Toxic Testosterone makes racist and sexist men highly susceptible to radicalization

EDIT: Two more articles have surfaced in the last 5 days or so which underscore this world of white male anger. The first illustrates the background of James Fields Jr., who plowed a car into the counter-protesters in Charlottesville reveals a pattern of domestic violence. The man had even assaulted his own mother:

The persistent crime that connects mass shooters and terror suspects: Domestic violence Before police in Virginia arrested a 20-year-old man they said plowed his car into a group of activists in Charlottesville over the weekend, killing one and injuring 19 others, the same man had come to the attention of law enforcement in another state. In 2010, police records show, the mother of James Alex Fields Jr. called 911 to report that her son had hit her and threatened to beat her. During another 911 call, made the following year, Fields’s mother said he was “very threatening toward her,” the dispatcher noted.



These calls have helped shed some light on Fields’s life before the chaos in Charlottesville on Saturday. They were also grimly familiar. With the revelation of his mother’s terrified calls, Fields became the latest man accused of a potential terrorist attack or a mass killing to have previously been accused of domestic violence.

. . .

Since the attack, which experts say appears to straddle the line between a hate crime and terrorism, details about Fields’s background have slowly emerged. Notably, a former teacher recalled him as a Nazi sympathizer since at least high school. But the 911 calls fit a different and striking pattern, one that seems to regularly emerge after a mass shooter opens fire in a public place or an act of terrorism erupts in the United States.



Time and time again, spasms of violence in public places have been followed by investigations into the attackers and suspects. Many of those probes have unearthed reports of violence or threatening behavior against women in their lives. While research has shown that domestic violence is not universally a factor preceding public attacks, it has cropped up often enough following high-profile incidents to constitute a disturbing, recognizable pattern.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/15/the-persistent-crime-that-connects-mass-shooters-and-terror-suspects-domestic-violence

~AND~

'Trump's delivering exactly what they wanted: white male supremacy' And then there was one guy who “just looked at us and spit”, said Sandra Davis, 58, a colleague of Harrington, who pointed out the evidence still evaporating from the pavement.



“They feel empowered,” Davis said of Trump supporters since the election. “They’re given voice. The louder and the more vulgar, the better.”



Images from the night before of white supremacists carrying torches in Charlottesville, Virginia, were deeply disturbing but not surprising, said another activist, Ginny Atwell.



“I think his core base are the true deplorables,” Atwell, 72, said of Trump. “The white supremacists. He’s delivering exactly what they wanted. White male supremacy.”



“No women and no minorities,” said Harrington.



“And keep everybody else out,” said Atwell.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/17/donald-trump-support-base-pennsylvania-voters?CMP=share_btn_tw

Toxic Testosterone makes racist and sexist men highly susceptible to radicalization



I just call them the 'radical right". Unfortunately they are now all that's left of what used to be the Republican Party.



The GOP are now essentially the Party of angry MRAs (Men's Rights Activists), Extremist Evangelicals, and White Supremacists/Nazis -- because they allowed themselves to be made into that and have done absolutely nothing to fight against it.

What are these men angry about? They're angry that people of non-white color, people who are non-heterosexual, people who are not males, people who are non Christian/Evangelicals are fast becoming a bigger demographic in the United States than they are and some of them obtained very powerful positions in our society.

A Black man was elected President. Twice. Then, an extremely well-qualified woman ran and was nominated. These events struck earth-shaking fear in the hearts if the AWM (Angry White Male) contingent of US society. They are already a minority and have been for many decades. But they're a very loud, well-armed, and angry minority and they're not having anymore non-white males as President of the US. I've seen them called the Whiney Right for that reason. The big difference now is that they have the US government behind them in the form of Donald J Trump who is very much one of them. The reason Mr. Trump has consistently refused to denounce the KKK, white nationalism, and the hate and violence in Charlottesville last night is because he is part of it - in fact he's the leader of it. His silence is consent. That's how the radical right interprets it - because it is true.

