The Manosphere Goes to Washington

Podcasters and Trump, Christian women on dating, and more in this week's roundup

I first noticed the rise of the online men’s influencer world, the so-called “manosphere,” in 2013. It has only grown since then to say the least. The leading men’s podcasters have gigantic audiences, and played a key political role in helping elect Donald Trump President. The Financial Times took a look at “the pod bros who helped put Trump back in the White House.”

When Donald Trump won back the White House in November, his team credited a series of people as they revelled in victory speeches. Taking the stage alongside Trump, UFC chief executive Dana White shouted to a cheering crowd: “I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin’ with the Boys and, last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan!”. Some Americans — probably a lot of them — had never heard these names before. For others, they were celebrities and household fixtures.

…

There is a huge, and growing, media world that is hidden from sight for mainstream audiences. Today’s podcast stars are both very famous — filling up Madison Square Garden, for example — yet also unknown to large portions of Americans. My parents, who are in their seventies and still keep “the news” humming on their TV set all day, have never heard of them. For younger generations, YouTube has supplanted cable television. Media observers have been talking about this fragmentation for many years. But during the recent US election, the trend seemed to explode in plain sight, as exemplified by the influx of podcast bros inside the marbled halls of Washington this week.

…

“They feel like that guy whose house you walked by on your way to high school, who was fixing his car in the driveway and on the way to school he might throw a beer can at you, and on the way home he’ll invite you into his house for your first bong load”, says Scott Galloway, who hosts Pivot, a business and technology podcast, with Kara Swisher. “These guys feel relatable. And they’ve just tapped into an enormous [underserved] group.”

Stylistically, the “manosphere” is in many ways the opposite of what traditional media are taught to do. As journalists, we’re asked to be brief and punchy. Television news is a slick and expansive production: anchors are dusted in make-up, seated in elaborate sets, speaking formally and deliberately. Legendary news veteran Brian Williams recently slammed the tone of network newscasts as “cliched old phrases from another time in American life”.

These new shows, in contrast, consist largely of meandering chat. A livestream on Twitch can run for eight hours or more. The hosts are not journalists, nor do they want to be.

…

These podcasters don’t tend to fit neatly into a typical left or right ideological profile — although there’s a through-line of contempt for “the establishment” and resistance to political correctness. While they’re all unique, these men share some common interests: sports, fitness supplements and, strangely enough, the possible existence of extraterrestrial life pop up frequently. They’ll often appear on each other’s podcasts or streams, cultivating a Marvel-esque multiverse of characters.

…

The sheer length of the conversations allows for moments of vulnerability. The casual nature keeps costs low. Even the biggest shows require only a handful of staff. The industry is largely unregulated. There are no standard metrics for even basic measures, such as how many people listened to a given podcast. Instead, you can trace views on YouTube or browse Spotify rankings.

Click over to read the whole thing.

Gen-Z’s Heterosexual Hellscape

The things you find on Substack. Someone emailed me a post from a Aly Dee’s Substack Femlosophy. She’s a self-described married Christian woman. I looked at some of her stuff and came across this one.

So what is a single Christian woman to do in this dating hellscape? Our religious leaders struggle to reconcile the growing distance between the age of sexual maturity and economic maturity for reproduction. We can have children in our late teens. However, nearly no adults in their late teens or early twenties have the financial means to be comfortable reproducing. Many people don’t feel comfortable having children until their early 30s for economic reasons. There is a gap of 12 years between sexual and economic fertility that Christians either cannot or will not address. We can address the problematic logic behind that gap in the context of chastity and a fertile window for women, but that’s old news in the perpetual Total Fertility Crisis debate.

As a young single woman, you have to conclude that life is full of risk, and your fertile window will sharply decline at 35. It’s not as simple as saving yourself for marriage until 30 (who is really doing that?) and quickly spawning children in the nick of time. Young singles should wed and have children in their twenties and accept that they will struggle financially for a decade or so. They should focus on cultivating the grit to weather economic instability until their mid-thirties. Generally, men don’t hit their financial stride until their late 40s or early 50s. Think about it: how many wealthy men are there in their twenties?

