Toxic masculinity links the New Orleans attacker and the Las Vegas bomber

[marmar]

Toxic masculinity links the New Orleans attacker and the Las Vegas bomber
Whether MAGA or ISIS, troubled men are getting sucked in by hateful online propaganda

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published January 6, 2025 6:00AM (EST)


(Salon) As I noted in passing last week, the striking thing about the life of Shamsud-Din Jabbar is how much it reads like the boilerplate biography of any random Jan. 6 defendant or MAGA-inspired criminal. The 42-year-old who allegedly murdered 15 people at the New Year's festivities in New Orleans appeared, on paper, to be relatively successful in his career: 8 years in the Army, a degree from Georgia State, and a $125,000 a year job for an accounting firm. But his personal life was a mess. He was thrice divorced in 10 years, and at least two of the divorces were acrimonious and required repeat court interference. His divorce lawyer even fired him. His financial mismanagement meant his healthy salary didn't go far enough, and he had to be forced to make back payments on child support.

....(snip)....

Thankfully, no one but the bomber was badly hurt in the Las Vegas suicide bombing that happened the same night as the Bourbon St. attack, but the parallels between Jabbar and Matthew Livelsberger aren't hard to spot. Like Jabbar, Livelsberger was a troubled man who picked a highly symbolic location, blowing up a Cybertruck in front of a Trump hotel. Both men had checkered romantic histories, and Livelsberger appears to have told multiple people he feared he suffered from PTSD. Like Jabbar, Livelsberger seems to have acted on a belief that he was going out like a hero, standing up for his far-right ideology and using his death to call on fellow MAGA believers to commit acts of terrorism.

....(snip)....

Aliji's brand of toxic masculinity was radical Islamic propaganda, which eventually led him to ISIS, which he saw "as a means of gaining an identity and purpose." There are many flavors of this pitch aimed at lost men worldwide. In the U.S., groups like the Proud Boys offer a similar tactic: Join them, and you'll be transformed from a nobody to a warrior fighting for the supposedly noble MAGA cause. Online incel communities are less positive in their marketing but push a similar message, that the world is a fallen place and only this group of men see the truth of it. Christian nationalist churches, such as the one attended by Trump's Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegeseth, pump out huge amounts of online content valorizing male violence and female oppression. A lot of people fall into these radical communities after imbibing months or even years of "softer" versions of the same "feminism is bad, toxic masculinity is good" messaging from influencers like Jordan Peterson, Matt Walsh, or Ben Shapiro.

Whether it's radical Islam or MAGA vitriol, the appeal is obvious. They allow the troubled man to blame others, especially women and "woke" culture, rather than look to themselves. They offer a false promise that their ideologies will transform followers from losers to heroes. What they actually sell them is more of the same poison that led to their problems in the first place: toxic masculinity. They're encouraged to be domineering toward women and bombastic in their rigid worldviews, both of which alienate them further from people in their lives. But they often respond by digging even deeper into the radicalizing materials, and all too often, they act out violently. In some cases, as with Aliji or the would-be Pizzagate shooter, they're stopped before anyone gets hurt. All too often, they're not. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/06/masculinity-links-the-new-orleans-attacker-and-the-las-vegas-bomber/

[Irish_Dem]

1. If women acted out like men do, we would all be placed in detention camps.

[Diamond_Dog]

2. "When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression."

A certain select group of men just can’t handle not being in control of everyone else.

[Walleye]

3. They use ridicule as a political weapon. They think tampons are hilarious.

[LizBeth]

4. Those were the two commonalities.

[Deep State Witch]

5. Jabbar is Vilified for his Actions

But Livelsberger is rapidly going down the memory hole.