#hardmen

Paris-Roubaix: A quick primer on the toughest one-day race in the world

Have you seen those ads for big Utes on the telly? You know the ones where these pretty massive vehicles are encountering rugged terrain? Complete with mega sized grills, tyres and tough looking blokes at the wheel. Talk about pumping up the tyres of would-be-buyers. Pissing in the pockets of wannabe big men. Living a lie in the manosphere. Soundtrack thumping in the background and plenty of filmed stunts. I wonder if some guys are masturbating to this stuff on screen. I think back to the days of the real hard men of yesteryear, they wouldn’t be glorifying their lives like this, cause they lived them and they didn’t need to. This fantasy adventure crap is akin to dangerous wild beasts locked up in zoo cages. The closest any of these guys are gonna get to anything real.

Selling The Big Man Fantasy

The people marketing these vehicles are selling a fantasy, a masculine wet dream about lives that no longer exist. It is all bullshit. In reality, most guys are sheltered inside a push button, touch screen world. The only time they are going to meet rugged terrain is on some recreational getaway. The inference in the ads is painting a picture of a hard man lifestyle. The swagger is an act, a put on. It reminds me of that gay troupe from the 1980s the Village People. You had these pretend male archetypes – the construction worker, the cop and the cowboy. Talk about living a lie in the manosphere.

Does my little dick look bigger in this pick-up truck?

Manosphere Bullshit On Steroids

So, where does all this BS hail from? America, of course, the home of the lying, crooked president. The bourbon and coke, pickup truck persona. Red neck culture sold to the world, where pretend tough guys get to strut their stuff. UFC on the White House lawn. Where dumb is celebrated big time!  MAGA madness on steroids. Downunder apes this Americanised identity. I mean everything they watch on TV is American. Social media is an American invention. Half of these folk reckon they are American, living in the 51st state. One Nation is funded by a billionaire, now living in the US. One Nation wants to be the Aussie version of MAGA. They have their red headed terror shooting off at the mouth about banning foreigners and halting immigration into the country. Blame it on the foreigner is an oldie but a goody in the political stakes. Demonise different looking and sounding folk. Drongos can get on-board with that.

Passing The Pub Test

I was speaking with a young bloke who works in a big liquor barn, next to a pub in a northern Brisbane locale. He tells me about these guys who spend all day drinking at the pub. They come into the liquor store to purchase roadies to go home with, as the drinking day comes to a close at the pub. He wonders how they can afford to drink all day and never seem to work. Their vociferousness is often centred around foreigners ripping off the country. Indians and Arabs milking the NDIS. It struck him as ironic that these perennial no-hopers stand in judgement on the high moral ground. Personally, I always thought that the expression about something ‘passing the pub test’ was based on a pretty dumb idea. I mean pissed people are a pretty low standard to be holding up as the threshold of public acceptability.

A lot of those tough-guy-Utes are made in China. The giant grills are stick-on cosmetics. The hard man persona is like women dressing up with mascara and high heels – it is all an act. Many of these blokes driving these 4x4 Utes work in offices and shops and the nearest they ever get to rugged terrain is inside their heads. These are the muscle cars of their generation. Parading around the streets taking up unnecessary space to flaunt their delicate egos in big Utes. I suppose it’s a fashion statement like body shirts were back in the day or flares, maybe? Real and authentic are not concepts that fit with these pretend men. Living a lie in the manosphere.

Populist Protest Voters Beware

“We are seeing the very real dangers of the populist protest vote in Trump’s America and Reform in the UK. Basically, crooks cashing in on an electorate’s frustration with an economy cooked by oligarchs and billionaires. It has taken many Americans out of the frying pan into the fire with President Donald Trump’s campaign promises on affordability and no more forever-wars not worth the hot air they were expended with. “

- (https://www.housetherapy.com.au/out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©HouseTherapy

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