Funny you should cite Theweleit's work: over the past few months I've returned again and again to Male Fantasies — which I though was prescient back in 1988 or so when I first read it. Re-reading it, almost 40 years later, it seems to me to offer a pretty sound assessment of the MAGA male psyche.
Yes—as you said it is about female subjectivity—the happiness of the women, their silliness—anything can be a reminder of female subjectivity. The smallest things!
An unrelated aside but contemplating this reaction can really freak you out if you have ever experienced life-threatening violence when a man did not like you blatantly flashing your capacity for independent conscious reflection and autonomous action right in his face.
Please understand men: We are born with this capacity. We aren’t flaunting it to get on your nerves.
It could be argued that what you have pointed to and described is akin to the German Freikorps movement in Germany. As yet it is still only latent, but given the right circumstance(s) it could easily morph into an American version of such.
This is a big country. OTOH militias, or extremist compounds, can easily exist in more remote places; OTOH they're further from cities where they can do more damage.
the fascist male feels fragmented and aimless under the societal disenchantment and churn of liberal modernity, and he finds wholeness and meaning in the act of violence
a good contemporary example is the notorious police instructor who boasts to trainees that the best sex they will ever have will be right after they kill someone
How do you MAKE people like this. Eeeek. This is a question I’ve been asking myself my whole life, of course. But now that I have children I am particularly interested in the answer.
Funny you should cite Theweleit's work: over the past few months I've returned again and again to Male Fantasies — which I though was prescient back in 1988 or so when I first read it. Re-reading it, almost 40 years later, it seems to me to offer a pretty sound assessment of the MAGA male psyche.
Indeed. As an example, the virality of jokes like this one are tells about the fascistoid sexual insecurities & anxieties of the typical MAGA male: https://x.com/maxlugavere/status/1908646961764589937?s=42
Yes—as you said it is about female subjectivity—the happiness of the women, their silliness—anything can be a reminder of female subjectivity. The smallest things!
An unrelated aside but contemplating this reaction can really freak you out if you have ever experienced life-threatening violence when a man did not like you blatantly flashing your capacity for independent conscious reflection and autonomous action right in his face.
Please understand men: We are born with this capacity. We aren’t flaunting it to get on your nerves.
It could be argued that what you have pointed to and described is akin to the German Freikorps movement in Germany. As yet it is still only latent, but given the right circumstance(s) it could easily morph into an American version of such.
This is a big country. OTOH militias, or extremist compounds, can easily exist in more remote places; OTOH they're further from cities where they can do more damage.
Disturbing
And the support for Tate is appaling
the fascist male feels fragmented and aimless under the societal disenchantment and churn of liberal modernity, and he finds wholeness and meaning in the act of violence
a good contemporary example is the notorious police instructor who boasts to trainees that the best sex they will ever have will be right after they kill someone
Oh, FFS. This makes me want to vomit.
How do you MAKE people like this. Eeeek. This is a question I’ve been asking myself my whole life, of course. But now that I have children I am particularly interested in the answer.