How do you solve a problem like the Manosphere
The left needs to take new/digital media far more seriously, but we have to look for different ways to build it than the right
Vol. 53
In This Issue: ESSAY | TAKE ACTION | NOW READ THIS | FINAL FRAME
I have been sick for two weeks and am only just recovering (thanks, antibiotics!). I don’t think I can blame the election and its fallout, but the constant stress hormones that are heightened every time I read about it definitely can’t be helping.
I’ve read and listened to analysis and speculation from many, many people trying to wrap their heads around the fact of our country electing a lying, cheating, deranged, bigoted felon who incited an insurrection to the highest office in the land. And it seems true that there is no one easy answer to that question. A dizzying array of factors certainly played into it: The failure of our systems and norms to hold Trump and his minions meaningfully accountable for their actions, a media ecosystem that is more and more flooded with mis/disinformation and more fractured than ever, the long festering boil that is white supremacy culture, real economic pains and concerns, and the list goes on.
I don’t have the expertise or bandwidth to get into all of it right now, nor would I want to subject you all to my attempts. However, I was listening to the most recent episode of Matt Bernstein’s excellent podcast, “A Bit Fruity,” where he talked to internet expert Taylor Lorenz about a particular element of the election results that is of special interest to me. In the larger conversation about why and how so many younger/Gen Z men are moving to the right, they discussed how the left lacks the kind of media infrastructure that has been so effective on the right–specifically digital media.
Take a look at the most influential voices of the “manosphere,” described (pretty accurately, I’d say) by Jezebel as “a fast-growing, unrepentantly hateful community of men’s lifestyle influencers, podcasters, and media personalities who glorify and preach misogyny to a new generation of young men” that includes people like Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, Andrew Tate, and the Nelk Boys.
Their reach online is exponentially larger than that of the nearest influential figures on the left, by orders of magnitude. That’s because, by and large, these voices have the financial support of very wealthy conservative backers (or, in Musk’s case, are the wealthy backers themselves) and the benefit of the fucked up algorithms of platforms like YouTube that prioritize view time and engagement over everything. I’ve heard from men who never even engage with the hateful content of the right and are still regularly fed “recommended/for you” content from it. Why? Because that content is generating clicks, and platforms prioritize anything they think will get more eyes and engagement and, therefore, more revenue. The quality of the content be damned.
There’s a lot of good research and thinking about this problem and I encourage you to dig into it. The podcast episode and the Jezebel article I linked above are good starting places.
I want to talk about the other side of the coin for a minute, though, because that’s where my own experience lies. That’s this uncomfortable truth: The left - at least the mainstream “left” like the Democratic Party and its major backers - has refused to take digital media and its potential reach and influence at all seriously. There are absolutely great outlets, reporters, and influencers on the left doing incredible and important work. They simply do not have nearly the same reach or the same financial backing as what they’re up against.
A personal story (buckle in):
In 2011, I was the co-editor with an early grassroots media outlet based in Madison called Dane101. We covered arts and culture and local politics, thanks to a rag-tag team of volunteer and/or underpaid freelancers. We were perfectly placed to cover the Act 10 protests that sparked off at the Capitol in February that year. This massive uprising came in response to a coordinated effort by the newly elected Gov. Scott Walker (and the newly gerrymandered GOP majority in the Legislature) to dismantle public unions in the state.
(There was also probably some spillover from his pre-emptive move to destroy a deal to install a long-sought passenger rail line between Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, and the Twin Cities. NEVER. FORGET.)
Our media outlet was the first on the ground to report out about what was happening, posting to Twitter at a time when the algorithm and user base was far more free and open. The unfolding events and our coverage both quickly garnered national attention. Photos I posted from my flip phone via Twitter’s text service were re-shared on Michael Moore’s website, HuffPost, and elsewhere. My follower count began to double, then triple, and so on. I did my best to take the responsibility seriously, learning on the fly how best to verify information and quash rumor, seek out scoops, build connections, and mentally map out the labyrinthian halls of our state capitol. Our team worked tirelessly (I mean this - including sleeping on the hard floors of the capitol, climbing through bathroom windows when the GOP tried to shut everyone out of ostensibly open meetings, and so on) to find out what was happening and share it with our community and a nation that seemed laser-focused on our state at the time.
