Big Dad Energy: Navigating Toxic Masculinity in Politics

An unexpectedly cheerful followup to “JD Vance Taps into Parental Rage.” The alt titles today could be: “Tim Walz Taps into Parental Goals,” or “Disarming the Disinfo of the Right is Great, But Have You Tried Dad Jokes?” 

Across social media, liberal millennial women are tagging Tim Walz as the return of the dad they lost to Fox News. Matthew digs into that graveyard with a survey of the tools that we’ve used to examine the nature and function of patriarchal bullshit as it dominates conspirituality, cults, and QAnon. The result is a stroll through a Madame Tussaud’s display of fragile and toxic influencer fathers, from Jordan Peterson to Jim Watkins to RFK Jr to Donald Trump. 

Tim Walz not only doesn’t do any of the things these guys do—he might be rooting around in his special tool drawer now to find just the thing it’ll take to fix what they’ve done.

Note: this is not a blind love-fest or blanket endorsement of as-yet vague policies. But there is something powerful going on with Walz’s new-old modeling of Big Dad Energy. 

Show Notes

A Balanced Assessment of Tim Walz’s Record from the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy | lvgaldieri 

Tim Walz’s green resume has an oily stain 

Minnesota activists criticize Tim Walz for refusing to meet with Palestinians – Mondoweiss 

Donald Trump Likens His Schooling to Military Service in Book - The New York Times 

Tim Walz was my teacher in high school. Here's what I've carried with me about him all these years later.

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