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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026

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This is, of course, untrue. 99% of women can probably bang a man of substantial means, but that's not the same thing at all.

I disagree. I regularly work out at the gym and see just how attractive a plain woman can be if (1) she is in her early 20s; and (2) she is in great shape. Such a woman would have no problem getting a marriage proposal from some lonely but successful tech bro.

I doubt this. She can probably get a date, yes, but a lonely but successful techbro is not going to marry his girlfriend on double quick time.

I doubt this. She can probably get a date, yes, but a lonely but successful techbro is not going to marry his girlfriend on double quick time.

I disagree, there are a lot of lonely guys out there who have money but zero success with women.

What do you make of the experiment I proposed a few posts over:

You create an online dating profile of a young woman who is plain in terms of facial attractiveness but in excellent physical shape. You say in the profile that you are interested only in financially successful marriage-minded men and that you will entertain only detailed replies which make clear that the man is both financially successful and marriage minded. I'm pretty confident that such a dating profile would get lots of serious interest. I take it you disagree?

She'd get a lot of interest. How much of it would be serious is a different problem, and one that is impossible for even the men messaging her to assess neutrally.

Besides the basic problem of a man stringing her along, one of the great tragedies of human life is that your hypothetical desperate tech bro is lonely and has zero success with women, but the moment this girl starts dating him he will not be lonely and he will not have had zero success with women.

Human relationships are so difficult because the deal is changing in real time as it is being executed. We say to the hot girl, go date the lonely techbro niceguy, he'll worship you because he can't get anyone else. But sometimes, by showing interest in the lonely tech bro niceguy, the hot girl improves his status so much, that he isn't lonely and he isn't a niceguy anymore, and he takes his new found confidence on the road.

She'd get a lot of interest. How much of it would be serious is a different problem, and one that is impossible for even the men messaging her to assess neutrally.

She could make it clear that there will be no physical intimacy of any nature whatsoever until there's a ring on her finger. Agreed?

Men on online dating websites: notorious for respecting women's stated boundaries, infamous for their Kantian commitment to telling the truth, legendary for their long term commitment.

I mean if you want to work on the experiment together, I'll agree to your rules and see what happens. But I don't really think it's the glidepath to marriage to just show up online and say I WANT A HUSBAND.

The glidepath to marriage remains church.

Men on online dating websites: notorious for respecting women's stated boundaries, infamous for their Kantian commitment to telling the truth, legendary for their long term commitment.

So it sounds like you are saying that in our experiment, the woman will receive a lot of interest but substantially all of it will be from men who ultimately won't offer the marriage proposal the woman is clearly insisting on before offering any kind of physical intimacy whatsoever.

Is that right?

I mean if you want to work on the experiment together, I'll agree to your rules and see what happens. But I don't really think it's the glidepath to marriage to just show up online and say I WANT A HUSBAND.

I don't feel like investing the time but in any event, it doesn't seem like it would resolve anything. If the hypothetical woman received 20 or 30 lengthy, seemingly heartfelt messages from serious suitors of financial means, you would conclude that pretty much all the men were either lying or would flake at some point before the altar.

If the hypothetical woman received 20 or 30 lengthy, seemingly heartfelt messages from serious suitors of financial means, you would conclude that pretty much all the men were either lying or would flake at some point before the altar.

You smuggle in "serious" when there is no way to learn that they are serious until they are, in fact, at the altar.

You smuggle in "serious" when there is no way to learn that they are serious until they are, in fact, at the altar.

That's not necessarily true. If the suitor invests a lot of time in the relationship without receiving any physical gratification, it's a pretty good indication that the person is serious.