Sports Illustrated fired everyone. GNC went bankrupt. Arnold came out as a pro lockdown vax Nazi.
The value of masculinity itself is being stigmatized.
Everything stable from your childhood seems like it is breaking down, which itself can feel destabilizing if the mental models you use to understand the world around you have not been updated.
Once I realized that the government was corrupt, the dollar was corrupt and the media were corrupt, it too was destabilizing. That is to say, until I realized that everything useful has a LIFESPAN. Including me.
Every idea, community or institution that amasses any significant influence first grows before it plateaus. And then the mechanisms that helped it grow eventually eat away at its core and it loses the ability to continue the trajectory it once had.
This shouldn't shock you. It's merely the circle of life as applied to ideas and groups.
Now if you run a business, you must assess what dependencies you have on ideas, organizations or individuals that are fading in relevance. Is X one of those organizations? Is the currency you transact in? What about the legal system you depend on to protect your body and assets? Or the language you speak?
Everything is either growing or shrinking in both relevance and stability. The way you ensure that you continue to grow is by attaching yourself to growing platforms, people and ideas.
And the way you ensure your demise is by attaching yourself to sinking ships.
What are you attached to?