I have a brother who voted Republican for the first time in his life in 2016. He is an MRA who despises and discounts women. ALL women. He is a spoiled and angry white man. My mother spoiled him and he hates her. Women are sluts or madonnas and never to be listened to or allowed power - no matter who they are or how qualified. If the woman has not penis to keep her brain in, she's not qualified. These are his attitudes.

Yet he voted Democratic for years -- as long as the candidates were MEN. As soon as a highly qualified woman won the nomination it was: "I'm not gonna vote for no feminism!" And his vote went to Trump. So my first hand experience with the "alt-right"/radical right bears this out. They are angry white men, OD'd on their own toxic testosterone, radicalized by online MRA celebrities and websites, and angry at everything and everyone: women, people who are not white, people who weren't born in the US, people who are not evangelicals, people who don't own guns, people who are not heterosexual...basically anyone and everyone who is not just like them.

Even Noam Chomsky (a white man) recognizes it. He described the rise of Trump in 2016 as "generalized rage, mostly white men angry at everything"

Men's Rights Activists and White Supremacists are radicalizing angry white men on YouTube. James Damore became a Radical Right hero after Google fired him over his views on women.

And it was apparently Google's own YouTube that helped radicalize Damore. According to this Guardian UK article:

YouTube has in recent years become one of the most influential and powerful social media sites for conservative commentators and far-right and “alt-right” leaders, who have built large audiences outside of mainstream channels. And it turns out the video-sharing platform, owned by Google, may even have been influential in the formulation of Damore’s beliefs. The 28-year-old – who was fired over his memo, becoming an instant hero to the alt-right – appears to have taken some interest in the segments of YouTube that promote the idea that men are better than women at certain jobs, and that diversity programs lead to discrimination against white males. The Harvard graduate chose the programs of two YouTube personalities with large rightwing followings for his first media appearances this week. At the end of a 51-minute conversation with Jordan Peterson, a University of Toronto psychology professor famous for his anti-transgender views, Damore said he agreed to do the interview because, he said, he was a “huge fan” of the Youtube personality.

Let's be clear. This is not a push coming from "many sides.", as Radical Right leader Donald Trump wrongly implied. It's coming from his Republican Party. Now that they have White Nationalists/Nazis/White Supremacists at the highest levels of US government, this angry white male minority is emboldened to ram it's white/male/heterosexual/evangelical agenda down everyone's throats (or other orifices) with their guns.

Noam Chomsky and a good many other historians have warned that this is exactly how Hitler got into power and the atrocities of the Holocaust came to be accepted and carried out.

As an indicator that these angry white men are a minority, I can offer my own personal experience. Besides my brother, I know of no other white male (even some of the other Trump voters I know) who are one of these unless it's a secret with them and it could well be. However, their radical views would be VERY difficult to hide from me. And, many white men in recent months have called these extremists out for their white-hot, white-male anger issues and testosterone-driven behavior. One of those men was Noam Chomsky. Another of them was Washington Post columnist David Rothkopf.

In Rothkopf's article "Decoding the ancient logic of the Google Bro" (apropos for this discussion particularly), he writes: "Testosterone is the most effective solvent for human brain tissue. Just a drop or two can render a perfectly functional human cortex completely stupid. As evidence, I offer all of human history."

Case in Point: As much as society decries “women's hormones” as being problematic for leadership roles, it seems the hormones of men are at least as dangerous, if not more so.

Rothkopf continues:

This is a bold statement. I also believe it to be true. (I am currently struggling with my own testosterone levels to try to write this column coherently.) Naturally, I have a right to express this statement, much as did Google Bro James Damore, when he wrote his now infamous manifesto suggesting women were less successful in tech jobs because of certain biological impediments. For example, he suggested women were naturally too neurotic for high-stress jobs. Apparently, he did not have a mother.



