Thread by @JYSexton

Just received a really hopeful email from a reader who bought herself and her Fox News obsessed father a copy of THE MAN THEY WANTED ME TO BE. They had their first real conversation in over a decade and he admitted he’d been terrified to talk.

amazon.com/Man-They-Wante…

So much of this current climate is wrapped up in make insecurity and Fox and Trump and Republicans are playing those insecurities for profit and power. There are so many people I meet who feel like their fathers and brothers are just hopelessly lost.

My dad was one of them. When the Iraq War was raging he was just as fascist and racist as they came. We finally talked though, and he realized he didn’t have to overcompensate or play a role any longer. He changed. Completely.

The antidote to a lot of the social and political problems right now is the personal. So much of this is about toxic masculinity that makes men perform as if they don’t care. They bolster their egos by acting hateful and uncaring. Some can come back.

My dad didn’t his entire life afraid of intimacy, afraid of being vulnerable. When he realized other men felt like him, when he found out he wasn’t alone, he had a new lease on life and was exponentially happier. Then? Fox News and the GOP lost their power over him.

Fox News, Trump, and Republicans succeed in large part because they make insecure populations feel like they’re not alone, like they’re justified in their anger and fear. It’s a personal and political cycle that harms everyone.

Not everyone is going to break free from the pull of right wing propaganda, but there are some men out there who are just terrified and can escape its orbit if they know they’re not alone.

I never thought my dad would get free from Fox. Then? He started driving a Prius, opposing the Iraq War, lecturing his conservative buddies at McDonald’s on climate change. I’m really hoping this reader has a similar experience.