I think it’s hilariously ironic that the men who see themselves as icons of masculinity have to write entire books about how they’re icons of masculinity. Those of us who looked at gender roles in our teens and twenties and decided not to play are far better off than these people who have to constantly convince themselves that they’re gendering correctly. I consider trad wives in a similar boat, though the motivation is probably different.
The worst part is that these people are currently running the country.
"Ron Swanson would rip this book out of Tom Haverford's hands and send him out with the road crew to learn how to pour concrete."
That's just it—the guys they WANT to be think they're worthless and weak! 😂
Ron Swanson was a great comedic creation because while he seems like the kind of guy who has IRON JOHN and ATLAS SHRUGGED as the family Bible? He's not the sort of Professional-Class Right-Wing egghead
Thank you for sparing me a reading of this diatribe. I’ve seen video clips online of him promoting this book and it all sounds like drivel to me. I immediately cringe when I hear these lamentations of “oh, the poor men” when they have done so little as a group to be inclusive of others—their wives, their kids, and the people they work with, etc.—and so little to view women as fully human instead of just vehicles for their own ambitions. Somehow, for decades now, women have twisted themselves into pretzels to educate themselves, to earn their own money, and do it all within a system that puts roadblocks in their way the whole time. Yet they manage to soldier on and reach their goals anyway. Suddenly, when things aren’t so easy for men anymore and they have to compete with others not like them, it’s a crisis. Suck it up, buttercups. And then they have the gall to complain about the fact that girls and women just don’t want to be with guys who always want to put themselves first; who don’t treat them well; or who are looking for a substitute mother and not a fully equal partner. When men stop treating their girlfriends and wives as trophies that affirm their status instead of people who have their own ambitions in life, then maybe we can be more honest about their issues. Frankly, I’d say that 80% of men (or more) would benefit from a good therapist, but of course that wouldn’t be masculine enough to pursue, now would it?
I think there are definitely real male problems. They just never get talked about in these discussions which are focused on cishet affluent white men and why they aren’t the patriarchs they should be.
Mass incarceration of Black men is very much a gendered problem (as well as a racial one which affects Black women too.) But it never comes up. Targeting of trans men and gay men is a big issue right now! and so on. but again, these aren’t the problems that galloway and his ilk are interested in addressing.
The other thing that baffles me is why Kara Swisher and he are such good friends. As a queer woman, you’d think she’d be resistant to his POV. Who knows? Maybe she is?
"The other thing that baffles me is why Kara Swisher and he are such good friends. As a queer woman, you’d think she’d be resistant to his POV. Who knows? Maybe she is?"
Maybe it's like Henry Fonda and James Stewart—they were incredibly close friends...who Never Ever Discussed Politics after the one time they did, and got into a fistfight over it.
Or maybe she finds his rigidly insecure "masculinity" amusing as a queer woman....
I listen to some podcasts with Prof. Galloway. Sometimes he makes good sense. Sometimes he’s just so off base. Thank you for reading the book for us. His obsession with masculinity is one of the areas he’s very often off base.
2. At least it's a memoir/self-help book written by a self-help influencer, and thus one would not reasonably expect policy analysis. The lack of good policy ideas were much more disappointing in Reeves' and Hawley's manhood books.
Gender is difficult to escape and telling ppl they shouldn’t identify with a gender has its own problems…I wish we could just give ppl a lot more leeway to interpret/experience gender in different ways rather than continually setting up standards that fit almost no one
Galloway and his ilk aren't even original thinkers ("thinkers"). His prescription is centered on a 21st century Silicon Valley version of "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" but with testosterone, social media performance, and sharp stock-trading vs the more universally accessible qualities of understanding, wit, and heart. He's not wrong to observe that the young men he's most involved with - the 20-somethings getting hired into tech so they can "move fast and break things" - have significant social-emotional deficits that being a 20-something millionaire coder at SpaceX are not going to mitigate. But few people, including Galloway I suspect, thinks those young men have a problem or are a problem; it's the ones who crash out in frustration and anger and inability to hide their inability to cope, and make all men look bad.
