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PaperclipPerfector  19d ago (text post)   27036 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 13, 2024

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Because my nitpick topic is the intersection between politics and gender/sex, in the last months since 7 October I began a very unscientific analysis of the social media content, especially on Instagram, of my friends, acquaintances and other people I follow. (Context as always, European middle-upper class, intra-national environment, very EU-based)

I cannot emphatise enough how much the driven behind pro-Palestinian content is driven exclusively by women. Between the thousands of people I follow, there is a core of around 50 people, all women apart one anarchist guy, who are hard Palestinian-posters (And remember, there is a lot of interests in politics in my environment, it is normal to see all these people interested in stuff like this). And I am not talking about random posting, I am talking of months and months of posting, all inserted in a moral framework of "do not touch the children" or "Israelis are racists". Having followed the process since the beginning, it was fun to see how it took at least one month until the start of the pro-Palestinian posting, as if they were checking where it was the consensus in their group before beginning to post.

The question I ask the community here, why a topic that is so far from our location and interests (again, we are no Columbia University or Middle East, we are far away both ideologically and physically) is so interesting for women, that makes them post about id dozens of times every week, for months straight? And I am talking about a very intense interest, is not rare to see online meltdown of suffering, death menaces or simply histrionics directed towards obscure metaphysical forces.

Again, my observation are reinforced from what I saw in the US and Europe about the universities and campus protests; the protestors are overwhelmingly women, and the most desperate are women.

For me the question rotates around two different forces;

  • The maternal ethics of women, that makes them take always the side of the one that looks weaker or more oppressed.
  • The ideological force behind social networks, that make them taking the side of the part with more social consensus in their social circles.

Thinking about the past, it makes me smile how much it was common to hear, until twenty years ago, that women are very uninterested in politics, unlike men. For my generation, this idea looks absurd. Men do not care about politics at all.

The maternal instinct for the children is mixed with adoration for murderous, rapey barbarians. Personally, I suspect the second to be stronger than the first, but the first to be more what they talk about. Women love a killer, but which killer they love is a function of their social class and politics.

In the '70's, rich white girls used to form terrorist cells, break black felons out of prison, serve as a harem and follow him into battle against the evil white people, by which they meant assassinating black people.

This Patti Hearst-type phenomenon surely can't pattern onto all females? I agree a certain type of woman likes the brute (I went to high school with some of these girls) but I wouldn't by any means say this applies to all women. You seem like a very smart guy, so what makes you confident to make such a big generalization?

This Patti Hearst-type phenomenon surely can't pattern onto all females?

Aside from the fact that it would be bad, why not?

Aside from the fact that it appeals to the doomers, why?

It reminds me of women who say all men are rapists waiting to be rapey. Now sure maybe in the right circumstances, Mr Gittes, men are capable of anything, that doesn't mean the same thing. Taking an observed behavioral phenomenon and applying it wholesale as typical is shoddier than even the usual shoddy social science.

It reminds me of women who say all men are rapists waiting to be rapey.

So you've got nothing but analogy to your headcanon?

Not enough effort, please be more charitable than this.

I'm not sure what you mean by that, to be honest.

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