Aging Capriciously

America is adopting a pseudo masculinity to bring back the old “male is king of the domain” ethic.  Sports is one pillar of this domain.  A second pillar is the military.  The third pillar is the right wing Christian nationalists.  I am not against sports or the military or Christianity.  However, these groups have been coopted by radical right-wing fanatics who want to impose their anachronistic beliefs on this country.  These include beliefs such as:

• America must be a Christian nation
• Women do not belong in the workplace
• Women should be subservient to men
• Gay people have no right to participate in society

Each of these groups has their own champion but they sometimes play together.  Trump can be seen at many “real men” sporting events such as MMA, boxing, golf and NASCAR.  While golf is certainly not a machismo sport, you can explain Trumps attendance by looking at the demographics of golf.  About 1–2% of PGA Tour players are Black, or roughly 2–4 golfers.

By frequency, his public appearances have been most concentrated in:

1. Golf (by far the most common)
2. UFC/MMA
3. Football (NFL and college)
4. Auto racing (NASCAR)
5. Boxing

Pete Hegseth has become the champion of this fake machismo for the military.  Elected to this post by D. J. Trump, Hegseth struts around showing off how tough he is.  His idea of masculinity is out of sync with any real definition of masculinity.  Totally bereft of empathy, compassion, or integrity, his main goal in life is to be a willing sycophant to the man who appointed him.  How kissing someone’s butt exemplifies toughness is beyond my understanding.  His most recent idea is to enforce mandatory testosterone testing on anyone over the age of 30 in the military.  Hegseth stated that implementing mandatory annual testosterone screening for service members age 30 and older is necessary to optimize troop combat readiness, resilience, and long-term health.  Hegseth and the Pentagon have declined to comment on how a “testosterone deficiency” would be measured or treated in female troops. 

Is there evidence that screening every service member over 30 improves combat readiness?

According to Reuters, five of the six endocrinologists and medical experts they interviewed said there is little or no evidence supporting universal testosterone screening in healthy military personnel.

Most major medical organizations recommend:

• testing men only when they have symptoms, and
• confirming low levels with repeat morning blood tests before beginning treatment.

Are there any downsides to mandatory testosterone screening? 

Medical experts interviewed by Reuters raised several concerns.

Possible risks include:

• infertility
• suppression of natural testosterone production
• acne
• enlarged breasts
• elevated red blood cell counts
• cardiovascular uncertainty (still debated)
• overtreatment of men whose levels fluctuate normally

So, we have a man in charge of our military who wants to institute mandatory testosterone testing of all military personnel over the age of 30 including women based on little or no scientific evidence that this will improve military readiness.   

This administration is saturated with anti-science and anti-intellectual bias.  Basically, that means that Trump, his supporters and most of the Republicans holding electoral offices are dismissive when it comes to science.  Either that or they go brain dead when asked for any scientific facts to support their positions.   Here are some examples: 

1. Climate Change — Jim Inhofe (R-OK)

“Do you know what this is?  It’s a snowball… It’s very, very cold out.”

Then he tossed the snowball across the Senate chamber.

Scientific problem: Climate is measured over decades across the globe, not by one cold day in Washington, D.C. The overwhelming scientific evidence shows a long-term warming trend despite local cold weather.

2. Vaccines — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

One frequently quoted statement is:

“There is no vaccine that is safe and effective.”

That assertion conflicts with the scientific consensus.  Medical organizations agree that vaccines, like all medical interventions, have risks, but licensed vaccines are considered both safe and effective for the vast majority of people because their benefits greatly outweigh their risks.

3. Evolution — Congressman Paul Broun (R-GA)

Speaking in 2012, Broun said:

“All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang theory… is lies straight from the pit of Hell.”

He added that he did not believe the Earth is billions of years old.

These comments directly rejected the scientific consensus in biology, geology, astronomy, and physics.

4. Masks during COVID

Several Republican politicians argued that mask mandates were ineffective despite multiple studies showing masks reduce transmission under many circumstances, especially in indoor settings.

A notable example came from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who said:

“Lockdowns don’t work.  Mask mandates don’t work.”

Scientists generally agreed that lockdowns involve complex trade-offs and that evidence on mask mandates varies by context, but there was broad support that masks themselves reduce respiratory virus transmission under appropriate conditions.

5. Human Reproduction

During his 2012 Senate campaign, Todd Akin (R–Missouri)  said, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Scientific consensus: There is no biological mechanism by which a woman’s body can prevent pregnancy because a rape is deemed “legitimate.” Medical organizations across obstetrics and gynecology rejected the claim as scientifically false.

Actually, anti-intellectualism and anti-science bias has been around since before the founding of the USA.  Beliefs in the genetic superiority of the White race go back decades.  By the late 1600s and early 1700s, writers began defending slavery in print.  One influential example is Edward Long.  In his “History of Jamaica” (1774), he argued that Africans were naturally inferior to Europeans.  His work became influential among defenders of slavery.

Another was even Thomas Jefferson.  In Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), Jefferson wrote that he suspected Black people were inferior to whites in “the endowments both of body and mind.” He expressed this as a hypothesis rather than a settled fact, and historians continue to debate how to interpret those passages, but they undeniably contributed to racial thinking.

