In what can only be considered a modern masterpiece of wingnuttery, Daniel Flynn pens an op-ed in the American Spectator that is one half Kim Du Toit’s infamous Pussification of the Western Male and 1/2 half Ron Paul newsletter. You really have to read it to believe it:
They don’t make men like they used to. One can consult a Danish study that shows plummeting testosterone levels for scientific confirmation of this. Or, one could more easily turn on any cable news network’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Zimmerman-Martin case, a tragedy involving two males fumbling in the dark on how to be men.
***On the maturity count, Trayvon Martin might reasonably plead not guilty by reason of chronology. Seventeen-year-old boys quite often act like, in the vernacular of Zimmerman, “f—-ing punks.” Most grow out of it, but Mr. Martin unfortunately will not get that chance. Rarely, in spite of their exaggerated masculine posturing, do teenage boys behave as mature males.
Martin’s Twitter feed reads as a parody of poor grammar and an even more impoverished vocabulary. There, he’s a “No Limit N-gga,” girls he knows are “bitches” and “hoes,” and the primary extracurricular activity he immerses himself in is marijuana. The gold-teeth smile, the tattoos, the ten-day suspension from school, and all the rest appear as pathetic attempts to assert his virility. Yet, as his supporters point out, Trayvon also liked Skittles and Chuck E. Cheese’s. The presentation that Trayvon affected and the Trayvon that his supporters present are, like so many making the journey from adolescence to adulthood, at war internally.
George Zimmerman, in contrast, projects a courtroom image of a meek pudgeball who wouldn’t (couldn’t?) hurt a fly — and not in a Norman Bates way. Perhaps this is the effect that his lawyers intended. But it jibes with what we know. According to one unidentified witness, Zimmerman endured a domineering mother’s frequent beatings and a docile father who failed to stick up for his kids. His mixed-martial arts instructor described him as “physically soft,” a student who lacked athleticism and “didn’t know how to really effectively punch.”
One wonders if the cage-fighting classes, the pursuit of a career in law enforcement, and a firearm kept ready to fire were Zimmerman’s ways of discovering his elusive manhood in a manner akin to Trayvon’s tattoos, coarse language, and demonstrative drug use. With the teenager sans a father in the home to serve as guide, and the neighborhood-watch captain growing up watching the cowed captain of his home, the pair’s past altered their future as much as anything else did.
Zimmerman’s screams and Trayvon slamming Zimmerman’s head into the concrete weren’t the acts of men. A man is neither a woman nor an animal. The proper response to an assault by a 158-pound teenager isn’t to scream for help or grab for a gun. It is to punch back or better yet subdue and issue a spanking. And a sucker punch, the repeated hitting of a downed opponent, and the bashing of a skull against the concrete doesn’t pass muster with the Marquess of Queensberry. Perhaps the “No Holds Barred Fighting” dojo that Zimmerman had signed up for would approve.
***Civilizing men out of existence has come at great cost to civilization. Instead of men, we get feminine imitations lacking beauty. We get lost boys compensating by becoming barbarians. We get Sanford, Florida, February 26, 2012.
It’s breathtaking, especially as beyond the racism and sexism, there is also the firm belief that Zimmerman is the victim- notice the notion that it is Martin who should be pleading not guilty. Not to mention, there is a political party that would like to reduce the number of guns in the hands of unstable people. Daniel Flynn is not in that party.
I think I feel sick.
Comrade Dread
Shorter:
“Both sides do it. Black men are violent animals trying assert their manhood, a real man could take that black punk instead of using a gun, and it’s all the feminazis fault.”
Okay then.
Let me just add the American Spectator to my list of sites to avoid and assume anything they say is bullsh**.
Seriously, how about we teach people not to make assumptions about a person based on their skin color… so maybe the next time, the guy who’s packing will simply assume the kid is visiting a friend or family member? Or would talk to the kid and introduce himself? Or would assume that the kid just wants to get the hell away from the older guy who’s been stalking him in his car.
Or how’s about we not normalize carrying a loaded gun and making it perfectly legal to provoke a confrontation and then ventilate the guy because he responded (allegedly) to your provocations.
mtraven
Ah, men.
Jeff Spender
“I think I feel sick.”
After reading that malarkey, I know I’m sick.
? Martin
Boy, remember when every red-blooded male aspired to be Rock Hudson? We’ll never get those days back again.
Teddy's Person
What kind of a douchebag misogynist do you have to be to even think, let along publish, this steaming pile? I’d like to kick Daniel Flynn in the testicles, that is it they haven’t been civilized right off of him.
NickT
So the thesis here is that Mrs Zimmermann killed Trayvon Martin?
burnspbesq
There’s no point in trying to reach common ground with people who think those things. It doesn’t exist.
burnspbesq
@NickT:
I think this is called the “Norman Bates Defense.”
