So while I am worried about randomly complimenting some stranger, this is going on:
Many feminist and emo lefties have their panties in a wad over my statements in the past 24 hours about families. I said, in a statement reflecting the view of three quarters of those surveyed in a Pew Research Center poll, that more women being the primary or sole breadwinners in families is harmful to raising children. This result came from a survey that found “nearly four in 10 families with children under the age of 18 are now headed by women who are the sole or primary breadwinners for their families.”
I also noted that the left, which tells us all the time we’re just another animal in the animal kingdom, is rather anti-science when it comes to this. In many, many animal species, the male and female of the species play complementary roles, with the male dominant in strength and protection and the female dominant in nurture. It’s the female who tames the male beast. One notable exception is the lion, where the male lion looks flashy but behaves mostly like a lazy beta-male MSNBC producer.
In modern society we are not supposed to say such things about child rearing and families. In modern society we are not supposed to point out that children in a two-parent heterosexual nuclear household have a better chance at long term success in life than others. In modern society, we are supposed to applaud feminists who teach women they can have it all — that there is no gender identifying role and women can fulfill the role of husbands and fathers just as men do.
Erick Erickson doubling down on his bullshit from earlier today.
After reading that, I realize nothing I could have said today in the grocery would make me a bigger dickhead than that guy.
Linnaeus
True, that.
Michael Bloom
The alpha in an elephant herd is a female.
The alpha female in a wolf pack (mate of the alpha male) shares his authority.
You wanna know who should be the next dominant species, check out the ring-tailed lemur.
Barentw
Didn’t Erickson buy his wife from a Russian catalog?
Howard Beale IV
Erick of Erick is fortunate to be in the position he’s in-otherwise, he might be signing a few octaves higher.
Baud
I wouldn’t call a misplaced apostrophe “small.”
Joseph Nobles
The male emperor penguin nurtures the egg while the female goes to find food.
JPL
@Michael Bloom: Amanda Marcotte has a great article at slate
Erickson must have this nifty scientific “fact” by studying the animals in the well-known academic text, The Berenstain Bears, which clearly shows Papa Bear going out and earning the money while Mama Bear stays at home and cooks the food for the cubs.
khead
I thought Erickson always got drunk after he posted.
dexwood.
Mock him. Then ignore him until his next deserved public mocking. Assholes will always be assholes.
Narcissus
Man I’d think a therapist would have a field day with that. Beta males, human-as-animal-in-the-animal-kingdom, females taming the beast.
I wonder how much of “conservatism” is just complete lack of self knowledge and introspection
Just Some Fuckhead
Didn’t Erick get his start by casually hitting on women in the grocery store?
schrodinger's cat
Wasn’t he fired from CNN? Why should we care what this idiot thinks?
pat
@Baud:
My pet peeve. Thanks.
pokeyblow
What civilization does, in large part, is set up protocols for specific behavior contrary to nature.
In nature, the strongest can theoretically take whatever they want and starve out the weaker.
In nature, building a big house for four people to live in would result in a quick invasion, eviction, and expropriation.
I believe men and women are different, and also believe children do better with two parents (I don’t know about hetero- vs. homo-sexual parent groups).
But most of all, I believe in fairness for life choices. What this fool says has to be rejected because everyone — male, female, tall, short, &c. — deserves the opportunity to “seek happiness.”
Weird how the baggers have so many exceptions in their understanding of “liberty.”
Dee Loralei
What’s totally LOLly about that is the lazy beta-male producer at MSNBC he is talking about is Steve Benen. Yea that Steve Benen. The hardest working writer in the blogosphere, even if he does take weekends off now.
KyCole
I just watched a documentary about Hyenas. The matriarch is the boss.
Violet
Does Erik’s wife come from money so his job is not really necessary? Is that why he’s so urgently trying to prove how essential he is?
Zam
I think some republicans have a very literal reading of the statement “the natural rights of man”
JPL
@schrodinger’s cat: He is at Fox now.
Elly
Erickson’s worst nightmare: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/angler
I’m amused that he can think of only one “notable exception.” What a jackass.
pokeyblow
I’m sad that Erickson got off the hook for his comment about adoring the pope for handing “lefties” over to be killed.
beltane
The thing that kind of pisses me off about this is that one of the main drivers behind the decline of the “traditional family” that Erickson so adores is the race-to-the-bottom, neo-liberal economic policies that Erickson also adores. Someone needs to tell this asshole that he can’t have it both ways.
