The 3.5% Rule and the Rise of Misogynist Tyranny: How Society’s Tolerance of Male Violence Created a Revolution Against Humanity

Humanity’s only job—its one true moral imperative—is to leave the world better than we found it. Every individual bears the responsibility to improve society, ensuring that future generations inherit a world more just, more stable, and more humane. But we have failed. And we continue to fail as we allow systems built on male violence, unchecked power, and fascist greed to dictate the course of our collective future.

Erica Chenoweth’s groundbreaking research on civil resistance reveals that when just 3.5% of a population actively engages in protest and nonviolent action, they can overthrow oppressive systems (Chenoweth, 2011). This number—small but powerful—has been at the core of every major societal shift in history, from the fall of dictatorships to the success of civil rights movements. Yet today, we are witnessing a different kind of 3.5% revolution: one that does not seek justice, but instead cements misogyny and violence into power. A revolution of men—more than 3.5% of them—who actively work against humanity’s progress, leveraging male violence as a tool of control.

The 3.5% That Controls, Rather Than Liberates

For decades, society has tolerated a level of male violence that far exceeds this revolutionary threshold. Studies show that while only a minority of men commit violent crimes, they are responsible for over 90% of all violent offenses worldwide (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2019). The unchecked brutality of this minority has shaped laws, governance, and cultural norms, creating a world where oppression is institutionalized rather than dismantled. This is not accidental—it is a revolution of control, built on fear and submission.

Male violence is not just a personal failing; it is a systemic issue that has been normalized and woven into the very fabric of societal structures. The groupthink and cult mentality that enable oppressive regimes to rise are the same forces at work in modern political movements that strip away human rights. Research into cult psychology demonstrates that when people are immersed in environments that devalue individual critical thinking, they become susceptible to authoritarian rule (Lalich, 2004). This is precisely how fascist systems take root.

Fascism and the Destruction of Future Generations

Fascism, by definition, prioritizes the consolidation of wealth and power into the hands of a select few, regardless of the harm it causes to the majority (Paxton, 2004). It is no coincidence that fascist regimes—historically and in the present—target reproductive rights, dismantle social safety nets, and criminalize poverty. These actions increase Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) scores, ensuring that trauma is passed down through generations (Felitti et al., 1998). The trauma of fascism is not limited to those who suffer under it in real time; it fractures the future, ensuring that children are born into cycles of instability, abuse, and state-sanctioned suffering.

In the United States, Republican policies have directly fueled this crisis by creating conditions that foster criminality and suffering. By defunding education, restricting healthcare access, and destabilizing working-class families, they manufacture poverty and desperation—both of which are the root causes of crime, not the people suffering under them. Simultaneously, their policies embolden police brutality, mass incarceration, and the stripping of due process, ensuring that marginalized populations remain under state control. This is the product of a toxic male revolution, one that weaponizes instability to maintain dominance.

Reclaiming the 3.5% for Humanity’s Future

The only thing we have in common—the only thing that truly binds us all, inclusive of age, gender, nationality—is our humanity. And humanity cannot survive under a system that perpetuates violence as its foundation. If 3.5% of people can shape the world, then the power to undo this damage is already within our reach. It is time to turn our attention not just to resistance but to reconstruction because the bull-in-the-china-shop that is our current administration is not planning for things to ever be better for us in our lifetime. All of their plans reflect perpetuating the violence and ignorance that brought them into power.

We must invest in systems that prioritize stability, equity, and the well-being of future generations. This means dismantling the structures that enable male violence to define governance and law. It means refusing to tolerate policies that place wealth over human life. It means calling out the systemic failures that allow misogyny, authoritarianism, and fascism to fester.

A revolution is already happening. Toxic masculinity has caused a revolution that ended the USA as we know it and began to usher in Gilead, they’ve been very clear about that plan. But where will this wheel stop now that it’s rolling? Because they must know that already more than 3.5% of Americans are ready to roll that wheel right into a place that’s ACTUALLY better for Americans.

Protests all over the country and the world have been nonstop since January this year and now that millions of people have been unjustly fired, the protest numbers are growing. Here’s a link to nationwide Hands Off 2025 The question is, will we allow the wrong 3.5% to dictate our future? Or will we, the people who believe in a better world, rise to reclaim it?

If you’re looking for concrete things you can do in resistance, in addition to protesting, visit AntifaUSA.org for easy to read (5th grade level) content that helps empower folks to resist bad revolutions.

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References:

• Chenoweth, E. (2011). Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. Columbia University Press.
• Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., … & Marks, J. S. (1998). “Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
• Lalich, J. (2004). Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults. University of California Press.
• Paxton, R. O. (2004). The Anatomy of Fascism. Knopf.
• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2019). Global Study on Homicide 2019. UNODC.