{"id":76960,"date":"2025-02-26T12:27:39","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T17:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=76960"},"modified":"2025-08-11T10:14:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T14:14:35","slug":"musk-zuck-vance-and-bannon-the-men-i-fear-my-son-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/musk-zuck-vance-and-bannon-the-men-i-fear-my-son-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk, \u2018Zuck,\u2019 Vance and Bannon \u2013 The Men I Fear My Son Hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is one of several prominent, powerful men adopting fascism, in part as a means of coping with the changing definition of masculinity. An equal and opposite reaction is needed – from men, specifically. (Credit: X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When confronted with a perceived threat, we often speak of having a fight-or-flight response. The men who now lead us, however, have found a third alternative: Fascism<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cast of cronies President Donald Trump<\/a> has surrounded himself with \u2013 as well as numerous others who sit atop our government and corporate worlds \u2013 are increasingly embracing the actions, philosophies<\/a> and even aesthetics<\/a> of a political ideology defined by militarism, oppression, and a central dictator figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you can find them through the din of updates, you\u2019ll see numerous recent examples from the men in charge, beyond their general demonstrated intolerance<\/a> for difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vice President JD Vance met with<\/a> Alternative for Germany co-chair Alice Weidel \u2013 an individual who has minimized the Holocaust, and who leads a neo-Nazi political party. Meta Platforms CEO and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg demonstrably allied himself<\/a> with Trump, while abandoning<\/a> fact-checking standards on the massive social media platforms he runs, allowing for misinformation to run rampant \u2013 a boon for leaders with fascist aspirations, experts say<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and current White House senior advisor Elon Musk have this very year, on big stages, raised their arms high, stretched them out long and pointed their hands almost skyward. Call the gesture what you will \u2013 I call it a Nazi salute<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These men, and men like them, are glomming on to fascism<\/a> in no small part because they are scared, and it makes them feel powerful in a world that has changed, even slightly, to accommodate a changing social order. One that would see non-male, non-white individuals having their own chances to thrive and climb, at long last.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\n \n \"Doge\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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\n \n \u2018DEI\u2019 is Not to Blame for What Ails Us \u2013 Dumb, Arrogant Men Are\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t mere conjecture \u2013 recent examples of this abound, too, beyond their immediate targeting of the diversity, equity and inclusion programs that fostered opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vance told this year\u2019s CPAC audience<\/a> that people are becoming \u201candrogynous idiots,\u201d asserting that \u201cour culture sends a message to young men that you should suppress every masculine urge\u201d \u2013 such as, in his view, making off-color jokes about minority groups. Musk made similar comments<\/a> at the same event. And Zuckerberg recently told<\/a> podcast host Joe Rogan that corporate America needs more \u201cmasculine energy,\u201d because it\u2019s becoming \u201cculturally neutered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boys Will Be\u2026 What, Exactly?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I am presently raising a young son in a world run by these men. And he is smart and aware enough to recognize that they are winning, over and over again. They have acquired vast sums of money; they presently hold the keys to the world. And from their high perches, they are encouraging him to be like them \u2013 branding their hatefulness, brutishness and duplicitous natures as \u201cmanly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cannot think of anything weaker, or smaller, than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He and other boys need<\/em> to hear from powerful men who contrast this messaging. Men like Minnesota governor and former Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz<\/a>, who uses his power to feed hungry children and provide people with free menstrual hygiene products; actor Pedro Pascal, who vocally supports<\/a> the transgender community; and tech billionaire Alexis Ohanian, who is quick to defend his wife<\/a>, former tennis superstar Serena Williams, from online hatred \u2013 usually hurled at her from the type of men that need to be drowned out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more is required, especially of the men in our son\u2019s lives \u2013 the teachers, coaches, uncles, friends and fathers who surround our boys. Indeed, the onus is on men’s shoulders to not just embody qualities like softness, but to lead with them, and to do so obviously. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be emotional, and thoughtful, and tender in clear ways, ways our boys can see and latch onto. To teach my son, all of our sons, that open-heartedness and compassion have no gender \u2013 that such traits are simply born of love, and worth embodying for that reason alone. That this is what true strength looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our boys need to see the light \u2013 and our men, from the powerful to the personally connected, have the responsibility of being that light, amid the encroaching darkness. ◼️<\/p>\n\n\n

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Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\n \n \"conservative-men-womens-rights\"\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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\n \n Behold! The Smallness of Man\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fascism is the political ideology of the selfish and small, and our leaders prove it. All the same, they are the ones who have the mic \u2013 and I know my kid can hear them, Candice Helfand-Rogers writes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":76961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"Prominent, powerful men are increasingly adopting fascism, in part as a means of coping with the changing definition of masculinity. An equal and opposite reaction is needed - from men, specifically.","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:l2n6ydtigm3gtra4vb4rfl7f","date":"2025-02-26T17:27:48+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:l2n6ydtigm3gtra4vb4rfl7f\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lj3vm7onsn27","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:l2n6ydtigm3gtra4vb4rfl7f\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lj3vm7onsn27\",\"cid\":\"bafyreihfzrceqecqpsecw2gkjkj7nkhhcd6svgqv6hswl7dzbmx26v4twu\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreicsbttm5jag42y6onivuwaznmnkmiphds4kepgqnqybncwjsswn5q\",\"rev\":\"3lj3vm7ozjn27\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19648],"tags":[21359,21360,19645,19807],"class_list":["post-76960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-fascism","tag-masculinity","tag-opinion","tag-role-models"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRead an Op-Ed on Musk, Zuckerberg, Vance, Bannon, Fascism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fascism is the ideology of the small. 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