I’m sorry you had to read this book. I knew it reeked without having to read it. Galloway was on MSNBC blathering on about his book and I wondered why they had him on. Pure idiocy. I was at a party and a rich white guy (Trumper blowhard) announced “white men were under siege”. He got so much flack after that, he and his odious wife left the party early. SAD! 🤣
🤬 I hate the kinds of men who write these kinds of books, or give these kinds of lectures, or blather on about these so-called issues on their podcasts.
They're worse than Evangelical KKKhristers or Rampaging Capitalists—they won't shut up or keep stacking the deck to favor them, so I have to ask myself, "Are you making all this noise and pulling all these shenanigans because you're terrified that what you're preaching can't survive in a free market?"
I barely got past your introduction to this piece before I started seeing red and hearing jungle drums, Noah. The smug, self-righteous stupidity...IT BURNNNSSSSSS!
For a great review and a woman’s perspective on Galloway and his dumb, boring book check out Jessica Winter n the New Yorker: https://apple.news/ARLXLkIw2QGqGMP5wZh9iag
I think it’s hilariously ironic that the men who see themselves as icons of masculinity have to write entire books about how they’re icons of masculinity. Those of us who looked at gender roles in our teens and twenties and decided not to play are far better off than these people who have to constantly convince themselves that they’re gendering correctly. I consider trad wives in a similar boat, though the motivation is probably different.
The worst part is that these people are currently running the country.
It's not that different from trad wives. it's a call for shoring up white male patriarchy.
I didn't like the White Male Patriarchy when I was a White Male kid—I looked at what it did to my Dad and went, "Nope, not for me, thanks."
It wasn't any good for Mom, either....
The primary motivation is the same 🤑💰🤑💰.
I had to look up this clown. What a tool. Thanks for reading it so I didn't have to, Noah!
I think Scott Galloway should get an appropriately manly hobby: woodworking; welding; fixing up old cars; and stop writing silly books like this.
Go full Ron Swanson? 😉
I feel like Ron Swanson would rip this book out of Tom Haverford's hands and send him out with the road crew to learn how to pour concrete.
"Ron Swanson would rip this book out of Tom Haverford's hands and send him out with the road crew to learn how to pour concrete."
That's just it—the guys they WANT to be think they're worthless and weak! 😂
Ron Swanson was a great comedic creation because while he seems like the kind of guy who has IRON JOHN and ATLAS SHRUGGED as the family Bible? He's not the sort of Professional-Class Right-Wing egghead
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Stephen_Miller_%2854360305622%29_%28cropped%29%28c%29.jpg
in Government who usually reads those books and only took "Fuck You, Jack—I Got Mine!" from them. He's the real thing, for better and worse....
Thank you for sparing me a reading of this diatribe. I’ve seen video clips online of him promoting this book and it all sounds like drivel to me. I immediately cringe when I hear these lamentations of “oh, the poor men” when they have done so little as a group to be inclusive of others—their wives, their kids, and the people they work with, etc.—and so little to view women as fully human instead of just vehicles for their own ambitions. Somehow, for decades now, women have twisted themselves into pretzels to educate themselves, to earn their own money, and do it all within a system that puts roadblocks in their way the whole time. Yet they manage to soldier on and reach their goals anyway. Suddenly, when things aren’t so easy for men anymore and they have to compete with others not like them, it’s a crisis. Suck it up, buttercups. And then they have the gall to complain about the fact that girls and women just don’t want to be with guys who always want to put themselves first; who don’t treat them well; or who are looking for a substitute mother and not a fully equal partner. When men stop treating their girlfriends and wives as trophies that affirm their status instead of people who have their own ambitions in life, then maybe we can be more honest about their issues. Frankly, I’d say that 80% of men (or more) would benefit from a good therapist, but of course that wouldn’t be masculine enough to pursue, now would it?
