Young Richard the Eagle-Hearted has done some comparative work on mine and Jack Donovan's work.

Jack only reviewed Taboo You because he was pressured by mutual readers, individuals capable of kicking both our asses at the same time. Jack bought me lunch and we had a very nice conversation. He shit talks no one and is very respectful. He was kind to an old blind dog, offering his hand even after I warned that it bit two people. I was in peak low health and broke and he was gracious to the little fat boomer living in an unheated garage and recovering from pnemonia. [Jack could certainly spell that word.] That said, he was terrified of me in person. Something about the twisted metal in my warped soul repelled him—I could feel it, despite, and amplified by, his vastly superior physicality. I felt like the Negro hovering over the shoulder of the Chinese merchant at the ATM. Jack was working on a thesis—a mid life theory of masculinity. He was but 40% in when I cut into his dance at the behest of my knucklehead readers and fighters with Taboo You and Incubus of Your Sacred Emasculation [which makes his case for him]. I wrote the first thanks to Jack's The Way of Men, and the second thanks to his revue of Taboo You. Jack and I agreed, and certainly agree, that we serve much better men as curators of masculine letters and disciplines. We were not competing. He sells 100 to my 1. He wrote something great on men while i was writing about masculine alienation—we were coming from opposite places and both dug in the same whole, he with a rake, me with a pick, neither one of us confident in the common shovel.

Please, don't see our writing as an argument, but as two men working on the same self-assigned task, without a boss, nodding at each other in tacit agreement; as if we were temporary laborers unloading the same truck, the tall one nodding to the cat litter cases some goon threw on top of the pallet, indicating he had that, and the short man manning the pallet jack, trusting to the tall man to keep him from getting hit in the head with 45 pounds of clay dedicated to the temple of Feminine Feline Slaves.

Thanks Richard. In my mind—this is your field now. I only interloped for about 7 years. The future belongs to young men like you.

Hi James,

Usually, I write articles on my own site, or if I have a question, I chat it up with you.

But I came across something that I know you as well as your long-time readers will be interested in.

I first discovered you in April of 2019 on the Instagram page of Jack Donovan.

The rest, as they say, is history. But the thing that made you stick out to me is summarized in your best-selling book, “Taboo You”.

In it, you rejected Jack Donovan’s ethos of “The Gang” as the core of being a great man. You called those great men seeking status in “The Gang” Alphas, while tough guys who are not into “The Gang” you called the Omega Men.

Well, recently Jack Donovan penned an article that touches on the heart of this conundrum in the most clear and concise way I have seen since reading your book, “Taboo You”.

That article is entitled “Level 2 Guys: On the Men Who Ruin Masculinity for Everybody”.

James, the reality that you brought to light in “Taboo You”, and the reality that Jack Donovan glossed over in his flagship book, “The Way of Men” and other subsequent writings, is this:

“The Gang” is really just an excuse for angry, bitter, petulant Level 2 Guys to have a steady, fresh supply of Level 1 Guys to dominate...with Level 1 Women following closely in tow.

Predatory-Prey Dichotomy, Shooting Fish in a Barrel, as I like to say at Pulp Fiction Renaissance.com.

As I reflect upon my own Mythology I have been drawn towards and created over the years, I make the Indo-European Heroes into the great Omega Men fighting evil Third World Level 2 Guys and liberating the benighted Level 1 Guys and Gals under their tyrannical sway.

The trouble is, Level 2 Guys don’t just live over there…they’re often times closer to home.

And sadly, the entire culture that Men have built for themselves online in the last decade…the obsession with the movie “Fight Club”, female advice from cats like Andrew Tate, MMA and Bodybuilding Culture…it all really is just a race to see who can become Level 2 to dominate Level 1.

This has become Western Man’s answer to the Postmodern Feminism of our age.

This is very sad.

You foresaw this coming, and detected a fatal flaw in Jack Donovan’s work a decade ago that became the Bible of Masculinity for this decade’s Masculine Culture I described above.

I gotta give it to old Jack Donovan for seeing this problem for himself, and calling it out for what it is. He’s a smart cat, and I’m proud of the guy for doing a good job on this piece.

I just wish he would have outlined it a decade ago, instead of glossing over it like he did.

But a decade ago?

Well, those were the days of “circling the wagons” against Postmodern Feminism…nobody thought there could be a threat from Robber Barons inside the Wagon Train back then!

As I was writing this piece I googled “Jack Donovan James Lafond”, and came across a piece by you where you first recalled being introduced to his work. The piece is from 2013, and is entitled “‘When God Died He Left Madonna in Charge’: No Man’s Land by Jack Donovan”.

In it, you write:

“As a boy and young man I had a pathological hatred of virtually all males. This was based on me being bullied as a boy. I did not finally get over this until I turned forty and realized I had become a reactive monster. I straightened myself out by sublimating my hatred for men in combat sports and practicing diplomacy with my largely soft-headed co-gender inmates of Cellblock Baltimore.”

James…you saw the trouble before many did years ago. You sounded the alarm that Robber Barons were already inside the Wagon Train of Plantation America.

Thank you my friend, for doing this, and for always staying true to who you are, and lighting a way for those to follow.

It’s good to see others catching up.

Maybe one day, we’ll have a Wagon Train free of Robber Barons after all.

Sincerely,

Richard Barrett

07-19-2025

Written at 6:25 PM, somewhere in the USA….