“For me, a part of masculinity is if you lose, you lose. Okay. I didn’t have my best day. Things didn’t go well. I could have done things different or people just didn’t want me to win. This is a democracy, right? So take that, learn lessons, move forward.”
~ AngryMaleVet ~
The third Intelligent Masculinity conversation with AngryMaleVet starts where the first two left off. Nick and AMV spend an hour walking through voter registration marches, USAF Major Jason Watson who is in pretrial confinement (The One Who Stood for the Oath We Swore), the Citizen’s Oath drafted by Lawrence Winnerman, and the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth campaigning in Iowa for Republican Zach Nunn in an apparent violation of the Hatch Act — and every one of those threads loops back to the same question. When the outcome isn’t yours, who are you? The answer they arrive at is unglamorous and demanding, which is how you know it’s real.
The clearest test case is the grift of the sore loser. AMV is blunt about what perpetual election denial actually signals — “it’s the least alpha thing I’ve ever seen in my life” — and Nick pushes him to say why. The answer isn’t about politics; it’s about formation. A man who has never been taught to lose will build a whole economy out of refusing to. The guest traces it back through Trump’s biography — the Emmy, Iowa, sixty-five court losses — and lands on the mechanism that makes it self-sustaining: whining is monetizable, which is why Mike Lindell challenging a primary he lost by eleven points is a fundraising posture rather than a legal strategy. Which means the thing being sold as strength is a business model that requires its customers to stay aggrieved.
The oath segment is where the episode does its most original thinking. Nick reads a citizen’s oath written by Lawrence Winnerman, his Banner and Backbone co-founder — a near-copy of the oath sworn by officers and naturalized citizens, offered to natural-born Americans who never swear anything at all. The guest’s response is better than agreement — he declines to want it required. “I don’t think I would want anybody to have to swear an oath,” he says, then pivots to what he does want: that people ponder it, asking what the Constitution means to them, what the flag means to them, where their courage actually gets spent. An oath extracted is a loyalty test; an oath considered is a mirror. And on the other side, for those who did swear one, the guest is unambiguous — “It never expires. There’s no turn off button for that.”
Keeping faith is the third leg, and it has a name attached: Major Jason Watson, seventeen years in, back in pretrial confinement for calling from the Capitol steps for the impeachment of Trump and Vance. Both men have interviewed him, and both report the same thing — that Maj. Watson insists it isn’t about him, it’s about the movement. Nick sharpens it into a masculinity question: what does it say about a person to accept the consequences of his own values? AMV’s answer refuses the hero frame and puts the weight back on the audience. Maj. Watson threw away a 17-year career because elected representatives wouldn’t spend a fraction of that courage, and the least the rest of us can do is refuse to let it fade into the woodwork. That’s what the November 11th Veterans Day Democracy March is for — veterans, families, and supporters converging on D.C. for the rule of law and legal election results, which the guest carefully distinguishes from January 6th: “we’re not led by a narcissist sociopath who is feeding us lies.”
Then there’s the part that reframes the whole hour. Asked what he gets out of showing up in person — the 1,000 Miles to Memphis march, the immigration conference, the memorial concert — the guest gives the episode its best line: “activism is an antidepressant.” Not a metaphor for morale, but a described mechanism — isolation is the goal from the top, and standing next to people doing the same work is the countermeasure. Nick extends it into an argument about ownership — “the highest office and rank in this nation is voter” — and the guest closes the loop with the sharpest civic instruction of the episode. It is not their seat. It’s the constituent’s seat. So get greedy for seats, outvote the Jeffs, and remember that the worst available option is inaction, because inaction is how the frog boils.
AngryMaleVet is a retired combat veteran — twenty-three years, enlisted at seventeen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait — who came home expecting to be done fighting evildoers and found the fight relocated. Across three appearances he has become one of our clearest arguments that masculinity is a practice rather than a posture: measured response over reaction, discipline over dominance, service that continues after the uniform comes off. This discussion is his most important yet, because it takes the abstractions the series has been building — accountability, courage, community — and hands you a date, a website, and a first step. Calm and intelligent, as one listener put it in the comments. That’s the whole project.
The One Who Stood for the Oath We Swore an interview with Nick Paro and Maj. Jason Watson
A Discussion with Major Jason Watson with AngryMaleVet
1,000 Miles to Memphis — the 36-day, 1,000-mile voter registration march from Nashville to Memphis
Veterans Fighting Fascism — the Veterans Day Democracy March, November 11th, Washington, D.C.
Banner & Backbone Media’s Citizen’s Oath written by Lawrence Winnerman
Get your Sick of this Shit merch!
Check out the Sick of this Shop!
Join the efforts to unmask law enforcement and de-flock the States:
Service members can get un-biased information on legal vs illegal orders:
Reach out on Signal: @TheOrdersProject.76
Learn empathy forward, human centered, experiment based Leadership & Growth Courses for Higher Ed & Non-Profit Professionals:
Donate today to Feeding America!
I’m Nick Paro, and I’m sick of the shit going on. So, I’m using poetry, podcasting, and lives to discuss the intersections of chronic illness and mental wellbeing, masculinity, veteran’s issues, politics, and so much more. I am only able to have these conversations, bring visibility to my communities, and fill the void through your support — this is a publication where engagement is encouraged, creativity is a cornerstone, and transparency is key — please consider becoming a paid subscriber today and grow the community!
Join the uncensored media at the 1A Collective
Support as a paid subscriber however you can — to help get you started, here are a few discounted options for you
Share Sick of this Shit with Nick
For support, contact us at: info@sickofthisshitpublications.com
Thank you Ashleigh Alauren, The Rebel Crone (Shālah), Ms.Yuse, Cher, Dana Britt, and many others for tuning into my live video with AngryMaleVet! Join me for my next live video in the app.
Available for iOS and Android
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.