To start as a disclaimer: I do think many of the original critiques of toxic masculinity as well as patriarchal social norms are legitimate - that being said, such ideas have been co-opted and have been used to pacify masculinity by social and political elites.

Now, to begin. Historically, masculinity has been seen as an action oriented and defensive force; ie. masculine men are ultimately the ones to defend the community, they’re normally the ones to ensure a community is fed and kept safe, taken care of and able to prosper and grow. In essence, healthy masculinity is the shield that allows a community, regardless of the size to push forward and prosper.

That being said, the powers that be (ie. governments, corporate leaders, etc) don’t particularly see that as a good thing as masculinity as a whole (whether healthy or toxic) does threaten their status quo. Without this defensive backbone, a society is more likely to fall in line, more likely to be co-opted and more likely to be taken over by outside forces.

We see this especially as capitalism has become a cultural standpoint, masculinity has been re-defined as maintaining meaningless financial wealth, greed, rapid individualism and so on - the “if society falls, then so be it, it’s not worth saving” mindset. This, I believe, is a form of neutering masculinity - another is the inception of effeminate man-children who only really care about the next consumable comes out. Both are forms of pacifying masculinity, though in very different ways.

We all know how pacification works in the soyboy consooomer method, so I won’t bother with that. I’ll focus more on the ‘poodle masculinity’ sold by manosphere and redpill influencers and why they’re anti masculine and actually accidentally helping the anti-masculine rhetoric the establishment likes to pull.

Ultimately, what “masculinity” sold to us by the redpill is is meaningless selfish individualism. It isn’t about caring for your loved ones or community or is it about actually being protective and providing, it’s about looking like you just came out of a rap music video. It’s vapid and materialistic - ergo both feeding the machine and hurting the image of masculinity.

And while I don’t think redpill influencers are ‘part of the establishment’, I do think they’re greedy enough to play into that side of themselves to grift others. The established forces see this and use this to their benefit, especially when aligning with things like toxic masculinity. “but they always ban RP creators” and yet, all banning them does is legitimize them, ergo radicalizing their followers, adding to the instability and justifying an anti-masculine stance. “But it’s just the internet” these ideas have gotten quite popular around many men, let’s not forget, last year Andrew Tate practically became a household name and many men have in some form internalized these ideas.

To put it bluntly, the manosphere is about the worst representation of masculinity out there, and the established powers (governments, corporate leaders, etc) know this and want them manosphere to continue to radicalize so they can get rid of any kind of protective forces we might have and continue to build their own empires.

As it stands, they all run under the idea of eternal growth, and when eternal growth is the goal, at one point you have to step on and pacify others to do it.