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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32947 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023

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Is anyone here even against something like a really strongly socially enforced monogamy?

I think that 'strongly socially enforced' is doing a lot of lifting, in that it would entail 'reversing' many liberties that have been extended to both sexes (moreso women) and would probably require a return of religiosity in order to make the enforcement mechanisms have sufficient 'bite.'

I would imagine, for example, this leading to the return of shotgun weddings, of stricter controls on prostitution, and by extension on strip clubs and porn production, on a stronger preference for modesty in dress, and much more difficult divorce processes, which implies actual divorces would be even more fraught than usual.

A large portion of the population would balk at some or all of the above if proposed independently.

So I'm not against it, but there's a discussion to have about the second order effects that it might carry.

Except for the ability to use sex transactionally, which I've been assured in this thread is not the thing women really want(and believe them), I'm not really sure what women lose on this. And I don't think we need religion, if people recognized the problem they could recognize the usefulness of the solution and punishing desenters socially should come naturally. There is not a lot of ambient sympathy for the main losers, guys who are sleeping with tons of women no strings attached or women using sex to get ahead.

There is not a lot of ambient sympathy for the main losers, guys who are sleeping with tons of women no strings attached or women using sex to get ahead.

I mean, one doesn't need sympathy when one just has raw power. Almost by definition, guys who are sleeping with tons of women and women using sex to get ahead have lots of power. The rest of society might be more numerous, but they'd still have to coordinate to overpower that powerful group, and I think the very reason this discussion is being had is that such coordination doesn't seem to be coming naturally.

And I don't think we need religion, if people recognized the problem they could recognize the usefulness of the solution and punishing desenters socially should come naturally.

I honestly do not think this is how the majority of humans' thought processes work.

Punishing dissenters/defectors comes naturally, yes, but note that this behavior is only expected when the human in question can directly gain a personal benefit from doing so. Coordinating on a wider scale requires a bit more influence than merely "recognizing the usefulness of the solution."

There is not a lot of ambient sympathy for the main losers, guys who are sleeping with tons of women no strings attached or women using sex to get ahead.

This is true.

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