What Damore did not have of course, was the permanent right to a job at Google. The tech giant fired him for violating the company’s code of conduct on Monday. Google is a private company and is well within its rights to fire people who promote intolerance. And to fire people who demonstrate themselves to be idiots. But of course, visible ignoramuses like Google Bro are only part of the problem. That is not to minimize the negative effects of Bro-ism. We seem to be living in a golden age of this particular malady as witnessed by the “grab them by the p––––” shenanigans of Donald Trump and the exhibitionist, sexist compulsions of the bare-chested 64-year-old Vladimir Putin. Both of them are engaged in the world’s most notorious bromance. The problem is that the foolishness of bros worldwide has dire global consequences. Indeed, while our eyes are drawn to headlines underscoring the imminent threats we face today, no problem has caused more damage to more people in the course of human history than the subjugation of women, who make up about half of the world’s population. From the millions of girls and women who still die yearly because they are seen as unworthy of equal medical care as males, to millions who lead less fulfilling lives because they are denied opportunities by male-dominated societies, the suffering involved is not open to debate. The repression of women’s rights is still defended as a cultural prerogative in every corner of the globe. Even in the most educated, prosperous societies, it is a problem perpetuated daily by the wrong-headed, insupportable beliefs of guys such as Damore and by bros in top government and corporate positions worldwide.

The Rev. Dr. William Barber (one of the 'good' evangelicals who has not bought into the radical insanity) asked "Where were these extremists radicalized?"

The answer is, sadly, that they are being radicalized right here at home by our own society and social media -- and emboldened by our own President and his radical right Nazis in our US government: Steven Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, Stephen Miller and of course Trump himself. NRA arms them to the teeth and make no mistake they are itching for another War since they lost the last two (Civil War and WWII) which were fought about and won against their extremist and dangerous ideas.

As deadly as domestic terrorism is, it's even more so when the US government openly sanctions it with a wink and a nod

The hoods are off now. Someone good with Photoshop humorously illustrated how toxic the testosterone problem in American society is, in the context of the shameful and deadly Charlottesville Nazi race riot just last night.

While some of this is funny and humor can be made of it, let's not forget these people - as most extremists such as ISIS/ISIL - are very dangerous and they mean to start a civil war in the United States unless they are denounced at the highest levels. But such denouncement is unfortunately unlikely as long as Donald Trump remains in power as their leading consenting figurehead. Article after article and many gov't statistics can be found about how homegrown extremists are tied to more numerous and deadlier tolls than jihadists in U.S. since 9/11.



Even so, Donald Trump in February 2017 directed the DHS to rename and revamp a program which was to provide assistance and funding to investigate terrorism of all kinds, including domestic terrorism. Instead, Trump decreed the program would be renamed and restructured to only focus on Islamic terrorism. This is just one of many moves Trump has made to let his white nationalist/MRA contingent know that he will look the other way as they terrorize people in the US to their heart's content.

Last night in Charlottesville, a young woman was murdered by a domestic terrorist who plowed a car into the anti-protester crowd and many more people were injured. The young white male, named James Alex Fields Jr. was from Ohio and was a Trump supporter. He has been taken into custody and charged with murder. The FBI and US Justice Department (led by a known and notorious racist, Jeff Sessions) are "investigating". Sane Americans would be advised not to expect much as a result of any investigations done by the current Trump administration.

James Fields Jr was seen before he plowed his car into the anti-protester crowd. He was seen standing with other white supremacists holding a shield with the insignia of the "Vanguard America" hate group before his attack.

It's also statistical fact around the world that men are the leading perpetrators of violence, assaults, wars, and mass killings. Most if not all mass shooters are men. Men carry out around 92 - 97% of sexual assaults as well - even when their victims are also male (or not even human at all/animals). Contrary to popular belief too, the majority of perpetrators of sexual assault are white males. Not all of them, but certainly the majority of them.