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
I knew I shouldn’t have bothered.
Fuck all NeoConfederates.
With anthrax infected tire rims.
Ted & Hellen
@Teddy’s Person:
Or to REprint portions of it and link to it for wider distribution and more unwarranted exposure?
Violet
When someone writes something like this I pretty much figure it’s about themselves, not anyone else. So what’s Daniel Flynn’s relationship with his mom and dad? What kind of household did he grow up in? Did he ever do something awful to a person of color and get away with it? Feeling guilty about it?
That’s the sort of stuff this piece screams.
Amir Khalid
Flynn must be one of those for whom Trayvon Martin is on trial for being black as much as George Zimmerman is on trial for murdering him.
NickT
@burnspbesq:
Or possibly the No-man Baited defense. AKA The Varys Rage Gambit.
IIRC, Big Bad Danny Flynn isn’t exactly a chiseled hunk of testosterone-powered manflesh himself.
Violet
@Amir Khalid: I think Flynn feels he and his other white male friends are also on trial.
quannlace
Ah, in like Flynn!
Hey, SuperDude. Howz about some examples of your own awesome manly exploits.
PeakVT
@Violet: Yep. It’s 110% projection.
gravie
Junk like Flynn’s article is the reason that I won’t watch the trial, won’t listen to the trial, won’t read about the trial. I grew up in Florida, and I’m pretty sure that Zimmerman will skate, or that the trial will end in a hung jury. All the assumptions that will make that possible are on display in Flynn’s steaming pile of horse poo.
Comrade Dread
@Ted & Hellen: A person that wants to give us insight into the state of the conservative mind when it comes to issues of race, misogyny, and general awfulness.
I don’t read many conservative sites any longer, so I’m glad to get updates as to what my former colleagues are ‘thinking’.
But I suspect you wanted more of an angry emotional response or profanity.
kindness
Sites like American Spectator ought to have a comment section just so I can get kicked off them.
Kay
Is that the list of charges in the trial of Trayvon Martin?
Not a ten day suspension from school! That’s way, way worse than the 3 day suspension.
Execute him, before he misbehaves again.
Chris
This kind of stuff always reminds me of the old TOS episode that introduces Khan, where the Enterprise has a ship’s historian who idolizes the Great Men of the past because “men were more adventuresome then. Bolder. More colorful.” Then she revives one of her idols, and in an epic case of “careful what you wish for,” it turns out that “colorful” actually means abusive, narcissistic and genocidal.
Ted & Hellen
@Comrade Dread:
Ha.
Or a person who wants to generate a thread full of pearl clutching and self righteous indignation. Look! someone wrote something conservative and obnoxious on the Intertrons today!
Proceed…
p.a.
Is Flynn channeling David Brooks? Seems like the same type of ‘analysis’.
Dolly Llama
@Comrade Dread: I don’t know. My first-blush response was similar. “Do I really want to click on this link and give these fuckers the traffic?”
NickT
@Ted & Hellen:
Careful, TeddyTroll. You were pretending to be one of us, remember?
MattF
Right-wing resentment is a bottomless pit. It’s always something, someone, somehow.
NickT
@Dolly Llama:
Just say no to the American Spectator. It’s a gateway drug to zombie conservatism.
Ted & Hellen
@NickT:
That troll designation is important to you, isn’t it? Your group identification here means a great deal to you, doesn’t it?
Not really clear on when I was pretending to be “one of us,” though…
Who’s US?
Kay
“Zimmerman’s screams”
They’re just looking at the facts. No bias there. No sir.
quannlace
@Ted & Hellen:
Sweet Jesus, Tinkerbell. You ain’t ever happy. Maybe John should restrict his political and social commentary blog to just posts about Tunch. Then you can bitch about that.
NickT
@Ted & Hellen:
Just the facts, TeddyTroll, just the facts.
Patricia Kayden
@Violet: Even though I’ve read where White conservatives deny that Zimmerman is White.
NickT
@quannlace:
You just know that TeddyTroll would accuse Tunch of being imperfectly white and miscegenated because of his noble ginger tail.
Patricia Kayden
@gravie: I’ve been trying to ignore the trial, but unfortunately, it seems everywhere I go (work, hair dresser, etc.), the tv station is tuned to it. This is feeling like OJ Simpson part 2.
And you’re right. Of course, he’ll walk. I can’t believe there are people who think otherwise.
NickT
Anyway, after 3 hours and 33 minutes of deliberation the jury has been dismissed for the night.
kindness
Tunch is a ginger? Don’t tell Cartman.
NickT
@kindness:
Only in the tail region. Most of him is pure Caucasian stud-muffin white enough to pass the Daniel J Flynn test.
