Recently, certain questions about meat and its direct correlation to "manhood" have proliferated internet spaces in America. Is eating meat inherently "manly"? Is avoiding it a sign of being "beta"? Are soy protein and cell-cultured meat harbingers of civilizational decay? And, somehow, does the fate of the West hinge on white men rediscovering—and performing—their inner carnivores? Soy Boy Beta Cuck: Primal Rhetoric and the Rise of Right-Wing Carnivorism explores how meat became a cultural battlefield on the American political right, especially in the years surrounding Donald Trump’s presidencies. Blending rhetorical analysis with cultural critique, the authors trace how animal-sourced meat has been elevated into a symbol of white Christian nationalist identity, while "alt" proteins have been cast as markers of weakness, "wokeness," and Otherness. The volume maps how digital platforms from Facebook to Substack serve as accelerants for these narratives, crystallizing scattered grievances into full-fledged carnivorous ideologies. Through vivid case studies, readers encounter Cracker Barrel’s failed rollout of Impossible Sausage and the storm of outrage that ensued; the ascendance of such "carnivore" influencers as the Liver King and Raw Egg Nationalist, whose performances intertwine masculinity, race, and reactionary nostalgia; and the wave of legislative bans on cell-cultured meat in states like Florida, fueled by conspiratorial fears of "eating bugs."
