Manosphere
The Right Wing Manosphere is a network of websites, podcasts, and social media accounts that promote a hierarchical, anti-feminist, anti-liberal viewpoint targeted towards young and impressionable teenage men.
Some are ideologues, some are canceled minor celebrities that have been scorned by the mainstream media, some are pick-up artists, some are social media celebrities that have discovered the rich monetization opportunities of bootlicking. They are collectively one of the most corrosive influences on the politics and morality of the next generation.
They start with good advice like "clean up your room and get in shape" before leading viewers into a right-wing rabbit hole of culture war outrage bait, conspiracy theories, misogyny, racism, authoritarianism, and grift.
Parents and those who aren't chronically online should be aware about this phenomenon that is having a huge influence on the views of many young men.
This page also presents some alternative appeals to men to help them look at things from a new perspective.
Closing the Gender Gap in Ideology
The gender gap in education has led to a similar gap in ideology, where women are increasingly university educated and progressive, while fewer men are getting the same level of education and tend to be more conservative as a result.
The metaculture wiki offers a possible solution to the gender ideology gap by providing young men without university educations with a resource to learn all of the ideas, philosophies, and values that women are being taught, so that they can be more successful when going on dates with progressive women.
Men who spend too much time in masculine spaces on the internet tend to pick up all kinds of perspectives and ideas that women find repugnant. Misogyny is the most obvious one. Racism and other prejudices don't tend to land well either. Not having any moral convictions is a turn-off. And it helps to be generally knowledgeable about the world, to appear to have some intellectual curiosity, and not come off sounding like an edgelord or a dumbass.
It is entirely possible to use YouTube to make yourself smart, worldly, empathetic, and interesting. You can also become an insane misogynist prick spreading racist conspiracy theories and complaining that women don't want to be tradwives. You can find wisdom and love, or hate and loneliness. Don't let the algorithm make that choice for you.
Though this podcast starts out with some dubious pronatalism, around the 60 minute mark they start to have one of the most insightful conversations about the gap in education and ideology between men and women and how that impacts our ability to tolerate each other enough to date successfully, find love, and create children. While we can disagree about birth rates, getting it on should not be sacrificed.
A Pick-up Guide for Progressive Women
Do you have a date with a hot, university educated, progressive woman? One who is probably just as open minded in the bedroom as she is in the classroom? Are you worried that you're going to say something she finds ignorant or offensive during your date and blow your chance? Did you already blow it in the chat before you ever got to a date? The metaculture wiki is here to help!
Any pick-up artist will tell you that dating is a numbers game. How are you going to make the numbers work if two out of three single women refuse to date you because of your views?
The metaculture wiki will teach you how to think like a secular, progressive, college educated young professional so you can get laid!
This is more than just memorizing a bit of "woke" language--that won't hold up for more than a few hours. This is about fully learning to understand the ideas and the perspectives that inform her worldview so you can speak to them on a deep, meaningful level, making her feel genuine love for you. Now you've got her right where you want her! Ready to have a mutually rewarding long-term relationship between equals.
This is the ultimate seduction technique that the manosphere doesn't want you to know!
Positive Male Role Models
As much as toxic masculinity is decried by "Hollywood liberals" on social media, it is often celebrated in the movies and TV they produce. Men who are kind, funny, and altruistic are shown as weak and naïve, while aggressive, domineering "alpha males" are portrayed as heroes. Often the hero is transformed from the former to the latter during the course of the story.
Waymond Wang from Everything Everywhere All At Once is a model for a modern major masculinity of kindness, and his hero's journey is the kind that more young men would benefit from modeling.
See also: Taxes
There are a lot of good examples of positive male role models if you look for them. Not all of them go so far against the grain of traditional masculinity that Waymond Wang does.