ChrisNYC
It’s interesting that he’s clearly trying for the talk radio thing now. For the last two years he was positioning himself as the insidery nuts and bolts Tea Party True Conservative commentator. He was all about “I had a call last night with Gov. Haley/Sen. DeMint/ Gov. Walker’s team and …” The whole point of that blog was to wrangle the TPers for electeds, with Erick being the power behind the throne. The party’s apparently over and he’s thinking a sweet syndication deal would be just fine.
beltane
@Violet: Paul Ryan and several other wingnut notables fall into this category so it wouldn’t be a surprise.
Michael G
I can come up with all sorts of snarky answers, but in all seriousness, if we buy his premise that this is a problem, what is he peddling as the solution?
(Snark: cutting taxes on the rich, of course)
Ruckus
Nothing that ever comes out of your piehole will ever make you a bigger dickhead than erick the erick.
El Cid
This is the dumbass who when he was on the Macon, GA city council got so angry about the police possibly joining a police union and its concomitant right to strike he began talk of unfunding the police force until the relevant authorities informed him that police unions do not have a right to strike.
Shit in your hands first, ask questions later.
thoughtcrime
It’s obvious that Erick “Junior Bear” Erickson was abused as a child: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzZkDiKSCwo
Redshift
Very low bar. But since you seem to have no trouble clearing a bar quite a bit higher, not a cause for concern.
beltane
@Michael G: Conservatives always want to restore the 1950s family, but they never want to restore 1950s tax rates. I guess it’s more satisfying to blame the victims of their policies than to blame the policies themselves.
sal
Aside from all the rest, nature just isn’t like that. Dogs, cats, ants, bees, fish, lizards, chimps, deer, elephants, skunks, foxes, butterflies, on and on, just don’t fit that scenario. ‘Dominant male’ species in nature generally doesn’t mean males provide for the family. It means dominant male is the only dude who gets to mate.
Polar bear and lion cubs have to be protected from adult males by the mother or risk being killed. Some male birds provide, but just as many share duties with the mother. Penguin males take over egg rearing duties while the females hunt.
What an idiot. Yet Red Erik is serious, while we’re radical and shrill.
Felonius Monk
The foul odor that emanates from everything that Erick says or writes is proof enough that he just blows it out of his ass.
TR
That fat doughy fuck really shouldn’t be calling anyone else a “beta male.”
cyntax
Well he just ruined “emo prog” for me. Too bad–always thought it was good one.
cathyx
I didn’t see a link to that study. Was it left out when you copied his post?
JGabriel
I think we should all thank Erik, for continuing the kind of Republican outreach that has made so many new Democrats for our party. With special thanks for making so many new female Democrats — especially since women are, in fact, the majority gender in this country.
Thanks, Eric! You’re such a special guy!
glaukopis
I think the whole gender-specific roles thing is nonsense – it’s cultural at least as much as biological and so may change with individual circumstances or over time. That said, I think two-parent families are better than one (I was a single parent for much of my child’s childhood) simply because two is better than one. When you are alone there is no backup for when you are sick or just need a break. And it’s not restricted to parenting. I think for a lot of circumstances, old age for example, there are real advantages to living in a household with more than one adult.
beltane
@JGabriel: These are the same people who thought Ann Romney would be someone that women could relate to.
cathyx
If I could just get a man to take out my garbage and open my car door for me, then things will be proper.
ruemara
You will never be anywhere near as horrible as EricsonofEric. And frankly, it’s nice to hear a compliment given in a non-creepy fashion with nothing but appreciation behind it. It can make a day.
NickT
Even Greta van Susteren finds EricSquared embarrassing:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/greta-van-susteren-on-fox-breadwinning-panel-have
dmsilev
@beltane: Or Sarah Palin for that matter.
jl
The Single Mothers survey is the headlined box on the front page of the Pew Research Center site.
http://www.pewresearch.org
Buit even so, I guess it was beyond EE’s ability to find the study.
From the study (page ONE, though would EE know to dig that deep into the technical weeds? Perhaps I expect too much)
‘ The median total family income of married mothers who earn more than their husbands was nearly $80,000 in 2011, well above the national median of $57,100 for all families with children, and nearly four times the $23,000 median for families led by a
single mother.[2]
The groups differ in other ways as well. Compared with all mothers with children under age 18, married mothers who out-earn their husbands are slightly older, is disproportionally white and college educated. Single mothers, by contrast, are younger, more likely to be black or Hispanic, and less likely to have a college degree. ”
Yep, those single mothers supporting their families just want to have it all.
EE is an idiot. (Edit: sorry for being uncivil)
Xecky Gilchrist
I said, in a statement reflecting the view of three quarters of those surveyed in a Pew Research Center poll…
And if 75% of people say a thing, it must be true.
