Why People Are Losing Their Minds about Harrison Butker

This is my latest entry in my experiment with daily posting.

In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly heard that three-time Super Bowl champion Harrison Butker is this week’s “main character.” Butker is a traditional Catholic, and he recently gave a very traditional Catholic commencement address at a traditional Catholic university.

Long story short: he told young women that their highest calling is being a wives and mothers—a very traditional Catholic sort of message. Through tears, he credited his wife with all of his success, which to me seems like a very sweet and normal sort of thing to say, and he’s often said how being a husband and father triumphs over his NFL career.

Given the reaction, you would think Butker had shot someone’s dog. (Write your own Kristi Noem joke, I’m juggling enough controversy here.) Butker and his family have been doxxed, sent death threats, and he’s been trashed all over the mainstream media. I’m not saying there isn’t room for thoughtful critique of his points, but the response has been just insane.

Why am I even writing about this in Unprepared? For those of you new to the newsletter, my initial claim to fame here was a silly Twitter thread I wrote reassuring my loyal readers about the threat of nuclear war. At the time, the Russia/Ukraine war was breaking out, people were freaking out, and I was inundated with panicked messages about the possibility of armageddon.

You can read about that little bit of history here:

I received literally thousands of angry replies and quote tweets, many from high-status accounts. I received death threats. So-called journalists wrote ugly articles about me despite never having talked to me, which is kind of an important aspect of journalism.

Meanwhile, friends were messaging me asking why everyone was so angry with me. I hadn’t said anything terribly offensive. “Hell if I know,” was my usual exasperated reply. I tend to laugh off harsh words and “death threats,” but the sheer amount of noise this little bit of fame added to my daily life was stressful.

Eventually, some of my many critics took to our Discord server to give me a piece of their minds. I think they were disarmed by how kind and welcoming we were, even after they charged in figurative guns a blazing. Personally, I was excited to have actual discussions with members of the angry mob, because I was baffled as to why they were so damn mad.

One woman finally admitted that she was just scared and my tweet had hit a nerve. It’s really just that simple. But why did it hit such a nerve?

I think it’s because I challenged a deeply instilled conventional message: that nuclear attacks equal doomsday and there’s zero chance of survival. I wrote about some reasons why that may not be true in Nuclear War: Hollywood vs. Reality and Nuclear War: A Beginner's Guide to Survival.

(For the record, I still think nuclear war is bad. Very bad. Sorry to be so controversial.)

In the case of Butker, I think the same things apply. He struck a nerve for challenging the now-conventional narrative that women must aggressively pursue careers PLUS he triggered a deep-seated fear of many that they missed out on spending enough time with their kids or missed out on kids all-together.

Other than my own experience, I don’t have direct evidence, but I do have an observation: most of the attacks against Butker are by people are who are typically not big fans of capitalism, and if capitalism is so bad, would you not applaud those encouraging others to drop out of such an evil system, even if other values aren’t aligned? Is our intrinsic value as human beings nothing more than a number in a bank’s database?

I certainly empathize with women compelled to work during their children’s most formative years. I often miss time with my kids in order to support them financially—I’m missing one of my son’s baseball games as I type this.

As a husband and father, those two roles are my highest callings. I would have meager career ambitions if not for my wife and kids. I’d be perfectly happy doing the bare minimum to afford rent, ramen, cigarettes, and video games. There would be no Unprepared.life or Take Control books or the many articles I’ve had published over the years. As it is, I work very long hours seven days per week to ensure that my wife can be home with our children.

Why? Because motherhood is the greatest of all pursuits, and every other job and industry exists merely to support the most precious of roles, the one calling that keeps the human race going. I’m a mediocre father so my wife can be an excellent mother.