Maybe collectively outgrowing "bad boys" is long overdue.
6/6
This is probably very good for me, and I'm glad. And I'm sad that the aesthetic piece is now untethered. But maybe they're doing us all a favor in the long run. Maybe there was always an aspect of glamour magic that blinded us to toxicity that was always there.
5/6
Increasingly I find myself unfollowing them, and enjoying the newer kind of "wholesome masculinity" type content, where they are helping each other unlearn these toxic constructs and nurture one another to a stronger, less fragile, less shallow idea of manhood.
4/6
They're using it to promote unrealistic body image and lifestyle choices that, similar to the 'trad wife' motif are completely unattainable within the prison of working class reality. MAGA is ruining everything good about America!!
3/6
But it feels like the deeply unattractive wannabe "alpha" types have caught on to the genre and are using it as a trojan horse for really gross versions of what they think is stoic philosophy that stinks exactly like toxic patriarchy.
2/6
It feels like "masculine" men are determined to run their brand value into the ground. I used to appreciate the aesthetic, and follow the sort of beefcake thirst trap accounts that thinly veil themselves as fitness pages.
1/6
People who say current events are proof that democracy doesnβt work are failing to account for the fact that this isnβt democracy.
By prioritizing profits over people, capitalism is inherently anti-democratic, and that is how it slowly strangled the voice of the people.
If AI can solve problems about cancer and astrophysics then it can solve problems about the environment so I hope environmental scientists are ignoring toxic AI bullies and leveraging the technology to solve those problems more quickly, because the urgency is far greater than NIMBY data centers.
I share your frustration.
What I'll say is I think there's a sense of responsibility that comes with awareness of the importance of solidarity where possible, and coalition where not.
Whose job is it to cultivate combined people power? To me, that's a necessary aspect of the democratic project.
I feel like when principled action isn't possible, all we're left with is utilitarian options.
We should continue the work of building a new world, while we live with the reality of this one. But that's difficult for people in the depths of a principled awakening, a very real stage of human growth.
But you do need to bring more nuance to make that distinction and that is absolutely missing on the left.
A DOGE staffer assigned to the National Endowment for the Humanities to flag grants for "DEI" tries to explain what "DEI" is. This deposition is part of a lawsuit by the @acls1919.bsky.social, @historians.org and @modernlanguage.bsky.social.
Helping the regime is not helping βusβ. This imperialist war of aggression is a crime against humanity.
Please support this work if you can!! It makes a huge difference in my life and Iβm grateful for that. Thank you!!
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And theyβll get away with it too, if we let them.
For true justice to take root, nationalist violence must cease.
5/5
We must exemplify that consistency or our position gets flattened into partisan tribalism, which serves the cause of empire. The crimes of the nation-state are not justice and they can never be justice no matter how cathartic it feels to your sense of injustice.
4/5
Remember how ghoulish it felt to hear MAGA cheering for the dead schoolgirls last week? This is a mirror image of that.
The heart of an antiwar worldview is that no one deserves to die at the hands of nationalist violence.
3/5
But those missiles aren't just falling on the political "other" they're falling on human beings like you. Do you deserve to be blown to bits for the crimes of our rulers? How will killing you (and thus your resistance energy) stop them?
2/5
If you're looking at video of missiles raining down on Tel Aviv with schadenfreude rather than horror it's time to sit with and interrogate that feeling.
Israel's crimes are real, and so are the crimes of the US.
1/5
Florals. For spring!!
Social media post by Justin Wolfers on March 6, 2026, showing a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics chart indicating that job growth has stalled and turned negative, with his comment: "This is not good."
Another endless war and economic stagnation. Republicans do this every time, and corporate Democrats always just put bandaids on it while the nation bleeds out. All of this is directly rooted in the profit motive, a spiritual rot called "love of money" that is the cancerous core of capitalism.