That's Sam Elliot, this guy, and he's right.
Posted on 03/02/2022 6:58:41 AM PST by Heartlander
One of the most fascinating developments over the past week has been watching political pundits and social commentators celebrate virtues in Ukraine, from armed resistance to national loyalty, that are frequently criticized in America.
My sense is that the ruling class assumes our citizens would have the same response to a hostile foreign invasion. They may be right, but the biblical principle of sowing and reaping suggests a very different outcome.
A recent tweet from NPR is one example of the type of seed that finds fertile ground in our culture.
“Russia’s attack on Ukraine means there’s a stressful news cycle ahead of us. The reality of conflict is always a shock to the system. Here are 5 ways to cope.”
The entire thread was completely on-brand for NPR, from the thumbnail illustration of an androgynous person of color laying in the fetal position to the language of personal therapy emanating from the subsequent tweets.
It was an easy alley-oop for the conservatives on Twitter who shared the post to the followers, but the post was an important snapshot of the character traits being cultivated in our society.
We have become a fragile nation increasingly unable to deal with the realities of life. The 2016 election of Donald Trump made this crystal clear. Colleges across the country offered students play dough, coloring books, hot chocolate, and bubbles to cope with the stress of an election outcome.
Previous generations of young men between 18 and 22 stormed the beaches of Normandy, fought the Viet Cong in Da Nang, and were beaten during Freedom Rides for civil rights in America. Early adulthood now is characterized by safe spaces and comfort animals.
The NPR post wasn’t just a window into American fragility. It was also another example of our most popular faith – the cult of self. One Army recruitment ad in 2021 followed the story of “Emma,” a soldier who talked about being inspired to join the military after reflecting on the activism of her two moms and adventure-seeking sorority sisters.
The video is a perfect distillation of America in the 21st century – the ultimate act of self-sacrifice has been transformed into a personal vanity project of self-fulfillment. Recruitment ads from China and Russia show young men leaving their families, engaging in physically demanding training exercises, jumping out of planes, scaling walls, and driving tanks. The virtues being promoted in their ads – bravery, sacrifice, honor, discipline, patriotism, courage – transcend language and nationality.
What makes things even more difficult is the extent to which the left uses every organ of culture, from sports to movies, to sell the message that America is irredeemably racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and xenophobic. Who would want to die for such an evil country? Alienating your citizens from their nation is not a wise move when our adversaries in other countries are willing to exploit every perceived weakness to expand their own power.
These weaknesses have been exacerbated by the left’s forward assault on manhood. A Christian professor named Karen Swallow Prior tweeted a video of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a small group of men who committed to stay and fight for their country. She said, “I doubt these guys tweet about ‘manliness.’” The subtext was that conservative evangelical American men talk about masculinity more than they embody it.
What she failed to mention is that American society has been grinding away at men and manhood for decades. A desire to help men get more in touch with their feelings has morphed into something much more ominous. Every few months a new man in a dress is being upheld as brave and courageous for pushing the boundaries of gender. Men who object to the fashion choices of Harry Styles, Billy Porter, or Kid Cudi are seen as toxic and regressive.
This erosion of masculinity extends into the home as well, and not just through depictions of bumbling, incompetent dads on television sitcoms. The one tactical advantage women have in the gender wars is their words. Women who berate and disrespect their husbands are doing untold damage to both their mates and children. We went from mothers saying, “I don’t need a man” to daughters saying, “I don’t want a man” to sons saying, “I don’t want to be a man.”
The domestic power struggle that feminism has been encouraging for decades has led to men who are less assertive and more indecisive than their forefathers. Women who reject male leadership in the home often fear the misuse of authority, but that abdication also removes responsibility. It’s a package deal, in the same way the sun provides both light and heat.
I know many women who object to rigid gender roles, whether in the home or broader society. I don’t know a single one who wants to take on the role of protecting men from harm or the responsibility of being the sole provider in a household that has an able-bodied man present.
This contradiction is captured by a famous quote from C.S. Lewis.
