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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026

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No individual connection has value at that point.

One of the problems with internet dating is that people end up trying to force/enforce a connection before they'll meet IRL. There are all kinds of understandable reasons for why that is the way it is, but dating might be a little bit less onerous if people could dial their expectations down to the level where they could go out for a coffee without having to convince themselves that this one definitely might be The One.

With lowered expectations and the prospect of a raft of more low stakes dates there would less incentive for people to get overly invested in the outcome of any particular date before that connection has developed.

It's hard to solve a stopping problem if you constantly resist, or encounter resistance, starting.

Yes and no.

Even moderately attractive women have a ton of options in front of them. They could go on a new casual date every single day if so inclined.

The stopping problem is basically the ENTIRETY of what they face. But most don't have anything resembling a strategy.

And the very fact that they have so many options inflates their self-perceived value, so they're immediate incentive is to keep going until their PERFECT candidate arrives.

But that perfect candidate is likely a dude who, himself, has many options. And so the market devolves into something like the Redpill model of women in active pursuit of those perfect candidates, and those perfect candidates able to passively select/exploit casual hookups almost at will.

For the guys who don't have options, there's not much to be done about their stopping problem, since they can't select from what they don't have.

I really think its just the gamified nature of the apps that makes it unworkable even for those with a good strategy as it mixes in people with very different expectations and backgrounds.