ChrisNYC
@Patricia Kayden: I think otherwise. I think manslaughter. I’m watching it on you tube. I don’t think the jurors get past some of the really rough facts. The contemporaneous 911 call, the following.
Violet
@Patricia Kayden:
Of course they do. It’s part of how they convince themselves they aren’t racists. It’s a tell.
NickT
@ChrisNYC:
I agree with you. I think that the jury will fall back on a verdict of manslaughter with relief and a sense of having provided some justice.
John
I can personally confirm that Rush Limbaugh read this enthusiastically on his show today.
ruemara
Well. That was special. How about something much more fun.
http://jezebel.com/black-people-troll-paula-deen-on-twitter-hilarity-ensu-754919770
And this Flynn character can EHSADIAF.
Kay
Martin wouldn’t plead not guilty to the charge of assaulting George Zimmerman, you know, had he been given the opportunity to speak in his own defense in a trial.
Martin would plead “not true” because THAT trial would be held in a juvenile court.
Cassidy
Man. Remember that time when you’d get into a fight in the playground and you either won or lost and no one fucking worried about getting shot!? Good times. The only thing this article is right about is that conservative males are constantly searching for their totem of masculinity.
WereBear
@ChrisNYC: I understand there are a lot of mothers on the jury.
I always want to say to insecure men, “Really? This granite-like monolith of masculine… it can be destroyed with a pink tutu? Really?”
TR
If the author thinks he’s a real man, he’s fucking insane.
kc
Huh. I didn’t get THAT out of that essay. Not that I agree with the rest of it, mind you.
Botsplainer
@? Martin:
Botsplainer
@? Martin:
Mike E
The sadlynauts over at Sadly, No! eat this stuff up daily, and their treatment of it is pretty hilarious. And, until his illness, patriotboy wielded a mean spatula in dealing with such utter drivel.
kc
@kc:
I mean, he does say Martin could plead “not guilty” on the “maturity count,” but . . . ah fuck it, never mind. He does seem to have bought the notion that Martin attacked Zimmerman.
Jeralyn Merritt is promoting that as well. Did I miss something at the trial? Because as far as I know no witnesses saw the first punch thrown.
Omnes Omnibus
@kc:
The only way that Zimmerman was defending himself was if he was attacked, right? If he was not defending himself and he shot someone dead, he committed some form of homicide (murder, manslaughter, etc.). So, you see where that gets you, yes?
kc
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes, I understand WHY Merritt would promote it, because of her pro-defense bias. And that is what Zimmerman told the police. But I just don’t recall there being any actual evidence of it introduced at trial.. Zimmerman didn’t testify, and if I understand correctly there were one or two witnesses who saw an altercation in progress but didn’t see who hit first.
Mike
@quannlace: I for one love if they at least had a sister site full of Tunch the Mighty updates.
Kay
@kc:
The defense was allowed to bring in a cartoon at their close.
That may be where they’re getting it.
R. Porrofatto
The comments to that column are something else. It seems the majority are pissed at Flynn for impugning Zimmerman’s courage and character, and questioning his manly status as anti-thug hero. The bilge aimed at Trayvon Martin is the usual vileness.
burnspbesq
@NickT:
From the realm of bizarre coincidences, “Danny Flynn” was the name of Daniel Day-Lewis’ character in one of the most criminally underrated movies of the 1990s, The Boxer.
burnspbesq
@kc:
Jeralyn’s a defense lawyer. She’s never met a defendant she wasn’t willing to slobber all over.
rikyrah
I’m shocked this man didn’t have a heart attack while saying this.
damn.
Keepin It Real!? Old Man Going Nuts On Trayvon/Zimmerman Case Speaking The Realness’
http://youtu.be/rwg4WuOno88
opiejeanne
@NickT: It’s always the mother’s fault.
SiubhanDuinne
@NickT:
You surely noticed that 3 hours and 33 minutes is exactly half of 6 hours and 66 minutes.
And I don’t really think I have to explain 666, now do I?
Coincidence? Ha!
SiubhanDuinne
@Patricia Kayden:
I’m not so sure he’ll walk. I don’t think they’ll give him Murder 2, but a manslaughter verdict wouldn’t surprise me at all (although if that happens, I suspect he’ll get a sentence of much MUCH less than the possible 30 years).
kc
I wonder what ol’ Kim du Toit’s doing these days? I just googled him and didn’t see anything recent. There is a wedding photographer named Kim du Toit, but it sure doesn’t seem like the same person who wrote “The Pussification of the American Male.”
Mike in NC
“American Spectator”? More like “American Sphincter”; bunch of freaking assholes.
