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Mar 31, 2022·edited Mar 31, 2022

Ruth dives deeper into the intersection of misogyny and authoritarians with Kate Manne in 67min discussion, taped shortly after Nov 2020 election. YouTube “strongmen, entitled men: a conversation between Kate Manne and Ruth Ben Ghiat”. Hosted by NYU Institute for Public Knowledge. Ruth offers what I think is her best summary of STRONGMEN …. AND predictions before Jan6 of the likelihood of something violent happening before Jan20, 2021. Kate is author of ENTITLED: How Male Privilege Hurts Women; and describes how the same tools of misogynistic abuse, Ruth describes global authoritarians using, are used domestically by an “incel” serial killer and right-wing anti-Biden propagandists. Dovetails beautifully with this interview with Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks (link posted on Lucid FB group page)

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Thank you Ruth for introducing another aspect of the prism, and introducing additional thought leaders. Thank you for your research, authorship and education. This additional view thru the kaleidescope shares another fundamental block.

Regarding communicating premises, I was struck by EC's comments of telling how people talk and "if you switch the simple framing". While working to expose a wrongly used tax loophole, I flipped the wording to expose a segment of the population (men) as another set of victims who were up against wealthy non- custodial men who could avoid judgements of child support. By flipping from the oft over-used terminology of women, or moms ended up garnering greater attention to the topic. Eventually, somehow the tax loophole was outlawed. Hopefully the state courts -home of barbarism to families, received the memo -- thereby rightfully protecting children's fragile rights to support.

Pulling apart each issue in the prism, segmenting it by separate demographics can be useful for targeting audiences and showing greater breadth an issue.

Thank you for studying the ancient role of patriarchy and its outdated thrust today.

The Ukrainian women remind me of the Patriot women of the American Revolution. Giving it their all.

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The central role played here in the US by women in the civil rights movement, the black power movement, BLM and, of course, MeToo are instructive cases in point. The role of women in the liberation fronts in Central America, esply El Salvador, also on point.

Thank you for a great article.

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Women must lead. They alone know. I can only imagine bleeding every month for years, knowing that I can choose to find a fertilizer, a man, or make my way unencumbered by offspring. I thank all the women stepping out, with courage and resolve. Try withholding sex from policymakers, until change is embraced. We need so many things, so fast.

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For me, its hard to make sense of any of this without understanding evolutionary neurobiology. Although we evolved pro-social traits, many are only recent traits since group identity took off 100,000 years ago. We still retain survival/anti-social mechanisms that can dominate when learned or inherited or forced.

Then there are the male/female differences that date all the way back to the formation of male/female around 2 bil years ago. Female retained reproductive traits. Males favored genetic distribution. (yes, that's a kind way to term it.)

These are hard and difficult evolutionary traits that drive us profoundly today. They do not under any circumstance excuse offensive harmful behavior... ever. But they still are the root of what rational or irrational behavior we receive or are victimized by.

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"...it's telling that people talk about how women are underrepresented rather than how men are overrepresented." This!

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Mar 30, 2022·edited Mar 30, 2022

Masculinity or hyper masculinity seems to be a universal trait of authoritarianism. Its always present in some degree in every strongmen, autocrat, tyrant, dictator. It goes back as far back as the eye can see. Machiavelli even in the Prince and the Discourses says " He is rendered despicable by being thought changeable, frivolous, effeminate, timid, and irresolute." The Prince must guard against that. Its better to be thought of as cruel without being hated says Machiavelli. No surprise that strongmen double down when questioned or after they have made a mistake. Lest you be thought of as changeable, weak or irresolute. Think of Trump or Putin.

If you want to wield power you better been seen and thought of as being tough or somebody else more powerful will inevitably come along and take it from you.

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Thank you, Ruth for bringing this valuable perspective on political, economic and social order from these 2 women. After reading your interview I realized I previously had a limited view of womens' capabilities to make change at all levels of society, including the military. Then I remembered, how is it that women ARE at the top of the political spectrum in Finland? The happiest country in the world. Coincidence?

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You folks reading my mind ? Excellent description of reality..............Manifestation of Masculinity. Underrepresentation of the Feminine. Woman's issues = all issues. Emotional confrontation = results, soldiers have Mothers. 200,000 troops to bomb a maternity ward. A patriarchal authoritarian order, IS, an assault on Democracy............ This conversation needs to be printed in a way that reaches the masses. I experience, this presentation is in the forefront, the leadership of the early beginnings, of a shift to the Feminine order of reality. I also experience, we have little time to make the shift, before ending life as we know it. We have had a documented 2500 year run at a Patriarchal world rule. It didn't and doesn't work. Presently, the world is confronted with issues, of our making, of a heightened intensity and immediate danger. We need this change that has been presented here. "The Kin of Atta are Waiting for You", was not just a feel good book. It needs to be mandatory reading. A survival guide and a warning of the results of an overabundance of testosterone. This is not rocket science. This post is reality. Many thanks to all for your vital work.

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Thank you for interviewing these two, I read that FA article with interest. It's true that we feel lucky when women are equally represented, which is unfortunate. As I was scrolling through Twitter last night, all I saw were photos of groups of men at various events (diplomatic meetings, discussion panels). It's the same in my workplace. Nothing changes. PS: Throughout this column, Zoe Marks' initials are mistakenly written as ZC, not ZM.

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