Consider this another installment in the ongoing Wimpification of the Conservative Male.

Time was, part of being a man* was admitting when you had done something wrong and actively taking steps to remedy it**. You needed to take your lumps and then fix the problem. But not our manfluencers (boldface mine):

Manosphere podcasters didn’t win Donald Trump the presidency in the 2024 election cycle, but they went a long way to solidifying the president’s support among large swaths of the young men who follow them. Now — nine months into the implementation of the president’s agenda — the same ultra-popular podcasters and streamers who lent their audiences to the president in 2024 are scrambling to break with his government…

Now, figures like Joe Rogan, Andrew Schultz, and Theo Vonn — who all provided friendly, nonconfrontational spaces for the president’s campaign agenda — are, like Ross, retreating from the MAGA movement.

Comedian Theo Von, host of the This Past Weekend podcast, interviewed Trump the same month as Ross. Trump asked Von about his cocaine use (“That’s down and dirty, isn’t it?”). Von asked Trump what he liked the most about each of his sons. Von would later attend Trump’s inauguration…

But none of what Trump has done since retaking office should come as a shock. Trump had been vowing to go after immigrants — as well as his critics and political opponents — for years. His plans for ruthless, relentless mass deportations were as explicit as his designation of migrants as “poison” to the blood of the nation. It’s a shame that many of the content creators who helped put him back in office only seem to be realizing it now.

Instead of actually doing something to stop Trump–these are influential people with large fan followings–they are avowing supporting politicians all together (for now, anyway…). I suppose that’s something, but a real man would do more, instead of slinking away like a coward.

But why do We hAvE A MaScUlInItY CrIsIs?

*The idealized version; obviously, lots of people fall short.

**Of course, women should do this too.l