Happy Fathers' Day; NYT Mention of Autocracy Threat Tracker & NYU Conference

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With Norm Eisen, Ryan Goodman, and others, I have been working on the American Autocracy Threat Tracker, a comprehensive accounting of the threats Trump and the GOP pose to our democracy. It is hosted by Just Security and has just been updated.

Today the New York Times published an important article on organizations and initiatives in progress to protect our freedoms and resist the assault on our rights should Trump return to the White House. As those of you who attend the Lucid Q&As know, we have often talked about the need to inform the American people about efforts to prepare for and counter Project 2025.

Here is the link to that NYT piece. It mentions the Tracker and an anti-autocracy conference I am co-chairing at NYU on July 23: here is a description of the conference as it stands now, with a link to register if you are in the New York City area.

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This is an appreciation post for all fathers in the Lucid community. When bad actors and men of authoritarian temperaments gain power in a society, they encourage other men to be their worst selves, promising to protect them from consequences for lawlessness of all sorts.

That’s why it’s never been so important to recognize the millions and millions of men who are responsible, kind, and loving sons, fathers, brothers, colleagues and more. On this Fathers’ Day, thank you to all the men who have worked overtime and gone without sleep to support their families and have supported others in the realization of their dreams.

This essay adapts a Lucid post from 2022. I hope you enjoy reading it.

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Father's Day always brings forth affecting accounts of parent-child relationships, but one that struck a chord in me was this story of Summer Clayton, a 26 year old fitness trainer who has become a virtual dad to millions of young people on Tik Tok. He holds a virtual chat once a week, laying out a plate of food for his “children” watching him. He asks them how their day was and teaches them life skills, from shaving to coping with loss. The handle of Clayton's account, @yourprouddad, sums up the positive and loving spirit he transmits to the millions who look up to him as a father figure.

Summer Clayton on his TikTok account @yourprouddad

Clayton's audience size also speaks to the void of fatherhood and the larger crisis of masculinity we are living through in America. But the answer to that crisis is not Fascist fantasies of “hard men,” such as those peddled by Tucker Carlson.

Tucker Carlson’s Fascist fantasy (engaging in “testicle tanning”) from “The End of Men.”

My research for Strongmen found that male status anxiety in the face of progress has created the conditions for brutal and corrupt male figures to be elevated to leadership positions. The anxiety could be around gender equity, or (in America and Europe) fear of non-White men and women surpassing them and "taking their jobs." Replacement theory plays effectively on such fears.

It is striking that there is no paternal equivalent (that I know of) to Moms Demand Action and other mother-based advocacy and activist organizations that work to reduce gun violence and other dangers to families and democracy in America.

It’s time to activate fathers as part of a broad-based pro-democracy movement and as resources and role models for young people. At a time when the GOP embraces a lawless masculinity that spreads homophobia, misogyny, and machismo, promoting an alternate vision of men and fathers is essential and pays tribute to the majority of men who do good work as fathers and in their other roles at home and in society.