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The postulated tradeoffs of the Sexual Revolution, even if all the decline in reported happiness and increased suicide/depression are taken at face value and then attributed to it, are within what I'm willing to accept as a tax on my beliefs.
But what do I know? My country hasn't really had one, the norms around sex, dating and marriage in India are closer to 1950s America than they are to what's the case now or for the last half century or so. Still far more liberal than it used to be, it was nigh-Victorian in living memory.
I do not consider an increase in happiness necessary or sufficient by itself to justify any policy, even if it's obviously desirable. My preference for epistemic hygiene and clear thinking rules out any adoption of religion, and I don't deny that the religious are happier. If I was offered to be turned into a Lotus Eater or joy-wired, I would consider it a fate, if not worse than death, but close.
Immense confounders ahoy! The genetics of the kids who are deprived of their dads because they died (accidentally or from illness) are going to be notably different from those who dads went to the corner store and never brought back the cigarettes (at least they avoided indoor smoking). Not to mention the poor taste/lack of judgment in their moms.
As far as I've read, single motherhood overall is terrible for the kids, probably even worse when you carve out the chunk who are single because of being widowed.
Can confirm, I haven't met thirstier guys than Indians. I used to work with a bunch of young Indian men and they had a bunch of photo albums on the network share. Winter ones were the usuall assortment of "dude in (front of) a big pile of snow, dude in front of a thermometer, dude on ice skates". Summer ones? All creepshots.
There was one guy that looked like he was likely to score, as he had the looks and the confidence of a Bollywood star instead of looking like a nerd with panda eyes, but that's probably why he was recalled back to India after just a couple of weeks. Audible miring from the girls around the office must've alerted his boss, who had to protect his chastity before marriage in loco parentis.
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