Part II: It Came From Something Awful Book Review

If you missed part I, start there and read threads 1-3.

Thread 4: Patriarchy demands an active role. 

Gentlemen, I beseech you to do your part.  I'm not saying women don't have power to  make change, but in the manosphere, where women are often pushed into regressive roles, viewed primarily as  housewives and valued for their reproductive capacity to create a white ethnostate, women are sidelined in the broader conversations. 

I have used my own platform to speak about the rise of the trad wife phenomena and the role women play in fighting brainwashing (see  GOP Drama & TradWife Trauma or Tradwives Explain How Feminism Tricked You). 

Our young men need non-crazy role models. I know you don't want it to be your labor, but they're more likely to listen to you than a woman they consider physically and mentally inferior. 

Thread 5: Parenting choices matter. 

Every single one of these wild stories of a 12 or 15 year old starting, managing, and running a site begins with what's going on at home.  Consistently the story goes, a tween has unfettered and unlimited access to the internet and has now built _________ (fill-in-the-blank with whatever cesspool platform/app/program/website you would like to).  While I’m not a parent, I’ve had parents express how powerless they feel despite holding the purse strings and making the rules at home. Autonomy and independence do not take priority over red pilling. Yes, young men will make their choices and they can rebel against your strict rules, but there are concrete norms you can adhere to in our own family. Keep tabs on what your kids are playing (you're still paying for things). Put the gaming device in a public place. Engage in convos about the online communities your kid is using. Get your kid plugged into a community better aligned with values like hard work, empathy, and respect. Maybe that's church. Maybe that's sports. Maybe that's playing an instrument. To be clear, I know some amazing young men who live much of their lives online, but their kindness, compassion, and empathy started at home and continue in both the online and real worlds they exist in. 

Thread 6: Honestly it's not even about young men. 
Throughout the book, Beran drops some subtle (and not so subtle) remarks about the stifled growth of men, the childish mentality never grown out of, the immature approach to relationships, etc. 

This is the problem now. The Italian dude next to me on my flight last week was listening to Joe Rogan. I recently had a root canal and my Lebanese dentist was listening to Joe Rogan while working. Each episode of The Joe Rogan Experience gets approx 16 million downloads. Taylor Swift’s largest attendance record came in at 96 thousand while Beyonce brought in just over 240,000 fans. Clearly, Rogan is resonating with young and not-so-young men all across the globe. I don't have the time  to dig into the Andrew Tate nonsense, but the issue of the manosphere is not just an American problem. I also don't have the fortitude to lay out an argument about the rise of the right and fascist ideologies sweeping the globe (highly recommend the podcast Popular Front with Jake Hanrahan). 

All those 4chan young men may have grown up (technically), but they are still thinking and acting like children (honestly, it's an insult to children because I teach 17 yr old students who are far wiser and more savvy). Now we have 30 somethings uniting forces with 70 somethings at the junction of insecurity and toxic masculinity. That is our voting block. That just might explain the 2016 and 2024 elections.  

What Now? I don't know. 

While I don't have any background in formal trolling and I personally found my sense of self through my faith community and music, I'm old enough to have a majority of the stories in this book in my peripheral view.  

In retrospect, I saw many of the implications of the ideologies explored in this book come to life when I started teaching high school in 2006, working with young men searching for their sense of purpose and belonging . More significantly, I felt a direct impact when I became a founding member of TAN (Tacoma Against Nazis) organizing against the local Nazi affiliated tattoo parlor in my city.  I won't forget being doxxed or the fear I felt worrying that my loved ones might be targeted due to my activism. That didn’t stop me from speaking out-–and fortunately, my trollers were too stupid to realize that they didn’t have the correct info or that I was a public school teacher and many of my details were easily accessible online.

Today, I am acutely aware of the messages of hate and misogyny bombarding our young men, luring them into creepy forums, and promoting violent behavior.

At the risk of making a listicle and essentializing a complex topic, I'll end with some recommendations and a call to action. 

• Read this book. 

• Men, please step up with your colleagues, your friends, and young men around you.

• Read or listen to some of the sources I’ve embedded here.

• If you have any nephews, sons, or brothers,, please start engaging them and offering a counter to the brainwashing they are receiving from the manosphere.