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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 30, 2023

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They've gotten their fear of social danger mixed up with their fear of physical danger.

I've spent lots of time around women who actually have been physically assaulted, and they don't pull this "I feel unsafe" crap. They have some idea of what dangerous men actually look and smell like, and don't regard all men they meet as incipient rapists.

My own theory is that women get told constantly to Be Afraid, but don't actually know what it is they're supposed to be afraid of and thus their Danger Sense isn't particularly well-calibrated.

They have some idea of what dangerous men actually look and smell like, and don't regard all men they meet as incipient rapists.

And, of course, approximately zero of their attacks will look like, "goes to an atheist conference, drinks with a group, and then attacks one of the other conference-goers in an elevator". I'm not saying that none of the men there are predators or that none of them would use physical force under some circumstances, but I'd bet that this is not the modus operandi. This was right around the peak of Law and Order: SVU popularity though, so "nerdy atheist brutally attacks women in elevators" probably sounded like the kind of thing that happens all the time.

I've privately theorized that the reason the woke seem to be predisposed to latch on takes like all men are rapists, all blacks are criminals, etc... is that they're actually unable to read the subtler queues of predatory behavior and are thus defaulting to coarser proxies.

seem to be

Ah, there's your problem.

Who actually does this? Who is latching on to "all blacks are criminals" and using that to justify reparations or whatever?

This is one of the least charitable takes I've seen on this board. At least from someone who isn't actively trolling. It assumes your enemies are both incompetent and malicious, and to do so, it relies on an absolutely bizarre example.

Okay, let's throw out that example and replace it with something more credibly woke, like "all cops are bastards." What advantage does this theory have over one based on negotiation?

There is obvious strategic and historical precedent for using a "coarser proxy," like a slogan, to start negotiation from a stronger point. "54-40 or fight!" It has the added advantage of making it harder for enemies to dramatically mislabel one's position. You can explain the worst excesses of woke sloganeering as a signaling race to the bottom. No need to construct a narrow form of autism.

A lot of this is just not being exposed to this stuff, and not being willing to listen to people who are without it going through 27 layers of academic theory. They’re sheltered, not stupid.

It's like a psychological allergy. Growing up in an environment that's too clean prevents your immune system from calibrating appropriately, and it seems that growing up with too much psychological safety has a similar effect. Unfortunately, this trait has become a kind of status signifier among women, and so they're now actively cultivating their psychological allergies.

the woke seem to be predisposed to latch on takes like ... all blacks are criminals

In what universe do the woke subscribe to this take?

This one. Have you not been paying attention to the last decade or so of rhetoric surrounding policing, no cash bail, decriminalization, etc.?

That is nowhere close to believing all blacks are criminals though. The prototypical woke person might say Black people are incorrectly viewed as being criminals by systemic bias in law enforcement (and society in general) and therefore dismantling those systems will be beneficial for black communities who have been targeted for criminalization (they will likely point to differences in drug possession laws and length of.sentences and so on).That is not the same thing at all. More nuanced progressives might say that black people do commit more crime (though it is still skewed by racist police) but will explain that through systemic poverty, poor mental health treatment and the like driven by systemic or structural racism. But again that is nowhere near saying all blacks are criminals

The woke oppose each and every anti-criminal policy because they believe, correctly, that such measures will have a disparate impact on blacks. It's a doublethink situation similar to Dreher's Law Of Merited Impossibility, except instead of "it will never happen, and when it does, you bigots will deserve it" it's "blacks are not more criminal than average, and if you support any tough-on-crimes policy you are a racist because criminals are disproportionately black."

As Covfefe Anon says, "The Woke Are More Correct Than The Mainstream".

The problem with @Covfefe_Anon's take, is that it the whole dark skin = underlass really only holds predictive value in spaces that are already dominated by the woke. My own experience, as well as that of several others here, would suggest that this is far from inevitable. Accordingly can't help but suspect naive assumption that wokist habit cultivating racial division/grievences is in fact increasing racial division, and "racism" rather than fighting.

Just a week ago we were treated to the spectacle of a bunch of college kids from traveling from Portland and Boston to Atlanta to "fight racism" by smashing windows in minority neighborhoods and setting fire to cars. Now they and thier supporters are screaming "white supremecy" and "internalized racism" because instead finding themselves welcomed as liberators they found themselves being pelted with rocks by the local populace, shot at/arrested by the local (predominantly black) cops, and charged with domestic terrorism by the Georga State AG at the behest of Atlanta's black Mayor.

Ironically the only sources that seem to be covering it (outside local channels) are the hard core partisans, I suspect in part because the woke at the New York and LA Times are smart enough to realize that this is not a good look for them.