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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 28, 2023

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I think /u/Quantumfreakonomics has it right. Despite ostensible public morality being deeply Christianised and emphasising our treatment of others as the polestar of morality, our deeper human concept of virtue is deeply bound up with the concept of personal excellence. A straight man who is failing to be attractive to women is failing in the same way that a slow cheetah or weak oak is failing, namely lacking in the distinctive strengths associated with his nature. Yet because of the deep penetration of Christian and (especially) non-conformist Protestant values into modern Western society — exacerbated by wokeness, a Puritan project in all but name — most people either lack the vocabulary or brazenness to say out loud, “you’re a lousy weak male, and you should be ashamed of yourself.”

Instead, that impulse has to be sublimated into the ethical vocabulary of slave morality, with lack of excellence being converted into lack of morality. The only spaces that call out this male weakness explicitly tend to be those that have explicitly embraced modern master moralities (in however confused a fashion). That’s where you’ll find sexually successful men making fun of incels as weakling feminised soyboy beta cucks etc.. Most other people are thinking that, but lack the self-awareness or honesty to say it.

most people either lack the vocabulary or brazenness to say out loud, “you’re a lousy weak male, and you should be ashamed of yourself.”

But this isn't a case of lack of brazenness or vocabulary. A so-called incel will never be called upon by feminists and NPCs to stop being weak, be strong, learn to be a real man etc., because it's not his lack of strength that they find deplorable, it's his open rejection of feminist ideology.

Nominally, yes. But would they care about his open rejection of feminist ideology so much if he were stronger? In my observation the answer is usually either "yes, but not nearly so much" or "possibly, but they'd keep their opinions to themselves, at least around him", which amounts to the same thing from his point of view.

Attractive people (of both sexes) just get cut a lot more slack for their opinions and treatment of others.

An attractive man today has zero incentives to reject feminism as it exists as a sociocultural reality, much less openly question feminist ideology. In fact, if you're an attractive hetero man who doesn't particularly want a family and isn't terribly concerned about the future of his nation, feminism is in fact great. As a result, you're not likely to encounter an attractive man who rejects feminism, so answering your question is actually rather difficult. This largely explains the cultural staying power of feminist dogma. It's high-status men who women notice, not average men, and those men don't question feminism.