Some men that project strong traditional male energy but also provide positive alternative modern role models for family, community, and integrity are Scott Galloway and Bill Burr. Galloway comes from the perspective of a successful businessman that wants to give back to the community. He is a positive mirror of the success grifters of the manosphere that want to sell you the secrets of getting getting rich. Burr channels his humor and righteous, politically incorrect anger over the absurdities and grift of modern society towards productive ends. He is a positive mirror of so many of his less funny podcast peers that lack his strong moral convictions and joined the grift. Both Galloway and Burr have excellent podcasts if you want to overdose on their perspectives.
Belief Systems Targeting Men
When researching the videos that are linked to this wiki, certain topics would be almost exclusively populated by manosphere-related videos when you search for them, or a mix of Jordan Peterson and Evangelicals who contribute significantly to manosphere philosophy. This was especially the case with subjects like belief systems, the search for meaning, life choices, sex, and a lot of things that impressionable young men seeking an online mentor might search for. Disheartening, to say the least.
The issue is that most secular and progressive people are inherently resistant to any well-defined belief system due to the fact that once you establish one it becomes dogma. And once you have dogma you have hierarchy, resistance to change, and the truth leaves you behind. This is understandable, but it puts them at quite a disadvantage when it comes to appealing to those who are seeking out a belief system and don't really want to have to figure everything out for themselves.
Only when you have a coherent metanarrative that you can put forth as an alternative to the one being advocated by the manosphere will their influence in modern culture start to wane.
Fixing the systemic economic and cultural issues that stack the deck against young men will also help.
The JP and JC page has more on the relationship between Jordan Peterson and the alt-right philosophies targeting young men.
Manosphere Media
The 4-part series on the history of the manosphere from Jamie Loftus is an entertaining, in-depth dive into its origins, influences, and subcultures. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Scott Galloway is one of the men making a real effort to address the crisis of masculinity without leaning into toxicity and grift. This interview with Sean Illing talks about the issues men face in modern society and what we can do to help. Are Men Okay? Scott Galloway on the Gray Area
Incels
No discussion of the manosphere would be complete without addressing the Incel phenomenon. Creating an in-group identity around not getting laid, despite that being your one and only desire in life, is a recipe for cognitive dissonance.
The ContraPoints video takes an especially empathetic approach to the subject, since the presenter has personal experience with these communities.
The Tradwife Phenomenon
In the manosphere, many men are obsessed with the fantasy of the Tradwife, which is basically your stereotype of a 1950's housewife. The lifestyle has allure to many women too, and progressives who can't see why lack imagination. While many people would like to have interesting, fulfilling, or successful careers, lots of people would love to be able to spend their time on family and aesthetic pursuits, and having healthy home-cooked meals every day. If you decry the drudgery of capitalism but can't see the allure of being a stay-at-home mother, you might have cognitive dissonance.
It used to be possible to raise a family on a single income. When 2-income families became the norm, it enabled a slow suppression of wages that slowly took the second income from a luxury that afforded extra vacations and savings, to being necessary for survival for most families. Equality should mean that either parent has the opportunity to stay home and help with child rearing and running the household if they choose to. The problem isn't traditional gender roles, it's wage suppression.
Being a stay-at-home parent in the modern economy is a privilege that most cannot afford. A just society would make it easy for either parent to choose this role without significant sacrifice.
If this is your ideal relationship style as a man, you can reframe it as an egalitarian expression of freedom and love for family and good food rather than a submission to male authority. This will significantly expand the pool of women who would be open to the idea.
It would be nice if the manosphere would stop being so creepy and misogynist about this issue and start showing some class solidarity instead. It would be nice if progressives would start recognizing this as an issue of personal freedom, living wages, and work/life balance instead of trying to score moral outrage points on social media because some women prefer the traditional gender role to the modern one.
This is a good example of the snarky mockery of the tradwife movement that undermines solidarity. While it points out a lot of obvious misogyny and some problematic relationships, it is unlikely to persuade anyone who didn't already share this perspective (especially men), and could cause some people who lean traditional to feel othered.
Manly Music
These songs will put hair on your chest.
The men of today lack strong male role models like the lumberjack.