A significant feature of the period immediately following 911 was the inculcation of fear into daily life.

Another attack could happen at any time. It could take any form. Nobody was safe. This daily ration of fear was served with deliberate intention by the Bush administration to justify lavish spending on their “Project for a new American Century” and to maintain a free hand in it’s implementation up to and including the use of torture. It was used to justify sweeping legislation, much of which handed over more and more power to the executive branch. It was used to justify setting up an entirely new department: Homeland Security.

Fear was also ladled out by the media. Fear sells like hot cakes. Opinion editorials by the bushel fretted about the ways and means nefarious actors could take advantage of unsuspecting, innocent Americans and slaughter them.

The avatar of this fear was, the Muslim. The Muslim was to be feared. He was the enemy. Nevermind that there are literally billions of Muslims. They were all in on it in some shape or form. If they didn’t directly partake in terrorism - they gave it aid and comfort by not strenuously objecting to it, to a man. All were suspect. And still are, to some degree.

Over the years however, the fever pitch of fear has naturally lessened. There have been no new spectacular terrorist attacks in America on a par with 911. Those terrorism clicks are no longer generating media revenue. Dialling up the threat level would no longer have any political effect, in fact it was abandoned in 2011.

But the lesson remains; fear works like gangbusters. It works for a variety of reasons and for a variety of societal actors. And so a new enemy must be found. After Communism, after Terrorism, the new target is “Men”.

They were there all along. Hiding among us, in plain sight. The brilliant thing about using men as a bogeyman to whip up votes, accumulate clicks, eyeballs and ultimately money is that there can be no final victory over men. This can theoretically roll on forever.

So over the course of the next 20 years or so we can expect to see further accumulations of power to the executive branch in the name of ‘protecting women’. An eroding of the human rights of men (only poor and middle class men - naturally). More media demonization of men in movies, tv, books and newspapers etc.

In order to lessen the effect of this, I believe it’s crucial to understand this narrative. The Right drove and supported the excesses of the Global War on Terror as it was in their political interest to do so. The Left is pushing the “evil men” narrative for the same reasons. Witness Democratic Senator Hirono telling “the men of this country” to “shut up” and “do the right thing, for a change”. Such a statement would be political suicide, if said by any gender, about “the women of this country”, and as CDC figures show: when the definition of rape is “sex without consent” almost as many women rape men as men rape women.

However the Left can be easily fractured by framing the issue in the context of the hated (by them) GWOT.

Being against the demonization of men is no more “anti-women” than being against the demonization of Muslims is “pro-terrorism”.

And that’s it in a rather long-winded nutshell.