The Rise of The Soy Boy
208: True Toxic Masculinity in America
It’s thirsty Thursday so you know we had to get a little spicy before tomorrow’s markets and news update.
This week while frequenting Twitter I came across several threads that all focused on the same theme — masculinity and the idea of “alpha” males or “manly men”. More specifically I’ve noticed a trend online in recent months and weeks of "reply guys or trolls online who run their mouths about what’s really masculine or alpha.
Frequently, as should be expected in a void like the internet, dorks and dweebs run their mouths about topics and qualities that they know nothing about and do not have.
Our buddy
who we’ve interviewed before in Arb Letter — had a sea of haters and reply guys chomping at the bit to explain to him why his technique for getting cardio wasn’t tough enough. A reminder that Ox is a former Army Ranger and now body builds and runs a highly successful fitness presence online. Ox had tweeted the following this week:I watched the entirety of Game of Thrones on a treadmill at a 10–15% incline at 3-3.5mph (about an episode or so at a time). This was easy enough that it was enjoyable/didn’t *feel* like cardio, but challenging enough to be zone 2 & 3 cardio & get those immense health benefits.
The typical Titter reply guys showed up in spectacular fashion to explain why this wasn’t “correct”.
To be fair some of these attacks are probably political in after all — how does it make other candidates look when RFK Jr. is shirtless ripping weights in the sun wearing blue jeans — I’ll answer, it makes them look pathetic.
These are just two of the many examples I see day to day that show this dynamic.
Look, I’m not some arbiter or gatekeeper of manliness or “alpha” - I want to be clear about that from the get go. But I do think this is an impactful trend we’re seeing in this country today - one I am familiar with since I spend a large amount of my time “online”.
It’s cool nowadays to shit on traditional masculine qualities. That much is obvious and we’ve covered it before in previous posts. There’s an attack on traditional masculinity, on being an assertive, confident, and put together man. This was illustrated to me many times during my time in tech sales and in the corporate world - where cunning sneakiness, woke virtue, and feelings are all prioritized over efficacy and grit.
Imagine my shock during tough economic times when the management team isn’t stressing that deals need to get closed, but that we need to have a weekly meeting where everyone shares their most interesting moment of the week - some detail feeding their cats, others talk about which plants they bought for their living room, or rant on about how toxic Elon musk or trump is in the company slack (imagine if it was the other way around).
Cernovich frequently refers to these types as bug men.
I typically opt for cuck, beta, dork, dweeb, or softo despite some of those terms being overused at this point.
The main point is we’ve become infected with a version of feminine masculinity, where it’s cool to underachieve, where it’s cool to talk shit about people who work hard, where it’s acceptable to avoid direct confrontation and run your mouth behind a keyboard or sneak around the shadows like some eunuch low T skinny boy who has to use alternative means to feel confident or have a sense of self worth.
Today’s post is an overview of the trend present in modern America. That the majority of “men” are nothing more than little effeminate weasels looking for ways to quell their insecurity and shortcomings. It’s a pandemic of soy. Today I will attempt to address the reason why this is so prevalent and the ways to avoid this fate.
The sort answer is there is a lack of experience, perspective, and much needed confidence that is driving this theme. It’s regrettable since offenders rarely realize that in acting out or displaying soy behavior immediately betrays the reality of their situation to all onlookers.
That they are insecure and lacking in self confidence at a very basic level. So, they lash out like angry children instead of getting after it to better themselves.