November 2023
… but my country does not love me.
It has been a rough week. I’ve been through far worse in my life, so this is just a blip. However, each set of difficulties provides its own unique hell, different from what came before or will come after. It still takes a toll, and sometimes that toll initiates a tipping point. This is mine. As I sat in the morning silence, drinking my coffee, I realized that I don’t want to live here anymore. I don’t want to live in a nation where the culture, media, government and corporations condemn and vilify me just for being white and male. Where an employer can force me to attend meetings in which I am required to listen to how I am a racist and misogynist without ever having done anything remotely like that … and then be encouraged to confess sins I never committed. Where I am declared guilty of racism and misogyny just because of my physical traits, rather than anything in my character or actions. That I am guilty of generational oppression when my ancestors were not even in this country until a year before I was born. Where my achievements are summarily dismissed because I had “privilege” in attaining them. My country does not love me.
I worked hard for forty years, but I am told that everything I have and achieved is because I stole it from others, all the while giving up to 50% of my income to those others who sit on their butts and don’t work. If I take issue with this and stop paying, armed men will show up to take everything I have and imprison me. I am told that I am privileged, while I see others continually receive preferential treatment because they possess the traits I do not have. They occupy jobs and positions for which they are not qualified, often causing me and others to fix their shoddy work. They are promoted ahead of me to meet quotas. They receive money for just possessing a certain trait. They are given academic degrees without putting in the work. They are given unlimited do-overs, where I get just one chance, if that. They can take a man’s money at whim, using a legal system weaponized against men. They are some of the most privileged people in all of history, while they scream and point their fingers at me being the oppressor. If I open my mouth, I risk losing my job and being vilified in public at best, imprisonment at worst. This dynamic permeates every single American institution. My country does not love me.
Consider this recent statement on social media by U.S. feminist Jenny McDermott. “We need to kill all men. Kill male babies. Kill any man that you see, like in the street.” Was she arrested for hate speech or incitement to commit murder and infanticide? No. Was she warned, banned or doxed? No. Not even demonetized. Instead, she was cheered on and the comments went viral. Clearly, over half the U.S. population either agrees with her or sees nothing wrong with what she said. Even many of the men seem to agree, that is the simping soyboy excuses for men in the West. Imagine if a man had made these comments about women? He would be arrested and imprisoned, if the crowds did not tear him to pieces first. So why is a woman heralded for it? As a man, just mentioning there is something you don’t like about feminism is enough to have you declared an extremist and placed on a watchlist.
I fought for my nation, in combat, effectively earning less than minimum wage for the actual hours I worked in abject filth, sleep deprivation, and physical hardship. Never mind the added perk of risking my life in the process. In exchange for that, I was called a killer and murderer. A judge declared me incapable of being a parent because I was also a soldier … and took my child away from me. Never mind all the strong and independent single mothers in the military. In fact, I was threatened by the judge with jail time just for mentioned this. Jail time, for pointing out hypocrisy and wanting to be a father present in his child’s life. Yes, our nation speaks lofty words about veterans, thanking them for their service … then then takes away their children and destroys them financially when they come home … all because a woman is “not happy.”
Over 6,000 male veterans have committed suicide every year since 2005. That’s over 16 a day for a total of over 100,000 veterans. That’s about 10 infantry divisions, the exact number of all the divisions the US Army currently has active. We have kicked to the curb and deleted the equivalent of our entire active-duty combat force, without giving it even the slightest consideration. Sixteen deaths a day. There are about that many deaths per year in school shootings, yet they receive exponentially more coverage for less than 1/3 of 1% of deaths. It’s not just deaths. Hundreds of thousands more veterans are homeless, most of them because the government took everything away from them … because a woman was “not happy.” Some were imprisoned when they had no more to give, for felony child support evasion. That “crime” charge is only leveled against men … predominantly white men. Who are the real oppressed here? Our country does not love us.
I will obey the laws of my nation and I would never even consider any type of treason … but I will not remain here. Unlike the leaders of our nation and an increasing number of its citizens, I have character and values. I stand by the oath and allegiance I made so long ago and will not violate it, even after my country has repeatedly violated me and millions of other loyal citizens. However, character and values count for nothing here, just the traits with which you were born … and I have all the wrong ones. Because they are the wrong ones, I am automatically declared an oppressor when ironically, I have become the oppressed. Fine, I will go somewhere that thinks more highly of me. My country does not love me.
I am not the only one. Thousands, perhaps millions, of men are doing this. Leaving a country that doesn’t love them, or just checking out and doing the bare minimum to survive. You’re feeling the effects already. Two month wait just to get your car’s oil changed. Need a plumber? Good luck. Soon there will be fewer and fewer things on store shelves, because you collectively crapped all over the men you deemed oppressors. Ironically, they are the ones who build and maintain the infrastructure upon which rests all your luxuries and your ability to pursue noble-sounding professions that produce little or nothing of real value. They sweat while you sit in air conditioned comfort. You spit on the very men who sustain you. Our country does not love us.
When another man asks me, “Why do you want to leave?” My only response is, “Why do you want to stay?”
Some of you may call this whining. A sign of my own “privilege.” I don’t give a rat’s butt. It doesn’t detract from the truth and accuracy of what I am saying. You are probably on the receiving end of the real privilege in this country. Keep enjoying it. You are part of the reason I am leaving. I love my country, but those who lead it and many of you living in it can go pound sand. Goodbye.