People have different ideas of strength, and different ideas of manliness. Today, there is an influential writer who goes by the name “Bronze Age Pervert.” He glorifies physical strength and derides others as “bugmen.” Of course, this mentality has been around a long time (as the invocation of the Bronze Age suggests).

The subject of strength came up in a podcast I did with my friend Mona Charen last week. After we talked, I had a memory, which I would like to share now.

When I was in college, a certain type of young man admired the Japanese writer Mishima (1925–70). You would see his picture on some dorm-room walls, as you would pictures of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis. (A few had Einstein.)

Mishima was a political extremist who exalted Imperial Japan and its ally Nazi Germany. (One of his plays is My Friend Hitler.) He was also a muscly handsome dude of no fixed sexuality. After he and his friends tried to overthrow Japanese democracy, he killed himself, in the time-honored fashion: “Long live the Emperor!” This added to his allure.

I don’t know whether Mishima is a “thing” anymore. But there was a cult around him, of a kind that springs up regularly.

In our podcast, Mona and I discussed the video circulated by the DeSantis for President campaign — the one that portrays Donald Trump as soft on the “rainbow people,” while DeSantis is rough-and-tough. In the video, DeSantis has lasers shooting out of his eyes. He’s a stud, you see, with superpowers. Images of him are interspersed with other images that are also supposed to suggest “manliness”: the guy in American Psycho; an oiled-up muscleman (not to be confused with “Mussulman”).

Whatever floats your boat.

The video begins with Trump saying, “I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.” (This is intended to reflect badly on him, remember.) I was curious about where those words were plucked from, and went looking. They come from Trump’s 2016 convention speech.

“Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida,” he said, “49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist. This time, the terrorists targeted [the] LGBTQ community. No good, and we’re gonna stop it.”

Trump continued, “As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me.”

The crowd ate it up.

Before continuing, Trump said, “And I have to say, as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you.”

Anyway — a little Memory Lane, and a little context.

• “Democrats, It’s OK to Talk About Hunter Biden.” That is the heading of a column by Frank Bruni in the New York Times. I thought it took nerve to write it. Spine. Political correctness is strong on both left and right. (I first knew it from the left, exclusively.) Not many are willing to part from it, for obvious reasons.

Bruni begins,

If you travel in predominantly Democratic circles and want to have a really trying day, write or publicly say something unflattering but true about President Biden . . . Then brace for the furies.

Yup. Furies, furies, everywhere.

• A headline from The Dispatch reads, “Nikki Haley Advocates ‘Equality’ for Transgender Adults.” For the article, go here. As I understand it, Haley’s position is this: No messing with minors. No involvement of biological males in female sports. Once people reach adulthood — live and let live.

How many Americans would accept that? I don’t know.

I recall an episode in the first presidential term of George W. Bush. It was 2003 — 25 years since he had graduated from Yale College. He invited his classmates to the White House. One of them had had a sex-change operation. (Male to female.) (Yale had been all-male, remember.) I’m going to refer to her as “her,” etc., which a lot of people won’t like — but that’s okay. Whatever you say or do, a lot of people won’t like. And I have resisted the language police since I was a youth.

The classmate in question struggled with how she was going to introduce herself, or re-introduce herself, to the president. In the receiving line, she began, “You might remember me as Peter when we left Yale . . .” Bush quickly intervened, destroying all awkwardness: “And now you’ve come back as yourself.”

That was so George W. Bush. His enemies portrayed him as a right-wing ogre. I think he has as many enemies on the right today as he ever had on the left. Ah, well: He’s his own man, an individual. And a lot of us admire him.

• I think everyone can agree on this: Today’s Right — our Republican Party, our conservative movement — is very different from before. Different in thought and tone. Millions celebrate this; others lament it. But still: I think everyone acknowledges that it is a fact.

Here was a recent gathering:

When I came of age, the big conservatives were William F. Buckley Jr., Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman, Irving Kristol, Thomas Sowell, Robert Bork, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Norman Podhoretz, George F. Will, Jack Kemp, Michael Novak, William Safire, Phil Gramm, James Q. Wilson, et al. They were not identical, obviously. But they were formidable, and illuminating. I feel lucky. And grateful.

• Since I am on Memory Lane (again): I cast my first vote in November 1982. I voted for the GOP gubernatorial nominee in Michigan: Dick Headlee (no snickering, please). I voted for many Michigan Republicans thereafter. (Engler!)

I thought of all this when seeing this article last week: “Trump wins ‘clean sweep’ of endorsements from Michigan’s GOP congressional delegation.” Yes, he would. He tried to overturn a democratic election. He incited a mob to attack the U.S. Congress for the purpose of stopping a constitutional process. And yet . . .

Really, the old GOP would not have stood for it.

• “Man is a ranking animal,” I often say. We rank athletes and musicians, among others. “This one’s the GOAT.” “No, this one’s the GOAT.” “These are the Top Five” — and so on and so forth. I sometimes engage in this game, too. But less and less do I like the game: It can detract from appreciating people, appreciating greatness. It can introduce acrimony where none is needed.

“It’s Michael!” “It’s LeBron!” “It’s Toscanini!” “It’s Furtwängler!” “It’s Jack!” “It’s Tiger!” “It’s Pavarotti!” “It’s Domingo!”

Oh, give it a rest.

I winced to see this article, a couple of weeks ago:

Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal is one of the most accomplished big men in NBA history.

But he was left off Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss’s list of the top five all-time contributors to the franchise.

Buss listed Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, LeBron James, Magic Johnson and former coach Phil Jackson.

On Wednesday, the three-time NBA Finals MVP used one word to respond to the omission.

“Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy,” he captioned an Instagram post . . .

I want to ask: Why did the Lakers owner have to go and do that? Maybe because man (and woman) is a ranking animal.

• Care for a language note? I’m a believer in “Charles’s birthday.” That is Rule 1 in Strunk & White: apostrophe-ess.

(Ages ago, Florence King did not like an editor who insisted on apostrophe-ess. She referred to him as an “apostrophe-ess-hole.” One of her best bons mots.)

And yet, the other day, I had to write the name of a classic TV show — which was called “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” It must be that, off the tongue, don’t you think? “Mister Rogers’s Neighborhood” would not do . . .

(Also, I like the old-fashionedness of “Mister.”)

• John Uelses, who set a pole-vault record, has died at 85. Have a little of his obit, in the New York Times:

Hans Feigenbaum was born in Berlin on July 14, 1937. His father, a German soldier, was killed during World War II. When Hans was 11 or 12, his mother sent him to Miami to live with an aunt, who adopted him. He changed his first name to John and took the aunt’s married name, Uelses.

And a little more:

He was introduced to the pole vault as a high school senior. The first day, he cleared 10 feet 6 inches. By season’s end, he reached 13 feet and won the Florida high school championship. Then came the Marines, and then one year at the University of Alabama. He said he left Alabama because he had received no coaching; “all they cared about was football,” he said.

Ha, even then? Roll, Tide, roll!

• Did you see this news? “Gabby Douglas, a Trailblazer in Gymnastics, Announces Her Return.” I’m glad of it.

• Did you see this news? “Stephen Curry wins American Century Championship with eagle on 18.” Did you see the man’s ace?

I don’t know whether anyone has mentioned this before, but Steph Curry is a really good athlete. In fact, the ranker in me wants to say . . .

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