“In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”
One historian’s new book claims that white evangelicals corrupted Christianity in America with the rugged masculinity embodied by John Wayne. Reading contemporary cultural norms into the Bible can certainly lead to bad doctrine, but the reason some pastors feel compelled to speak about biblical manhood is because they understand what happens to a culture that embraces the church of Jesus and Elton John.
A country that promotes national alienation, paints masculinity as inherently toxic, and rewards fragility, neuroses, and anxiety is in no position to fight external battles. It must first address the corrosion that is occurring within its borders. It’s hard to envision bravery from people who crumble under the weight of microaggressions or go into a state of panic when they see someone without a piece of cloth covering their nose and mouth. War creates a fog for those in it, but it is clarifying for people fortunate enough to live in peace.
This is all insanity, complete insanity. We have leaders who can only be described in English as caricatures appearing in a Salvador Dali painting. Never in our history have we had leadership that literally appears to be from the psych ward at a mental hospital. I have NEVER seen or read in our history of anything like this.
Learning too slowly, and perhaps too late. You can’t feminize or de-hate those who have been indoctrinated.
“self-hatred and narcissism”
Uh.....
C. S. Lewis - tx
Most American men under 50 are incredibly soft. I conveniently put myself right on the other side of that. LOL.
Seriously, though, I can’t believe how weak and wimpy many younger “men” are these days. I see them in the gym doing workouts that are feminized and pointless. I am very surprised by how little they can lift on basic compound lifts (for the few that even bother to do compound lifts).
Don’t even get me started on their mental weakness....
So many are mentally very weak. You can prevail with a weak body but a tough, resilient mind and spirit. Seal initiation is to see who is tough enough mentally.
later
Yes. You are right. I don’t mean to imply that you have to be physically strong to be “strong”. I am just commenting on how soft many young men seem to be physically.
I was just reading a piece about movies/entertainment - which I usually have no interest in and never read about, but this time there was HELLA CUSSING in the banner so I decided to read it.
One thing the article above doesn’t mention a lot is art and in particular entertainment, which have had the most devastating effect on our culture and Western Civilization in general. (I guess I can see why “the blaze” doesn’t want to harm their friends in “media” by getting too personal. They would rather castigate American males, who are already having a tough time, for not being macho enough.)
The piece I read was an old actor dude - I guess he’s in that show “Yellowstone” or something about yellowstone. An old guy. (I have really no idea who he is or what “yellowstone” is about. I pretty much hate whatever might be playing anymore.) Anyway, this guy saw a trailer for a movie called “The Power of the Dog,” apparently about closet homo cowboys and Benedict Cumberbatch or however you spell it is the lead character and it’s shot in Aus by an Australian female and it’s apparently about the Old West in the USA, apparently, and this old guy, an actor, was really upset and cussing a blue streak about this movie.
I’m not going to bother watching the movie or “yellowstone” but what the cussing actor was saying is that the director chick had no business making a movie about the American West and saying it’s all about homo cowboys, etc, etc. (I’m right there with you, dude! That’s why I never watch TV or movies anymore!)
Okay, here’s my point: The entertainment business is extremely competitive and cut-throat. If you have the wrong politics, you get run out of it fairly quickly. If you are not on the Left these days in entertainment, you will be blacklisted and as a result, you may not even be able to find employment at your local Home Depot, much less as an actor/videographer/writer, etc. They will ruin you utterly.
Shows and movies you see doing well always - as in 100% OF THE TIME - support some America-hating theme. Sometimes this theme is subtle and sometimes just so right in your face you wonder how the producers managed to obtain funding for something so childish. But they do and even if they don’t make money (who cares about that, right? WE JUST LOVE MAKING AMERICANS LOOK STUPID!!) they still get plenty of publicity and future job offers.
Those who say “We have to make TV and movies like we want to see!” are missing the point and living in a fantasy similiar to the Left’s fantasy of a perfect socialist world.
To use a recognizable phrase: You’re closing the barn door after the cows have all run off.
Refuse to participate in America-hating art forms. Don’t watch them, don’t discuss them. Unless you are a complete invalid, there are plenty of things you can do with art that will enrich your life, entertain you and your friends/family, and prevent a lot of the angst that being involved in the current entertainment scene will cause.
