Every now and then I like being a middle-aged married guy and not in the dating pool. Navigating the new reality seems unpleasant.

It makes sense that American women would be combative and men unhappy about that. We're transitioning, and those are always difficult. Men had the best of things, they want to keep their perks. Women have played second fiddle for a long time, and now that they're tasting some equality they're sometimes going to be aggravating.

Women, LGBTQ+, racial minorities, non-Christians, etc. have been shut out of the dominant power structure. As barriers fall, they will sometimes be too strident and combative. Straight white Christian men will be defensive and possessive of their status. Both of these are natural, no one knows how to function on the new reality.

Unfortunately, the onus falls on the majority to be the flexible ones. They have what they have due to centuries/millennia of suppressing/oppressing others. But they don't want to give up their position. That's the driving force behind American conservatism. Well, pretty much the sum total of conservatism, they don't agree on much else.

Christian nationalism is an easy example to see. They aren't shy about what they want - maybe they care that the Constitution says we all technically have freedom of religion or maybe they don't, but either way Christianity gets the last word. And anybody who doesn't like it is free to leave. They come up with all kinds of justifications for why that should be true, but in the end it boils down to "We've always had the power, and it's going to stay that way."

Meanwhile, people like me who never thought we had a chance at religious freedom are getting combative. If I meet someone who quotes the Bible or wears a cross, that's a strike against them in my book. I actively think less of religious people. Maybe that's not fair but in all seriousness, I AM SICK TO F*CKING DEATH OF THEM. I've had enough religion shoved in my face to last a lifetime, so take your pious, intolerant Iron Age death cult and shove it where the sun don't shine.

But if they'll stop trying to run my life, I'll calm down.

So why should it be different for Black/gay/female/etc. people? Of course they're pissed off and aggressive about it. They're ready for some damn equality.

So men can shop for women who'll knuckle under, or they can recognize that women have a right to be angry and stop trying to justify their superior position.