Walker and the Wisconsin GOP were setting the blueprint for much of what we would see the right roll out across the country in the years that followed. And the massive public uprising in support of unions–which had been seeing their membership decline over the decades–also caught people’s attention. Day after day, tens of thousands of people from across the state and across the usual party lines turned out to show their support for teachers and other public workers. In the face of what felt like relentless fuckery from the GOP, it was heartening to see the outpouring of resistance.
Those of us at Dane101 were thrust into the middle of it all, and began receiving encouragement to seek funding for our work. We were told that the best way to get money was to become a non-profit, and so we began the work of applying for that status, getting help from other local organizations to gain access to the legal expertise we didn’t have on hand to make it happen. This was well before the idea of local, grassroots, non-profit media really existed outside of public radio or television–that we could ask our readers to become member-supporters, or seek grants, or indeed that media/journalism counted as “educational” under the non-profit rules.
The Wisconsin uprising very much started as a grassroots, cross-community protest. The Teaching Assistants Association (TAA) at UW Madison kicked things off, with the Wisconsin Education Association Council (the state teacher’s union) joining in, as well as dozens of small, grassroots political and community organizations. Eventually, the big guys jumped on as well - the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, and other national unions who saw the opportunity at revitalization of the union movement represented by the uprising. And then of course the Democratic Party began to throw its weight around, along with other national Dem-affiliated groups like the DCCC.
There’s been a lot of hindsight and debriefing about what happened and whether it was ultimately the co-opting of a grassroots movement by the Democratic machine that hamstrung the protest and subsequent recall efforts. I have a lot of my own thoughts on it. But the side effect that most impacted us at Dane101 was that we were enthusiastically strung along by those national left organizations, held up as shining beacons of possibility, invited to speak at conferences like Netroots Nation, and then entirely ghosted in the end - not a penny given to support our work.
And not for our lack of trying! The team worked hard to put together a substantial non-profit business plan and pitch deck, which we schlepped all the way out to Washington, DC, going door-to-door at the organizations who had, in the heat of the moment, promised us the world. We were well-received at friendly meetings and then, when we followed up, given nothing at all. We’d served our purpose and they had moved on to other things.
It was a harsh but important lesson to learn. For those of us living and working outside the Beltway, those major, legacy institutions and parties were not going to be our saviors. The grassroots had to water the grassroots or wilt and die.
That’s what’s made it all the more heartbreaking to see this same thing play out in many different ways in the years since: the Democratic/neo-liberal left dismissing the power of new/digital media and failing to meaningfully invest in and engage with it, and then gnashing their teeth and wringing their hands when they continue to lose influence and support in that sphere.
A big part of the problem is that the people and platforms with a truly leftist bent, willing to speak truth to power regardless of political party or wealth, don’t tend to endear themselves to traditional Democratic power brokers or the very rich. By the very nature of the work they/we do, leftist media can’t rely on a handful of billionaires to back them up like the right does.
Which is why having a better system of collecting and distributing funds, from a diverse array of people, would be a better way to build support and power on the left. Right now, however, the left’s media and funding ecosystem is extremely balkanized, broken up, spread out, sometimes in conflict with one another, and unable to organize in a meaningful way to push back against the behemoth of the right.
It doesn’t have to be like that. Of course, it’s going to be hard work. It’s going to require changing our habits and being willing to get uncomfortable, to collaborate with and support people we might even find annoying or strange or difficult. The right is very good at doing this–in their case swallowing, ignoring, capitulating, etc. to some of the very worst actors, all in the name of a unified mission of power and control.
The left can and should take a lesson from the tactic, if definitely not the goal. Not a one-for-one lesson, mind you. I have no desire to be part of a leftist movement that tolerates/ignores/capitulates to genuinely harmful behaviors and ideas. There is a fucking line! But let’s take the general idea - that we must find a way to call each other in more than out, that even difficult people deserve basic rights and care, that we have a responsibility to each other and to building community that makes space for everyone to thrive, that we have to find ways to collaborate even if we don’t always get along, that we have to be coordinated and committed in our approach, in order to reach our goals.
We can’t (and shouldn’t) rely on the already very wealthy and powerful few to fund us, either. But we need money (alas!) to build the kind of media, political, and grassroots infrastructure that’s needed to make a real difference. So where does that money and support come from?
Here are a few ideas to start:
Shop local, at all costs. Stop supporting giant corporations like Amazon if you can at all help it, and put your money toward people/businesses that will keep that money in the community - and who also don’t exploit people and ecosystems to do their work.
