{"id":22453,"date":"2026-03-04T16:42:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=22453"},"modified":"2026-03-05T18:26:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:26:05","slug":"my-weightlifting-heresy-or-how-i-became-a-bolshevik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/04\/my-weightlifting-heresy-or-how-i-became-a-bolshevik\/","title":{"rendered":"My Weightlifting Heresy or How I Became a Bolshevik"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lifter art by Bodimedesign<\/p><\/div>\n

COMIC VIDEO ON MY BENCH PRESS HERESY:\u00a0<\/a><\/h2>\n

XXXX<\/h1>\n

When Did Barbells and Political Hacks Become Sacred?<\/a><\/h1>\n
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\u00a0Mises Wire<\/a> <\/span> \u2022<\/span> James Bovard<\/a> March 4, 2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>At 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, President Trump posted a home video announcing that he was declaring war on Iran. Many Americans were shocked at the news in part because the Constitution requires congressional approval for taking the nation to war. In the weeks before the attack, the Pentagon press office helped distract public attention by promoting exercise videos.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In his State of the Union speech last week, President Trump proclaimed: \u201cOur military is stacked!\u201d Exhibit A for \u201cstacked\u201d is a new video<\/a> showing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reportedly bench-pressing 315 pounds. Hegseth is the type of lifter who keeps grunting long after he finishes a lift.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That video helped spur the New York Times<\/em><\/a> to tout the Trump \u201cadministration\u2019s very manly week.\u201d A popular Twitter\/X account named the Conservative Alternative hailed Hegseth\u2019s lift: \u201cThese are the moments that define masculinity, and they are what made Western civilization<\/a> great.\u201d The bench press video spurred a CNN headline: \u201cThis is Trump 2.0, bro. What do you bench<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was puzzled by the hoopla because I didn\u2019t think Hegseth\u2019s bench press merited a victory lap. Glenn Jacobs<\/strong>\u2014the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee\u2014 told me he’s benched 520. Okay, he is also the famous wrestler known as Kane<\/strong>, but still\u2014520 is 520. Will Grigg<\/strong>\u2014a friend of mine and one of my favorite libertarian writers\u2014posted a video on Facebook of himself doing bench reps with 400+ pounds shortly before his untimely death in 2017 at age 54.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I quipped on Facebook: \u201cI bench-pressed that much when I was in high school. Guys past the age of 30 who fixate on their bench press totals tend to avoid mental heavy lifting.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hell hath no fury like hypersensitive weightlifters. A thousand angry comments surged onto my Facebook page<\/a>. Zealots proclaimed that I was a \u201cbolshevik,\u201d \u201cdouchebag,\u201d \u201cfucking moron,\u201d \u201ccrybaby leftist,\u201d \u201csoyjak,\u201d \u201cold cnt,\u201d \u201cjust being a hater,\u201d \u201cfuckin clown,\u201d plus I suffered from \u201cTrump Derangement Syndrome.\u201d Everything I say is \u201cfiltered through the lens [sic<\/em>] of my upper class liberal politics\u201d because I \u201cfoundered into leftism.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t sparked such a torrent of online outrage since I cast doubts on the sainthood of John Brown<\/a>. A thunderous chorus proclaimed that I\u2019d never been in the same bench press league as Hegseth. \u201cShow us a video or it didn\u2019t happen!\u201d was the consensus.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in the 1970s, when I was in high school, people didn\u2019t make movies of themselves lifting weights. But I did write in Public Policy Hooligan<\/a>, my 2012 memoir, about how weightlifting transformed my early teenage years.<\/p>\n

I started lifting when I was 14 and was soon purchasing 25-pound and 75-pound steel plates to supplement my plastic coated concrete weights. With dogged workouts, my strength initially seemed to double every few months. I inherited some of my brawn from my steelworker grandfather whose favorite saying was that \u201ca man can\u2019t have hair and brains both.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lifting helped me be a top finisher for my age class in the Virginia Championship Whitewater Canoe Races<\/strong> for several years. In early 1972, I finished first in the Virginia Junior Olympics in the 181 pound category for 14-15 year olds in an Olympic weightlifting contest (consisting of three lifts\u2014Standing Press, Snatch, and Clean and Jerk). In May 1972, I competed in a six-state Clean and Jerk lifting contest<\/strong> near Culpeper, Virginia. I\u2019d shed a dozen pounds and competed in the 165 pound class, coming in second after I failed to lock up 190 pounds above my head three times in a row. (The Official Virginia Strength and Power Hall of Fame<\/a> cites that 1972 Culpeper contest as a memorable event. I don\u2019t have any photos or reports from that contest; if anybody knows of an online link, please let me know).<\/p>\n

