Much like an on-again, off-again junkie giving advice on how to avoid drugs, accused womanizer and singer John Mayer is now preaching about “toxic masculinity.”

The crooner made his remarks during a Sunday night cancer benefit show at the Modell Performing Arts Center in Baltimore “when he went off on a tangent about toxic masculinity, which he called a ‘bulls**t’ alpha male contract that's nailed into boys’ heads from a young age,” reports TMZ. “We have to tear the contract up” and “get rid of that [flaw] in men,” said Mayer.

Obviously motivated by the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation controversy, Mayer further opined that “we won’t have the life that we all deserve” until men abandon that contract and learn they “do not possess the universal ability to have any woman” (video below). Well, this just proves that you don’t need a college education to be miseducated.

Of course, the belief that one possesses “the universal ability to have any woman” doesn’t seem like one of Joe Sixpack’s problems; the average guy may think he has trouble getting any woman. It sounds like an entitled rock star’s problem. It sounds like projection.

Pundit Tucker Carlson took Mayer to task on the Monday and Tuesday editions of his Fox News cable show. Expounding upon possible psychological motivations for the singer’s toxic tirade, Carlson noted Mayer’s alleged womanizing and theorized that his comments could be just a “pre-emptive strike against further accusations” that could be leveled against the performer (video below).

Elaborating, Carlson pointed out that there’s more evidence Mayer has “hurt women than there is for Brett Kavanaugh.” The commentator continued, “That doesn’t mean his rant was surprising. Harvey Weinstein, you’ll remember, was a big defender of women, too. Do we sense a theme here?”

Certainly. It’s often the case that men who preach feminism publicly violate the feminine sex privately. Bill Clinton, liberal Republican Bob Packwood, and many of the men taken down by the #MeToo-movement — approximately 90 percent of whom are liberals — fit this mold. The psychology?

These men may be trying to expiate their sins with corresponding acts of pc pseudo-piety. “I can have my fun as long as I ‘balance the scales’ with ‘good deeds,’” is the thinking. It’s a way to indulge the flesh while assuaging the conscience.

Moreover, treating women like men (roughly) and dispensing with chivalry, “liberating” them from sexual constraints, and the broader concept of “women’s rights” are all part of the feminist paradigm. A man can feel justified embracing the first two things if he also subscribes to the last one. In this sense he feels as if he’s not a hypocrite — he espouses the whole package.

As for Mayer, he certainly seems to have much to justify. Though he denies it, he has long been reputed as a womanizer. In fact, pop-singer friend Melissa Lefton claimed in 2012 that the performer has two faces. As Her reported, “‘John basically has two personalities: the romantic, sweet, good guy you hear in his songs, and the player who loves ‘em and leaves ‘em,’ Melissa revealed to British magazine Grazia. ‘The guy has it all so he can get away with murder.’”

Mayer himself admits to having problems, confessing in 2015 to being a “recovered ego addict.” Then there’s the 2017 New York Times piece telling us, “John Mayer Knows He Messed Up. He Wants Another Chance.” Now, it certainly is noble to soul-search and seek to remedy faults, only, it’s better if they’re actually real ones — and your own.

It’s highly likely that Mayer’s projection goes beyond the “ability to have any woman” notion. Note that projection is a universal problem; people naturally tend to ascribe their own mindsets and priorities to others. Thus do liars assume others lie and racial chauvinists assume others are race-obsessed.

Yet projection by Mayer would also serve a purpose: to diffuse responsibility by ascribing his failures to wide societal phenomena. It’s not that I misused my free will and decided to sin, you see; it’s this “toxic masculinity” we’ve all been raised with. I’m a victim of my environment!

Moreover, at least a good part of the solution lies with society: It must change.

No, Mr. Mayer — you must change. The problem isn’t all men. Most men aren’t rich entertainers; they don’t think the world is theirs and that they can possess any woman. Millions of men are loyal to their wives, love their kids, and still behave chivalrously. The problem is you. You, just like everyone else, are responsible for your own sins.

In addition, Mr. Mayer, you do even more damage by espousing a concept as ridiculous as “toxic masculinity,” which Carlson correctly called a “made-up dumb feminist term” originated by a “bunch of ludicrous low-IQ academics making it up as they go along.”

In reality, the concept is designed to demonize actual masculinity for the purposes of replacing it with what its proponents label proper masculinity, but what is actually a politically correct pseudo-masculinity. Note again that it’s leftist soy-boy types who generally abuse women. The truly masculine men, the chivalrous ones, tend to protect women.

Why is toxic-masculinity theory being pushed? The issue is multi-faceted, but try this on for size: Men as a group are conservative and vote Republican; men adhering to traditional masculine ideas support the GOP by a wide margin. So if you’re a leftist social engineer — the kind of person infesting the realms in which toxic-masculinity theory was birthed, academia; and through which it’s pushed, the media and entertainment — wouldn’t you want to make future generations of boys as un-masculine as possible? It’s another way to breed tomorrow’s leftist voters.

Note that no one speaks of toxic femininity, with Carlson’s Monday guest, radical feminist Anushay Hossain, essentially saying no such phenomenon exists. Yet she also stated that toxic masculinity was “actually about men being violent towards women.” This is interesting because an analysis of approximately 100 studies showed that women are more likely than men to commit domestic violence. In fact, woman-woman pairings are the most violent of all. Approximately 53 percent of lesbians reported domestic violence in their relationships, according to a study, versus only 11 percent among opposite-sex couples.

Our problem isn’t non-existent “toxic masculinity.” But a big part of it is our toxic media, academia, and entertainment.

Photo: AP Images