New And column out—

On the right-wing argument that we should blame liberals, “political correctness” or feminism for the rise of Trump.

And no sooner do I publish than Internet libertarian Tyler Cowen makes the same claim about feminism: “The contemporary world is not very well built for a large chunk of males.  The nature of current service jobs, coddled class time and homework-intensive schooling, a feminized culture allergic to most forms of violence, post-feminist gender relations, and egalitarian semi-cosmopolitanism just don’t sit well with many…what shall I call them?  Brutes?”

As I note in my article, even if true (and Echidne dissects it at the link), so what? If men aren’t comfortable with a more egalitarian, less violent world, tough. That doesn’t make feminism the problem, it makes patriarchy the problem. As Cowen has written that he can’t see any reason employees should be protected from employer sexual harassment, I admit I take anything he says that touches on feminism with a grain of salt. And as Cowen is a libertarian I find it unsurprising he would focus on feminism rather than anything uncomfortable like corporate misbehavior, outsourcing, or any unlibertarian motivations like that (he touches on the growth of service jobs but seems to lump that in with them being too girly, rather than being low-paid and with less union protection than old school manufacturing).