samiam
16d ago
Keep in mind that every time someone smokes weed in the United States, they are still engaging in an illegal act (yes, it’s legal in many states, but still illegal at the federal level). Every time one goes over 55 (or 65, or as much as 80) on the freeway, they are engaging in an illegal act.
There are a lot of things people do in their day to day lives which are illegal, but enforcement is selective.
For years, decades, we have allowed “illegals” to come here, we have allowed them to work here, heck big portions of our economy depend on their “illegal” labor (let me tell you, house maintenance has been a lot cheaper for me because I’m English-Spanish bilingual). It’s something we have permitted because it has benefited us as a nation.
Trump coming down this hard in “illegals” is unprecedented, and while there is a lot I dislike about the Blue Tribe, I can see why they’re so up in arms about ICE’s raids.
samiam
17d ago
The problem is this: On the Internet, we don’t know if it’s organic disagreement or people in troll farms. Indeed, a lot of the really controversial stuff posted on X (Twitter) we know for a fact comes from a troll farm (a lot of that content trying to go viral is posted from India, Nigeria, or Southeast Asia, all three places with a lot of troll farms), since X lets us know the country someone posts from.
So, yes, it’s sometimes organic disagreement, but it’s sometimes troll farms.
samiam
19d ago
I don’t think the grandparent is saying that drug overdose + positional asphyxiation leads to death. I think he is saying that drug overdoses lead to death, whether or not the person is subject to positional asphyxiation during his drug overdose.
samiam
21d ago
Have an awkward date, then she might badmouth you on tea app to every woman around. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-30/one-of-the-most-popular-apps-in-the-us-is-fuelling-a-gender-war/105706068
It’s my understanding that the Tea app was removed from the Apple store. Has that changed?
samiam
23d ago
All of this assumes that 6/6/6 is true and that even an unattractive woman will only date a cute guy who is 6/6/6/6 (six foot, six figures, six pack, six inch long reproductive organ). This all comes from the myth that only a small number of men have sex with the majority of women.
That isn’t true.
If this were true, then we would see married women secretly having sex with other men while ovulating, and cuckolding their husbands. However, multiple genetic studies show a very low level of cuckoldry in western societies. Most of the time, the husband, the “beta provider” if you will, is the father of a woman’s children.
What surveys show (the information from surveys is collaborated by STD rates) is this:
- About 20% of men and women both are very promiscuous
- It would appear that, since most women aren’t promiscuous (if all of those “nice girls” were sleeping with “Chad”, we would see a lot of them have STDs from “Chad”, but we don’t), those 20% of “Chad”s are sleeping with women who, in turn, sleep with a lot of men.
- There is a slight polygynous shift, but it’s nowhere near 80% of the women sleeping with 20% of the men.
It is true that women are very picky on most dating apps, but that’s because dating apps are about 70% men and 30% women. Fortunately, even though there is a single graph from one Dr. Michael J. Rosenfeld at Standford which claims everyone now meets on the apps, most people do not use the apps to meet partners.
Point being, women being super picky and things being hopeless for 80% of men is just a myth. For myself, I now have a girlfriend again, it was a lot of work to find her, yes, but we’re working out quite nicely.
samiam
1mo ago
People who “passport bro” (date in other countries) can give us a pretty good picture of what dating looks like. As one datapoint, when the obesity rate is 12% (Philippines) instead of 41% (US), it’s a lot easier to find a wife.
As a general rule, when the obesity rate is 20% or lower (Peru in the 2010s, Kenya now, etc.) dating gets a lot easier.
The vast majority of human history is a bunch of elite men getting lots and lots of women pregnant
This is an oft quoted meme, but I’ve researched this and the evidence is questionable.
Let me give just one example: It’s well “known” on social media that, historically, two women have reproduced for every man that has reproduced. However, the evidence for this is tenuous. It comes from Imran Khan quoting John Tierney mis-quoting Baumeister mis-quoting Wilder et al, a study which said no such thing. The actual number is that 1.4 women reproduced for ever man in African tribes, 1.3 in Europe, and 1.1 in East Asia.
Other evidence shows that polygyny does not look to be normal human behavior.
samiam
1mo ago
Well, the first thought I have is that the general premise of men either being “alphas” or “betas” looks flawed. 80/20 is a myth (summary: 20% of both men and women are promiscuous), and most people only have sex in long term commitments, and no, most women aren’t promiscuous with relative few men in their 20s before settling down in their 30s.
So, if alpha/beta doesn’t exist, why are these women alone in their 30s:
-
Some women are so damaged, they are emotionally unable to commit. Some can have sex only if emotional intimacy is not part of the package; others are both sexually and emotionally “anorectic”.
-
Likewise, some women can only get attracted to unavailable men because they feel they are not worthy of being loved.
The reason women are attracted to these supposed “alpha” men is not because those guys are taller or cuter than other guys, but precisely because those men are not available.
So the solution is not to fix men, but to fix women so they can get attracted to men who are actually available. And, likewise, fix men so they can get attracted to women who are available.
samiam
2mo ago
For some people, there is no objective truth, there are no facts. Particularly on Reddit, facts are distorted to promote a narrative.
