THREAD: Trump is scared of offending his armed militias. He stirred them up and now he is losing control of them. He is weak. /1

This tweet uses language designed to undermine Trump’s authoritarian status with his base. /2

Fact checking, noting hypocrisy, or highlighting illegal behavior by men like Trump is irrelevant to his base. For them, these behaviors represent the domination of others, the defining virtue of an authoritarian leader. /3

Typically, public opinion shifts against an authoritarian and the rule of law begins to assert itself when their incompetence takes too great a toll. For Trump, Covid is that tipping point. /4

Trump, a white nationalist, continues to double down on his dominance behaviors, launching authoritarian attacks against the Press, the opposition, a pandemic (it isn’t real), protesters, etc. Rational arguments against him are meaningless, his base only cares about dominance. /5

But call Trump fearful or weak (which he is) and the effect on his base is immediate. I write and speak about our bullying, dominance-based culture of masculinity. The rules of which are simple. Dominate others, control women, never show weakness, etc. /6

Authoritarians are steeped in this culture. When the are ascending, their bullying of others seems impossible to effectively counter. This is because their base is operating emotionally and wants only the stimulation that aggression and bullying can provide. /7

The appetite for bullying is born out of trauma. Trump’s base is made up of men traumatized by a lifetime of violent bullying man box culture. Trained to see domination as the only form of masculine validation. Harm done to others is irrelevant. Even to ourselves, our families /8

But when an authoritarian like Trump begins to falter or stumble, his base sees the one thing they can not abide. Weakness. /9

As women and independents abandon Trump due to his inept handling of Covid, his hard core base begin to smell weakness. It is a tipping point whereby his ability to dominate is called into question. “He can’t bully like we thought he could bully.” /10

It’s a tragically sad commentary on the continuing power and reach of our toxic dominance-based masculine culture in general, that Trump has to kill 180,000 Americans before enough Americans will doubt him, that his base will see him as suddenly weak, but there it is. /11

We make the rational, policy based arguments to suburban moms and to swing voters. But we call out Trump’s fear and weakness to his base. We push them to see him as a weak, scared, failed authoritarian, and they will turn on him. Which is EXACTLY what he is afraid of. /12

Because when Trump’s white nationalist base turns on him, they will turn on every Republican who has enabled him, which is all of them. —“When you ride on the back of the tiger, you end up in the belly of the tiger.”
/13

Help us end domination-based man box culture. Get your copy of The Little #MeToo Book for Men, available at Barnes & Noble Online and Amazon.
https://barnesandnoble.com/w/the-little-metoo-book-for-men-mark-greene/1130130750?ean=9780983466963

https://amazon.com/dp/0983466963  /14