Black Rifle Coffee pitched themselves as the antidote to “anti-American Starbucks,” the coffee of the “[entitled] millennial generation,” and made several blunt statements supporting the Trump administration. Once they walked back their chumminess with far-right figures, alternatives like Brushtail Coffee went out of their way to defend Kyle Rittenhouse. Finally, a coffee for people who like seeing protestors shot dead in the streets.
America has a proud tradition of reducing politics to asinine vagaries crammed onto t-shirts, but these companies are all pitching a very specific and isolating vision of masculinity. Nine Line decries that “patriotism and national pride is disappearing daily” and say they want to reverse that trend, but half their product descriptions are about how the “woke” are turning America into an irredeemable hellhole. They love America, but they also seem convinced that the experiment is running on fumes.
Grunt Style has a “F**K YOUR FEELINGS” shirt, Combat Iron offers “FAUCI LIED,” “F**K WHAT THEY THINK,” and “CHOOSE VIOLENCE,” shirts, 1776 United sells a “FACTS DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS” shirt with a product description that complains today’s youth “scream, pout, and protest their way into the news” and “riot, march, and whine if they're offended.” I thought we’re supposed to choose violence and f**k what other people feel about us, but you get the vibe. Being a man means drinking American whiskey, buying American guns, and not giving a shit about other Americans.
Not coincidentally, there’s a whole media ecosystem warning that modern manhood is vanishing. PragerU warns that men aren’t allowed to be masculine anymore, and thus no longer “defend, protect, or provide.” Conspiracy theorist Paul Joseph Watson warned there’s a war on men, racking up 1.9 million views with hard-hitting arguments like “men dress stupid now.” “The Insidious War on Men,” “The Rise of Weak Men”… put enough keywords in your rant and you can score an easy viral video.