That is an tailored excerpt from the Jan. 16 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes.”

Throughout Tuesday’s Senate affirmation listening to for President-elect Donald Trump’s potential secretary of protection, Pete Hegseth, Montana Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy made certain to make use of his time to ask the nominee some vitally vital questions … like what number of genders there are and what number of pushups he can do.

In response to Hegseth, he did 5 units of 47 pushups that morning. The quantity was presumably a tribute to Trump, who’s about to change into the forty seventh president. The query from Sheehy and Hegseth’s response is par for the course with this downright bizarre model of masculinity that MAGA and its boosters are pushing on People.

The query from Sheehy and Hegseth’s response is par for the course with this downright bizarre model of masculinity that MAGA and its boosters are pushing.

You’ll be able to see it in what individuals are calling a “vibe shift.” There’s this odd, off-putting factor taking place, the place cultural figures and enterprise titans are embracing Trump out of proportion together with his 1.5% victory margin, one of many narrowest wins in American electoral historical past.

An enormous a part of this has been these pathological expressions of gender frustration by males who appear to assume that the true solution to “be a person” is to insult folks and endlessly whine about DEI and the unfairness of the world to wealthy dudes.

And that begins with the person himself, Trump, who’s, greater than the rest, a crybaby: endlessly complaining in ever extra dramatic language about how a lot of a sufferer he’s.

Trump and his marketing campaign expressly courted the bro vote in November, giving talking slots on the Republican Nationwide Conference to males like Hulk Hogan and UFC proprietor Dana White. Each embody a sort of cartoonish imaginative and prescient of masculinity that’s significantly interesting to adolescent boys.

White, who admitted to slapping his spouse after it was caught on tape, has additionally change into quick associates with Fb billionaire Mark Zuckerberg. Earlier this month, Zuckerberg put White on the board of administrators of Meta, Fb’s mum or dad firm.

That was the identical time Zuckerberg introduced Meta was ending its fact-checking program, partially, he stated, as a result of it was offending the delicate sensibilities of males.

“I do assume a number of our society has change into very like — I don’t know, I don’t even know the best phrase for it — nevertheless it’s … sort of like neutered, or like emasculated,” Zuckerberg instructed podcast host Joe Rogan.

He added: “I believe having a tradition that, like, celebrates the aggression a bit extra has its personal deserves which can be actually constructive. … I do assume the company tradition kind of had swung in the direction of being this considerably extra neutered factor, and I didn’t actually really feel that till I received concerned in martial arts, which I believe remains to be a way more masculine tradition.”

Zuckerberg additionally met late final 12 months with Trump aide Stephen Miller and signaled “that he would do nothing to impede the Trump agenda” of combating DEI, three folks with information of the assembly instructed The New York Occasions.

Zuckerberg additionally reportedly “blamed his former chief working officer, Sheryl Sandberg, for an inclusivity initiative at Fb that inspired staff’ self-expression within the office.”

I imply, at one stage, it’s truly an ideal instance of masculine power to not personal your choices and as a substitute blame them on a lady who was your subordinate. Nevertheless it’s a sort of masculine power — if you wish to name it that — that’s fairly rattling pathetic.

That’s the opposite bizarre factor about all these “manly males” and the way they carry out masculinity. Not solely does it contain a ton of whining and blame-shifting, nevertheless it additionally entails abject ranges of, dare I say, emasculating subservience.

All these “manly males” are so desperate to undergo the superior will of Trump whereas concurrently bragging about their superhuman feats. Whether or not it’s all of the pushups you may allegedly do, in Hegseth’s case, or claiming you’re probably the greatest video players within the universe, as Elon Musk has just lately accomplished.

Throughout an look on Rogan’s podcast in November, Musk claimed to be one of many prime 20 gamers on this planet at Diablo 4, a role-playing on-line online game. It’s a daring declare, which Musk made once more just lately with one other sport, Path of Exile 2. However hard-core players shortly took him aside after watching a livestream of Musk enjoying that sport, wherein he dedicated tons of errors that no top-flight gamer would make.

Some recommended Musk had employed a ringer to play the video games for him, or cheated in another means. Musk’s response to the barrage of criticism was to throw a tantrum and submit criticism of a kind of players who roasted him. He additionally took away that gamer’s blue-check verification on X, the social media web site Musk owns.

Bear in mind when Musk purchased Twitter and stated it was completely unfair how they have been utilizing blue checks to separate customers into “lords and peasants?” And now the tech titan, who complains concerning the “woke thoughts virus” and says his trans daughter is figuratively useless to him, is exhibiting how thin-skinned he actually is.

We’re underneath the thumb of desperately thin-skinned thirsty males who’re satisfied, as New York Occasions columnist Jamelle Bouie put it, “that ‘masculine’ power means license to behave like a chud in public, versus extra conventional notions of public masculinity, akin to people who put a premium on the efficiency of integrity, honesty, honor and generosity.”

It’s truly an ideal instance of masculine power to not personal your choices and as a substitute blame them on a lady who was your subordinate.

Bouie’s feedback made me consider my grandfather, a lifelong conservative Republican, stridently anti-communist and anti-abortion. I beloved him, however he and I had very totally different politics and worldviews, definitely round gender.

However I’ll say this for my grandfather, or “The Bear,” as we known as him. There have been two character traits he had that I admired: He was his personal man by means of and thru; he didn’t bow and scrape. And he didn’t whine and had no tolerance for many who did.

If all these highly effective males are going to fetishize some throwback conception of manhood, perhaps begin with that. Be your individual man. Don’t debase your self by bending the knee.

Allison Detzel contributed.