If you haven't been keeping up with all things internet you might not have heard about Bronze Age Pervert, an inexplicably popular writer on the right whose real name is Costin Alamariu. The briefest nutshell description I can think of is that he's the latest iteration of Jordan Peterson, the momentarily popular anti-woke Canadian professor who bemoaned the decline of manly virtues.
Over at National Review, Jack Butler writes a long takedown of BAP and recommends to us an even longer one. But why bother? Here is part of Butler's piece:
I do not dismiss out of hand certain of the complaints about modernity that he has lodged. That modernity disdains the authentic expression of manly virtue, for example, is impossible to dispute.
But to leverage warranted complaint into advancing a worldview that... proposes the rebreeding of “the original Aryan race, or as close an approximation as possible, through some kind of a Platonic Lebensborn program”; and imagines a future in which his followers, whom he describes as “superior specimens” in need of “space,” “wipe away” our “corrupt civilization,” and unleash their vengeance upon the “lower types of mankind,” or “humancockroach,” who have repressed them — this accomplishes nothing.
"This accomplishes nothing." Regardless of what you think about modernity and manly virtues, doesn't that seem a bit performatively restrained? Surely the manly thing would be to call Alamariu a disgusting racist bigot and be done with him. Why is that so hard on the right?
POSTSCRIPT: As for modernity "disdaining" manly virtues, I assure you it is possible to dispute. I feel like I'm on safe ground when I say that none of these complainers would last a week in ancient Sparta or the Rome of Augustus.
Ancient Sparta? They wouldn't even last a week as a 19th century farm wife.
They could try to muster up the manly virtue of standing up to bullies, but they've completely given up on that.
They wouldn't make it as a nineteenth century settler of either gender.
@Crissa
Well, to be fair, the 18th century farm women had to do as much work as the men, and have babies.
yup, woke has killed off every vestige of american manhood
just look at what happened in texas, the last bastion of american virility, when one guy held off hundreds of red-blooded heavily-armed MAGA-loving officers of the law for over an hour while he slaughtered small children
Authentic expression of manly virtues is dead? TELL IT TO THE MARINES!
Btw, the Marines are the one branch of the military that doesn't lack enough volunteers. If you want to authentically express your manliness, you can join, too. Idk about Jordan Peterson. What's left for him? The Mounties? Amateur hockey nights?
My season tickets are for the University of Minnesota women's hockey team. They'd wipe the ice with Peterson.
The marines are the Trumpiest service. They had the most people quit rather than get the corona-vaccine.
I think it would be ridiculous for anyone working for the National Review to have the gall to call someone else a bigot. Being a bigot is practically in the job description for the NR. Plus, the NR and the Republican Party strictly adhere to a policy of having no enemies to the right—so why call a guy who’s basically a hero to most Republicans a bigot?
Why is that so hard on the right?
Because bigotry, prominently including but certainly not limited to racism, suffuses the entire Right. Because reactionism is one of the most central and enduring characteristics of the Right, and reactionism in turn is almost always significantly and sometimes all but entirely motivated by bigotry. In the Good Old Days for which the Right yearns, the Right Sort ruled without dissent, and everyone else -- women, non-Christians, racial minorities, immigrant populations (even ones who had been in the country for generations), and sexual minorities (aka "deviants" and "perverts") -- knew their place.
Scratch a "conservative" -- or more practically, feed him/her some truth serum -- and you'll find a bigot. And the brighter ones know that full well, which is why they can't say it.
It is just another example of authoritarian schizophrenia that's been marinating in neoconfederate resentment for too long. Proclaiming oneself a strong, stoic Manly Man and then whining like a 3 year old about how hard it is out there for a Manly Man is just perfectly on-brand for these people.
The problem of course is too many people actually listen to these brats, and it is worth investigating more about how to supply those consumers with self-affirmation that isn't wrapped around fascist horse shit.
I'm not the person to do that, I'm fairly well-adjusted with regards to my male-ness and don't really think about it that much. But surely there are better role models who can empathize with them and could use a Substack side hustle...
The only boo-boo was in saying the quiet parts out loud. And that's no longer a boo-boo. It's what Jesus ...sorry, "Trump" ... would do. WWTD!
I'm still wondering what these "manly virtues" might possibly be. Clearly, they do not include
* taking and accepting responsibility
* decency, kindness, and fairness towards others
* obedience to the laws and constitution
* supporting one's self and family
* respecting other people, regarless of "race, color, or creed"
So, what's considered "manly" these days by those people?
Judging by what's on the roads in my exurb, absolutely massive pickup trucks that would splatter you on the road without a second thought.
They're afraid that if they were to call out the professional bigots, they'd inadvertently offend all the casual bigots.
Apparently there is nothing on tee vee and these ignoramuses are bored or have imbibed in far too many drugs.
They must be really unsure of their own masculinity to write this diatribe. I wouldn’t recommend a single female friend to any of them. Not ‘manly’ enough. Grunt, belch.
WRT to Ancient Sparta or Rome, of course all of these clowns imagine themselves as the masters and not one of the slaves. Manly virtue only gets you so far until your tribe loses a battle to a superior force.
"proposes the rebreeding of “the original Aryan race,"
“superior specimens” in need of “space,”
and unleash their vengeance upon the “lower types of mankind,” or “humancockroach,”
Sounds like this stuff was written by Goebbels. He is a fucking Nazi.
I've seen a picture of him. He even looks like a Romanian fascist.
I am a man. I have my virtues. They are things like compassion, generosity, empathy, and dedication to pushing the world, just a tiny bit, towards "better".
Since I am a man, these are manly virtues. i sometimes get the feeling that the "manly virtues" they are talking about entail, to a large extent, the ability to bully other people into doing what you want. I say to hell with that. I've never had that, I've never tried to do that. I'll stand my ground in soime situations, but I've never been that.
So, my gut take is that they are claiming as a particular manly virtua, a set of habits and abilities that I've never had or cared to pursue, and that makes me somehow "less than" in their eyes, Frankly, the best men I've ever known would be classified as "cucks" because they literally raised a child that another man donated sperm to, and took no interest in afterward.
So what they demean, I uphold as a manly virtue. In fact, since I am adopted, my own father was a "cuck". I hope to live up to his example, may he rest in peace.
In sum, they can go fsck themselves.
(Was that manly enough?)
I wholeheartedly agree. I am a man. If I sit down to a dinner of quiche washed down with Shirley Temples while wearing a pink tutu, that makes quiche manly food, Shirley Temples manly drinks, and pink tutus manly clothes.
The ultimate realm for peak manliness is out in the wild with no clothes, no fire, no tools, no weapons - just bare-handed strength to catch and kill prey. That's it. Nothing more.
Suicide is not manliness.
It is a false choice to be manly or not. People who focus in on such things seem to be uncomfortable with their own skin, and as such, must project outward onto others.
I just finished X+Y by Eugenia Cheng and found it really thoughtful. Her basic premise is that we will all be much happier if we stop talking about character traits as "manly" or "feminine".
Since the statistical evidence for behavioral gender differences points to only a very small gap at the mean, we should expect (and do) to see character traits traditionally associated with males pretty much almost as often in females, and vice versa.
Her proposal is that we stop talking about gender and start talking about character traits -- which are useful, which are less, and the contexts in which they matter.
https://www.amazon.com/Mathematicians-Manifesto-Rethinking-Gender/dp/1541646509
excuse me, but how can you take seriously anyone who uses the phrase "manly virtue" unironically?
they're so weird.
I thought L. Ron Hubbard died.