Arthur de Gobineau in his four-volume work, “Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races” (1853–1855), argued that the “Aryan” or White race was intellectually and morally superior and that civilizations declined through racial mixing.  Gobineau was the first to introduce “scientific race theory” and “racial demography”, and for developing the theory of the Aryan master race and White Supremacy.  Some people call him the “Father of Racist Ideology.”  His followers are evidence of the fact that bad science leads to bad theories and that you can as Abraham Lincoln said, “Fool some of the people all of the time.” 

So, what does this have to do with Hegseth and his pseudo theories on what masculinity is about?  No one denies the following facts:

• In primitive societies men did most of the hunting and women did most of the gathering
• Generally, men are bigger, stronger and faster than women

But today:

• Most of the hunting and gathering is done in the local supermarket
• Women are as smart as men
  • Virtually all modern, well-designed IQ tests are standardized so that:
  • Average male IQ ≈ 100
  • Average female IQ ≈ 100
  • If one sex consistently scored higher overall, the test would generally be considered biased and revised.
  • So, the average difference is effectively zero between men and women
• Women are as courageous as men
  • Studies often find that:
  • Men report greater willingness to take physical risks.
  • Women report greater willingness to endure social and emotional hardships for loved ones.
  • Neither pattern is “more courageous.” They simply involve different kinds of risk.
  • When circumstances require it, women have repeatedly demonstrated astonishing courage.

Think of:

• Harriet Tubman making roughly 13 missions into slave territory.
• Sophie Scholl distributing anti-Nazi leaflets knowing execution was a likely outcome.
• Joan of Arc leading armies at seventeen.
• Malala Yousafzai continuing her advocacy after surviving an assassination attempt.

• Boudica was queen of the Iceni, a Celtic tribe in what is now eastern England. Around D. 60–61, after her husband died, the Romans annexed the Iceni kingdom.  According to the Roman historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio:

• • • Boudica was publicly flogged.
    • Her daughters were sexually assaulted.
    • Iceni nobles were stripped of their property.

• Rather than submit, she united several British tribes in revolt against Rome.

• Was Boudica courageous? By almost any definition, yes.  She knew she was confronting the most powerful military empire of her age.  The odds of victory were slim, yet she chose resistance rather than submission.
• One of the most famous speeches attributed to her by Tacitus includes this passage:
• “We British are used to women commanders in war. I am not fighting for my kingdom and wealth.  I am fighting as an ordinary person for my lost freedom, my bruised body, and my outraged daughters.

Hegseth and his supporters want to take us back to before the dark ages, even before the Roman Empire.  Hegseth would like to return to a time when he believes that Neanderthal men clubbed their intended wives into submission. 

These attitudes about men and women are not funny.  They are dangerous. 

• Domestic abuse is a major problem in America
  • Domestic violence is a pervasive crisis in the United States, with an average of 24 people per minute experiencing physical violence, rape, or stalking by an intimate partner. This translates to more than 12 million individuals impacted every single year.
• Assaults against Gays and Lesbians are much greater than the national average for all assaults
  • Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals are more than twice as likely to experience overall violent victimization (including assaults) compared to straight individuals. When looking specifically at violent hate crimes, LGBT people are nine times more likely to be targeted than non-LGBT people.
• Gun violence is an everyday occurrence. The Old West never had such tolerance or laws supporting open carry and weapons as we have today.
  • Men commit approximately 85% to 90% of all gun violence in the United States, making them overwhelmingly the primary perpetrators. This gender disparity is consistent across firearm homicides, nonfatal shootings, and gun-related suicides.

Today we need empathy more than we need large biceps.  We need brains more than we need male dominant attitudes and we need humility more than we need increased dosages of testosterone. 

I challenge Pete Hegseth to a 21^st Century Duel.  He can select from either of the following three dueling “weapons” and I will meet him anytime anywhere.  This duel is about the skills needed to survive in the twenty first century in a global economy and not in a prehistoric world dominated by Mastodons and Saber Toothed Tigers. 

The Empathy Duel
Instead of pistols at dawn:

 We shall each spend one afternoon a week for six weeks listening to a lonely or sick or disabled veteran without interrupting them.  

Loser:  Whoever says, “I can’t take it any more loses.”

The Library Duel
A showdown in the local library.

Weapons:

• One copy of Marcus Aurelius.
• One copy of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches.
• One copy of Fred Rogers.

Winner:  Whoever can relate the teachings of each of these three men to their own lives and behaviors first wins.  Must be concrete examples and validated by independent observers. 

The Humility Duel
Contestants wear oversized cowboy hats.

Each must admit ten mistakes.

Every excuse costs one point.

Winner:  The person with the least excuses for their mistakes wins.

I make this offer good for the next twelve months.  After that I will conclude that Hegseth is nothing but a big chicken. 

“Courage and conviction are powerful weapons against an enemy who depends only on fists or guns.  Animals know when you are afraid; a coward knows when you are not.”  — David Seabury