Welcome to Man Up

[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]

We live in very gender-confused times, and that is by design. We are witnessing the culmination of more than a half-century of radical feminism and its successor, gender ideology, whose end game was to subvert the culture so effectively that we are eradicating the very definitions of male and female.

More than 175 years ago Karl Marx called explicitly for the abolition of the family as part of a broader assault on Western civilization. His vision of an economic revolution of the proletariat ultimately failed, but in the early decades of the 20^th century his acolytes adapted that vision to the cultural arena, where it took root spectacularly well. Cultural Marxism subsequently expanded into a multi-pronged campaign of civilizational corrosion.

The assault on masculinity is the most critical front of that campaign because once the enemies of manhood sell the idea that male and female are false social constructions rather than biological truths, and that masculinity is an inherently misogynist, violent, oppressive, and toxic construction that must be deconstructed to pave the way for a Marxist utopia, then the family unit will disintegrate for good, the State will become our father, and the last line of defense against the West’s enemies, both internal and external, will have collapsed.

Masculinity is the vital warrior spirit that strengthens and protects families, that fortifies and leads communities, and that creates and powers a great civilization. An emasculated civilization is a doomed one. A civilization whose men are confused and insecure about their own nature, and who will not or cannot protect and defend their families, their homeland, and their culture is signaling that it is weak and ripe for conquering. That is the harsh truth about the state of the West today.

In a subsequent article we will address the crisis of masculinity afflicting America and the West, but in essence, too many of our men are adrift economically, psychologically, morally, spiritually, even physically. The U.S. Army, for example, has had to initiate a tougher and longer basic training program because incoming recruits lack the discipline and physical fitness of previous generations. A recent study of men’s grip strength revealed that millennial men are not only significantly weaker than their fathers’ generation, they’re no stronger than millennial women are today. As Jordan Peterson has said, “On a deep level, the West has lost faith in the idea of masculinity.” This is a devastating indictment.

The key to reversing our civilizational decline is to reclaim a reinvigorated masculinity to lift boys and men out of this crisis. The internet now teems with masculinity “gurus” offering young men a vision for doing just that, ranging from public intellectual Jordan Peterson to the controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate at the opposite end of the spectrum. Both men have attracted millions of overwhelmingly male followers to their differing visions of manhood. Bookstore shelves are overflowing with titles like Sen. Josh Hawley’s Manhood, The Masculinity Manifesto by Ryan Michler, Nancy Pearcey’s The Toxic War on Masculinity, and Owen Strachan’s The War on Men.

These positive signs are an acknowledgement that if we want a better world, it begins with better men. If we rescue our men and set them on the right path, everything else will begin to fall into place: our broken families, our divided communities, our decadent culture, our waning civilization.

So welcome to Man Up, the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s new series addressing the state of manhood today. Our aim in this series is to examine the current crisis of masculinity, explain how the neo-Marxist left managed to bring it into being, and most of all, explore how to push back against it and reverse the West’s slide into emasculation.

Why did we call it Man Up? Partly because it’s a provocative title. Urging men and boys to “man up” has always been a call for them to pull themselves together when under pressure or facing danger. This triggers feminists of both the female and male variety, because their vision of masculinity is one in which men cast off what the Left believes to be the socially constructed stoicism that prevents men from getting in touch with their “feminine side,” their emotional vulnerability. The Left wants men not to get their lives together and rise to the challenges before us, but to wallow in moody navel-gazing. That’s an emasculating, uninspiring vision for men, one that runs counter to our nature.

“Man up,” in other words, is usually considered an expression of “toxic masculinity,” so we’re flipping that on its head and reclaiming “Man up” as a positive call to rise up and challenge the destructive Marxist agenda that wants us feminized, weak, and submissive.

What can you expect from the Freedom Center’s Man Up series? Articles, video commentaries, interviews, book and movie reviews – all oriented toward understanding, honoring, and reviving a culture of manhood that will save the West.

Welcome to Man Up.

Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior