes for suicide attacks on naval forces. Armed military and civilians.
Further, WWII in Europe could have ended earlier had Russia gone straight to Germany. However Stalin wanted to ensure Russia would never again be attacked and took over Eastern Europe and needed to be stopped. Use of the atomic bomb sent Stalin a strong message as he knew Russia was now vulnerable leading to an accelerated program where thousands of slaves were used to build their program.
- ..Be so kind as to not show your niavatie when speaking of Truman's decision to use atomic weapons.
- Jdellis1
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- Gandalf48
- My point was about the hypocrisy on display, I stated I've been defending the Truman decision since I was in high school when I was acting as Truman to explain why the nuclear bombs were dropped and that the number of deaths would be over a million American soldiers and five million Japanese deaths if the mainland was ever invaded. It's the hypocrisy of complaining about mischaraterized words of political opponents while glossing over the hundreds of thousands of deaths of civilians that occurred under a favored politician that's what I was pointing out. Who knows, maybe the Japanese would have surrendered if the nukes were dropped off shore to demonstrate the power of them before actually using them on civilian targets (obviously the limited amount of uranium & plutonium available at the time made those 2 nukes very precious and wasting them would require an incredible amount of foresight and restraint).
- Gandalf48
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- Jdlellis1
- Recommend the following.
1) The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. The book discusses the political, military and social perspectives of the decisions during that era.
2) The work done by Clifton Truman Daniel, Truman's grandson who never spoke to his grandfather on the decision but has done extensive work in the U.S. and in Japan. His work is most insightful.
Finally when one has done an extensive amount of research on WWII where an estimated 70,000,000 souls were lost, one will discover the amount of trust and distrust between friends (FDR/DeGaulle) and enemies (Stalin/Churchill). Relationships which significantly impact the world even today.
- Recommend the following.
- Jdlellis1
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- Qqq
- maybe the Japanese would have surrendered if the nukes were dropped off shore to demonstrate the power of them before actually using them on civilian targets = = = nope.
When the Japanese Emperor recorded a vinyl record to be played on the radio announcing Japan's surrender a group of Japanese Military officers stormed the place to prevent its broadcast.
I recall the book Hiroshima told of sharpened bamboo spears issued to housewives with the order to wait until the US soldiers march past, then run out and stab the last soldier in the line to kill him before you are killed.
- maybe the Japanese would have surrendered if the nukes were dropped off shore to demonstrate the power of them before actually using them on civilian targets = = = nope.
- Qqq
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- Yohaahoo
- The Japanese acted like savages so that excuses our doing nasty things isn't really the best argument nor does firebombing civilians excuse irradiating them - they are war crimes as admitted by Curtis Lemay and things we try to avoid in modern conflict. Dropping those bombs was not a clear cut and inevitably correct decision. Choosing to do it does not make Truman a real man.
- Yohaahoo
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- Qqq
- Dropping those bombs was not a clear cut and inevitably correct decision. = = = What would you say to the mothers of the 900 servicemen a week dying in the Pacific?
Sure we could have stopped the war in days, but we figured an invasion was kinder??????????
- Dropping those bombs was not a clear cut and inevitably correct decision. = = = What would you say to the mothers of the 900 servicemen a week dying in the Pacific?
- Qqq
- Rexman
- Well said, jedellis. It's also worth noting that it was estimated that an invasion of Japan would result in a *minimum* of 250,000 American casualties and hundreds of thousands (perhaps a million) Japanese casualties.
- Leakyboat
- Excellent commentary. The poorly educated white males who make up the trumpublican party are grievance-filled racists and misogynists. The comparison is apt.
- Rexman
- "The Taliban exert their masculinity-on-steroids by having full beards, carrying heavy weapons and relegating women to a subservient role. Historical facts, science, democracy, shaving and public education are a no-go."
Since the author worked in Afghanistan, he presumably knows that one of the Taliban's major objectives is to impose a strict interpretation of Shariah Law on the areas under their control. Shariah Law is based on and directly derived from a literal interpretation of the Koran and the Hadithes (the deeds and sayings of Mohammed).
The Taliban's depredations against women, public (i.e., secular) education, science, democracy and the clean-shaven therefore are driven more by their religious fanaticism than "masculinity-on-steroids." To compare them to male Trump supporters is ludicrous and deeply insulting.
- "The Taliban exert their masculinity-on-steroids by having full beards, carrying heavy weapons and relegating women to a subservient role. Historical facts, science, democracy, shaving and public education are a no-go."
- Spicebear
- Funny, I own a number of firearms and I don't really feel all that fragile in my masculinity.
It might surprise many that not all gun owners are raving Trumpian lunatics.
Comparing the Talban to most of the US doesn't compute... But comparing them to certain parts makes sense. Beware the broad brush.
What parts? Some have mentioned the "incel" phenomenon. Myself, I thought of the the type churches that are growing in the US that promote an authoritarian "Kingdom" style of Dominionist takeover of the US. They are literally talking about a theocratic state. Washington Post had a good article on it recently.
These people make me cringe.
- Funny, I own a number of firearms and I don't really feel all that fragile in my masculinity.
- BobBill
- I some ays not...but cruely and death, as policy for nada, is as immoral.
- Wokkawokka
- Article reminds me of "Fight Club." The line about how we're a generation of men raised by women...
"Fragile masculinity" isn't anything like the author tries to point to, though. He wants to go after conservative men, but this misses the target entirely. Conservative men are more likely to be loving husbands and fathers which means they will raise the next generation in the same manner. Conservative, masculine men appreciate and respect women, and most of all, feel a duty to protect the ones they love. You don't get that from the majority of liberal men. Instead, you get Antifa, who gang up on people and commit acts of terrorism to get their way. If they don't get their way, they escape to a safe space and cry that people are oppressing them. I guarantee none of the rioters last summer were conservative leaning, so if you want to see fragile masculinity, aim at the leftist men and you'll hit the triple-20.
- Article reminds me of "Fight Club." The line about how we're a generation of men raised by women...
- Debbo35
- Thank you, Fragile Masculinity, Exhibit A.
- Indastix
- Well l don't know much about the Taliban, I am sure that like Trumpublicans they love to control who is at the top. Jan. 6th ring any bells?
- Bicycleguy
- Remember Trump insulting people he was physically far away from? He never says these things to people's faces.
Remember Biden saying: "If we were in high school I'd take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him"? Trump never responded to that one either. If he were confident he'd have done his insulting to people. He's a prime example of fragile masculinity.
- Remember Trump insulting people he was physically far away from? He never says these things to people's faces.
- Nikkicarlson1
- John Freivalds slays. With a sword so thin and sharp his victims don't know they were cut.