{"id":2002771,"date":"2023-08-16T16:55:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T20:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/traditional-masculinity-is-the-solution-to-the-male-loneliness-epidemic-not-the-cause\/"},"modified":"2023-08-16T17:01:07","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T21:01:07","slug":"traditional-masculinity-is-the-solution-to-the-male-loneliness-epidemic-not-the-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/traditional-masculinity-is-the-solution-to-the-male-loneliness-epidemic-not-the-cause\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Traditional Masculinity&#8217; Solves Male Loneliness, Doesn&#8217;t Cause It"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftraditional-masculinity-is-the-solution-to-the-male-loneliness-epidemic-not-the-cause%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2002771&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>If You Think Public Health Experts Care About the Public, Think Again<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If for some reason you\u2019re still holding out hope that some\u200b of the \u201cpublic health experts\u201d\u200d you \u200csee all the time in the national \u200bnews\u2063 media actually care about the public, \u2062or \u200bhealth, consider the story that did not dominate the news cycle this \u200bweek. Here\u2019s the headline: \u201c49,449 Americans killed themselves last year.\u201d The data just came in a\u200b few days ago.\u200b That\u2019s the highest \u200bnumber of\u2062 suicides ever recorded\u2063 in this country\u2019s history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you viewed that\u2063 as a\u2062 problem worth solving as quickly as\u2063 possible \u2014 as any decent person \u2064would \u2014 then you\u2019d dive much\u200b deeper\u2063 into that data. You\u2019d want to know who exactly is committing all\u200d these\u200d suicides. You\u2019d\u200c want to know their age, sex, race, occupation, and so on. And\u200b then you\u2019d present your findings honestly, \u200das\u200b a starting point to address the\u2063 problem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But no one from any\u200c major media\u2062 outlet or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/navy-reading-checklist-includes-anti-racism-guide-for-sailors\/\" title=\"Navy Reading Checklist Includes Anti-Racism Guide for Sailors\">public health institution<\/a> is doing that. They\u2019re not even trying. Instead, we\u2019re getting quick-hit reports like this one, from Good Morning America:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What the doctor tells us is that \u201cveterans, physicians, and LGBTQ youth\u201d are particularly at\u2062 risk. \u2063She doesn\u2019t delve more deeply into\u200d the numbers, though, and neither does anyone else in that segment, which lasts \u200cless than two \u200bminutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You have to wonder if that\u2019s deliberate, because there\u2019s a certain demographic group that\u2019s somehow missing from the ones the doctor mentioned there. It\u2019s a demographic group that commits suicide at a far higher\u200b rate than any other \u2014 and \u200chas\u2064 for many years: men. Last year, men \u2063accounted for roughly 80% of suicides. Let me say that again: <em>80%<\/em>. Men living \u2062in rural areas \u2063were particularly vulnerable. As of \u200bthe latest data, men working in the professions of \u201cmining, quarrying, and oil\u200d and gas extraction\u201d have \u200dthe single highest per capita suicide rate in the country, \u200cat more than 54 deaths per 100,000 men. Construction is the next-highest category. Ask yourself why Good Morning America made special \u2063mention of \u201cLGBT youth\u201d and \u201cphysicians\u201d but forgot \u2064to mention that\u2064 nearly all of the suicides are men, and blue-collar \u200cmen in \u2062particular are at the highest risk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You\u2019d hate to think that media producers in New York don\u2019t want you to hear about \u200dthe fact that men are killing themselves. You\u2019d like to believe they\u200b care about miners, or oil and gas\u2064 workers, and not just physicians. But that doesn\u2019t appear to be the \u2062case. \u2063Most outlets are \u200cdoing exactly what Good Morning America did. In their writeup on the \u2064data, \u2063for example, Reuters didn\u2019t mention the difference between male and female suicide rates at all. Instead, they implied \u2014 in the second paragraph of their article \u2014 that the problem is not\u2064 enough gun \u2064control.