A Real Man

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A blogger named Baseball Crank recently observed that one of the "lingering obsessions" in Glenn Greenwald's writing is his "fixation on masculinity." Impugning and mocking the manhood of those with whom they disagree is a way Greenwald and other lefty bloggers have of attacking those who have supported George Bush's Iraq policy or who want to keep Guantanamo Bay from being shuttered. But with Greenwald the masculinity of his adversaries has been a never-ending theme, along with psychoanalysing and critiquing the lives and personal family histories of conservative writers. The upshot of these personal attacks is that Greenwald believes neocons, supporters of the war, and those who wish Gitmo to stay open, are in fact, under their macho bluster, fear-mongering cowards, while he--Greenwald--and his fellows on the Left are among the "strong [who] remain rational and unafraid."



Here are a few examples of Greenwald's obsession, which I gather runs through everything he has written since he stopped practicing law:

(Tuesday June 2, 2009) Some of the most cartoonish pseudo-tough-guy, play-acting-warrior-low-lifes of the Right

(Wednesday May 20, 2009) Right-wing super-tough-guy warriors project some frightened, adolescent, neurotic fantasy onto the world

(Thursday April 2, 2009) ..that almost certainly set a record for most tough-guy/warrior nepotism ever stuffed onto a single panel

(Tuesday April 17, 2008) Those who end up as leaders of the right-wing movement in America have nothing in their lives to demonstrate any actual courage, physical strength, or any of the warrior virtues they desperately strive to exude. Their only "toughness" or masculine "tough guy" credentials are from cheerleading as they send others off to fight wars, never to fight in any themselves. Just like John Wayne, their masculine toughness comes from the costumes they wear, the scripts they read, the roles they play – never from the reality of their own lives.

(Wednesday Sept. 5, 2007) From Jonah Goldberg to Rich Lowry, National Review has long been renowned for its roster of tough-guy commentators -- real salt-of-the-earth conservative men who love to let you know what tough warriors they are.

(Thursday, June 14, 2007) Below are some of our most vocal war proponents who are courageous crusaders of the masculine virtues

(Tuesday March 6, 2007) It is a cult of contrived masculinity whereby people dress up as male archtypes like cowboys, ranchers, and tough guys even though they are nothing of the kind

(Sunday January 21, 2007) It's rather ironic (and almost certainly not coincidental) that neoconservatives love, more than anything else, to strut around spewing tough-guy Chruchill warrior rhetoric

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