Unbundling and Bundling in Politics
The neo-masculinity bundle takes on abortion rights... and loses
"The Great Divide" by San Diego Shooter is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Business theorists often describe bundling and unbundling as key concepts to understand our digital world. Phone companies might bundle together different services - like a landline, fixed internet, a mobile with 4G internet and a TV platform - with one bill.
At the same time, old-fashioned businesses like newspapers have been hit by entrepreneurs who seek to unbundle their offering. Twitter might pick off a paper’s news business, while digital ad platforms hit its classifieds and sites like Substack take aim at its commentary pages.
The conventional divide between left-wing and right-wing politics seems ripe for a little unbundling. There is no particularly compelling reason why someone who is interested in growing the economy might also support religious values and a strong military. It is also a push to see why someone who thinks the welfare state is underfunded would also be reluctant to support nuclear power or the Ukrainian resistance.
I have pitched my own attempt at unbundling and rebundling here. Today’s column will discuss something a little different. There has already been some unbundling of traditional left-right politics. It has been bundled back together in a new way that often flies under the radar. I believe we can see this clearly with Joe Rogan.
For those who don’t know him, Rogan is a stand-up comedian who rose to fame as a commentator on mixed martial arts (MMA) as the sport grew exponentially. Spotify pays him many millions of dollars to broadcast his podcast, which is wildly popular with young men. He uses his platform for long, rambling chats with a wide range of personalities, including MMA fighters and conspiracy theorists. He has caused something of a moral panic by spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and other subjects.
Some critics have tried to use the old left-right spectrum to frame him as being far-right, but the label doesn’t fit very well. Rogan is an outspoken supporter of Bernie Sanders, a left-wing politician who has proposed supporting heavy industry in the US by undoing trade deals and turning back globalization.
A better way of understanding Rogan is to think that the left and right have been unbundled. He has then bundled a range of different issues in a new format without caring very much about whether they are traditionally associated with the left or the right. The glue holding the package together is masculinity. Rogan is very individualistic, competitive and concerned with strength. He can be distrustful of accredited experts, but loves hedgehogs, who can engage with people’s emotions in a primal way.
Rogan’s opinions include ideas that are often associated with the far right, along with others associated with unionized left-wing politics in the rust belt. He also rejects some softer views grounded in empathy that are traditionally associated with the left. In other words, he is reacting against what economist Tyler Cowen described in 2016 as the feminization of modern life, particularly in the US.
Did you know that nearly a quarter of children in the US live with one parent and no other adults? Or that 80% of all single parents in the US are mothers? Or that more than 85% of elementary-school teachers in the country are female? This all means that many boys are growing up without access to male role models in early childhood.
At the same time, the world has been placing more emphasis on softer values in recent decades. American women are now more likely than men to have a university degree. Manufacturing jobs, many of which don’t require workers to have a degree, have been in decline since 1979, while healthcare jobs have boomed. Similar trends can be seen elsewhere.
After dropping out of university, Rogan was able to find a way to great wealth by using the explosion of MMA to raise his public profile. Unfortunately, not many of his younger listeners will be quite so lucky if they don’t finish their degrees.
People like Rogan, who are interested in developing a neo-masculine approach to politics, tend to get very upset at candidates like Hillary Clinton, who they see as being bossy and domesticated. Health and safety rules particularly rankle; and the words “nanny state” can be very telling.
To understand the split between a feminized world and a neo-masculing backlash better, imagine a dysfunctional couple invites you to a barbecue. The husband can be found outside burning red meat on the grill while drinking cans of beer and cracking off-colour jokes. Meanwhile, the wife is inside, drinking organic white wine while preparing a salad and vegan snacks. She is fussing over the children and telling everyone to wear sunscreen.
The 2016 US presidential election exemplified the situation evoked by the analogy of the dysfunctional barbecue. Polls showed that women supported Clinton over Donald Trump by 54% to 42% overall, while men supported the male candidate by 12 points as well (53% vs 41%). In the run-up to the election, Trump swaggered in ways that candidates normally don’t. He was also caught on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women. Somehow, he still managed to sneak victory in the electoral college, despite losing the popular vote.
The divide between men and women has been in the news recently with the US midterm elections. Women have been fighting back hard against Trump-like candidates. Meanwhile, Rogan incorrectly predicted a red wave in reaction to the “woke” (or feminized) left, as did many pollsters. The Supreme Court’s controversial decision to remove federal abortion rights no doubt helped the Democrats retain control of the Senate, while the Republicans gained control of the House by a narrow margin.
Women, who tended to vote Democrat, constituted 52% of the total vote; and 27% of voters who replied to exit polls said that abortion was the top issue. This was a close second to inflation, which was flagged as the most important issue by 31% of those polled.
Two of the most interesting candidates were Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Pennsylvania senator-elect John Fetterman, who both won their races. The Financial Times memorably described DeSantis as “Trump with brains and without the drama.” He achieved a certain notoriety throughout the States for his laissez faire attitude to COVID-19. As a former legal advisor to SEAL Team One, he has been able to encapsulate a certain neo-masculine swagger, despite not knowing quite what to do with his arms in public.
Despite his weird posture, DeSantis is a smart politician, who knows how to play the game. He won men across every age group. He also won women in every age group, except in the 18-29 age group, where he drew. He sold his reform of abortion from 24 weeks to 15 weeks, along with a raft of exceptions, as being pro-life. In fact, his reforms were very middle of the road. More than half Americans think abortion should be generally legal at six weeks; but only a third think it should be legal at 24 weeks.
Meanwhile, Fetterman, the giant former Mayor of Braddock, won his race against a supplements salesman who was encouraged to run by Trump. Fetterman’s victory came despite having a stroke during the campaign. With a goatee beard, a shaved head and scruffy clothes, he looked more like an ordinary member of the public who has wondered onto stage by mistake than a typical career politician. However, his description of trade unions as “sacred” while saying that far-left slogans about defunding the police were “absurd” showed that neo-masculine politics don’t necessarily have to be right-wing. The comments are open. See you next week!
Further Reading
Sharpen Your Axe is a project to develop a community who want to think critically about the media, conspiracy theories and current affairs without getting conned by gurus selling fringe views. Please subscribe to get this content in your inbox every week. Shares on social media are appreciated!
If this is the first post you have seen, I recommend starting with the first-anniversary post. You can also find an ultra-cheap Kindle book here. If you want to read the book on your phone, tablet or computer, you can download the Kindle software for Android, Apple or Windows for free.
Opinions expressed on Substack, Twitter and Mastodon are those of Rupert Cocke as an individual and do not reflect the opinions or views of the organization where he works or its subsidiaries.