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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 20, 2023

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I think this line of reasoning does not demonstrate what you think it demonstrates.

If 0% of the men are defective and 60% of the women are insufferably defective, then the 40% non-defective women get married to 40% of the men, leaving 60% of the men who can't find a woman that's not insufferable.

So you'd still get unmarried men despite there being no problem with them.

The sense that I get is that this can't possibly work that way, because women are the ones who define what "defective" means. By definition, 0% of women are defective, and X% of men are defective as determined by the judgments of the women which play out in whether or not one of the women chose to marry the man. I think this underlies most of the discussion on this topic, and trying to reason why those X% of men might have negative character traits is just a long-winded way of trying to avoid recognizing this. Those men are defective, by definition, but for whatever reason, people in our society don't like to think of ourselves as judging people as "defective" based purely on their romantic success, and so we come up with other reasons to justify this judgment that avoids the obvious answer.

What, Newton and Tesla are defective but the average drug dealer (or Scott's Henry) is an outstanding example of humanity? Somebody might be 'defective' until they receive their inheritance, at which point they become a first-class example of manhood?

The opinions of women should not define what it means to be defective as a man. If you define defective to mean purely what women think, then it loses meaning for any other use we might want it for. Women might not like math nerds with small shoulders but there are many applications that need them.

The opinions of women should not define what it means to be defective as a man. If you define defective to mean purely what women think, then it loses meaning for any other use we might want it for.

Yes, I think this is the crux of the matter. "Defective," like most words, isn't strictly defined and has loose boundaries. Whether or not opinions of women should define "defective," I think it does define "defective" for a certain common way of defining "defective." This is somewhat different from the way one might use "defective" when describing "Henry" as "defective" and "Tesla" as "not defective," but since they're the same word, I think there's an impulse to take people who are "defective" by the former definition and fit them into the box of the second definition.

Of course, the choice of the term "defective" is also somewhat arbitrary. It's really just a shorthand for a general cluster of negative affect one might attach to someone.

I think it does define "defective" for a certain common way of defining "defective." This is somewhat different from the way one might use "defective" when describing "Henry" as "defective" and "Tesla" as "not defective," but since they're the same word

Why can't we just split the meaning between 'sexually attractive', 'prestigious' and 'talented'. The English language is not short of words, we don't have to recycle. Napoleon had immense talent but less skills with women, he got cuckolded by some cavalry lieutenant. I think the axis of sexual attraction is completely unrelated to actual talent, just as charisma is separated from intelligence or strength.

Women often respond to physical attractiveness, prestige and wit. But you can lack all of these things and still be talented. I suppose you might say that the biological purpose of our genes is to reproduce, that's the sole goal. But we have an entire compensation system to address this issue, talented but uncharismatic men are supposed to acquire money so they can mate by bribing women. Our civilization unconsciously recognizes (or used to recognize) that it's useful to reward ugly talent.

For how long have you been a committed champion of the longhouse?

Sorry, I think this must be a reference to something, but I don't understand it. I had to Google what a longhouse was and, as I had initially guessed, it seems to be a house that is long. But I'm guessing you're referring to something more specific.

This seems to be the definitive article on the subject.

The most important feature of the Longhouse, and why it makes such a resonant (and controversial) symbol of our current circumstances, is the ubiquitous rule of the Den Mother. More than anything, the Longhouse refers to the remarkable overcorrection of the last two generations toward social norms centering feminine needs and feminine methods for controlling, directing, and modeling behavior. Many from left, right, and center have made note of this shift. In 2010, Hanna Rosin announced “The End of Men.” Hillary Clinton made it a slogan of her 2016 campaign: “The future is female.” She was correct.

Longhouse, as you said, is traditional dwelling used by many tribal peoples, independently invented many times because it is highly practical.

"Longhouse" in internet alt right speak means modern degenerate and unmanly society where women and homosexuals rule and real true manly men are oppressed and persecuted.

"I do not want to sit in office all day, I want to loot, rape and pillage like my ancestors did! I want to collect enemy skulls, not funko pops! They do not let me live like real man, this is so unfair :'-(:'-(:'-("

Why they chose this name is unclear. One would imagine that online manly right that sees civilization as fake and gay would see life of Iroquis or Mohawks as the best life ever.

Would "Bronze Pervert" and his ilk advise the Iroquis to leave the longhouse and build tiny huts for each family separated with picket fences? If so, they wouldn't go very far.

edit: links

As someone else here who had to be enlightened on this topic, I wonder if maybe the Viking/other European nomad tribal longhouses were different than how the American Indigenous tribes did things, and that's where BAP et. al. are getting the concept from.

A lot of that stuff seems to come from Bachofen, a 19th century Swiss theorist of historical promiscuity and matriarchy, although I'm not sure if he specifically wrote about longhouses. Right-wing writers like Evola and Alfred Rosenberg believed that Bachofen's theories described the pre-Aryan cultures of Europe, but not the patriarchal Aryans who came in to destroy said cultures. The BAP people seem to be riffing off of this with the longhouse talk.