They did the same with Tyler Robinson (Charlie Kirk’s murderer). He did it because he was right wing, or maybe it’s because he wasn’t in a leftist organization, never mind that the Reddit folk feel Kirk should had died.
On Reddit, the truth doesn’t matter. It’s the narrative that matters, and if the narrative contradict itself, well your average Reddit poster is too drawn by their extreme hateful left-wing narrative to let facts get in the way.
samiam
2mo ago
I think Republicans can do well on the midterms. I think the most important thing is to repeal the tariffs so that prices are not as high for household goods; while I’m mostly apolitical in real life, one friend of mine who is fairly conservative doesn’t like the tariffs at all.
samiam
2mo ago
Here is a reply to that, which I will just copypaste:
https://x.com/DavidGiglioCA/status/1996246101137973315
Green won by 20+ points in 2022 without Trump on the ballot and by 20+ points in 2024.
Also, Masha Blackburn is not a “very popular” Republican.
I think the best apples-to-apples comparison is how the red vs. blue tribe did in previous versions of the same election (i.e. the election for the congressional seat), where, ever since redrawing the lines for the district in 2022, have been 22% blowouts (before redrawing the lines, they were 40+ point blowouts; a Democrat hasn’t won this seat since 1980). A 9% margin for the congressional seat hasn’t been seen this century.
But, let’s look at that tweet. The tweet the parent post contains claims Republicans only won this district (for the senate election) by 9% in 2018. While the actual tweet uses AI slop and could be a hallucination, I will assume the figure is correct[1], and that recent blue candidates for the district were so weak they were unvotable. If so, the 9% margin in 2018 is consistent with the Democrats winning 41 seats in the House that year.
Yes, Republicans won this one. But they didn’t have a good night; if I were a Republican strategist, I would figure out how to message midterm voters so that we don’t get another Democrat blowout like we did in 2018. Tough on crime, religious faith, and most importantly, making the economy as strong as possible would be good ideas. My boots on the ground experience is that, while I don’t talk about politics much, the times I bring it up, people are upset the tariffs are jacking up prices.
[1] Before putting this figure in my blog, I would bring out my calculator and look at the 2018 Senate results county by county to verify the AI generated response is correct.
Last night, we had an election for who would represent Tennessee’s 7th congressional district at the federal level. This election was for a seat in the House of Representatives.
It was a very closely watched election because it is a bellwether of just how satisfied voters are with the right-wing politicians currently in power.
While Virginia and New York were very successful for Democrats (the left-wing), with someone who has voiced support for defunding the police (yes, he apologized for this later) winning the New York mayoral race.
While these were notable victories for Democrats in 2025, both happened in very blue states: Virginia last voted a Republican for president in 2004 and we have to go all the way back to 1984 to find New York voting for a Republican. One could make the argument that these victories mainly show greater polarization in today’s social-media driven political climate, with blue voters voting more blue. Perhaps red voters will vote more red come the midterms next year.
Or maybe not.
Tennessee’s 7th congressional district is very red; the last two congressional elections have been 60-38% blowouts, with the blue (Democrat) candidate losing by 22 points. So, if the polarization theory is true, we would expect the blue candidate to lose by even more points, perhaps having a 65-33% blowout.
That’s not what happened.
While Matt Van Epps did win, it was not a blowout. It was a 54-45% victory, with him leading only by 9 points in a district where Republicans have previously won by over 20 points. At one point, there was even a blue mirage, where the blue candidate was actually leading Van Epps by over five points.
The Democrat’s (i.e. blue) candidate, one Behn, is no blue dog moderate. She has chased ICE agents, filming confrontations with them.
Indeed, one very left-leaning site says that this looks really bad for Republicans, and with good reason: A nationwide 15-point move leftward would be a bloodbath for Republicans in the midterms next year.
Based on the elections we have had this year, it looks like a blue tide is rising after Trump’s victory in 2024.
samiam
3mo ago
My quick thought: I don’t think it’s appropriate to have polarizing political views in a work setting, unless the work environment is one with an obvious political agenda. The person who brings up falsehoods about Kyle Rittenhouse was the one who was bringing up an inappropriate topic of conversation here. Saying stuff like that at work is asking for a fight.
Keep in mind that a lot of people, particularly on the right, supported Rittenhouse’s actions, and reading his Wikipedia entry I tend to agree that Rittenhouse was not starting trouble, and was only defending himself.
samiam
3mo ago
“the reported number of partners female claim to have compared to men is lower, but we can normalize for that: around 30% of the men have 70% of the reported female sexual partners, and, likewise, around 30% of the women have 70% of the reported male sexual partners”
As long as there is correlation between the reported number of partners and actual number of partners, there is a pattern that there are about as many promiscuous women as promiscuous men. For 80/20 to be true, we would see just under 80% of men with low partner count and 20% of men with high partner count, but that’s not the pattern we see. 20% or so are virgins, about 50-60% have a handful of lifetime partners, and about 20-30% have a lot of partners. This is true for both women and men.
samiam
3mo ago
The argument that people are actually engaging in a certain behavior, but lie when asked about it, is the kind of argument which quickly leads to conspiracy theories. Sure, they could all be lying, but that’s an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence.
samiam
3mo ago
For the “cock carousel” theory to hold water, we would see a pattern of a large number of male virgins and/or men with only 1-2 partners, and a small number of males with a lot of sex partners. We would see women with a more even distribution of sex partners.