After that contest, I shifted my sports zeal to throwing discus, which I thought was my best chance to snare a scholarship to college. (Didn\u2019t happen). After my family moved to southwest Virginia, I became good friends with Blacksburg High School classmate Doug Bell, one of Virginia\u2019s top shotputters<\/strong>. He and I dueled with the discus all season long. At the state championship track meet the following May, he finished 6th and I came in 8th. A few weeks later, I finished second in discus at the state Junior Olympics championship.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Towards the end of the school year, Doug and I had a bench press showdown. I was two years older and 30 pounds heavier than when I competed in that Culpeper contest. Neither Doug nor I paused as we hoisted 290 pounds and then 300 and then 310. Doug nailed 320; I got it most of the way but fell a few inches short of locking my elbows. Flipside, Doug couldn\u2019t quite match my @ 500-pound deadlift. (I wrote about that bench press duel last year in my R.I.P. blog post<\/a> after Doug died).<\/p>\n

Even before the disappointing end of my final track season, my zeal for athletic competition was fading. Virginia Tech had a glorious library<\/a> with open stacks, allowing me to effortlessly migrate from one topic to another and revive my love of reading that government school drudgery had blighted. That library was where I discovered libertarianism, including Murray Rothbard\u2019s monthly column in Reason<\/em> magazine. I also stumbled upon The Freeman<\/em>, where I sold my first article three years later.<\/p>\n

I was soon spending more time in the library than in the gym and it\u2019s been downhill ever since<\/strong>. I still lift and sometimes I even show up at a track meet. I\u2019ve thrown discus a few times in the Geezer Games\u2014the Maryland Senior Olympics\u2014and came in first statewide<\/a> once. \"\"<\/a>But like those bench press totals, that doesn\u2019t mean snuff.<\/p>\n

Except when politicians and the pro-government media exploit meaningless numbers to validate officialdom and sanctify demands for new power and spending. Hegseth is clamoring for a $500 billion Pentagon spending boost\u2014even though his appointees have no idea how the additional money could be spent. But, just like that 315 bench press, Hegseth says the $500 billion would send \u201ca message to the world<\/a>.\u201d Will that message make people forget that the Pentagon has failed every financial audit since 2018? And will that $500 billion help Trump break Biden\u2019s records for reckless deficit spending and subverting America\u2019s financial future?<\/p>\n

To valorize political hacks, the media defines down athletic triumphs.<\/strong> Gen. David Petraeus endlessly boasted that he could run a six-minute mile. But he moved even faster chasing skirts and betraying national secrets<\/a>. Petraeus could never have competed with Mises Institute editor Bill Anderson\u2014one of the top mile runners in the nation when he was on the NCAA championship University of Tennessee track team. Hegseth can savor soldiers\u2019 applause in the gym but Glenn Jacobs could toss Hegseth into the peanut gallery without breaking a sweat.<\/p>\n

The bench press hoopla distracts from a far greater peril from Washington.<\/strong> Last year, Hegseth compelled all Pentagon correspondents to sign pledges not to disclose anything about the US military that the government did not approve. Scores of media outlets refused to self-censor in perpetuity, and the New York Times<\/em><\/a> is suing to overturn the policy. But a court ruling won\u2019t retroactively protect Americans from political and military lies that Trump, Hegseth, and other officials are using to drag the nation into another disastrous conflict. Secrecy creates a vacuum quickly filled by political lies and government abuses.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the way, will Hegseth succeed in permanently suppressing the video of the second strike<\/a> he approved to kill the survivors of a US military attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean? And that wouldn\u2019t be a war crime because he benched 315, right?<\/p>\n

Getting and staying strong is a virtue at any age. But putting any political appointee on a pedestal for their pull-ups, push-ups, or bench press encourages people to bow down to guys whose brawn might far exceed their brains. Besides, obsessively focusing on weight lifting numbers can induce delusions of being surrounded by Bolsheviks and \u201csoyjaks.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COMIC VIDEO ON MY BENCH PRESS HERESY:\u00a0 XXXX When Did Barbells and Political Hacks Become Sacred? \u00a0Mises Wire \u2022 James Bovard March 4, 2026 \u00a0\u00a0At 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, President Trump posted a home video announcing that he was declaring war on Iran. Many Americans were shocked at the news in part because the Constitution […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3565,3916,4785,4784,4789,1094,4788,4786,4787,4577,3695],"class_list":["post-22453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bench-press","tag-bill-anderson","tag-bolsheviks","tag-canoe","tag-glenn-jacobs","tag-john-brown","tag-kane","tag-maryland-senior-olympics","tag-petraeus","tag-weightlifting","tag-will-grigg"],"yoast_head":"\nMy Weightlifting Heresy or How I Became a Bolshevik - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A thousand people howled after I shrugged at War Secretary Hegseth's bench press. 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