"Angry White Men,” by Michael Kimmel, 2013
If you are an angry white man, you might not be the target
of this book. What he really means is
‘angry right-wing white men’ of the U.S. but that title wouldn’t sell evidently, so he
appeals to the identity crowd by misidentifying the target. This topic was covered years ago in more
accurate ways, first by Susan Faludi in 1999’s “Stiffed,” and then by people
like Michael Moore in 2001’s “Stupid White Men.” He also admits that black people of both
sexes are angry and so are white women.
Even young people are angry if they stop being mellow for a second ... In
fact, EVERYONE might be angry!
Fuck, I’m angry at this guy for sometimes confusing
working-class, middle-class and upper-class men in his introduction and in the
section on ‘class’ in the book. I’m
angry that as a result he sometimes makes blanket inferences that all white men now hate
women or immigrants or blacks.
I’m angry that he can’t tell left from right populism – he thinks it is
all ‘emotion.’ In fact, I’m sick of
upper middle-class professorial fucks who are Democratic Party hacks and
pretend to analyze things without a mention of the Democratic Party’s role in
all this. Or the role of capitalism as a
whole. Just myopic sociology.
OK, I feel better now.
Kimmel is another liberal obsessing over Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and that ‘sexy’
Sarah Palin - if he has time. You know, like the liberal internet sites that incredulously repeat every stupid
racist/sexist/religious stupidity these guys utter. Even though intellectually he knows that
these people are just part of the American woodwork. Here’s the deal. Limbaugh is as essential to capitalism as air. They’ve had guys like Limbaugh for 150 years
in the U.S.
- slamming foreigners, wimmin, Jews, ‘negroes,’ ‘wetbacks,’ Commies, ‘fags,’
union thugs, Russians, now Muslims. Same shit, different
decade. The Know-Nothings, the Klan, Father
Coughlin, the John Birch Society, now the Tea Party. Let’s go a little deeper, shall we …who
benefits? Whose the real enemy
underneath all these disguises?
Kimmel has made a cottage industry
out of looking at maleness in the U.S. – writing books like “Guyland”
and the 'History of Men.' He’s probably a guy who’s never
turned wrenches in his life, had a working-class job, been in a fight or shot a
gun. His idea of danger is watching skiing on TV. He wears a suit to work, has a secretary and
calls a doctor every time he has an ache.
HE never gets mad because his annual tenured salary is in the $200,000s.
He’s polite and kind to everyone. So in this case, ‘anger’ is just odd. Which is maybe why he has to study it.
OK, I got that off my chest!
OK, I got that off my chest!
Kimmel’s book is a blend of sociology and psychology, based
on interviews and internet visits regarding different right-wing mens' issues,
mostly based on what he calls entitled white anger. Kimmel’s first chapter is on the billionaire A-males
of the AM Radio dial who prey on insecure white men in the listening audience –
or as Kimmel calls them ‘Angry White Men.’ (AWM). The role of woofs like Limbaugh is to blame
everyone but the rich and the capitalist system for the problems white
middle-class and working-class men face.
Business bankruptcies, house foreclosures, job layoffs, inflating costs,
uppity wives, lost wars and gays on TV – don’t look behind the curtain! It’s obvious these reactionaries are as
necessary to capital, in the ideological sense, as a large mental shield. Diversion, diversion! Kimmel understands that, and says the AWM’s
should direct their anger at … the Wall Street behemoths behind it all. OK, right.
Except that might not be so emotionally satisfying as bashing women. Or as easy.
His next chapter examines school shootings, especially since the 1999 Columbine
shootings. It is white boys that are behind the overwhelming majority of school
massacres. He shows how the majority of
these white boys were physically and verbally bullied by jocks and the various
conformists you find in high school, attacked as ‘nerds,’ ‘fags,’ ‘weirdos’ and
small ‘wimps.’ So shooting these fucks
was psychologically logical at a certain point for these boys. Not sure there is a problem here, only a
solution. They took the macho gun
culture they grew up in and threw it in the face of the bullies. Of course, suicide and depression are much more
common results of bullying. The obvious,
immediate villain is the right-wing culture in some schools – mostly in rural
areas or upscale rightist suburbs – that endorse bullying of anyone who doesn’t
conform to some right-wing cultural norm.
Kimmel’s next chapters are on the ‘men’s rights’ and ‘dads’
rights’ movements, which are, of course, mostly straight white men. This movement seems to be marginal, and not
sure why he spends so much time on them.
He does agree with them on the issues of the courts being outdated on divorce
and child custody, but parts ways on the rest.
Kimmel locates their birth in the ‘men’s liberation’ movement that then parted
ways with mainstream feminism. They
guide frustrated men through divorce by blaming everything on ‘women’ as a
sex. If you want a useful polemic on
these issues, he has one from a male feminist point of view.
