Sinclair Lewis, It
Can't Happen Here
“A revolution does not deserve its name if it does not help
with all its might and all the means at its disposal- if it does not help women,
twofold and threefold enslaved in the past, to get on the road of individual
and social progress. A revolution does not deserve its name if it does not take
the greatest possible care of the children ... for whose benefit it has been
made. But how can one create ... a new life based on mutual consideration, on
self-respect, on the real equality of women . . . on the efficient care for
children-in an atmosphere poisoned with the roaring, rolling, ringing, and
resounding swearing of enslavers and enslaved people, that swearing which
spares no one and stops at nothing? The struggle against 'foul language' is an
essential condition of mental hygiene just as the fight against filth and
vermin is a condition of physical hygiene.”
― Leon Trotsky, Problems of Everyday Life & Other
Writings on Culture & Science
“The women of the property-owning class will always
fanatically defend the exploitation and enslavement of the working people, by
which they indirectly receive the means for their socially useless existence.”
Rosa Luxemburg
Lost Boys by James Bloodworth is a journalist's examination
of the reactionary movement that has been somewhat lightly termed the Manosphere.
The Manosphere quaintly refers to a motley collection of websites, blogs and
online forums promoting misogyny, masculinity and opposition to feminism. It
promotes racism, antisemitism, anti-intellectualism, climate change denial,
homophobia and transphobia. This movement has become a recruitment centre and training
ground for what can only be termed trainee fascists.
It is not surprising that Bloodworth did not want to
research and write this book. He replied to his editor, saying, “Why would
I want to do that?”. He writes, “Today I feel a bit like a funeral
director in the aftermath of a mass casualty event. I would have preferred
things to have turned out differently, but considering they haven’t, I intend
to put my knowledge to some practical use. Having spent so much time
researching the manosphere – including interviewing and interacting with
hundreds of men and spending months at a time embedded on a course which
purportedly taught men how to become ‘high status alpha males’ – I feel as if I
have something worthwhile to contribute.”[1]
Indeed, why should anyone want to associate and talk to a bunch
of Nazi like scumbags who give two thousand pounds to learn how to hunt down
woman and on some occasions rape them and then brag about their behaviour of social
media.
The origins of this so-called pickup movement can be traced
back to Neil Strauss’s 2005 bestseller, The Game. His book turned the art of seduction
into a woman hunt, which sees women as nothing more than prey and being treated
as such. The men within this movement have no comprehension of history but their
attitude towards women would not look out of place in the Nazi Party of German
fascism.
To his credit, Bloodworth exposes these trainee fascists. He
reveals the close links between the manosphere and the far Right, including
fascists like Donald Trump. Trump’s fascist partners in the While House who
dismiss their enemies as “beta”. His vice-president, JD Vance, describes
himself as “red-pilled”. As Bloodworth points out, the rise of the
Anti-feminist backlash coincided with the growth of fascist forces worldwide,
and it reminded him of Sinclair Lewis's dystopian novel, It Can’t Happen Here,
which enjoyed a resurgence during the first Trump presidency. As Sinclair wrote,
" Every man is a king so long as he has someone to look down on.’ However, his political understanding of how
and why these members of the lumpen proletariat and deranged petty bourgeois are
cannon fodder for a fascist movement is limited.
Bloodworth’s new book was inspired by his watching of the
Netflix series Adolescence. He writes, “It is a striking film that
is masterfully shot and powerfully acted. It has also generated a worthwhile
public conversation. Much of this conversation has been constructive; however,
some of it has been animated by a desire to change the subject – to talk
about anything but misogyny and the radicalisation of young
men on the internet. I found Adolescence surreal to watch at
times.”[2]
As Thomas Scripps writes in his review of the Netflix series,
“The reality, as we have been shown, is that the problems are well beyond an
individual family’s ability to resolve. Perhaps the most common expression
throughout the series is “I don’t know”, or some variant, from kids and adults
alike; they are buffeted and bewildered by forces beyond their grasp.