That’s not what we see: We see about the same number of male and female virgins, about 60% of the population of men and women have around 3-10 lifetime partners, and about 20 to 30% of both men and women have a lot of sexual partners (the reported number of partners female claim to have compared to men is lower, but we can normalize for that: around 30% of the men have 70% of the reported female sexual partners, and, likewise, around 30% of the women have 70% of the reported male sexual partners).
samiam
3mo ago
The mistake David Buss made in the 1990s to 2000s, when he was making a version of the “Alpha Fux Beta Bux” argument (to wit, Buss argued that women frequently cheat on their “beta provider” husbands to have children with “alpha bad boy” men which their husbands pay for) is that genetic testing, at the time, showed a high cuckoldry rate.
More recent and extensive genetic testing has contradicted that notion, showing only a 1-2% cuckoldry rate: Over 98% of the time, a wife’s child is fathered by her husband.
samiam
3mo ago
no one's claiming that the women are having children with the alphas
Actually, that is a claim made by “Red Pill” men and has been falsified. One post claims that “Woman’s Nature is to Cheat, Protect Yourself [...] This is the basic meaning of ‘alpha fux beta bux’ and it’s true” (original TRP post).
Going back to the 80/20 argument, it looks like only about 20 to 30% of women are promiscuous, and, likewise, only about 20% to 30% of men are promiscuous, and the most likely explanation is that those 20 to 30% of promiscuous men and women are mainly having sex with each other. So that contradicts the notion of women being generally promiscuous in their 20s and “settling down” in their 30s.
South Korea, Japan, and, yes, Poland have a serious fertility crisis right now. Maybe these women want to be with “chad”,[1] but those women contributing to Poland’s fertility crisis sure seem to complain when men from other countries, i.e. “Passport Bros” come to Poland and get together with them
[1] I have posted on my blog that the notion that 20% of the men are having sex with 80% of the women is not true
the ability to share gossip efficiently about businesses using sites like Yelp is net positive for humanity
Interesting you bring up Yelp. Another posted has already addressed that someone’s personal life is a very different kettle of fish than a business which is open to the public.
But, besides that, there are some key differences between Yelp and the Tea app:
- Yelp makes its reviews public. The Tea app kept its “reviews” of men private, only allowing women to use the app.
- Yelp allows business owners to respond to negative reviews. The Tea app does not allow men on the app at all, much less let them share their side of the story when someone gives them a “negative review”.
- Yelp will disable posting about a business and remove reviews should a given business go viral on social media. The Tea app has no such protections.
samiam
3mo ago
The Tea app is/was only available in the US (quote: “the US-based Tea Dating Advice app, which is only available in America”). While still available on Android, removing it from the Apple store greatly reduces its spread because of network effects.
It looks like the Tea app has been pulled from the Apple store. The linked article has a strong bias supporting the existance of this app, but was it a good idea to have this app?
This app is/was, if you ask someone in the blue tribe about it, a safety app to keep women safe. If you ask someone in the red tribe about the app, they will say that men were not allowed to use the app, that the app was used to spread slander about men which the men were not allowed to see, much less respond to (often times female friends of a guy being slandered would let him know what’s going on).
As a lot of readers here probably know, earlier this summer, pictures of some Tea app users were leaked online causing those pictures to be widely shared, including in a torrent file. Someone even briefly had a web app up where people could rate pictures of Tea app users. The blue tribe thought it was a violation of privacy to do that; the red tribe responded by saying that the entire purpose of the Tea app was to violate the privacy of men.
The app was only available in the US; while it was arguably legal there, they didn’t even try to make it available in Europe, where it probably would not had been legal because Europe has much stronger data privacy laws than the US.
For myself, having had a close friend who was slandered in a similar Facebook group, I can not be neutral about this app being pulled from the Apple store: It harmed a lot of men, innocent men in many cases, and the world, in my opinion, is a better place when we don’t let men be slandered this way.
OK, let’s look at an example of something posted on X from a troll farm in Africa:
https://archive.ph/20260127123745/https://x.com/Chizitere_xyz/status/2015879947659645361
(I blocked them for being in a troll farm, and I could tell it was troll farm content just by looking at it)
Your impression?
Edit: Another troll farm post
https://archive.ph/20260128064238/https://x.com/meishato/status/2016321283693412834
(The notion that women do all of the domestic labor in partnerships is a myth; see this article and if you think IfStudies are too biased, this study shows that men do more work in partnerships when we take in to account paid labor)
Edit: The troll farms also post hot take replies to get engagement. See https://archive.ph/20260130134610/https://x.com/ohreallly170464/status/2016975167738491090
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