Baud
I couldn’t care less about Erick with a “k.” However, if he feels this strongly, why doesn’t he encourage all female Republican officeholders to resign?
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
Unless of course you said , “I’m Eric Ericson, baybee, lemme take you home and breadwin you,” or something.
Meg
Why does Erickson pick some animals over others to learn from?
The polar bear mama and female praying mantis would like to have a word with him.
Also, why is strength an important factor for him to be a breadwinner?
Last time I checked, all Erickson did to earn his bread was to run his stupid mouth or to type idiotic things on his computer.
jl
Seahorse! Seadragons! But I guess those are politically incorrect animals in EE’s book.
Cacti
Our closest genetic relative in the animal kingdom, the Bonobo, lives in a matriarchal society where the standing of males is determined by that of their mother.
Erick Ibn Erick gets an F in science.
Heliopause
Hmm. That’s true of some animal species. What that’s got to do with humans, or with Erick’s version of the ideal family structure I don’t know.
It’s also true that in some animal species the male is dominant in insemination and the female does everything else. It’s also true of many animal species that the male is dominant in keeping a harem and the female is, well, one of many in the harem. There’s also a species that we learn about in elementary school, the salmon, where everybody just squirts their haploids into the water and then dies. Personally, I think my life would be a lot simpler with that family structure, except the dying part.
jl
@Heliopause:
” everybody just squirts their haploids into the water and then dies. ”
There are some parallels there with the forced birth free market social conservative fanatics (edit at least for the menfolk, who can spread their seed hither and thither with little sanction). Coincidence?
Cacti
The Orca, another intelligent mammal, lives in a complex matriarchal society of matrilines, pods, and clans.
Erick gets an F- in science.
muddy
Does EE run outdoors to shit in the shrubbery? That’d be natural for animal nature.
YellowJournalism
@JPL: And eventually even Mama Bear worked outside the home running her own business, so that means that series is more progressive and realistic than Erickson.
rk
American women should emulate the black widow spiders.
jl
Which reminds me that the Iroquois, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek had matrilinieal and matrifocal cultures.
In case EE says ‘so what, we shot them all, and they were weak and it shows how manly man cultures are better’, I will add that these nations are the prime examples of Native American cultures we could not murder away into oblivion.
gf120581
“In many, many animal species, the male and female play complimentary roles, with the male dominent in strength and protection and the female dominent in nuture.”
There are also numerous animal species where the female devours the male upon completion of mating. Do you suggest we follow that guideline as well, Erik?
I assume his preferred species is the lion, where the females do, well, EVERYTHING (including hunting), while the male just sits on his fat ass eating, having sex and occasionally fighting off other male lions who want to have the eating/sex rights.
jl
@gf120581:
” Do you suggest we follow that guideline as well, Erik? ”
I think we know too little about EE’s experiences with, and attitudes towards women to know whether he considers that a mere suggestion.
gf120581
@YellowJournalism: Excellent point! I forgot about that BB entry.
Of course, I’m sure Erik son of Erik considers that insidious liberal propaganda.
I’d also like to point out that in the case of REAL bears, the male usually has no role in raising the children. Indeed, in real life, Mama Bear would keep Papa Bear far, far away from Brother and Sister so he wouldn’t eat them.
Redshirt
Curious George is a monkey who lives in NYC and causes a lot of mischief that somehow always turns out OK. ErickvonErick understands.
Redshirt
Qantas is a very safe airline.
YellowJournalism
@Redshirt: You insult Curious George with such comparisons!
Odie Hugh Manatee
@TR:
No shit. Erick, Son of Erick, looks as virile as the Pillsbury Dough Boy.
Villago Delenda Est
@beltane:
This is the fundamental contradiction of the modern “conservative” movement. They have zero, nada, kein, zilch understanding of cause and effect. The economic system they love so much has the effect of destroying traditional family arrangements.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@muddy:
I heard that Erick pisses on all four corners of his house and all along his property line.
NickT
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Maybe we should remind him that he hasn’t micturated on the electric fence yet.
Ruckus
@glaukopis:
It is nice to have help once in a while isn’t it?
Petorado
This is a bullshit statement from Erickson, because when has “the world” decided thus? The economic worldview that Erickson and fellow conservatives espouse is that unless both parents work their asses off, they can never survive by the rules that Wall Street, big business, and the “you’re on your own” Republican congressfolk impose on the rest of us. The modern morality that Erickson is lamenting is imposed by the capitalism on steroids that he unequivocally advocates.
And when Erick looks to the animal world for his “scientific” guidance, can he tell us what our fellow critters believe about religion, to settle that question once and for all?