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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026

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Young productive men are functionally slaves in modern western societies. They work for a pittance while the vast majority of their economic output goes to their betters through many mechanisms of taxation and redistribution,

Young productive men are substantially better off now then they have been for practically all of history. Despite taxation, the amount of wealth even the poorer man in the first world can access is still greater than many kings of the past. No matter how rich or powerful you were in the 1500s, you did not have a car or a smartphone or a video game console or a TV or take flights to Hawaii for vacation and probably not even indoor plumbing in many areas. Your food was still mostly limited to regional availability and what was in season. Most of your children would still die before they were five, and you were still unable to treat health and pain concerns in a meaningful way. Have an infection as a king? Tough it out like everyone else

Even the poorest dudes working at a gas station, it is not "a pittance", you have wealth beyond the dreams of many in history. Your children are alive, you have basically infinite entertainment at your fingertips, you have all the tasty food you want, you have clean and good looking clothes, you have incredible healthcare that can do what just a few centuries ago would be considered miracles. You aren't spending your time hauling buckets of water or poop as domestic chores.

they have no political representation as a class (it is illegal)

Are you not talking about the west here? Every young man has political representation in western democracy. IDK what country you could be referring to with "it is illegal", but I'm not aware of any where men do not have suffrage.

This unthough hierarchy is especially salient in my own country of France. Pensioners have more income than working people (you read that right) and yet on top of it every class but young men gets subsidized tickets and other trivial advantages in every area of life at their expense.

I will say I do not know the inner workings of France well, but I can confidently say that the general point that you are richer, meaningfully richer in what you have and the quality you have it in, than almost everyone in history remains true. And from what I can tell at least, France still has suffrage for young men so I don't know what you mean by it being illegal.

  1. Rich slaves are still slaves, absolute wealth is not in contention, dignity and station are. The station imposed on young men by modern western society is one of subservience and inferiority.

  2. Suffrage is not voice, nor is it political representation as a class. No political party or organisation represents the interest of men as a class and those that purport to are banned by law or decree in France, Germany, the UK under the aupices of discrimination.

  3. Liberal democracy in effect only serves the interest of the selectorate, which by the demographic force of the baby boom does not need include young men. It follows from the natural laws of politics that all viable politicians are bound to extract from them to give to their coalitions.

Young productive men are functionally slaves in modern western societies. They work for a pittance while the vast majority of their economic output goes to their betters through many mechanisms of taxation and redistribution,

Young productive men are substantially better off now then they have been for practically all of history. Despite taxation, the amount of wealth even the poorer man in the first world can access is still greater than many kings of the past.

The same would be true, if you literally reintroduced African slavery in the US today, and It was probably even true back when slavery was still legal in the US, so I don't see how this argument is valid.