All this is not to demonize white males. These are facts and statistics as understood by scholars, current government statistics and studies based on currently available data - and as evidenced by the behavior of most of these "alt-right" white males. It's important to keep in mind that men who hold such extreme views about women and others who are unlike them -- and who act in deadly or violent ways to express those views or carry out agendas in defense of them are still the minority. The question is how to stop their influence from spreading like ISIS/ISIL. Am I comparing the two? YES I am. It's an apropos comparison when talking about the spread of violent extremism, whether at home or abroad. These same men who decry "Sharia Law" and fear it being enacted in the US, are at the same time supporting extremist views and attitudes which are just as dangerous if not more so. The hypocrisy and irony surrounding this is stunning.

Much like Trump himself, and most Republicans historically, these radical right make a habit of accusing others of that which they are most guilty themselves. Trump repeating "Crooked Hillary" over and over when Trump himself is a bigger con artist than Clinton could ever imagine becoming herself is an example of how well that tactic works, especially when the opponent is a woman, LGBT person, or a person of a different color or nationality or religion.

I've always said that pretentious hypocrisy is the hallmark of Republicans and it is. Josef Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister - said that the best way to distract the public is to always accuse the other side of that which you are most guilty yourself. Republicans and certainly MRAs, Nazis, and other extremists have this tactic down to an art form, along with false equivalency arguments such as the one the media and Trump himself have repeatedly used in regards to the Charlottesville Nazi-incited race riot we just saw last night. We have heard "all sides" repeated over and over. But this wan't "all sides". It was ONE side and that side was the Radical Right/Nazis.

This is why all the belligerent, ignorant, and hypocritical-sexist claims about Hillary Clinton doesn't wash with many people. They know from whence it comes and are familiar with the pretentious hypocrisy and false equivalence arguments often used by the GOP/Nazi Party and the media when it comes to women who are experts in their fields - especially if her name is "Clinton".

Hillary and History

Hillary Clinton it must be remembered, devoted an entire speech to domestic terrorism and Trump's encouragement of it, combined with his inability to handle a crisis. As evidenced by his response to the Charlottesville riot last night, we can see she was correct.

In August 2016, Hillary said: "He’s taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over one of America’s two major political parties. His disregard for the values that make our country great is profoundly dangerous," "A man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the internet, should never run our government or command our military," she added. . . . Under Donald Trump, America would distinguish itself as the only country in the world to impose a religious test at the border. Now come to think of it, there actually maybe one other place that does that, the so called Islamic State, the territory that ISIS controls. What a cruel irony that someone running for president would equate us with them. Now but don't worry some will say, as President Trump will be surrounded by smart advisors who will rein in his worst impulses. So when a tweet gets under his skin and he wants to retaliate with a cruise missile, maybe cooler heads will convince him not to, well maybe. But look at who he's put in charge of his campaign. Trump likes to say he only hires the best people but he's had to fire so many campaign managers it's like an episode from The Apprentice. And the latest shake up was designed to quote "Let Trump be Trump". So to do that he hired Stephen Bannon, the head of a right- wing website called Breitbart.com, as the campaign's CEO. Now, to give you a flavor of his work, here are a few headlines that they've published. And I'm not making this up. "Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy." "Would you rather your child had feminism or cancer?" "Gabby Giffords: The gun control movement's human shield." "Hoist it high and proud: The confederate flag proclaims a glorious heritage". And that one came shortly after the Charleston massacre, when Democrats and Republicans alike were doing everything they could to heal racial divides that Breitbart and Bannon tried to inflame. Just imagine, Donald trump, reading that and thinking: this is what I need more of in my campaign. Now, Bannon has nasty things to say about pretty much everyone. This spring, he railed against Speaker Paul Ryan for, quote, "rubbing his social-justice Catholicism in my nose every second." No wonder he's gone to work for Trump, the only presidential candidate ever to get into a public feud with the Pope. It's truly hard to believe but according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, Breitbart embraces ideas on the extremist fringe of the conservative right. This is not conservatism as we have known it. This is not Republicanism as we have known it. These are racist ideas, race-baiting ideas, anti-Muslim, anti- immigrant, anti-woman, all key tenants making up an emerging racist ideology known as the alt-right. Now, alt-right is short for alternative-right. The Wall Street Journal describes it, as a loose but organized movement, mostly online, that rejects mainstream conservatism, promotes nationalism, and views immigration and multiculturalism as threats to white identity. So the de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump campaign represents a landmark achievement for this group, a fringe element has effectively taken over the Republican party. And this is part of a broader story -- the rising tide of hard-line, right-wing nationalism around the world.

