Molly - Tell Them What to Do
I was reading a discussion of "positive male role models" today, inspired by the Netflix limited series Adolescence, which I am not done with yet. But it barely matters. This topic comes up every few months if not every few weeks. I still haven't read/watched/willingly consumed any Andrew Tate content and I am kind of skeptical about how influential he actually is. I believe that there are boys and young men being radicalized by his, to me, cartoonishly dorky misogyny, but to be honest I haven't met one nor do I know anyone who has! I know that Jorden Peterson was a real thing. Sub in whatever name you want for the "where is the (conservative male influencer) for the left?" question.
I don't think the issue is that leftist men aren't cool or attractive or charismatic, or that any particular right wing manosphere figure is those things. Liberals, meaning people who uphold liberalism, not like...libs, value freedom and relativism so highly that they don't know how to be role models on self-improvement level. They can give you comprehensive advice on how to organize, how to improve the lives of other people, but I find that people on my side of the spectrum are just so bad at giving normal life advice. I think this is one of the major common failure modes of the left when it comes to being persuasive. At worst it falls back on sweeping mantras: just be a decent human! I shouldn't have to tell you how to be a good person! Maybe you should improve yourself because it's better to be a good person! There is a hesitancy to wholeheartedly recommend things we personally have found life-enriching. This can be anything as low stakes as a form of exercise or cooking method or as consequential as the institution of marriage. God, the number of married leftists who will not preach the goods of marriage they themselves are experiencing! I understand, everyone is different and we don't want to offend others by prescribing solutions, but the inability to ever say one thing is better than any other one thing is hurting the left when it comes to things like "role models" and "male influencers."
Conservatives are obnoxiously all too willing to tell others what constitutes the good life. For anyone in the chasm between the left's gentle shrugging on self-improvement, health, and interpersonal matters, and conservative preaching, the latter becomes the only side that appears to be offering any real solutions. When someone, say a young, adrift, man, is susceptible to being influenced, they are in a place we all find ourselves in at some point: the desperation of "won't someone just tell me what to do!" In the high-minded quest to encourage young men to be pro-social, vulnerable, positively empowered, etc. there needs to also be concrete advice. "Jordan peterson told boys to clean their rooms" is a joke at this point but, like, I think that was a huge part of his success!
And that's really it. I think I've cracked the code. Sometimes you have to tell people what to do.