, 11 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
If you want a discussion that ties together the problem with politics right now, why #metoo hasn't resulted in real change, why gamers are they way they are, why Louis CK still gets audiences, here it is. America loves its petulant white men. slate.com/human-interest…
The more biographies of America's Great Men you read, the more you find yourself astonished that the authors often seem unaware that what they're describing, in scenes where the man doesn't get his way, isn't uncompromising vision, it's straight-up, childish sulking.
When I was at Microsoft, I made the observation to a colleague that the company frequently confused aggressiveness with leadership. And I've seen it time and time again: people don't want to deal with a man's tantrums if they oppose him so, they go along... (1/2)
...and some how, everyone's going along with him because no one wants to deal with the tantrum if they oppose him becomes rewritten as "he is a leader." "He builds consensus." The consensus of hostages, leadership as exhausting everyone into compliance, but sure. (2/2)
And, of course, the truth doesn't matter. For so many men in leadership, they're true believers in themselves--and that faith is ardent--but in little else.
Should you opt out of the collective delusion, you're going to get gaslit HARD.
And I think most people in the tech industry have probably had the surreal experience of meeting a lauded white male tech genius and wondering if we're crazy because this dude seems not actually that bright, but everyone around him responds as if he is.
I forget who it was who said that if you kneel and pray, day after day, you will come to believe, but at some point Going Along With Things because men throw tantrums if you don't fall in line and everyone around you accepts it leads to believing in that leadership.
And in some ways, it's even worse because the people who work for Tech Geniuses, Comedy Geniuses, Game Geniuses, politicians, etc. usually come in young and accepting of the idea that they're working for someone who knows what he's doing.
They're already primed to believe. Give them a few years, and they've now invested a lot of time and energy in this guy knowing what he's doing. So they reinforce it. And the guy gets propped up.
Anyway, read the article. It's a pretty incisive critique of the American love affair with boyishness among people who are no longer boys.
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