Kimmel covers the issue of the rape and violence culture in
the U.S.,
opposing those AWM’s who think that gender violence is ‘equal.’ 95% of all violence in the U.S. is carried out by men. Women are being brutalized and killed by
their husbands, exes and boyfriends every day. Everyday in the U.S. 5 women die
at the hands of their intimate partners.
The U.S.
has the highest rate of spousal homicide in the developed world. 45% of female homicides are by spouses and
ex-spouses. Rates in some more patriarchal cultures are
even higher. He gives figures on the rates among different classes and
ethnicities. None of this is news, but
it is repeatedly ‘hidden’ news. (See commentary below, "Rape? Really?," below. Use blog search box, upper left.)
The key chapter to my mind should be his on class –both
middle and working class – but this chapter somewhat short-shifts the issue. Kimmel discusses the epidemic of ‘going
postal’ shootings at work sites, which target both bosses and co-workers. In an exception, a very efficient accountant
killed only the bosses who denied him a promotion – no sloppy shooting here! Accountants are not messy people, and he must have tallied up who actually did him in. Kimmel does not blame the high rates of male
suicide or depression on just psychological issues, but on the rates of
unemployment, foreclosure, injury, poverty and other major events, as rates
always rise along with these economic factors.
Like India, though not as extensive, hundreds
of small farmers in the U.S.
committed suicide in the Reagan 1985-1986 recession. This was after experiencing
the 80-90,000 farm foreclosures brought on by Reagan's recessions and the advance of Big Ag, coddled by the U.S. government.
Relief for men is found in ‘media fantasies’ like the film “Fight Club,” where young men immerse themselves in ‘reel’ life in order to live out revenge or power fantasies they cannot carry out in ‘real’ life. And perhaps move on to actual fight clubs. Violent gaming provides an outlet for other young men. Or watch infantile films with super-heroes or action heroes. But most do not join with others in unions or organizations to fight the corporations. According to Kimmel, they just listen to talk radio and curse the wrong people on the internet.
Kimmel lastly samples various organized right-wingers – from Neo-Nazi, Klan, racist skinheads, WAR,
Posse Comitatus, the Church of the Creator, Christian Identity
Church, Minute Men,
National Alliance, Aryan Nations and the Tea Party. 9/11 threw the right into a
frenzy, but Obama’s election in 2008 made them see the ‘end of time.’ There has been a 50% increase in ‘hate’
groups since 2000, per the Southern Poverty Law Center, to 1,108.
We can see their local strength in Idaho recently, where a right-wing millionaire rancher wants his
cattle to graze on public land for free – and backs his idea up with armed
buddies. Yet most of these organizations
key spot to organize is on the web. Most of his interviews were in rural areas,
small towns or decimated exurbs. He
sympathizes and then makes the white Right all about gender and masculinity – which of course it
is on one level, but not the most essential.
Far Right groups have pretended to oppose farm
foreclosures. It is a failure of the farm and Democratic Party groups that they have let small farmers
hang …and the right has attempted to fill the gap. Small farmers have been intentionally crushed
by agri-business and the government that works for Big Ag. (See review of book on Big Ag, “Foodopoly." Use blog search box, upper left.) The far right attempts to speak to the white
‘lower-middle-class’ - which is Kimmel’s catchall for working/middle class fusion. Kimmel actually is describing the small
businessman that is the classical basis of fascism. (‘…independent farmers, small shopkeepers,
…small-scale entrepreneurs”) In that
sense, the ultra right attempts to make a class appeal, much as Hitler did with ‘national
socialism’ or as the Tea Party uses right-wing populism against the
Democrats. It works, because the
Democrats are also in the pocket of the corporations and long ago left working
people – even unionists – as an after-thought, fit for crumbs. Defeating these right-populist appeals can only be done by a left or left-populist position - not Democratic Party centrism. In fact centrism encourages the right.
The problem with Kimmel’s various identity and sociological solutions
(…’can we turn the volume down?”... he plaintively asks) is that it doesn’t
fully account for the economic and political character of the society we live
in. Kimmel does call for a ‘new New
Deal” - but we’ve had one and this is how it turned out. It is being whittled away. A capitalist society doesn’t want people to
‘unite’ – except at the mall. A
capitalist society wants you to believe that the Democratic Party or the
Republican Party – your two and only choices – will solve all your
problems. A capitalist society wants
women and blacks and Latinos to be at the bottom of things, because money is
made off their unpaid and super-exploited labor every day. And they provide excellent scapegoats! A capitalist society is run by money, not by
fairness or reason or human solidarity. A
capitalist society has to exploit the labor of white working class and even
some middle-class men too. And it even
needs unemployment! Foreclosures are
part of its ordinary functioning.
Oligopoly is part of its ordinary functioning. A capitalist society will never stop
producing these right-wingers, these AWM, because of its very nature.
So really, Kimmel, what’s your real beef?
And I bought it at May Day Books!
Red Frog
April 15, 2014 – TAX Day.
When the corporations pay less than the workers.
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