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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 16, 2025

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Google "Chopped Man Epidemic" for a vantablackpill.

I did, and 100% of the links are videos. I tried watching one of the less-terrible-looking videos, and it was still terrible; it started with a "preview" reel that was clearly just there to inculcate feelings of "WTF is going on" in order to maximise watchtime.

Could you summarise for people who don't feel like dipping their brains in the brain-hacking engagement-optimisation industry?

There's some largish subset of Gen-Z women who are claiming that in their daily lives, they almost never see 'hot' men out and about, and the vast majority of the men they do see are hopelessly ugly, don't take care of themselves, and are just horribly unattractive, meanwhile they also claim that most of the women they see are gorgeous, well-put-together, and otherwise "hot" and thus deserve better partners than they've got.

"Chopped" is apparently slang for "rough-looking."

And they further suggest that this is why men are lonely and undateable, since they aren't doing any interesting hobbies, aren't putting effort into dressing well or taking care of their appearance, and are generally "failing" to do the things that would make them attractive to women. And the implicit point in all of this is that the woman speaking is in fact hot and desirable and thus entitled to be as selective as she wants.

The reason its only videos is because that's how Gen Z communicates, which is why this might escape the notice of the older generations.

And of course, the added irony that this is taking place during "Men's Mental Health Month."

If this is a TikTok/ Twitter/ Insta thing, have you considered that the algorithmic video influencer mechanic is also what brought us mukbang, cinnamon challenges, contour makeup, Lil Tay, faking your own death for clout, etc. etc.?

The bad guy in a pro wrestling match is not actually trying to kill anybody with a folding chair, the monster truck with the teeth decals is not actually trying to eat the cars. The crazy infuriating shit influencers say (or their followers parrot) is not actually representative of what sane people act on in their personal lives.

Of course not.

I contend, however, that fewer people in the younger generation meet that definition of "sane people." Particularly young women.

Its becoming more common because people are becoming less sane.

This is a completely compatible set of views, supported by the evidence.

Because more of them are exposed to exactly this sort of ragebait and manipulation, constantly.

The internet isn't real life, but its correlating with something.

Anyway, here's a tiktok video with over 600k likes and 8000 comments where a woman breaks down in tears b/c a man she considers ugly gave her unwanted attention. (read: asked her on a date)

Is it a lie? MAYBE! But a lot of people believed it and completely support her position anyway!

Here's one with 367k likes and 64k comments claiming MEN are the ones not putting in enough effort into their appearance and there's just not enough hot men out there.

Ragebait? Could be, but a lot of women happily gobbling it up and affirming it. There's a comment with 64k likes claiming "I see a decent-looking man once a week."

Is it true? Do the people liking the comment BELIEVE it is true?

You tell me what one should make of this.

You are basing your worldview on random ragebait TikTok videos, a platform where the #peeyourpantschallenge had over four million views. Please, I implore you, talk to real people instead of doomscrolling dumb online discourse.

MEN are the ones not putting in enough effort into their appearance and there's just not enough hot men out there.

It’s absolutely true that most men put way less effort into their appearance than women. Like, c’mon. If you don’t believe this, tell me your skincare routine, how many hair products you own, and how long it takes you to get ready in the morning.

But anyway, that should be an advantage for you. Getting a nice haircut, moisturising regularly and buying a few well fitting fashionable outfits will already set you apart from the crowd.

You are basing your worldview on random ragebait TikTok videos

Uh, No.

I've basing it on literally years of research on the topic:

I've researched the Low TFR Issue

I've researched the legal and economic side of it. Pointed out how corporations are technically competing with men for women's commitment.

I brought up the "how many marriageable women are actually out there question literally a year ago, then I ran some very rough numbers.

I've pontificated on why intersex relations have degraded over two years ago.

I've even researched the age-gap question.

This includes talking to real people, I can offhand name a dozen people in my circle experiencing the EXACT. SAME. ISSUES.

I beg you to try and give me some data that I haven't seen yet. You came in and assumed off of 3 comments that I've somehow NOT bothered to look into this issue at every level I can?

In fact, I've put in a LOT of effort to try to find the evidence that runs against this point, but in this search I keep finding videos like the ones I posted, which seem to confirm the data, the anecdotes, the personal experience. All of it pointing in the same direction.

Your attempt to dismiss my point out of hand without a single argument has been noted, and my opinion has remained utterly unchanged.

But anyway, that should be an advantage for you. Getting a nice haircut, moisturising regularly and buying a few well fitting fashionable outfits will already set you apart from the crowd.

This is not a problem for me. I am not the one who needs to hear this advice.

I am the one telling you this advice is useless for most men under current conditions and you sound like a Boomer telling someone to sharpen up their resume and give the manager a firm handshake to get hired.

"Chopped" is apparently slang for "rough-looking."

I will say, this is a lot better than there being a (new) epidemic of men being chopped up or having their dicks chopped off. I suppose if you wanted to get particularly creative, a particularly disgusting case would be an epidemic of meat intended for eating being discovered as, well, "chopped man"!

There's some largish subset of Gen-Z women who are claiming that in their daily lives, they almost never see 'hot' men out and about, and the vast majority of the men they do see are hopelessly ugly, don't take care of themselves, and are just horribly unattractive, meanwhile they also claim that most of the women they see are gorgeous, well-put-together, and otherwise "hot" and thus deserve better partners than they've got.

Look, listen, I'm broadly sympathetic to the points you're raising about relationships for younger people, but this ain't it. Women are more religious than men, and this just so happens to be a religious belief that they have to proclaim even in anonymous surveys, but that doesn't mean they actually believe it. See: Lizzo is beautiful, right up until you call a woman beautiful just like Lizzo.

Women are more religious than men,

Ironically men are attending church more than women now, the previous trend is just barely inverted.

Which suggests women have indeed found a replacement outlet for their religious tendencies. Things are getting janky.

But yeah, to the extent women are saying this, its ultimately just a shit-test or its them asserting high standards so they can pretend they're more selective.

Ironically men are attending church more than women now, the previous trend os just barely inverted.

Because they converted to another religion, which is conveniently not tracked by church attendance, as it's pretending to not be a religion.

Now I am wondering what the equivalent to the church service is for these folks.

Protest marches, for one, but surely they don't have weekly sermons in the equivalent of a chapel.

Like church, most people don't attend regularly. They just go to the holiday services (pride).

But as with certain varieties of Buddhism, most people will spend a period in a monastery (university) where they will engage in serious study and pious indoctrination.

Jon Stewart/John Oliver/the other guy with glasses/the View/&etc.

Hah, there's definitely some parallels to Televangelists there.

TLDR: A number of women are now going online and complaining that the majority of men are unattractive/ugly('chopped men'). The pushback from some of the more spicy internet content creators is that the women complaining about this are all mid, and have no space to talk.

Sadly, this isn't a new opinion. I've seen a number of threads in popular reddit forums(I know, I know) that have voiced similar opinions, that when going out in public, they never see men that they find attractive.

Assuming this is all done in good faith, it's a demonstration of just how women and men are different. I can go out in public and I'm going to see plenty of women I find cute, attractive, appealing, classy, and whatnot. That women don't have a similar mindset is, well, depressing, more than anything.