Why many gymbro & self-improvement spaces are right wing

Simply put - the right has coopted the message of self improvement. Being vegan isn't self improvement, it is improving the world around you. Building giant pecs is self improvement and you hang out with gym bros who help you do that and share their already poisoned political beliefs. You want giant pecs so you can look like you're wearing football pads so you'll ignore the subtle political leanings but over time you let them in.

It's straight from the cult leader handbook. Take a positive message and make it your own so it becomes a recruitment tool.

This is true. I’ve seen it in the CrossFit, Jiu-Jitsu, and Olympic weightlifting spaces a lot. And as a straight cis male who likes being strong, it’s a constant upstream swim to counter these sometimes very subtle right-wing narratives.
I do so by simply asking a lot of questions and playing the Socratic method with them. It takes a lot of time, patience, and energy, but it works, more often than not.
Like, there’s nothing wrong with masculinity, self-improvement, stoicism, achievement, strength, hard work, prosperity, or competition. But people sometimes need reminding what all this self-improvement and achievement is for.
I try to remind my friends that one gets strong so that one can protect and bolster the weak, not in order to dominate and exploit them. With masculinity I try to embody “firefighter” values instead of “police” values, if that makes sense.
If you’re in these spaces, please speak up without being preachy or combative out the gate. Be curious and ask genuine questions - people just want to be seen and heard first. Even when they have misguided or even hateful opinions, it does often start as a seed from legitimate complaints (that’s what the right exploits). People are often more open-minded than you think, it’s just that they don’t have as much personal exposure to lefties who value them (mostly working class and petite bourgeoisie white guys) as people with inherent value and default decency. Interact with them in person, without disdain by default, and find things about which you can agree, and you’ll break their Fox News-inspired demonized stereotypes of you.
That’s how you un-cultify a person, one at a time. Like, when they find out I’m very much not a Trumper, but also not a screaming blue hair soy boy satanist furry or whatever, it cooks their noodle.
So often we just turn our noses up, and our backs on, these kinds of people. And they in turn hate and resent us for it when the right swoops in and gives them a sense of belonging and purpose.
The right is really good at this shit. We kind of suck at it. We’re too busy doing purity tests and fighting each other over language.
Anyway, this isn’t my space, I’m just offering my 2¢.
Edit: look, I hate Fascism, but I try to remind myself that many of these working class folks have been tricked and manipulated by very powerful well-heeled interests. I try to reserve my ire for the specific billionaires and politicians who have architected this shit. I often fail at this (as my comment history can attest), and feel very angry at my neighbors for their stupidity. It’s a daily battle.
- I have a nephew who is really pushing his own landscaping/plowing services, working his ass off and making bank.
  I was riding with him the other day and instead of music he's listening to self-improvement stuff. He's recently sober and taking life seriously.
  So I started chatting with him and he said it's Jordan Peterson.
  I warned him that while Peterson has a lot of good points, he will get political in weird ways. All I can do is help him open his eyes a little and be aware of what he's consuming.
  He's always been right-leaning but when my wife and I break down a topic we disagree about, he really tends to get it.
  Pronouns, for example. A couple years back we told him it's just basic respect to refer to someone how they want to be referred to. Whether you agree or not with their how they deal with their underlying issues, it's their issue that they have to live with 24/7.
  And we saw a little light go on behind his eyes. It was a nice moment.
- I do so by simply asking a lot of questions and playing the Socratic method with them. It takes a lot of time, patience, and energy, but it works, more often than not.
  Everything I've read supports this. You have to spend a lot of time and effort to reach someone. People change their beliefs because of their peers, not because of facts. You have to get them to see you as trusted, as in-group, before they'll listen.
  It sucks, especially when there's mass media promoting toxic messages that people can just go wallow in.

As someone who strongly believes the gym and exercise should be apolitical, it’s kinda gross when you see Fox News playing on the TV. That said, you really shouldn’t be in the gym longer than you need to be, and it’s not supposed to be a hangout spot; equipment is finite and has to be shared. Go hang out in a park or bar or arcade or whatever.

Why? Well Fox News playing nonstop at my gym probably has nothing to do with it.

