That’s right, I said it.

You may have noticed a higherpitched hysteria from that group than normal lately. For as much as we like to talk and joke about ‘Karens’ — aka white middle-aged women, usually of a privileged background to some extent, whose favourite pastime is degrading retail workers, servers and demanding to speak to the manager — absolutely nothing beats the middle-aged white male when it comes to braying about hurt feelings.

For example, white male jealousy of the current prime minister, or Trudeau Derangement Syndrome, as I like to call it, has been hovering over Western Canada like a low-ceiling dark cloud of hatred, threatening to unleash torrential winds and punishing downpours at a moment’s notice. Simple things like Trudeau’s hair, and his brightlycoloured socks, are two things that can whip up one of these furious male storms in a heartbeat.

“It’s not jealousy!” they cry when confronted with the notion that maybe one of the most powerful men in Canada, one who happens to also be rather charming and good-looking, brings up deep-rooted insecurities they thought they’d buried in their 20s.

But you throw women into the mix? My goodness, this particular type of middle-aged white male totally implodes in spectacular fashion.

Take, for example, the recent appointment of Chrystia Freeland as the Canadian Minister of Finance, the first woman to take on the job. She replaced Bill Morneau, whose resignation was tainted with the WE scandal and rumours of discord between Trudeau and him. Even though the same middle-aged males had been howling about getting rid of Morneau for weeks, if not months, they lost it completely when they found out he’d been replaced by a woman.

Given many of the traditional, tired and sexist responses aren’t fit for print, consider this more subtle example from conservative pundit John Ivison, who responded to the news of Freeland’s appointment with “I’m on vacation, but can’t stop watching the train wreck taking place in slow motion in Ottawa. Trudeau has now removed the only person in cabinet with business experience and handed the task of economic recovery to a journalist. As a journalist, I find that concerning.”

My friend Janice Braden nailed it in her response, which was, “John (Ivison) is comparing his resume to Chrystia Freeland and seeing his qualifications as equal. Lord grant me the confidence of a middle-aged white man.”

Seriously, no kidding. Freeland, a Rhodes Scholar with degrees from both Harvard and Oxford University, has more than enough experience for the role, including her work with the Financial Times as its Moscow bureau chief in the 1990s, as managing director of Thomson Reuters. Oh, and then there’s her five years as one of Trudeau’s cabinet ministers, where she negotiated the new NAFTA agreement as minister of foreign affairs.

Or just “a journalist,” as Ivison put it. Not content with only almost making a total ass of himself, Ivison went for gold with this followup explanation: “It was a somewhat facetious comment aimed more at the craft of journalism than (Chrystia Freeland). But I am concerned about Canada being used as a laboratory in a social engineering experiment, when the country is already under economic duress.”

That’s right, the appointment of a perfectly competent minister of finance, one who happens to pee sitting down, described as a “social engineering experiment.” In 2020.

Meanwhile, two Instagram pages have popped up that are giving certain males in Saskatoon and Regina the vapors. Dubbed “Victims Voices Regina” and “Victims Voices YXE,” their purpose is to provide women an anonymous outlet to share their stories of sexual harassment, abuse and assault.

And yes, they’re naming names. The Regina page has seen hundreds of posts, with a number of high-profile men — yep, middle-aged white males — in that city stepping down from their jobs because of the allegations, including musician Danny Kenyon of popular Saskatchewan band The Dead South. Regina mayoral candidate and current city councillor Jerry Flegel has apologized to one young woman for alleged inappropriate behaviour.

The anonymity, of course, has men everywhere beside themselves with outrage, tearing their hair out over the fact that they could be “falsely” accused. Yes, there is that risk. However, it does not discount the valid opportunity women are grasping to execute a form of justice for themselves, without being subjected to the ridicule, interrogation and other damaging effects of going face-to-face with their abuser in public.

If men want to blame anybody, it should be the generations of those before them, and even men today, who viewed or view women as lesser human beings.

Some are saying these Instagram pages represent Saskatchewan’s #metoo moment. If it is, it’s four years late . . . so seems about right.

When you see or hear a middle-aged white male (and yes, they’re almost all white; we know all abusers aren’t white males, but those that are white tend to enjoy higher levels of privilege and power, which serves as protection not afforded marginalized males) desperately trying to discredit movements like the Voices pages, ask yourself why: Why would anyone without anything to hide be worried about false allegations? Conversely, why wouldn’t someone with something to hide attempt to discredit female accusers and their allegations before they even arise?

The answers to both questions are obvious. So, for some good ol’ Saskatchewan boys, their time’s up, whether they like it or not. It seems, however, that “not” is the default position for most men faced with their rapidly diminishing relevance and power, and they won’t go down without an emotional meltdown.

Oh, the irony.

-Tammy Robert