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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 8, 2024

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when dads were working 60 hours a week

I'm skeptical. The typical F500 CEO has at least half a dozen direct reports and probably averages fewer than 2-3 hours of face time with each direct report. Yet the direct reports presumably are modeled much more by theses 2-3 hours with the CEO than however many hours they spend with their own direct reports or assistants. I agree absent fathers won't have much influence, but fathers working 60 hour weeks can and should impart sufficient modeling and influence compared to SAHMs.

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply, but I'm not sure where we disagree. I think everyone becoming atheists wasn't great for society, but it's not catastrophic like the love is God cult.

I should say, I think every generation fucks up their kids in a different way. Even a generation that somehow did everything right during their development would have unintended negative consequences, because those kids still need to rebel against their parents at some point, to sever the drawstrings and enter adulthood. Beyond that, how do you decide where the cut off of responsibility is? I think it's fair to say that parents are only responsible for their children, but that they also bear some responsibility for how their children's children come out - their parenting being the guide for their children's parenting, and if their children parented in a way that is opposed to their parenting, then it was in reaction to their parenting.

Please pretend that last bit made sense.

Happy thought: if you believe nature > nurture, then the generational fucking up is merely par for the course at conception!