Obviously, the twenty-somethings don’t understand this nor are capable of being convinced of it, so let’s move on.

…

Younger women deserve better and should not be lied to by older women, especially young, single Christian women under the stewardship of older Christian women. I can’t tell you how to make a relationship work comprehensively as a newlywed myself, but I can tell most women how to get a man.

If you cannot get the guy you want, you can do one or both of these two things:

- increase your value in the dating marketplace

- lower your standards (this is not bad)

That’s not a romantic sentiment, but forsake the fantastical romance for a moment, if you will.

…

I’ll tell you why these sentiments are nonsense point by point:

Married women stating if you focus on God and stop idolizing marriage, you will get a husband.

Every single married Christian woman I have heard say this cannot articulate to you what they did to get a husband. Most wives can’t. They are oblivious to their mating tactics. In my experience, it has nearly always been the case that these same married Christian women were actively dating, young, beautiful, petite, charming, flirty, and conversational when they got wifed up. They never mention that, though.

…

For the record, desiring marriage is not idolatrous. Typically, when women say something like that, they are overintellectualizing theology. It is the most normal thing in the world for a single Christian woman to desire marriage and motherhood.

If you are willing to sin grievously to get married, okay, we can see that’s idolatrous behavior. But most of you single Christian women are getting gaslit by other nonsensical Christian women on a NORMAL AND HEALTHY DESIRE. Aside from that, if you read your Bible, you will understand that most women will be sanctified through marriage and motherhood. I do not think God wants most single Christians to remain single. It is more a sign of the times that so many adult Christians are single today, not necessarily God’s desire.

…

It’s almost a negative today for a woman to be a virgin in the dating hellscape because sex is a commodity now. If not for the rampant porn content available to men today, which drives the cost of sexual access to women to zero, sex has certainly been commodified due to hormonal birth control that women are taking full advantage of, as you can see given the rates of abortion skyrocketing astronomically since the emergence of hormonal contraception. A young, mateworthy guy has likely bedded a few women by the time you get around to him as a virginal woman (unless he is a devout Christian). If he doesn’t want to earn access to you or finds the effort annoying, he will drop you for a woman who would give it up easier. This is just the reality.

YOU, AS A YOUNG, VIRGIN CHRISTIAN WOMAN, SHOULD NEVER FEEL BAD FOR SAVING YOURSELF FOR MARRIAGE. NEVER EVER. IT IS THE WORLD THAT IS SO FAR CORRUPTED THAT YOU WOULD FEEL DIRTY FOR DOING A NOBLE AND GOOD THING.

Click over to read the whole thing. There are lots of provocative things she says in this and her other pieces.

Note that she paywalls her pieces after two weeks, so read this one fast or save it to your computer if you are interested in it.

In a related piece, another Substack writer called Lantern (who also appears to be a Christian woman), wrote a piece on Gen-Z’s heterosexual hellscape.

The propagation of gender war ammunition is an ever-growing and highly lucrative market. This seemingly innocuous pop culture fodder is anything but.

The mongers of the gender war industry are committing crimes against love with every inflammatory, degradation that they launch against the other side. The gender war propaganda that we are collectively indulging in, in the ‘privacy’ of our digital lives is infiltrating public life through both the personal and the political.

The skepticism and villainisation of each sex toward the other permeating social media is cancerous to collaborative, open, loving engagement. There is certainly truth to many of the accusations that men make of women and women of men but do we want to be without each other? It is a sick culture that enjoys humiliating its male or female counterparts for sport.

Click over to read the whole thing.

Best of the Web

The Atlantic: America’s ‘Marriage Material’ Shortage

Brad Littlejohn and Clare Morell: Stop Hacking Humans

Tracing Woodgrains: The Full Story of the FAA's Hiring Scandal

New Content and Media Mentions

I was a guest on the Shaun Tabatt podcast.

New this week:

• On Civic Renewal and Practical Solutions - Why we need both institutional idealism and pragmatic action in addressing America's challenges

• And on the podcast, Alex Pektas argues that Great Books are for losers.

Subscribe to my podcast on Apple Podcasts, Youtube, or Spotify.