Mark Greene Profile picture
Jul 26, 2022 18 tweets 5 min read Read on X
THREAD: The Alphas/Beta Dynamic is Accelerating the GOP’s Slide into Authoritarianism
--Alpha/Beta masculinity is a terrible idea. It’s also driving the Republican Party’s descent into madness. remakingmanhood.medium.com/the-alphas-bet… /1
Sen. Josh Hawley, one of the most well known authoritarian voices in the Republican Party is not a so-called alpha. If we go with the arguably terrible alpha/beta view of masculinity, Hawley is actually a beta trying to be an alpha. /2
@JasonAblin recently tweeted this. It really resonated. For me this "wanna be" dynamic speaks directly to the acceleration of GOP authoritarianism. /3
In the GOP's dominance-based masculine culture, men are ranked by how well they dominate those around them. Trump gave playground bully nicknames to every man running against him in 2016. He openly insulted Ted Cruz’s wife and Cruz let him. #LittleMarco usnews.com/news/articles/… /4
When Pres Trump allowed hundreds of thousands of people to die from COVID, he set the dominance bar dramatically higher for every man in the GOP. When we say "cruelty is the point" this is what we're talking about. forbes.com/sites/tommybee… /5
Trump's comfort with weaponizing COVID disinformation for political advantage set off a scramble among other Republican leaders to model an equal indifference to the death of US citizens. /6
GOP Gov Ron DeSantis instituted policies to end masking and attack calls for public heath measures in Florida. DeSantis proved his ability to ignore the death of tens of thousands, winning Rupert Murdoch's support as Trump's replacement. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/… /7
It's no accident that red states have higher COVID death rates as would-be GOP alphas raced to model the hyper-dominant authoritarianism of men like Trump and DeSantis. The speed with which the entire party spread COVID disinformation was startling. politicalwire.com/2021/11/29/red… /8
In the GOP's dominance-based masculine culture, a few alphas sit at the top of the hierarchy. Beneath them is an army of betas like Senators Hawley, Rubio, Cruz, Graham who frantically seek to prove their alpha status by doubling down on Trump's cruelty, accelerating the slide /9
This is why things have gotten so bad, so very quickly. The dominance slide is accelerating. Criminalizing abortion means women will die of preventable pregnancy complications. For authoritarian GOP leaders, indifference to this loss of life validates their alpha status. /10
Every time an act of economic, political or physical violence is enacted by a leader in the GOP, no matter how bad it may be, the army of wanna be "betas" like Sen. Hawley will trip over themselves to implement something worse. Advocating Christian nationalism for example. /11
There can be no gradual decline into authoritarianism. Driven by the army of "beta" wannabes hungry for power, and terrified by loss of status, authoritarianism always accelerates as the GOP's is doing now. We're watching them try to top each other's cruelty in real time. /12
The Republican Party that once existed is gone. You can see this in the fear behind every elected Republicans' eyes. As authoritarianism accelerates, the cost of failing to support it, to double down on it fast enough, ratchets up. The scramble becomes more overt, frantic. /13
Democrats must win big in the midterms. The violence the GOP will unleash if they regain control of the levers of power will not end. Men like Sen. Hawley are running on adrenaline and raw fear. They will do anything to keep up the pretense that they are GOP alphas. /14
For the record, the concept of men as alphas and betas is a terrible way to look at being human. It’s not healthy, accurate or a viable model for designing culture. But men in dominance-based hierarchical masculine culture live and die by by those terrible frames. /15
The bullying idea that men can only validate their masculinity by dominating others is dominance-based masculine culture's core belief. Alphas/beta systems exist *because* millions of men have bought into this, and it's driving the GOP's slide into authoritarianism. /16
Want to better understand how dominance-based masculine culture forces boys and men in the Man Box? More importantly, want to know how to protect our young sons and help men break out? Check out our podcasts, books, and other resources here: linktr.ee/RemakingManhood /17 Image
This thread is here in article format. No firewall. remakingmanhood.medium.com/the-alphas-bet… /18