I think there are definitely real male problems. They just never get talked about in these discussions which are focused on cishet affluent white men and why they aren’t the patriarchs they should be.
Mass incarceration of Black men is very much a gendered problem (as well as a racial one which affects Black women too.) But it never comes up. Targeting of trans men and gay men is a big issue right now! and so on. but again, these aren’t the problems that galloway and his ilk are interested in addressing.
The other thing that baffles me is why Kara Swisher and he are such good friends. As a queer woman, you’d think she’d be resistant to his POV. Who knows? Maybe she is?
"The other thing that baffles me is why Kara Swisher and he are such good friends. As a queer woman, you’d think she’d be resistant to his POV. Who knows? Maybe she is?"
Maybe it's like Henry Fonda and James Stewart—they were incredibly close friends...who Never Ever Discussed Politics after the one time they did, and got into a fistfight over it.
Or maybe she finds his rigidly insecure "masculinity" amusing as a queer woman....
Perhaps. It’s a good theory, anyway. :-)
🤷♂️ I don't know, just spitballing.
I listen to some podcasts with Prof. Galloway. Sometimes he makes good sense. Sometimes he’s just so off base. Thank you for reading the book for us. His obsession with masculinity is one of the areas he’s very often off base.
I have heard other people say he’s more insightful on economics or other topics.
He definitively is. And he has a strategic mind and is good at giving predictions about markets and company moves.
He is also openly thirsty for validation which is funny considering he is successful.
I’ve been wondering if I would enjoy hanging out with him or meet him at a party, and I’m not sure.
Yes to everything here. I'd just say:
1. The fundamental problem is gender itself.
2. At least it's a memoir/self-help book written by a self-help influencer, and thus one would not reasonably expect policy analysis. The lack of good policy ideas were much more disappointing in Reeves' and Hawley's manhood books.
Thankfully I didn’t read those!
Gender is difficult to escape and telling ppl they shouldn’t identify with a gender has its own problems…I wish we could just give ppl a lot more leeway to interpret/experience gender in different ways rather than continually setting up standards that fit almost no one
Galloway on masculinity is like David Brooks on humility.
Galloway and his ilk aren't even original thinkers ("thinkers"). His prescription is centered on a 21st century Silicon Valley version of "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" but with testosterone, social media performance, and sharp stock-trading vs the more universally accessible qualities of understanding, wit, and heart. He's not wrong to observe that the young men he's most involved with - the 20-somethings getting hired into tech so they can "move fast and break things" - have significant social-emotional deficits that being a 20-something millionaire coder at SpaceX are not going to mitigate. But few people, including Galloway I suspect, thinks those young men have a problem or are a problem; it's the ones who crash out in frustration and anger and inability to hide their inability to cope, and make all men look bad.
I’m sorry you had to read this book. I knew it reeked without having to read it. Galloway was on MSNBC blathering on about his book and I wondered why they had him on. Pure idiocy. I was at a party and a rich white guy (Trumper blowhard) announced “white men were under siege”. He got so much flack after that, he and his odious wife left the party early. SAD! 🤣
🤬 I hate the kinds of men who write these kinds of books, or give these kinds of lectures, or blather on about these so-called issues on their podcasts.
They're worse than Evangelical KKKhristers or Rampaging Capitalists—they won't shut up or keep stacking the deck to favor them, so I have to ask myself, "Are you making all this noise and pulling all these shenanigans because you're terrified that what you're preaching can't survive in a free market?"
I barely got past your introduction to this piece before I started seeing red and hearing jungle drums, Noah. The smug, self-righteous stupidity...IT BURNNNSSSSSS!
https://youtube.com/shorts/APxDijENMV0?si=kGJwRyFhAMSW16_N
For a great review and a woman’s perspective on Galloway and his dumb, boring book check out Jessica Winter n the New Yorker: https://apple.news/ARLXLkIw2QGqGMP5wZh9iag