domain:samschoenberg.substack.com
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
3m ago
Christianity is particularly attuned to women’s petty intrasexual concerns, with its emphasis on female promiscuity.
I think this is far more complicated a topic than a single sentence can do justice to, but the Christian tradition, as much as it would like to attribute everything to Jesus, wasn't written in stone at the Ascension or Pentecost. Most of the "emphasis on female promiscuity" parts I can think of are from Paul, and were written a bit later.
I'd also point to the context of family matters in Rome at the time: Augustus rather famously enacted some policies that encouraged fidelity and "family values" before Jesus was born (and were continued on and off again with later emperors), and it's difficult to fully extract the existing Roman cultural context from the Christianity that took off there.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
3m ago
Clearly on TheMotte, it’s the men who are writing most of the posts about the ills of promiscuity. (I have specific names in mind.)
That attitude may ultimately stem from their Christianity. But there are also a lot of atheist manosphere types who get REALLY upset about female promiscuity. You can’t dismiss it as a purely female concern.
Corvos
4m ago
If the victim did not object to such things, they would not have hired staff to prevent it and said staff would not be in danger of getting faired for failing to prevent it. If they wanted local notables, they would have invited some.
How does the good-fun principle generalise? People have fun jumping turnstiles and prank-calling and shoplifting and getting drunk & disorderly in a public park in the middle of the day. Not to mention all sorts of antisocial but not actually illegal stuff.
It seems to me that you can oppress the worst behaviour of the bottom 10% without too many complaints, but beyond that you either have to allow ‘good-fun’ exemptions for 90% of the population, resulting is an adversarial and low-trust society, or else say that the rules are different for gentlemen, which I regard as being immoral and long-term corrosive to society, or else be clear that ‘local notables’ are required to model good behaviour for everyone else.
Rov_Scam
11m ago
That argument might make sense if this were like any other wedding where they're essentially relying on the honor system that uninvited guests don't show up, but this wasn't the case. This is a wedding that was held at a secret location that was difficult to get to and guarded by staff checking names. There's no trust involved here. It's also worth mentioning that even though the grooms weren't celebrities, there seems to be an epidemic of celebrities crashing normal people's weddings and other events on the premise that nobody will mind if a celebrity unexpectedly shows up. Bill Murray is notorious for this, but Taylor Swift has been known to do it and even lower tier celebrities like Zach Braff feel entitled to, even though they'd go to extreme measures to prevent normal people from getting anywhere near their weddings.
It should be mentioned as well, that the level of security behind this wedding had less to do with the family involved and more to do with the fact that Lady Gaga was making an appearance. If they had gotten married at a normal venue and held the reception in a hotel ballroom and hired the band fronted by the guy who sings the national anthem at Pens games as entertainment, I doubt they'd attract any more crashers than any other wedding. But when a celebrity of her stature is involved the risk increases greatly, made all the worse by the fact that she was almost certainly staying in the resort hotel and a little detail like that leaking would mean superfans booking rooms there for the sole purpose of trying to get a bit more close than the typical guest who booked a thousand dollar a night room for other reasons. And this just makes the whole mess more complicated because now that they're paying guests you can't just ask them to leave without refunding their money.
Of course, I had no reason to concern myself with this, because I'm not a fan of Lady Gaga, and when you're at a billionaire's wedding a private performance by an A-list celebrity doesn't exactly take you by surprise, and, after all, I'm acting like I'm supposed to be there. Anyway, given that the hosts didn't actually extend any trust that could be taken advantage of, I don't see how my actions erode that trust. And it was only that lack of trust that made the event appealing to crash. If my friend had just said that Joe's grandson was getting married at Nemacolin and he was glad his part in it was over, the idea of crashing it wouldn't have occurred to us. It was only when he got cagey about the details that the whole thing became intriguing, and when he insisted that we couldn't get anywhere near the place, it became a challenge.
Corvos
16m ago
The ambassador to Washington at the time covered it in his (rather good) autobiography. One of the single biggest causes of the IRA’s defeat was convincing influential Irish-Americans that donating to the IRA was hurting the Irish rather than supporting them.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
32m ago
I've never had a single person tell me it's easier to have a wife. In fact it's the one thing I hear most guys complain about at work.
Is this what the argument is?
hanikrummihundursvin
37m ago
You and your fellow 'wife guys' need to focus on what the argument is rather than circling the wagons around your own marriages.
Tree
53m ago
The outsized concern for promiscuity is itself female-coded. The general hostility to sex also. Compare the sex lives of greek gods versus your guy and his mom. Or gays versus lesbians. Christianity is basically the lesbian of religions.
aceventura
56m ago
I should have been more specific; I am referring to the Iranian government.
Iranians are a greatly civilized people and there's no reason their country can't achieve socioeconomic parity with Eastern Europe if they weren't ruled by a stupid and selfish cult. It's a testament to the strength of the people that despite a brain drain going back four decades and crushing financial sanctions, Iranians are able to keep their economy afloat, produce excellent scientists and academic output, and maintain a European feel to Tehran.