The role of smartphones, the Internet, and social media, in
particular, is well-contextualised in this broader social landscape. It would
be foolish to deny the role they play in creating an unprecedented level of
exposure to peer pressures and corporate advertising, declared and undeclared,
and in streamlining the passage of individuals damaged by these influences into
darker waters. But the real problem is the poison spilling out of a rotting
social system—from misogynist ideologies to the glorification of violence,
wealth and selfishness—for which these technologies are a conduit, and the
conditions of social neglect which make young people emotionally susceptible:
the most vulnerable dangerously so. Conditions which also hinder the social
dialogue necessary to help children learn how to interact healthily with new
technologies and form genuine relationships.”[3]
So far, the opposition to the rise of the “Manosphere has
not come from working-class women, but has taken the form of the middle-class
movement centred around the #MeToo movement, which is already eight years old. As
the Marxist writer David Walsh wrote, “The ostensible aim of this ongoing
movement is to combat sexual harassment and assault, i.e., to bring about some
measure of social progress. However, the repressive, regressive means resorted
to—including unsubstantiated and often anonymous denunciations and sustained
attacks on the presumption of innocence and due process—give the lie to the
campaign’s “progressive” claims. Such methods are the hallmark of an
anti-democratic, authoritarian movement, and one, moreover, that deliberately
seeks to divert attention from social inequality, attacks on the working class,
the threat of war and the other significant social and political issues of the
day.”[4]
One of the more outspoken and articulate critiques of the “Manosphere
has come from the pen of the writer Amia Srinivasan. Her book The Right To sex,[5]
while containing so worthwhile observations, it essentially promotes the #MeToo
movement's right to unsubstantiated and often anonymous denunciations and
sustained attacks on the presumption of innocence and due process.
Srinivasan is the darling of all the radical groups, who
fall over themselves in promoting her idea of social justice. Her brand of modern-day feminism is dominated
mainly by selfish, upper-middle-class champions of “women’s rights”. Srinivasan
writes, “It’s essential in any radical political tradition. It’s no surprise
that utopian writing always has these wacky ideas. I mean, think about More’s
Utopia, full of these strange possibilities, because the same political
imagination that leads to the disclosure of new possible social arrangements
also sometimes generates some crazy shit. The broadening of the sense of what’s
possible, as well as what’s delightful about human life, has to be central to a
radical politics.
As Kate Randall points out, “ The fight for women’s rights
is a social question that must be resolved in the arena of class struggle, not
in the rarified atmosphere of the corporate boardroom and Hollywood. As Rosa
Luxemburg once explained: “The women of the property-owning class will always
fanatically defend the exploitation and enslavement of the working people, by
which they indirectly receive the means for their socially useless existence.”
Notes
James Bloodworth is a journalist and author whose writing
has appeared in numerous British newspapers, as well as in many US
publications. His book Hired: Undercover in Low Wage Britain was longlisted for
the Orwell Prize in 2019 and was selected as The Times Best Current Affairs and
Big Ideas Book of the Year in 2018. He has produced and presented documentaries
for Channel 4 television and has appeared on many podcasts. He has a new book,
Lost Boys: A Personal Journey Through the Manosphere, scheduled for release on
June 5, 2025, the result of a five-year investigation into the subculture.
[1]
Adolescence’ and the Marketisation of Childhood, by James Bloodworth – 4 April
2025-https://leftrenewal.org/articles-en/bloodworth-adolescence/
[2]
‘Adolescence’ and the Marketisation of Childhood, by James Bloodworth – 4 April
2025-https://leftrenewal.org/articles-en/bloodworth-adolescence/
[3]
Adolescence: Gripping realism explores social pressures behind young male
violence-https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/03/24/fbxd-m24.html
[4]
One year of the #MeToo movement-https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/10/19/year-o19.html
[5]
The Right to Sex: Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2022 Hardcover – 19 Aug.
2021-Bloomsbury
