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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 19, 2023

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On Bullying

It's an observation of Orson Scott Card that we don't really like to think about how much of our behavior is genetic.

To what extent should it be presumed that sexless men will become rapists? Certainly we can look at some statistics proving rape exists, that some subset of men will eventually become rapists, or worse, school shooters.

It's only nerds that think of humans as rational agents. It's only nerds that think of humans as rational agents. It's only nerds that think of human ok you get it.

Within the evolutionary pressure to protect the women from harm emerges the high school jock bullying the high school nerd for leering too frequently and making the jock's woman uncomfortable. The nerds would have you believe that this cycle of violence begins when the high school jock slams the nerd up against the locker. "I wasn't doing anything" cries the nerd pitifully.

The nerd hangs out near the woman, drawn to her by the compulsion of the reproductive force. The nerd tells a story of innocence, that they're not there in proximity of the woman for any specific purpose.

For the woman, it's pretty simple: there's a nerd there so the nerd is interested in her regardless of what the nerd says he believes. When the nerd stutters out "h-hi" the nerd thinks that this is playing a script of normal human interaction in which he has maintained plausible deniability for making eye contact, when in reality, for the woman, it's pretty simple: there's a male present so the male is interested in her.

From there the leering or the comments ('maybe I should just try being forward' leads to awkward sexual advances) progress and the woman's discomfort increases past the annoyance threshold into the threat labeling, and the threat labeling occurs when she tells her boyfriend, and it becomes the boyfriend's job to subdue the poor dumbfuck.

So the nerd gets slammed into the locker.

"I wasn't doing anything!"

What's sad about this story is just this: that the nerd believes it.

  • -41

Nerds are low value and high inhibition. (Defining "value" here as "able to get sex without rape"). THey are the ones who get bullied, but it is the low value low inhibition types who rape (and often bully).

These can be the same people at different times. In this framework nerds who are drunk or on certain drugs are low value low inhibition.

Though I'd say the nerd bit is far less important than the drink and drugs which make all types more likely to do something stupid or violent.