Memes by Taliban supporters around the world adopt a strikingly similar attitude, depicting Islam as a defender of the patriarchal family against gay rights, feminism and other “woke” ideologies. On the alt-right forum Gab, users agree that the US lost its war in Central Asia because it was no longer the same country that invaded in 2001 – a “ Christian nation” that outlawed gay marriage, considered trans people “mentally ill” and banned gays from the military. He added, almost wistfully: “so now they’re getting it all back”.Ĭarlson is only the most prominent voice blaming America’s decline on sexual liberalism.
They like the patriarchy.” What he called the “neoliberal programme” of equal rights was “grotesque”, “contrary to human nature,” and answered “none of our deepest human desires”. “The people of Afghanistan,” he speculated to viewers, “don’t actually want gender studies symposia… They don’t hate their masculinity. As US troops withdrew from Afghanistan in August, Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked why the Taliban had won.
