Jesse Watters can’t seem to stop admiring Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. The Fox News host loves to talk about how Michigan’s Democratic nominee for the Senate is “in great shape” and how “Abdul . . . beat the machine” — meaning the party establishment’s candidate, Rep. Haley Stevens — in a hard-fought primary. During an interview in August, Watters clearly enjoyed El-Sayed’s jokes and blunt speech, which included calling his opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, a “beta,” and asking the host if he was circumcised when Watters tried to corner him on gender-affirming surgery for minors. The next day, Watters made no bones about El-Sayed’s appeal. “I like him,” he said. “I don’t want to like him. I like him for some stupid reason.”
But the reason was obvious. The doctor-turned-politician has an aggressive bro style that appeals to someone like Watters. Quick-witted with bulldog energy, El-Sayed never backs down from a fight. But despite Watters’ admiration, Fox News has become obsessed with taking El-Sayed down. It’s not because he’s Muslim, though Republicans are ratcheting up the racism in their efforts to derail his campaign. It’s because he is a model for how Democrats can escape their reputations for being weak and feckless.
This is the same reason why they’re so obsessed with Hasan. The right has benefited from a perception that men, or at least “real” men, don’t have a place on the left. It’s been a highly effective strategy that shifts things away from the actual issues and onto meaningless aesthetics, and which is partially responsible for the political gender gap, particularly among young men who are more impressionable in that way. Having at least a handful of men who can challenge that perception (provided it doesn’t fall into actual toxicity) is, from a purely pragmatic perspective, strategically invaluable.
The right understands the potential impact of such aesthetics better than many on the left do, and so they’re desperate to discredit such figures, and especially, to try to get liberals and leftists to denounce them, because the goal is to reinforce this narrative that men have no place on the left. Of course we shouldn’t let their narratives dictate our actions, but we should at least be aware of them and try to avoid playing into them. Know the enemy.
Absolutely spot on. The existence of Hasan, El-Sayed and Mamdani flies directly in the face of the toxic masculinity propaganda they’ve been espousing to young men.
People like Pete Hegseth, who are so obsessed with the appearance of traditional “masculinity” despise that these people not only exist, but outclass them in every way.
In this case I think you’re correct, but in general we’ve spent way too long letting them dictate the terms of engagement
They’re going to attack our people, whether we give them opportunities or not. I think we need to worry less about playing into them, instead we need to bulldoze through their attacks like the petty insults they are
But I’m this case I fully agree - we need to stop taking the bait when they demand we disavow this guy or that group. It’s a loaded question… If you refuse to “disavow”, it sounds to the low info voter like you tacitly support someone who sounds bad and scary. If you do, it implies there’s some relationship there that you’re betraying. You can’t answer loaded questions,
We need to do more like El-Sayed did… Turn it back on them as the stupid question it is…“I haven’t heard you disavow the Muslim brotherhood, why are you asking me? We all know why you’re asking me, come on, say it”
Fucking Cinema right there
We need to do more of that… When you’re asked a loaded question, the only answer is make them look stupid for asking.
Ask why some twitch streamer matters. Ask them how many hours a day they’re on twitch. Demand to go through the audience one by one and avow or disavow each person together. Pick some of Trump’s biggest mistakes and ask them to disavow his choices. Bring up his friendship with Epstein. Ask if they’d commit to impeaching Trump if a video of him with a child comes to light
We need to stop letting them control the narrative, and better yet, create our own