# The Patriarchy Scam (Part 1 of 3) Date: 2025-09-24 Next Part: https://disrael.github.io/blogs/raw/the-patriarchy-scam.part2.md --- --- ## The Patriarchy Scam All three legs of the white male “respect” stool are threatened - career, family, and patriarchy and the right is freaking out in a way that will hurt everyone but mostly them. By some estimates patriarchy has been around since agriculture started over 10,000 years ago. However older patriarchy usually had women spending more time raising children and male careers like fighting, farming, or factories. Since changing career and family outcomes is hard, the right is doubling down on patriarchy but it’s a scam. #### Career Wealth inequality and poor job prospects are the obvious candidate for new events to cause a right uprising, but the gilded age and progressive era also had equivalent economic issues. > Average life expectancy at birth, average life expectancy at 10 years old and adult height measures all trended downward during the Gilded Age, even in studies which control for factors such as demographic changes brought on by immigration. ![Union membership rising till the 1960s](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/the-patriarchy-scam-5375647f58.png) *Union membership rising till the 1960s* Both periods also had [rising union membership](https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/state-of-the-unions/) which softened the wealth inequality. However a services economy is difficult to unionize — lower skilled, smaller workplaces, and more part time. Reducing immigration and tariffs can’t change decades long manufacturing trends anytime soon. ![Even the total manufacturing employment (in thousands) dived — per capita would be much worse](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/the-patriarchy-scam-815d4ab502.jpeg) *Even the total manufacturing employment (in thousands) dived — per capita would be much worse* Women in the workforce combined with inability to unionize means “respect” from career is harder for most men; unless like Putin you draft young men into a war you started. #### Family The world’s lowering birth rate means praise for raising a family is harder to achieve. Fewer children are born and acceptance of the importance of raising a family is also lower. Autocracy does not solve anything. China and Russia have even worse issues with wealth inequality and low birth rates. ![Image](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/the-patriarchy-scam-d9bdfe84c9.png) Above is already not fair to women, but if you include single mothers and limit the data to families with children then you get an even worse picture. ![Image](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/the-patriarchy-scam-ea0a5db30c.png) Could the white male respect problem be solved by returning to mostly husband income households? No because with tremendous wealth inequality the only way to restore respect is to tax the rich more — a luxury goods tax for instance. Otherwise those white males would just be single income in households with much lower status than others. #### Traditional Patriarchy At the height of patriarchy Thomas Jefferson had a shadow family with a teenage “black” girl 14 to 16 years old. White men in America considered themselves scientifically superior to other races and women. ![Ninth-generation descendant of Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/the-patriarchy-scam-e08316cb72.jpg) *Ninth-generation descendant of Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings* In 1790 a census showed one third of southern households owned slaves. However 25 to 70 thousand American men died in the revolutionary war out of roughly 1.25 million men, around 4%. Plus there was no casual dating and in the 1780's men didn’t marry till mid to late twenties. [By 1780](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_United_States) the percentage of adult colonists who formally held membership in a church was between 10 and 30%. Less than half of Americans, 45%, [now](https://news.gallup.com/poll/358364/religious-americans.aspx) belong to a formal house of worship. In [1890](https://www.census.gov/library/working-papers/1999/demo/POP-twps0029.html), 85% of Americans were born in the United States and currently it’s [about the same](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/foreign-born-population.html). So peak patriarchy only requires economic subjugation of women and other races — not strong religious participation or low immigration. However that leaves patriarchy as a divide with no compromise. States that allow women control of their bodies cannot easily coexist next to states that don’t. A form of [soft succession](https://medium.com/write-a-catalyst/the-quiet-breakup-of-america-how-soft-secession-is-already-here-8127fbff4d75) is already under way — you can force people to end slavery but you can’t force a transition from red to blue. Some humans may have been forced to adopt agriculture but there is [evidence](https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-02-07-new-doubts-whether-early-humans-were-forced-start-farming) that for many it was a long process of choice. ### Christian Nationalists and “Respect” Modeling seeking respect as is shown in the bible is problematic. > On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Jesus at this point is supposed to be human so honoring him like a god is odd. However even if we consider him a god respect should not mean lessers traveling long distances with gifts. > Jesus said to Simon, “You are right.” Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I came into your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss of greeting, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in. You did not put oil on my head, but she poured perfume on my feet. I tell you that her many sins are forgiven, so she showed great love. ![Image](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/the-patriarchy-scam-47b3d218e0.png) Again is Jesus a man or a god and even if he is a god why does this poor woman have to wash his feet in her tears etc to be forgiven. Incredibly toxic and more than a touch of misogyny. *And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them[a] out of their means.* Where Magdalene stood in early Christianity is unclear but in the version of the bible used modernly she is excluded from being a disciple and overly mentioned for having evil spirits. > 4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.[b]” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. > 7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you,[c] but you will not always have me.” Here again the concept of “respect” is toxic. There is even an ad hominem attack on Judas as if that invalidates the point that Jesus is basically warming himself by a fire of burning cash. Nor are Jesus’s disciples shy about the proper way to show respect > 11 A woman[a] should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man;[b] she must be quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. --- **[Continue reading Part 2 of 3](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/raw/the-patriarchy-scam.part2.md)**