\u2063 The real problem, according to\u2064 Reuters, is that you haven\u2019t given the Democratic Party more power. This is\u200c a very dumb conclusion to draw, first because \u2063it\u2019s an assault on our constitutional rights. But also because getting rid of guns would simply eliminate one of the dozens \u2063of possible ways for a suicidal person to commit suicide. It would not do \u2063anything to address the\u200d fact that he is suicidal in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a longstanding trend in the \u2062media. Scour through the \u2063last year of coverage on suicide rates in this country, and you\u2019d be hard-pressed \u2062to find anyone talking about how many men are \u2064killing themselves. To the extent you\u2063 do find any reports on \u2062men committing suicide, it\u2019s always filtered through some forced \u200dlens of racial equity\u2062 and \u200bBLM. Here are just a\u200b few examples from\u200c recent months:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There\u2019s an epidemic of suicides by \u200cblack men, the media insists. Is that \u200dtrue? Here are the numbers from \u200bthe CDC, to the extent you can trust them. Last year white Americans\u200c accounted for more than 37,000 suicides, while black Americans accounted for a little over 3,800 suicides. Accounting for population\u2063 differences, that means white people are killing themselves at roughly twice the rate of black people. That\u2019s in keeping with data we have going back the past few years \u2014 data \u2063that\u2019s widely \u2062known. In 2017, the New York Times ran \u2062a \u2063whole story about how black people were about one-third as\u200d likely to kill themselves as white people. Of course,\u200c the Times suggested there was some unknown flaw in the data that explained the disparity. They hand-waved it away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What\u2019s going on here? Why \u2062are \u2063so many media outlets\u200d unwilling to talk, honestly and directly, about the suicide \u2064rate afflicting men in this country?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whatever the reason, they\u2019re\u200b not just hiding data on\u200c suicide rates. They also rarely talk about all the other obvious, verifiable signs that men are suffering in this country, in ways they never have before.\u2062 Approximately\u2063 70% of homeless people are men. And the total\u2062 number of homeless people in this country has more than doubled in \u200bthe last three decades. Meanwhile, men are far\u200b more likely than women to use \u2014\u200c and\u200b overdose on \u2014 virtually every illicit drug that exists. The number of these \u200boverdoses has increased dramatically in\u2062 just the \u2063past \u200d20 years.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_605267\" style=\"width: 778px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-605267\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">National \u200dInstitute on Drug Abuse\/NIH<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Look at this chart. Fewer than 20,000 people overdosed in 1999. In 2021, the number was over 100,000. Men account for the vast\u2064 majority of these deaths. Women\u200c are nowhere close. Along the same lines, young men report that they\u2019re \u200bsingle at more than\u200b twice the rate of young women. Statistics concerning unhappiness and depression are similar. We all know that \u2062men are far more likely to end up in prison, to drop out of school, to fall victim to violent crime, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What\u2019s causing this?\u2062 Is it\u200b random statistical \u2062noise? Is it some combination of globalization, feminism, #MeToo and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-reasons-making-taxpayers-pay-off-student-loans-is-a-rotten-idea\/\" title=\"5 Reasons Making Taxpayers Pay Off Student Loans Is A Rotten Idea\">modern monetary theory<\/a>? No one\u200b seems\u200b to care, which\u2062 tells \u2062you a lot. To find anyone talking honestly about these problems, and what\u2019s causing them, you have to turn to YouTube personalities. For example, here\u2019s one YouTube channel\u2019s attempt to address what\u2019s happening to men in this country. This person begins by talking about social media, the rise of dating \u200bapps, and the decline of the economy, among other factors. Here\u2019s her conclusion:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There\u2019s a lot of truth to what she\u2019s saying, obviously. And that \u200bvideo has 1.5 \u2063million \u2064views in just the last week. You can\u2063 tell that people are desperate \u200dto find answers to this problem, but they can\u2019t\u200b look to the corporate \u2064media to\u200c provide it \u2014 or even to acknowledge that the problem exists. \u2062What this YouTuber, who goes \u200cby the\u200d name \u2064ShoeOnHead, talks \u200dabout would \u200dgo a long way\u2064 towards explaining the rise of despair, loneliness, and listlessness among men. But she ends her video without offering any solution. So what is \u200cthe solution, exactly?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s where \u200bthis conversation really starts to break down.\u2062 To show you what I mean, here\u2019s \u2064one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/border-patrol-arrests-two-illegal-immigrants-from-yemen-on-fbi-terror-watch-list\/\" title=\"Border Patrol Arrests Two Illegal Immigrants From Yemen On FBI Terror Watch List\">corporate media outlet<\/a> that is willing to acknowledge some of the struggles men face, but the prescription they offer\u2063 is downright terrible. It would be hilarious if the\u2063 issue wasn\u2019t so dire. The article from the Washington Post \u2014 written by \u2062a woman, of course \u2014\u200c is impressive in one\u200b sense, which \u2064is \u2064that it manages to reach exactly the wrong diagnosis on every single aspect \u2062of the problem.