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More from @RemakingManhood

Nov 5
Harris Broke Trump. Then Trump Broke His Campaign remakingmanhood.medium.com/harris-broke-t…Image
The MAGA Republican Party meltdown, floating island of garbage joke, beeper going off comment on CNN, “enemy within” declarations by Trump. All of it is a sign of MAGA rage and panic fueled by the power of Vice President Kamala Harris’s political campaign, and Harris herself.
Yes, we must be mindful of a coordinated MAGA plan to overthrow the 2024 election. Trump’s intentionally divisive demonization of Americans, Democrats, LGBTQ folks, immigrants, people of other faiths as targeted by Project 2025 are designed to motivate MAGA for another Jan 6.
Read 15 tweets
Aug 31
Women outperform men because they are adopting traditional masculine strengths and adding them to their own faster than men are adopting traditional feminine strengths and adding them to theirs. We can all be fully empowered by claiming our full range of human capabilities. /1
Men hesitate to display universal human capacities like empathy, emotional expression, care giving and curiosity because in our generations old dominance-based Man Box culture of masculinity, we’ve been taught these capabilities are feminine and therefore weak. They’re neither /2
Millions of men are breaking out of Man Box culture and bringing our full range of human capacities to parenting, partnering, workplaces and communities. When we do, we discover that these so called feminine capacities are the key to ending our epidemic levels of loneliness. /3
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Aug 25
Ya’ll see where this is going, yeah?—Republican Chair Says Only Christians Should Be Elected to Government - Newsweek newsweek.com/kandiss-taylor…
Getting the knack of spotting extremist MAGA language trial balloons. They’re testing the limits of what is acceptable; saying the quiet parts out loud out on the fringe. Next up, some GOP State Rep in Montana repeats it.
Then, of course, there’s the part where MAGA Christian nationalists take power and then start deciding who’s a legitimate Christian and who’s not. That’s a whole different kind of blood bath.
Read 5 tweets
Jul 26
THE NEXT BIG CALL: WHITE DUDES FOR HARRIS. This group of men is stepping up. Inspired by, and following in the footsteps of Black women, it's time for white men to get 100% engaged and make sure Kamala Harris is elected as our next President. Join here: /1 bit.ly/whitedudesforh…
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The reasons why white men like myself must show up in support of Kamala Harris for President were on full display at the Republican National Convention. Trump/Vance’s Project 2025 MAGA movement is a war on women, especially Black women. /2
For too long, Man Box culture has positioned white men at the top of a bullying and rigid dominance-based culture of masculinity which teaches us that the only power that matters is power we create over others. The result has been economic, political and environmental disaster /3
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Jul 11
@Meta is now actively defending Project 2025 across all its platforms. Instagram/Facebook are tagging posts raising the alarm about Project 2025 with this statement. "Partly false information. The same information was reviewed by independent fact-checkers in another post.” /1
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The "independent fact checkers" they are citing? The Dispatch.
Who is The Dispatch? The “neutral fact checker” that Meta is relying on? Of course The Dispatch is a self defined conservative source. Of, course it is. /2en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispa…
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Apr 14
The reason men in the manosphere are so angry at women? Because empowerment for women requires accountability from men. For men, being held accountable, and moreso, *holding ourselves accountable* in relationships where women have equal power requires self-reflection. /1
For men raised in our bullying dominance-based culture of masculinity, self reflection is forbidden, punished. Who we authentically are doesn’t matter in Man Box culture, We are trained instead to model our identity on a narrow set of rules for how to be a man. /2
“Don’t show your emotions. Be tough. Have control of women and girls. Be heterosexual. Never talk about anything deep. Be a breadwinner not a caregiver. Have lots of sex.” All these rules require we show dominance over those around us, including over the women in our lives. /3
Read 17 tweets

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