My trainer moved to a new gym a few weeks ago. Before we had top 100s playing, huge dudes, and tons of women that hadn’t skipped a leg day a day in their life! Legit hole in the wall, rusty ol’ gym packed with people that knew what they were doing.
The new gym? Cross on the wall, Christian music nonstop, same size as the old one but half the equipment, and half of that is broken. And always empty.
I might not get gym rash, but the place is dusty AF. And the religious nonsense is a pain in the ass. I’m just trying to get fit enough for myself and my girl, WTF are you pushing your right wing and religious BS on me.
- Tell your trainer you're going back with or without them. Don't support those propaganda centers.

There's a personal trainer at my gym who I regularly hear chatting with his clients. It's the dumbest neo-lib shit all the time. One of his clients is a landlord and they always talk about how hard she has it. Really difficult not to vomit in their faces.

That definitely calls for strategic protein shake crop dusting.

I’m not able to view the post right now ): can someone summarize?

For my 2c I’m a trans bodybuilder :3 and I actually have been dragging other trans people to the gym and they love it. It’s like extremely depressing to try and find fitness content that isn’t overtly transphobic tho. Sometimes you’ll be hours deep listening through someone’s videos and they’ll randomly say the most insane thing and it’s like ughhh

It is a two panel comic, the top panel has a person asking: 'Why are so many gymbro and self-improvement spaces right wing?'
The bottom panel has a second person responding: 'The seemingly "apolitical" values that are often reinforced in these spaces (individual success, hustle mindset, being the strongest etc.) align with common neoliberal and conservative talking points and thereby make it easy for people within these spaces to become more susceptible to classist, patriarchal, ableist, racist and other oppressive narratives.'
- Tysm! Yeah I’d say I pretty much agree with that,
  However I think it would be a bad idea to cede health and fitness as being inherently right wing. I believe they’ve basically “set up shop” there to install a pipeline, like they try to do to everything.
  There’s a totally different perspective available for resistance training, one in which we build a supportive community that connects people from different backgrounds and disperses knowledge that can vastly improve people’s lives.
  I think we should make it political, in other words

I don't get why gymbros need a gym.

I do a shit ton of working out at home. Like pushups, planks, and squats with dumbbells do a fuckton

Ok, so yeah you can do a lot with bodyweight and some kettle/dumbbells.
You can do a lot more at a gym. And almost by definition gymbros are doing more stuff that you can do with just dumbbells and planks.
If your goal is to stay fit and trim you don't really need a gym, you need a good diet and some exercise.
If you want to get jacked and lean and progress to where you are lifting 5x your body weight across the three big lifts (bench press, deadlift, squat) you need more stuff than dumbbells.
Different goals. Cool for you to be satisfied with whatever you have in your living room but people that are really dedicated need a LOT more equipment.
Gyms also provide a social aspect that you don't get at home. When I was wfh full time, it was one of my only social outlets on a daily basis.
Not to mention if you want to get "big" it's immensely difficult / impossible to do so without lifting a lot of weight. Obviously, you can get in great shape without equipment, but building size is what a lot of gymbros are pursuing.
- So, wait, the actual weight influences muscle growth? I thought it was reps and weight.
  Might be why I plateaud then. I don't have anything heavier here.
I don't, but I've heard that people who want to push their limits get a spotter so they can do so safely. Another person who can lift that weight at least once would be easy to find at a gym.
- Oh I didn't even think about needing a spotter that's a good point.
I use dumbbells and bodyweight stuff at home too and am happy with my progress but it would certainly be nice to have access to machines. I've hit a plateau on my lifts because theres only so much weight I can do with dumbbells before my grip and arm strength starts limiting me. That wouldn't be as much of an issue with the machines/barbell/squat rack at the gym. Also I could get someone to spot me.
I can't squat 300 lbs without a full squat rack and weight set
- I
  Have no frame of reference what that means

I don't know that I'd put it as a directional causal relationship. It's just as believable that valuing abnormal strength and belief in a 'might makes right' judgement leads one to go to the gym and bring those ideas with you, while an opposing view would likely take you other places than a gym.

Vanity is linked to narcissism. All narcissist are assholes.

It’s too bad that many link places to exercise with vanity.
- The link is to the majority of people who exercise because they are vain. Not the place.

There are F3 signs and bumper stickers everywhere here. They give me this vibe, whether or not they are right wing or inadvertently reproduce right wing ideology.