Give whatever you can to mutual aid groups and small, local non-profits doing direct action to support your communities. Build it into your monthly budget. If you can’t give money, give your time/energy/efforts. These are the networks that serve some of our most vulnerable and undervalued demographics, and are often the most able to step in and provide immediate assistance in the face of attacks and disasters (recommended reading on this topic: “A Paradise Built in Hell” by Rebecca Solnit).
Subscribe to/become a sustaining member of your local non-profit and/or small media outlet(s). In Madison, we have several great ones to choose from: Tone, Isthmus, WORT, Madison Minutes/CityCast Madison, even the Cap Times. Nationally, check out the 19th News, ProPublica, and Rewire.News. Find a big list of independent media here.
Subscribe to/pay for other digital media doing good work (podcasters, Twitch streamers, etc.) - I like Matt Bernstein’s A Bit Fruity, Vibe Check, Throughline, Strict Scrutiny, and You’re Wrong About, as some ideas. You’ll have to let me know who the influential and good YouTubers and Twitch streamers are, though. I’m an elder Millennial.
Build political power locally and turn those into regional and national coalitions with power and influence. The Working Families Party is doing a good job of this - working with the landscape as it is (heavily beholden to the current two-party system) and endorsing Democratic and Independent candidates who align with their platform, steadily building power to eventually help supplant that system. The Greens could take a lesson from that, and from how the Green Party operates in other countries, by actually supporting and running candidates at the local and state level to build a meaningful infrastructure that can meaningfully compete with the two major parties - rather than just having Jill Stein appear out of thin air every four years to stir up shit, only to disappear afterwards and do little to nothing to support building the party itself (sorry/not sorry, it’s true).
What other suggestions or ideas do you have for countering the rightwing media and political ecosystem and its influence? What are examples of this work that you are seeing and/or doing right now? Holler in the comments - the more sharing of ideas and resources, the merrier.
Take Action/Advice
“10 ways to be prepared and grounded after a Trump win” [Waging Nonviolence]
…good psychology is good social change. Authoritarian power is derived from fear of repression, isolation from each other and exhaustion at the utter chaos. We’re already feeling it.
Thus, for us to be of any use in a Trump world, we have to pay grave attention to our inner states, so we don’t perpetuate the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion or constant disorientation.
Bystander Intervention Training from Right to Be
This organization has a good track record of providing free training on bystander intervention to prevent hate in public, the workplace, and elsewhere. Check out their calendar of free upcoming workshops and jump in on one. Speaking up to protect others is going to become even more crucial as we move forward.
“Some action steps that are not protesting or voting” [Mariame Kaba and Frontline Medics]
A comprehensive and updated Google Doc of suggestions with links to resources!
Now Read This
“The wreckage Merrick Garland leaves behind” [Lisa Needham for Public Notice]
It has often been said that Donald Trump was running for president to keep himself out of prison. Mission accomplished.
But the fact that Trump wasn’t behind bars long ago, that he didn’t suffer any consequences for his criming and now likely never will, can be laid squarely at the feet of one man: Attorney General Merrick Garland. Garland dragged his feet on prosecuting Trump for election interference and pilfering classified documents, making it easy for him to run out the clock.
“Who is allowed to practice identity politics?” [Noah Smith]
In America, identity politics can only be identity politics if it comes from the left, and if it centers on historically marginalized groups. Right wing politics that emphasize male, Christian and white identity is not defined as identity politics. As the perceived natural order of things, it is seen simply as politics.
“Again behold the stars” [Heather Hogan]
Dante's version of hell, like all versions of hell, is so very parochial. The portal is always in our own backyards, filled with people we know, people we fear, like we invented it, because we did.
Listen Up.
My band, LINE, is about to release our EP, “The Making Room,” on all digital platforms on December 5. Do us a solid and pre-save it on Spotify, and/or be sure to find us on the platform of your choice.
You can check out the first two singles from the EP, “Nowhere” and “The In Between,” now - streaming and in music videos on YouTube! I hope you enjoy, and thanks for supporting local music. <3
Final Frame.
Happy first snow of the year! It’s all melted away already, but it was beautiful while it lasted. I hope you’re keeping safe and warm.
‘Til next time.
Thank you, as always, for reading! A reminder that you can also throw some money behind this endeavor, if you can spare it, and it helps me a lot. Take care of each other, free Palestine, free Sudan, and stand up for trans people. xoxo