I Demand Equity

Having a full and happy life would seem to be a basic goal of most people and one that governments should be highly attuned to.  Yet we find that half the population has a substantially lower life expectancy than the other half, and there are no protests in the street, no wailing of inequity and injustice for this beleagured group.  Largely due to the CV-19 epidemic and the response to that epidemic, life expectancy in the US has declined by a couple of years, to about 76.  But the impact is far greater among men, who now can expect to live about 6 years less than women, 73 years versus 79 for women.  This gap in life expectancy has grown for years.

Suicide, homicide, and drug and alcohol overdoses contribute to this gap, as do heart disease and diabetes.  I am only being semi-facetious in demanding action on equity.  The real underlying cause for this increasing gap in life expectancy and in quality of life generally is the unrelenting assault on males, particularly white males, over the last two decades.  Demonization and discrimination have an impact.  Men are discriminated against in terms of college admissions, job applications, research dollars and in every other manner possible.  The result is millions of dispirited working age males sitting in their parents’ basements playing video games and watching porn.  The result is a lot of drug and alcohol abuse, and ultimately suicide or overdoses.

I am waiting for women to stand up and speak out about this injustice and inequity, the way men spoke up for women’s equality.  I am waiting for commissions and special programs to help young men toward a better life.  I will wait for a long time, but the whackos who run this country don’t actually care about equity or inclusion, they care about power for their favored groups and about punishing those they don’t favor.  So men better learn to stand up for themselves and push back against the bullshit which is grinding them down.   (JAMA Article)