Pirate's Cove

This is from the same people who made being obese normal and telling men to be beta

Opinion | How Democrats can make “Speaking with American Men” a success

After losing big with men under 30 in the 2024 election, Democrats have spent $20 million on a program called “Speaking with American Men” (SAM) to help figure out which “spaces” they need to show up in to fare better with this demographic. A smart place to start would be the gym; the booming men’s fitness market is expected to more than double by 2029, growth driven by men under 25, who are joining gyms almost twice as fast as women. And as SAM co-director Ilyse Hogue and I wrote here last year, the right has done an excellent job parlaying young men’s healthy interest in exercise into an embrace of reactionary politics.

The right has done an excellent job parlaying young men’s healthy interest in exercise into an embrace of reactionary politics.

We have? That’s a new one. I wasn’t aware of that. I do not go to the gym because I’m a conservative, like I don’t play guitar because I’m a conservative.

But it doesn’t need to be that way. Across the political spectrum, craving the surefire sense of accomplishment the gym provides is an age-old response to an unstable political and economic environment. And historically, championing physical fitness with appeals to American manliness has not been a partisan issue. If the SAM initiative is going to net the Democrats more than online snark, its leaders should appreciate that this history suggests the party’s path forward might just begin at the gym.

They want to turn exercise political.

In the vast digital universe targeting young men, the idea that exercise is imperative to self-actualization is inescapable. It’s most obvious in fitness-focused influencers like Ashton Hall, whose six-hour “morning routine” recently racked up nearly a billion views on X. But plenty of public figures with grander concerns insist exercise is integral to achievement. Take Andrew Tate’s obsession with “plummeting masculinity” or Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s quest to make America healthy again.

Have no idea who Hall is, Tate is a horrible human being, and, really, being healthy is a bad thing? Oh, right, Democrats came up with “fatphobic.”

When the world feels confusing or out of control, make a man of yourself, beginning with your body is an especially enticing proposition. If, despite one’s best efforts, landing a rewarding career or a loving mate proves elusive, then why not capture a sense of self-efficacy at the squat rack? Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg’s billions may be out of reach, but attaining their newly sculpted bodies only takes some discipline and protein shakes.

What they do not get is that being a man starts with a mental belief, not being in shape. And, yeah, it never used to be a political thing, but, we have seen how the Democrats have hated on men doing manly things over the past couple decades. Then we get some blah blah, ending with

Yet destabilizing moments like the one we are now living through reveal an enduring dynamic: Men are encouraged with particular urgency to get moving when their social status feels in flux. Generation after generation, boosters sell men the irresistible idea that at the gym, if nowhere else, the sweat of your brow is all that stands between you and success. It’s an understandable, even healthy impulse, and Democrats would do well to start rebuilding their political muscle quite literally, by seeking to identify with the guy at the gym.

Most go to the gym because it makes them feel good and helps get them in shape. Democrats want to make it political. This will not go well. These are most of the young Dem males