Narcissus
@kc: I’d guess a man with the name of Kim du Toit knows from pussification
His parents went the boy-named-sue route and it backfired
g
WTF is “demonstrative drug use?”
NickT
@kc:
Guess he done pussified himself.
Villago Delenda Est
@? Martin:
OK, that was pretty good, but to get the joke, you have to be aware of certain facts, which means our more dense readers will miss the joke.
Which isn’t really a problem by the way, just sayin’.
cokane
really sick of the teenager using “drugs” because he tweeted about weed. what bubble did these grow up in? Even if you didn’t smoke pot in high school/college, surely you were friends with someone who did?
people who demonstrate that lack of life experience are never worth listening to
Cassidy
@kc: He’s writing books still and apparently going to college. They used to try and do a video webcast for couples advice and whatnot. They’re still grifting. I imagine they’re still trying to come up with their homeschooling curriculum.
eyelessgame
My god, it’s like a caricature of a 1970s bleeding-heart-liberal paean. “It’s not *him*! It’s *society* done it to him!”
But I have no question this is evidence of pussification. At least of the American Conservative, who used to demand that Men Need To Take Responsibility And Stop Blaming Their Mothers. Now they’re apologizing for the weenie with a gun by saying it’s all his mother’s fault, and he’s really just a boy at heart, poor dear.
lojasmo
@Ted & Hellen:
What the fuck are you doing here, exactly? In your opinion.
Wally Ballou
This whole thesis of Real Men™ being squeezed out of the picture by effete metrosexuals on the one side and thuggish man-children on the other, all thanks to the evil machinations of the FemiNazis and their lefty enablers, has been part of the conservative narrative for some time now.
Terrence O. Moore, a Hillsdale College professor for whom this is something of a hobbyhorse (he has a website called Remanning America), did an essay all about this for the Claremont Institute a decade ago:
Wimps and Barbarians: The Sons of Murphy Brown
low-tech cyclist
@eyelessgame:
Is it just me, or has a bunch of stuff completely done a 180° since those days?
In particular, I recall conservatives priding themselves on being realists and talking about liberals’ ivory-tower theories that they wanted to try out on the rest of us.
Now, of course, the theoreticians disconnected from reality are pretty much all on the conservative side, and they want to test out their theories by turning them into law, no matter how little evidence there is for them.
novum
john, check out flyn’s website. he has a post up taking odds on where race riots will break out after the verdict.
ellennelle
@Violet:
that seems to hit the nail on the head.
a friend and i were noticing all the astonishing displays of taliban masculine posturing against women goin’ down (really creepy, and i felt the need to point out that – NOT AT ALL TO DEFEND THIS CRAPOLA, but to search for some understanding – men have been dominant in our species pretty much since the dawn of the species, in some way or other.
i mean, think about that; we’re talking thousands of years, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. that’s a helluva lot of bred and cultivated macho male dominance, making the inclination toward this – and every other – cretin’s rant something rather biological.
again, not to excuse this thinking, because it’s clearly a throwback and will hopefully be rendered extinct. soon. but it’s biologically the case that these long successful (on some dimensions, it must be true) inclinations will vie for survival in the face of threats to their dominant position.
essentially, along this line of thinking, what we’re watching are the death throws of this biological drive, what might have perhaps determined the heretofore arc and intensity of our trajectory as a species.
but all power has its down as well as its good side; that same drive got us into much if not all the disasters we now face, not least of which is a population explosion that defines virtually every crisis confronting us, including climate change.
ironic, no? all that sperm spreading leading ultimately to a threat to the species in its entirety (among too many others to count). a bit like pond scum eventually snuffing itself out by consuming all available resources in its host habitat.
sorry; odd digression there. but still, interesting to consider the depths of these male tantrums.
Cthulhu
I’ll say it again: George Zimmerman CREATED this entire situation. Zimmerman, he of the long legal history of documented violence, of assaulting ex girlfriends, beating up female party goers, assaulting police officers, allegedly sexually abusing a female relative for decades, he who was the subject of an EMERGENCY HOA meeting where the residents complained of his aggressive, over the top tactics (A meeting attended by the Sanford Chief of Police), the George Zimmerman who was taking prescription medication known to have side effects of heightened aggression, hallucination, and violence, THAT George Zimmerman was the aggressor at EVERY level in this situation, yet…..at the moment of physical contact and physical altercation, Zimmerman wants us to believe that at THAT moment, despite the clear aggression displayed up to that point, that Zimmerman was a passive, non aggressive victim.
And that’s just bullshit.
And had the Prosecution framed their arguments that way, I sincerely believe they would have won a conviction. But it is equally clear the Prosecution, being of the Sanford/Seminole county area, really, at the end of the day, didn’t give a shit about one more black kid murdered.