The men (and let’s be clear: It’s mostly men) who tac up and beat civilians with clubs are the logical result of toxic masculinity. They are convinced that they are righteous — like the jackboots before them — in part because their rage has always been their most lauded quality.

Yes cat calling sucks. And yes, dick pics are unpleasant. But those are the symptoms. So are the small men loaded up like they’re going into the trenches, imagining all the ways they’ll be a hero tonight. This is not unrelated. This is literally what we’ve been warning you about.

Our policing problem is a problem of toxic white masculinity. It’s a constructed narrative that tells white men that they must be aggressive to be heroic, that they must doggedly believe in authority and that they must enforce it with the only manly emotion, which is fury.

Enforcing the laws and the structures at all costs is part of this training. It’s why the 2A trump card is “protecting my family.” It’s why paramilitary dipshits thinks they’re the good guy with the gun and fall asleep at night imagining the scenario where they might be.

It is about race and it is about class but if the all-out assault on literal mothers in Portland demonstrates one thing, it’s that our issues with policing are also deeply rooted in misogyny and the subjugation of women through the law.

Which like, is not new. It’s why there are millions of untested rape kits and why spousal rape was still legal in some states up to 1993. It’s why victims still cannot reliably access adequate legal assistance.

The law was written by men and it has been enforced by men.

Men will do what they must to uphold the laws that benefit them, and they’ll use the tools — violence, rage — bestowed on them by the Bible, by the GOP, and by “Traditional Values” to do it.

Beating women into submission for questioning authority? That’s as American as it gets.

And one more thing: what about the 53% of white women?

Here it is. Much like there are a lot of poor folks who have been convinced/convinced themselves that they might get rich, white women often believe that they’ll be saved by white men.

They believe that proximity to power is the same as equity. But guess what! It’s not! The men are never going to actually let you in, even if you have nice blonde hair and a shift dress!

Just ask the women of FOX.

There will always be marginalized people who think that it they hew to the rules, they will be able to get into the club.

They will always be wrong. The only way to achieve equity is to burn that club to the ground and salt the earth afterward.