They hate Israël, but so do plenty of countries in the US orbit.
Every other country is making peace with Israel and fostering closer ties, to their benefit. Iran's irrational hatred of Israel is not rooted in history or geopolitical sense; Jews and Persians get along much better than Jews and Arabs, both in Iran and in the diaspora.
Iranians would benefit tremendously if their insane leaders were overthrown and a sensible government aligned itself with the US.
dasfoo
1hr ago
And yes: men don't care if you're smart and fun (though that's nice), they care if you have the requisite sexy figure.
One minor corrective here: sexy figure is one thing, but sexy attitude may not correlate. As someone who is recently divorced from an ex-wife with a very nice body but who was borderline frigid, dating a woman who is a little chubby but loves to fuck is a mind-blowing change in fortunes. Sex appeal has many facets.
Gaashk
1hr ago
Does orthodoxy really have such a strong norm towards ‘children must be PERFECT in liturgy or not go’?
No, the children can play nicely while whispering, nap, color, flop about a bit on the rug, or walk in and out as they're able to behave quietly or not. One priest said that he'd rather they were there and screaming than not there, but nobody behaves like they believe him, including his own wife and children.
Mostly, though, if we can't receive Communion, can't hear or concentrate on the prayers, can't sing, can't hear the sermon because we spend it either suppressing child activity or in a different room, then where are we even doing?
Edit: We'd probably do better if we had a specific goal, and should probably go talk to a priest about it. I know.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
1hr ago
Well, even though I haven't gotten one of these yet I'm glad that at least a few are coming from responses to me! Lots of them this time it seems.
No_one
1hr ago
Only ever saw one guy using it. Young guy, 20-something. A place where I worked part time, one of the temp workers loading the containers. He stank, literally stank so bad I could smell him - I have somewhat impaired sense of smell. Apparently he washed very rarely.. and this was summer.
Later I learned he was homeless, living in a tiny garden colony hut he broke into and even though he could have washed, he didn't. Everyone hated him because he acted aggressive, sometimes talked to himself, kept pacing all the time, was unreasonable... and stank. About every hour he'd mix a kratom drink using a lot of various powders he had there and then drink it. I guess because the labor force situation being what it is, he kept working there for several months.
Once caused a fire alarm because he lighted up a joint or cigarette in the toilets, but the place was so shoddily run they didn't know who was the culprit and he got away with it. Not sure what caused the company to blacklist him eventually.. probably got in a fight with someone.
I really don't think his was 'initial high'. As far as I know, he was persistently agitated this way, which, even more than the smell, caused others to hate him. Maybe he was mixing something else into those drinks though.
You laugh, but a) plenty of American (okay, Irish-American) money went into the actual IRA, and b) the US loves sponsoring terrorism, to the point it often ends up fighting the very terrorists it sponsored.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
1hr ago
Yes, and I believe he was, in fact, a Mossad asset, and as handy as he must have been at critical junctures, I'm dubious that Epstein Island had the necessary throughput to shape the long-term trajectory of the US foreign policy.
Also, you kind of have to be careful about blackmailing people en-masse, because if they realize this is what's being done to them, they might coordinate to fight back against you.
hydroacetylene
1hr ago
South Sudan is literally not Arab(thats regular Sudan, and the ethnic difference is the entire reason for the split). The poorest Arab country is Yemen.
hydroacetylene
1hr ago
Christianity bans promiscuity for both sexes; thé Vice lists in the New Testament condemn all sex except married PiV, mostly by name. The patristics are even more explicit that the only acceptable sex is married, PiV, at least aiming at conception.
hydroacetylene
1hr ago
Iran should be treated as a pariah as long as it refuses to behave like a civilized country
Iran is our enemy but I don’t actually know what makes them uncivilized. Certainly they wouldn’t be the worst example of either tyranny or mohammedan savagery allowed in the US orbit. They hate Israël, but so do plenty of countries in the US orbit. The USA itself uses a harshly punitive criminal justice system with plenty of prison rape. Their per capita execution rate is actually behind Singapore’s.
dasfoo
1hr ago
Isn't the "Epstein was a Mossad asset" meme tied into the idea that Israel is blackmailing U.S. politicians to do its bidding?
Tree
1hr ago
Trinidad: Half the people are indian, half the gdp is oil and gas
Seychelles : island micronation(120k souls) living off tourism
St kitts: island femtonation (50k)
The poorest country is Arab (South Sudan).
The south sudan massacres, war and subsequent independence was fought between the muslim arab north and the mostly christian non-arab south. The name Sudan comes from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān or the "Land of the Blacks".
hydroacetylene
1hr ago
Most assuredly know her as a home wrecker. That is, quite literally, what she’s famous for.
No_one
1hr ago
I doubt most even know that- mostly they just hate her because of where she got and how she looks.
As an employer you have a moral obligation not to be fickle to your staff. Especially if they are in danger of being fired for failing to anticipate your whims.
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