On Rebranding Masculine Progressivism

While I feel some degree of schadenfreude on the Dems digging themselves six feet deep with their current white male flight, I am also growing more worried at the worsening gender cold wars on partisan issues, so anyways, here’s my advice on how to course correct.

All of the half-assed pseudo-policy takes I’ve passively read online all mention how libs should stop making white men the bad guys (cool it with the patriarchy bashing, no more deconstruction/systemic talk, yadda yadda), but they all stop short of offering a competing vision where the white guys can be the good guys again.

Well, one way the left can recapture the Average White Man is to glorify the future, to point to the Ubermensch and say yes, this is what you can become, this is what is within you – do not fall to the nostalgic tropes of MAGAism, do not cave to the follies of tradition, but rather, forge your own path alongside us.

In reframing masculinity as an honorable trait to self-actualize, you give men a Gatsby-esque green light they can believe in and strive towards. I’ve always found Trumpian obsession kind of sad in a wistful way – all these men who fancy themselves rugged individualists are being sold a return to some mythologized past rather than conquest of new frontiers – so let’s give these men some goddamn frontiers to conquer, whether it’s in health, finances, relationships or whatever.

Just off the top of my head, climate change offers an ideal arena for this reframing. What could be more heroically masculine than literally saving the world? This can tie into space exploration, terraforming, conquering the stars and other planets, starting at home base. If we want to rule the cosmos, shouldn’t it be from a thriving Planet Earth?

Find the experimenters, the renegades, the adventurers that can help craft a competing vision and welcome them into the tent. Bryan Johnson is a great model for this, plus he leans into his bit which makes it all the more charming. Conquer funny memes with funnier ones, lean into the absurdity of it all, give men a good laugh and a better vision for themselves where they can channel their inner hero.

I’m not saying to bend over backwards just to placate these guys – I’m just pointing out the need to invite them back to the table. Obviously the fates of circumstance must align for this to actually play out – the economy needs to stop punching the middle class in the gut – and there needs to be a complementary framework that lets women feel more comfortable embracing conservative-coded takes (Sara Carlton from the recent season of Love is Blind is a perfect case study of this), but I’m curious to hear if y’all think this stands a chance of working at a vibes-based level.