Create art yourself: Paint, play musick, act out stories with your friends - somewhere out of my earshot and line of sight, please! thank you! - play sports, make your own videos, design your own clothing. Heck, just sit out on the porch and dig the sunset, if you get a chance. You don’t need TV or movies. No, not even the TV news! All they do is lie to you and make you get upset. As long as there’s an internet you can limp along somehow, right?
If you are talented and are kind of a ham (like moi, for example) DON’T go running after fame and fortune. You’ll end up hating your life. It may be too late for me, but you can still save yourself. Entertain your friends and family - play at small local venues and cut your own recordings. Tell the A&E schmoes to go eat a d**k if they walk up on you. Work for a living at a real job.
If you are truly a conservative, trying to “get published” or “get discovered” will at some point involve compromising your values. Doesn’t the entertainment “industry” deserve to crash, and crash hard, for all the trouble it has INTENTIONALLY and MALICIOUSLY caused?
I do think that TV and movies are at least 75% responsible for the de-man-ifying of America. Without these images and sayings bombarding us all for a large part of our lives, we would all - men and women both - be able to think straight about not just our roles in society but what we really want out of life.
I’ve mentioned this before: The ten commandments that Gd gave Moshe specifically talk about the creation and deployment of images. People were very savvy about some things back in the old days.
Go Galt on TV and entertainment. They need you; you don’t need them.
Hard times make good men
Good men make good times
Good times make weak men
Weak men make hard times <—— You are here
Yea but they have some tough looking tattoo’s.
Bkmk
Seriously, though, I can’t believe how weak and wimpy many younger “men” are these days.
............................................
In sociology, feminization is the shift in gender roles and sex roles in a society, group, or organization towards a focus upon the feminine. It can also mean the incorporation of women into a group or a profession that was once dominated by men. — Wikipedia
Feminization characterizes the inexorable progression of a nation towards its own extinction.
[[ My sense is that the ruling class assumes our citizens would have the same response to a hostile foreign invasion]]
My sense is that if citizens got automatic guns, actual weapons of war, and fought invading enemies, we would be arrested by the left in the middle,of,the night as they tracked us down and pounced on us when least expected for having guns without approval of gov, and turned over to the enemies
the left will be loyal to foreign enemies as the left denounces the us, maligns American patriots, and actively works to arrest Americans trying to defend their homeland in an ignorant effort to placate the enemies.
I have a Reddit account because there's a great community for Cherokee XJ's on it. Of course, you get the general feed from other Reddit communities. What younger people write is truly horrifying and depressing as hell.
One guy wrote that he moved in with his aunt and uncle for a year in college. His uncle was always trying to get him to "man up, have a beer, or go with me to the gym" and he complained that this made him feel sad because he was the sensitive sort. Fortunately his aunt would come to his rescue and shoe-away the masculine uncle. The story ended that he came home from the college unexpectedly one day to see his girlfriend's car there in the driveway. He found her making out with the uncle on the couch.
“My sense is that the ruling class assumes our citizens would have the same response to a hostile foreign invasion.”
We are currently being invaded on the southern border and there is no response other than apathy.
American men have become doughy and the women are like harpies and furies screeching the creed of queerness at every turn. Their “I’m offended” button is perpetually stuck on “on”. The military brass has balls the size of peanuts. They attack via the cancel culture way… a sneaky non-confrontational feminine tactic. Milley and the trans fluidity that you see at story time when trans hookers read fairy tales to children show what a marvelous sense of virtue everyone has and their performance is about themselves to themselves. Passive/aggressive is not seen as a meme or trope, but a way of life for men. Men having babies is a plank of the Democrat party. Everything has been pulled out by the roots to start a new queer virtuous order. Nature can’t stop it because it is just a mental construct: we are now GODS to be anything we want in this new female hellhole. What are your pronouns? How utterly ugly and lovely it seems to be as new fantastic creatures. Captain Kirk has to get off of this planet.
That's Sam Elliot, this guy, and he's right.
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