Media Matters provided this piece on Trump's support of Nazism and white nationalism, which seems to indicate too, that Hillary was correct in calling out Trump and his supporters on this:

Donald Trump's presidential campaign has engaged in a disturbing courtship with the racist white nationalist movement that is unprecedented in recent American political history. That effort has taken on new life with Trump's hiring of Breitbart News chief Stephen Bannon. Bannon oversaw Breitbart News’ attempts to normalize and embrace the white nationalist movement. As the Southern Poverty Law Center noted, Breitbart "has undergone a noticeable shift toward embracing ideas on the extremist fringe of the conservative right. Racist ideas. Anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant ideas." White nationalist themes have been at the center of Trump's campaign since its inception. He began his campaign by smearing Mexican immigrants as violent criminals and rapists and later called for a ban on Muslim immigration, moves which endeared him to his growing white nationalist support. When Trump attacked the Mexican heritage of an American-born judge and smeared the family of a fallen Muslim-American soldier, his white nationalist fans cheered. Trump also initially refused to condemn the support of David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. White nationalists haven't only praised Trump from afar: They've rubbed elbows with the campaign. Trump himself has repeatedly retweeted white supremacist messages and accounts, such as “WhiteGenocideTM.” Trump surrogates have directly courted white nationalists by giving interviews to white nationalist media outlets. A “pro-white” radio host received press credentials to cover a Trump rally and the Republican National Convention. And Trump selected the leader of a white nationalist political party to be a convention delegate (he resigned following media exposure). White nationalists have used Trump's tacit and direct support to breathe new life into their movement. The movement’s leaders have said they have seen "unprecedented interest" in their activities and message. They have used Trump to fundraise and build up their organizations. And white nationalist leaders say they and their ideas are now "firmly in the mainstream" thanks to Trump.

Many historians and academics have warned that Trump's rise perfectly mirrors the ascent of Fascism and Nazis in the 1930s. And they warn that if the Republican Party does not want to be abhored for and dis-remembered as ones who passively allowed it to happen, they had better act soon. Yale historian Timothy Snyder writes:

One of the reasons why the radical right was able to overcome conservatives back in the 1930s was that the conservatives did not understand the threat. Nazis in Germany, like fascists in Italy and Romania, did have popular support, but they would not have been able to change regimes without the connivance or the passivity of conservatives. The last time around, the old right chose suicide by midwifery, and it seems to be doing so again. If Republicans do not wish to be remembered (and forgotten) like the German conservatives of the 1930s, they had better find their courage – and their conservatism – fast.

Hillary Clinton called them "Deplorables" and we can see now how that moniker fits them, judging by their behavior in Charlottesville last night. We can see that everything she said about Trump and his merry band of Nazi Terrorists was true.

The Mob of Morons ("M0M" as I call them) went to Charlottesville VA last night with their torches and pitchforks plunged into the night air to nurse their ignorance, cram their fear and hate down the throats of an unwilling / unwitting society, cause a race riot, incite and carry out violence, and murder innocent people, as all terrorists do. And they succeeded. And Donald Trump — the President of the United States — approved.

Hillary was right about them. They ARE "Deplorable". The question is, now that this minority of radical right extremists have taken over the highest levels of US government, what are we going to do about it?

Is THIS what America and Americans want to be? If not, NOW is the time for Republicans, Democrats, and sane white men along with the rest of us, to SAY 'NO!'.