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Boys and Men in the United States Are Struggling. The Left Should Talk About It

jacobin.com

11–20 of 327 posts

Re: Boys and Men in the United States Are Struggling. The Left Should Talk About It

#13

The left does talk about it. Ridiculous article from jacobin.

I mean, his point is that the Left doesn't actually drive home all the things they do that benefit men.

> You have an infrastructure bill that will create jobs largely for men. Two-thirds of the jobs in the infrastructure bill will go to men: black men as much as white men, and Hispanic men a little bit more, because they’re so represented in the construction industry. Don’t hide from that fact, as the administration does when they’re challenged on it.

And then also things that are cut and dry worse for men (i.e. suicide rate) you don't see a gender breakdown showing that [1]. And even when the press material has a gender breakdown its part of the "Age" section even though being male is a 3x affect while the age is ~0.25x [2].

Jacobin's point is about messaging and not that "The Left" doesn't do anything.

[1]: https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html

[2]: https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/disparities-in-suicide.htm...

Re: Boys and Men in the United States Are Struggling. The Left Should Talk About It

#14

An interesting, critical review of Richard Reeves' book by Aaron Renn: https://ifstudies.org/blog/right-diagnosis-wrong-prescriptio... A couple of excerpts that summarize Renn's viewpoint: >> The directional similarity of Reeves’ recommendations to the MRA agenda shows why it won’t get much traction. The MRA vision never inspired a material number of men, and neither will Reeves. In part, this is because he wants men…

That's an odd reaction to Reeves who specifically criticizes the MRA types.

Re: Boys and Men in the United States Are Struggling. The Left Should Talk About It

#15

The left does talk about it. Ridiculous article from jacobin.

Only from a 4th wave feminist lens which is unhelpful to male only issues.

When Obama tried creating "My Brothers Keeper" program to help struggling AA boys, who got it shut down? Certainly wasn't the right wing.

Re: Boys and Men in the United States Are Struggling. The Left Should Talk About It

#16
post #2

Truly we live in strange times when Jacobin is promoting a book written by a senior fellow from the Brookings Institution.

It’s a sign of how bad the problem is, that tendency we have to “drive by looking in the rear view mirror” as McLuhan said, and the reality that the left has become polarized and painted itself into a corner on issues of sex and gender.

Re: Boys and Men in the United States Are Struggling. The Left Should Talk About It

#17
They immediately talk, twice!, about poorer people's wages stagnating compared with the rich, and just skate on past that to talk about men.

I'm not sure I'd say i'd expect better from Jacobin, but it's still kind of weird to just let that slide past without comment.

> My overall understanding of these labor market trends over the last few decades is that we’ve seen a narrowing of the gender wage gap, for the reasons we just discussed, and _a sharp widening of the class wage gap_. They’re pulling in different directions. So _the gap between the median and the top has gotten much wider_, but the gap between men and women at each level has gotten narrower.

That's the "centrist" (maybe, by US standards) think tank guy (with my emphasis) and the Jacobin guy complaining about what the left isn't talking about replies with:

> I want to ask about the maleness part of this...

Re: Boys and Men in the United States Are Struggling. The Left Should Talk About It

#19

The left does talk about it. Ridiculous article from jacobin.

Kiiiinda, but there's a long way to go; it's a very big ship that has to get turned. For pretty much the entire 2010s, the dominant mainstream narrative about men's issues was set by places like Jezebel and the loudest and most obnoxious voices on Twitter, where talking about this earned you complete derision (ask me how many times I saw attempts to start conversations replied to with "but what about teh menz?!?") and/or accusations of being a covert or not-so-covert right-winger. It's only very recently that this has started to change, and a lot of people in leftist spaces still have a bunch of cult deprogramming left to do. I think Jacobin is doing the right thing by publishing things like this, even if I don't agree with all their solutions.

Re: Boys and Men in the United States Are Struggling. The Left Should Talk About It

#20
post #11

The left talks about this all of the time, as do the middle and right. Pretending otherwise makes me question whether the author is actually trying to help or simply sell his book.

I'm curious, can you give examples? I hear this issue pretty loudly from the right, but not really much from the left. I know ordinary people talk about this issue, but it isn't the same as people in positions of power or influence.
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