\u2062 The article is called,\u2064 \u201cMen\u2019s groups are\u200b embracing an alternative conception of American masculinity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The whole thing reads like parody, so if you\u2019re able to, check it out immediately. I can\u2019t recommend it highly enough. The Washington Post wants to give us the real story about why men are lonely and how best to combat the epidemic. What\u2019s their suggestion? They say dudes should lie around doing breathing exercises \u200cand smelling incense while some\u2063 guy named Rua gropes them and whispers stuff like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI invite you to maybe bring up an intention. How you want to live in this world. How you want to love in this world. How you want to be in this \u200cworld.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s not an exaggeration. It\u2019s a direct quote from the article. The\u200c men\u2019s groups that the article profiles are not Bible studies or flag football leagues. They are new age, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/traditional-masculinity-is-the-solution-to-the-male-loneliness-epidemic-not-the-cause\/\" title=\"'Traditional Masculinity' Solves Male Loneliness, Doesn't Cause It\">touchy-feely group hugs<\/a>, where men learn how to get in touch with \u2063their\u2063 feminine side. Later in the \u2062session, the men start screaming and sobbing and letting their emotions \u201cflow freely\u201d as they are \u201creleased into the darkness.\u201d \u2062The article goes on to quote a bunch of experts who all say the familiar things about\u200b how men \u200dare lonely\u200c and lost because of toxic masculinity that \u2062encourages us\u2063 to be too stoic and \u2064reserved, and so forth. It\u2063 laments the \u201ccowboy mentality\u201d that\u2063 has allegedly\u200d contributed to the problem. The masculinity \u201cexpert\u201d\u200d who coined that \u2063phrase\u2062 is a woman named Niobe Way. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">She of course quickly identifies the\u200d real victims in the story of male loneliness: women. She says: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWomen end up being the therapist for their \u2063husband, and more are getting sick of it.\u201d \u2064 <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yes, God forbid wives have to \u2062listen to their\u2062 husbands\u200d and offer them solace and \u2063comfort. They\u2019re \u201csick of it,\u201d says masculinity expert Niobe.\u2064 This is not \u2062a conflicting message at all, is it? On one hand, men need to open up more, but on the other hand, if they do \u2062open up then they are putting \u2063an unfair burden on their wives, who are \u2064being\u200b asked to do too\u2062 much emotional labor. Okay then, women, \u200dif you feel\u200d like you\u2019re sick of hearing \u2063about your husband\u2019s troubles, just keep in mind that he hears about yours about a thousand times more often.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, a consultant named Mark \u2063Green says this:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIf a boy expresses too much emotion\u2064 or too \u2064much need for connection, is too giddy, \u200cis too joyful, what we say to\u200c that boy\u2062 is, \u2018What are\u2064 you,\u2063 a sissy? What\u200d are you, a \u200bgirl? What are you, gay?\u2019\u2063 It\u2019s your job to dominate those around\u200d you, or you will lose status, and that will increase\u200d the \u200cnumber of individuals above you who can dish out \u2063dominance to you. And what we find is that in that system, in that structure, men are constantly in competition with each other and constantly \u200bdriven by this sense of anxiety.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The\u2064 problem with this theory is obvious.\u2064 If a \u201ccowboy mentality\u201d and too \u2063much macho stoicism is what is driving the\u200b epidemic of lost and lonely men, then why is the \u200bproblem getting worse over time? \u2062Everyone agrees it\u2019s worse now than ever before. I just went through some of the many statistics that prove this. There \u2064is a major problem.\u2064 Men are in bad shape.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But \u200bif that is all getting worse, then how can we blame traditional notions of masculinity? There\u2019s no doubt that it is far less common for boys to be\u2063 called \u201csissies\u201d these days, or labeled \u2063\u201cgay\u201d as a pejorative, than it was 50 years \u2063ago \u2062or at any other time \u2062in human history.\u200b Indeed historically, the push for a man to be strong, dominant, and\u2063 unemotional\u200b was much more pronounced than it is today. In fact, if a man\u2063 didn\u2019t exhibit those traits,\u200d then \u2064he would die and his whole family would die. It\u2019s only in recent times that it\u2019s even been a feasible option for\u2062 men to be feminine, soft, and in touch with their feelings. And it\u2019s also in recent times that men have lost all sense of themselves and their purpose and place in the world. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Speaking of the cowboy mentality, why didn\u2019t actual cowboys have \u200bthese problems? If a cowboy mentality leads\u2064 to despair and suicide, then we should find a whole\u200d hell of a lot of\u200d it if\u200d we look back at \u200dthe latter half of the 19th century, which was the era of the cowboy. But we find no such thing. The Post\u2019s overall thesis can probably best \u2064be summarized in this sentence from the article: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAmerican men\u2019s isolation stems in large part from a pervasive cultural belief, experts say: that men should be self-reliant and hide their emotions, especially from other men.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The absurdity \u2063of the premise could not \u200cbe any clearer. Would\u200c anyone argue that the cultural belief that\u2062 men should be self-reliant and hide their emotions\u200c is <em>more<\/em> \u2062 pervasive today\u200b than it was half a century \u200dago? Of\u200b course not. So, again: if that is the \u200bcause of the problem, why \u200bis the problem <em>worse<\/em> today? The \u2062trends are clearly going the other way. The correlation works entirely\u200b in the other direction. As \u2064society loses traditional notions of masculinity, suicides increase. This is undeniable. You can try to explain that correlation away all you want, but if you deny it or pretend it doesn\u2019t exist, you\u200d lose all credibility in this discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, these \u201cexperts\u201d are correct that men need fellowship, and men are missing it these days. But they even miss the \u200cpoint on that end too, \u2064because they encourage men to \u200bfellowship in the way that women fellowship. They tell men to sit around and talk about their feelings and so on \u2014 do some yoga, \u200blisten to soft music,\u2062 and hold each other and cry. This is not the kind of fellowship men need or want. We can\u2019t expect corporate media\u2019s \u200bmasculinity experts to understand this, because their masculinity experts \u200dare\u2063 all effeminate. But any normal man can\u200b attest that men tend to bond while engaging in a shared activity \u2014 usually\u200d one that doesn\u2019t require a lot of talking. Sitting \u200cand watching \u2063the game. Fishing. Golfing. Playing \u2063pickup basketball, and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I went out fishing with my brother-in-law \u2063a few weeks ago. When we came \u200bback my wife asked me what we talked about. I \u200bsaid we really didn\u2019t talk about much of anything. Mostly we talked about fishing. She was shocked and \u2062confused, because women \u200ddon\u2019t operate this way. But men and women are not\u200b the same. \u200dAnd you cannot hope to help\u200d men, or offer\u2064 them any road map out of despair, if you don\u2019t start by acknowledging \u2062that basic fact.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When it comes \u2062to true male fellowship, the problem is that society has closed off many of the opportunities for this kind of fellowship. There \u200care no men\u2019s lodges anymore, few bowling leagues and \u2064that sort of thing. Most \u200cmen\u2019s spaces have either been shut down or feminized. It has been decided that men should socialize like women, and with women, or \u200dnot\u2064 at all. This is the message across\u200b the board. Society beckons to men and tells them that their salvation is to be women. And then we wonder\u2063 why so\u2063 many are \u2064killing themselves. We live ultimately in a matriarchal society with institutions either run by women or by effeminate men, who in their arrogance simply cannot accept \u200cthe fact\u2064 that men are\u2064 different from women, and have \u2062different needs and\u2064 desires.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So this is the real problem.\u2062 It\u2019s not\u2062 that men are \u2062too focused on masculinity. It\u2019s that masculinity \u200dhas \u2063been neutered, castrated, driven out of society, leaving men feeling lost and without purpose. Our notions of masculinity aren\u2019t too traditional. \u200cOn the contrary,\u2064 they aren\u2019t \u2064nearly traditional enough. The solution isn\u2019t that we sit around and talk about our feelings. It\u2019s that we do a whole\u200c lot less of that sort of thing, and get back to being men again. And if we can be \u200dmen in a society that embraces and \u200bvalues our masculinity, suddenly this tide of\u2062 male loneliness and \u200ddespair will start to ebb. \u2063That is the solution. There is no other.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you or\u2064 someone you know needs support\u2062 now, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don&#8217;t expect &#8220;public health experts&#8221; in the media to genuinely care about the public or health. This week&#8217;s overlooked headline: &#8220;49,449 Americans died by suicide last year.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":305,"featured_media":2002772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2002771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2002771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2002772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2002771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2002771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2002771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}