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If you’re not familiar with the MGTOW movement, you’re about to get a crash course.

MGTOW stands for “Men Going Their Own Way.” It’s an ideology that has gained traction in recent years, one that espouses the belief that women are the root of many (if not most) male problems. They believe that modern society is gynocentric. This is especially true in the realm of marriage and divorce, which MGTOW proponents claim is just a vehicle to rob men of their money and offspring.

Indeed, the MGTOW movement views women as the “scheming, insane sex,” whose only purpose is to leech off of males, who are (according to MGTOW) the only real innovators and force behind progress in the history of the world.

In summation: the whole movement is about as absurd as the NO MA’AM club Al Bundy created on Married…With Children.

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One Nation, Under Scapegoating

In countries around the world and the U.S. in particular, the rise of so-called populism (or a toxic version of it) has also produced an increase in scapegoating. National crises are being blamed on foreigners, minorities, the poor, and other traditional boogiemen trotted out by ultra-conservatives.

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This faulty, disempowering logic has been diffused down through society to the personal level and taken on by ideologies like MGTOW. If a country’s problems can be blamed on “the outsider,” then can’t the same be said of an individual’s issues?

This trend is troubling not only for the targets of the “other-blaming,” but also for the blamers. The scapegoating rhetoric is the ultimate crippler of personal agency. How can someone expect to solve their problems if they blame someone or something else for said problems?

If you give your personal power away, you may feel better temporarily because you absolve yourself from responsibility for whatever troubles you in life. But in the long-term, you have convinced yourself that self-improvement through hard work, discipline, and making personal changes is not possible.

Because, in the scapegoating mindset, the source of your problems is not you, but rather someone else. Therefore, the only logic remaining is to “get rid of” or distance yourself from the imagined source of the problem: other people.

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The Real Definition of Toxic Masculinity

Part of the MGTOW belief system is that men are “under attack.” They believe the phrase “toxic masculinity” refers to ALL aspects of masculinity as being unwholesome. This boils down to an imagined “war on men.”

But wiser heads know that toxic masculinity refers to male behavior that emphasizes the more detrimental, male stereotypes into which Western culture has pigeonholed men. This is the image of the man as aggressive, emotionally distant, in constant competition with other males, and a “rugged individual” who doesn’t need anyone else to succeed in life.

Is it any wonder there’s an epidemic of male isolation?

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The Simple Belief System Litmus Test

Here’s a simple litmus test for any life philosophy: take a long, hard look at your beliefs. If any of them are founded on scapegoating other people for your problems, you need to rethink/replace that belief.

Let’s face the facts, guys. The world is a place of opportunity. It has hardship and comfort, ugliness and beauty, failure and success. The world is a blank canvas for the creation of the life you seek, as long as you set your intentions and take conscious, willful action toward your goals.

You will encounter roadblocks and disappointments. But these are not part of some hokey “conspiracy” to hold you back. Rather, our failures are the necessary “contrast” that allows us to see our success, just like you wouldn’t appreciate the day without the dark of night.

In other words, you can’t sit back and wait for the world to give you what you want. You can’t remain static and stagnant, making no attempt to fulfill your dreams, and then wonder why you aren’t getting what you want. You MUST take action.

No one else is holding you back. Only YOU can hold you back.

Men, it’s time to reclaim our power. Not from some imagined, insidious female “threat.” We need to take our power back from faulty societal programming that wants to keep us locked into a harmful stereotype.

Get out there and live beyond the norm. Don’t be a carbon copy man who keeps other people at arm’s length, doesn’t ask for help, and doesn’t feel. Suppressing what makes you human is killing you, slowly.

Take back your power. Take back your life. Don’t be MGTOW or any other type of scapegoater. Your life and the world around you will be all the better.

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Photo credit: Getty Images

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