In a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience featuring Chris Williamson, the conversation turned to a provocative question: What does the political left consider to be a positive male role model? The answer, it turns out, reveals a troubling void in contemporary cultural discourse about masculinity.
Williamson shared a particularly telling anecdote from a Reddit thread in a left-leaning forum where users were asked to provide examples of positive male role models.
He said: “There was this thread on Reddit, I think in a left-leaning forum that said, ‘People of the left, can you give me a good example of who you think a positive male role model would be?'”
Wlliamson continued: “The top voted one was Aragon from Lord of the Rings. You’ve had to go to a fantasy land in order to be able to find somebody who’s sufficiently pure. And I think that, you know, this is one of the issues that we see on the left, which is there is no level of purity or the level of purity you need to be able to get to is so high.”
This example crystallized a broader problem: to find a sufficiently “pure” male role model acceptable to progressive standards, people had to retreat into fantasy rather than point to any living person.
The discussion highlighted how traditional markers of masculinity—physical fitness, discipline, competence, and ambition—have become increasingly coded as “right-wing” in public discourse.
Rogan said: “Anything masculine is [considered to be] right-wing… Like you cannot be interested in physical fitness… You can’t like fast cars… You’re not even allowed to like Teslas anymore, which are the fastest cars… You’re a misogynist. You’re probably racist. Maybe a N*zi.”
Williamson noted that interests like going to the gym, appreciating fast cars, or pursuing excellence are now often dismissed as part of a “right-wing pipeline,” creating a cultural landscape where young men struggle to find aspirational figures who align with left-wing values.
This ideological purity test creates a peculiar paradox. The left has struggled to cultivate male role models because any figure who demonstrates traditional masculine virtues—strength, stoicism, achievement—becomes suspect.
Meanwhile, those who publicly embrace progressive causes often fall short when their private behavior doesn’t match their public virtue signaling, as Williamson illustrated with examples like Lizzo’s alleged treatment of her backup dancers.
Williamson stated: “I think that there is a level of puritanism on the left where they are unprepared to accept people who have had positions that they don’t agree with.”
Rogan added that the issue extends beyond politics into a fundamental misunderstanding of male nature. Men are drawn to competition, achievement, and physical prowess—traits that shouldn’t be inherently political but have become so through cultural warfare.
The conversation touched on how this dynamic affects young men navigating education and career paths. With two women earning college degrees for every man by 2030, and women in their twenties earning more than their male counterparts, traditional pathways to masculine identity through achievement and provider roles are disrupted. Yet rather than addressing men’s struggles with empathy and systemic solutions, the cultural message often remains: fix yourself.
The irony, both hosts noted, is that the left’s inability to offer compelling male role models may be driving young men toward alternative figures and communities that do celebrate masculine achievement—often found in spaces labeled as right-wing or “manosphere.”
This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy where the left’s suspicion of masculinity pushes men away, confirming their biases about men’s political leanings.
