Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is consistently being harassed by MAGA males, and so it is no shock she understands what fuels them: insecurity.
“Donald Trump affirms insecure males’s thought of masculinity,” she defined on a current episode of the “I’ve Had It” podcast. She added that he additionally affirms “insecure white people’ thought of race.”
Anybody who has been on the receiving finish of a MAGA troll’s ire can affirm this, after all. The one individuals Trump and his followers are fooling with their bullying ways and false bravado are themselves. It is particularly apparent in the best way that right-wing males get fixated on conventionally enticing feminists. Handsome ladies provoke sexual insecurities and maximally infantile habits from the right-wing man. It does not take a level in psychology to see this, simply functioning senses and a social media account.
Handsome ladies provoke sexual insecurities and maximally infantile habits from the right-wing man.
However, after all, MAGA males cannot deal with an accusation of insecurity with out instantly proving it to be true, which is precisely what occurred to Greg Gutfeld, an alleged “comic” whose lack of expertise led him to Fox Information, the place audiences fake to seek out his pathetic bully act humorous.
Earlier this week, Gutfeld tried to argue that Ocasio-Cortez is simply projecting “her personal insecurities about her boyfriend’s masculinity.” After which he engaged in a gross, racist sexual fantasy about her: “This is the reason she is so pro-illegal immigration: she is projecting her secret wishes for younger, virile males who’re coming right here in droves.”
Need extra Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her e-newsletter Standing Room Solely.
Definitely, somebody thinks lots concerning the “virility” of immigrant males, however it’s not the congresswoman from New York. Maybe it’s unfair to characterize Gutfeld as fully talentless: He definitely has a knack for upsetting the sexual insecurities of his viewers. Possible it is as a result of he shares their fully appropriate concern that others can see via their chest-thumping to, in Gutfeld’s phrases, the “comfortable and buttery” situation of a typical Ford F-Collection pick-up truck driver. The following day, Gutfeld doubled down on his unhinged assaults on Ocasio-Cortez, reassuring viewers that it is “OK” to make use of the phrase “retarded” to explain her.
This was a two-fer of low cost political incorrectness, punching down at individuals with psychological disabilities, whereas additionally being a sexist slight in opposition to a girl’s intelligence. Does anybody, even within the credulous Fox Information viewers, truly purchase Gutfeld’s try and insinuate that somebody as fairly, charming and proficient as Ocasio-Cortez is difficult up for male consideration? No, however clearly there may be worth for his viewers within the fantasy of it. The poisonous masculinity that’s the beating coronary heart of the MAGA motion is essentially a psychological protection mechanism of males who, typically for superb cause, secretly consider themselves to fall in need of masculine beliefs like braveness and vitality.
After all, everybody feels insecure at occasions, however there are productive methods to take care of these emotions. For starters, one may query the sexism behind the view that bravery and power are “masculine” in any respect, and observe that ladies are simply as, if not typically extra, prone to show each. (Definitely, Ocasio-Cortez has to muster extra fortitude to take care of the firehose of abuse she will get in a day that Gutfeld has proven in his life.) One may undertake self-improvement tasks to develop these qualities, from understanding to volunteering to simply making an attempt one thing new. One may spend much less time rotting your mind out by watching cable information and doing one thing productive together with your life, even when it is as small as working a weekend at a soup kitchen.
However nah, for MAGA males it is simpler to affix their comfortable palms collectively in settlement that one of the simplest ways to really feel huge is to bully different individuals — particularly ladies. MAGA is a fascist motion and a white nationalist ideology, however it’s additionally a help group for males who’re in fierce denial about their very own insecurities. By wanting to one another to validate their infantile assertions of dominance, they’ll collectively inform themselves a fairy story about the way it’s “powerful” to select on individuals half your measurement.
Trump, along with his thick make-up and peculiar comb-over, has made this a lot worse. He is made it in order that MAGA males really feel much more emboldened to disregard all goal actuality to claim an id of efficiency and may. Take heed to Trump voters and they’ll wax on about his “power,” though the only most blatant trait of the person, apart from narcissism, is cowardice. He solely acts powerful when shielded from hazard, resembling his fleet of safety guards. He likes to insult individuals from behind a pc or in a speech, the place they cannot discuss again. He sends others, such because the mob on January 6, to do his soiled work, whereas he rests in security and luxury. Not that he is by no means personally violent, after all. He is loads violent with ladies who’re a lot smaller than him, as E. Jean Carroll can let you know. However once more, that is the craven’s path to feeling highly effective, as pathetic as somebody who kicks puppies to really feel forceful.
Trump’s “testimony” throughout Carroll’s lawsuit in opposition to him Thursday was a basic — and hilarious — instance. He and his lawyer, Alina Habba, spent days hyping the likelihood that Trump would take the stand, with a transparent hope that this could make him look unafraid of the choose or Carroll’s lawyer, who had already drawn damning testimony from Trump throughout a deposition for the primary trial. As a substitute, Trump sat within the witness field for only some minutes, and solely there to affirm that he nonetheless agreed along with his statements from the earlier deposition. He did not go additional than that, as a result of it might have allowed Carroll’s lawyer to cross-examine him, and properly, he is rightly afraid she’ll get him to say much more incriminating issues.
That is MAGA “manhood” in a nutshell. Trump enjoys bragging about how daring he his however runs away from any actual danger as quick as he can. As a substitute of claiming something beneath oath, the place he might be questioned, Trump simply muttered as he fled the courtroom, escaping any chance of getting to take care of somebody who would stand as much as him.
Trump’s fame has created a permission construction for conservatives to wallow in misogyny to an extent that may be shocking, even by as we speak’s low requirements. Sarah Longwell, the never-Trump pollster who runs the always-informative Focus Group podcast for the Bulwark, has been speaking about this lots. On the subject of these focus teams of Republican voters, it is by no means been a gaggle that is significantly feminist, to say the least, however the quotes Longwill pulled from a current gathering of two-time Trump voters from New Hampshire was downright mind-boggling within the shameless sexism.
“I do not really feel as if a girl belongs within the presidential seat,” one Republican girl mentioned, claiming ladies suppose with “coronary heart principally over thoughts,” and that they want — watch for it — “any individual like Trump.”
“It is a man’s job,” argued a person within the group, saying ladies are incapable of “powerful selections.” He added, “Don’t desire them having a nasty day or that point of the month, or no matter.”
It is in all probability too apparent to level out, however there is no such thing as a single opinion that may probably be dumber than arguing Trump is an emotionally managed individual because of the feelings-regulatory powers of his gender. But it surely speaks volumes to the function that psychological denial and fantasy play within the MAGA worldview that folks can say stuff like this. This stage of mendacity to themselves is proximately about Trump, however actually, it runs deeper than that. These are the sorts of tales individuals inform to cover disagreeable truths from themselves. For ladies, it is about not admitting that they’ve accepted second-class standing for no good cause. For the boys, after all, it is an inexpensive manner to be ok with themselves. They do not have to truly be courageous or true or robust. They only should fake this stuff are routinely granted to them by the fortune of being assigned male at delivery.
Learn extra
about this subject