Chateau Heartiste is generally credited with popularizing the term “beta male” as a term of art to describe the over-class definition of masculine. The site is a Mecca for “game” theory, which is different than game theory. In that world, dividing the male population into betas and alphas is important, so it makes sense. The guys reading that site may not want to be hairy chested he-men, but they want to get laid and if that means being a little butch in public they will do it. That view of masculinity is under assault by the Left.

The war is taking an odd turn this week. Mark Steyn takes on the hilarious story of the Duck Dynasty guy getting axed for being a public Christian. Steyn’s take is that it is a part of the stifling of non-leftist speech. He’s certainly right that the Left wants to stamp out religion, particularly Christianity. The list of things that are unmentionable in public grows longer every day and most of Christianity is now on the list.

The hysterical reaction of National Review’s homosexual conspiracy theorist, Jason Lee Steorts, shows there is another angle. The Duck Dynasty guys are emblematic of the traditional American male. That’s the guy who shaves because he has to, likes blowing things up and shooting guns. You see guys with big beards and bandannas and you assume they are not to be trifled with, unless you are a tough guy. Guys like Steorts hate these people because their mere existence puts the lie to effete culture.

There must always be a balance in civilized society, between the sorts of guys who settle things with their fists and the type who settle things with words. It’s the tension between John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. You need both, but the West is now desperately short of the John Wayne type and over flowing with the Jimmy Stewart type. A world run by Jason Lee Steorts is a world ripe for conquest or worse, a world ripe for conquest by women. That’s where we are now.