But it is a certified genius dungeon, dontcha know.
2 Likes
I’ve known higher degree holding mensa members… and I’ve known people that never finished Jr High… ask me which ones were more successful in life?
1 Like
50 shades of lame
2 Likes
I think making this a competition (as this soldier seems to have done) fundamentally misses the point, when they often come from the same place. I think it’s important to recognise the fact that both have been assumed to be relatively harmless; that women end up accepting their new life as a conquering soldier’s wife, while men end up learning to be proper soldiers and don’t have a problem with killing. The fact that this leaves lasting scars that also affect others has often been ignored - it’s just the natural order of things. Growing up during the Cold War, I had a consistent nagging fear from a young age that I might be called up to fight - the fear of dying was never as great as the fear of killing.
I’ve been thinking recently about Gandhi’s quote that “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but it is really fear.” The people I admire who show true humanity don’t have less to fear than others; if anything, the opposite is true. I recently read a German article by a guy who hosted dozens of refugees with his gay partner. He pointed out that there was no animosity between them, and the couple didn’t need to make lots of precautions for their own safety. They were able to interact as human beings rather than the natural enemies that the press made them out to be. We have a young Muslim guy from Afghanistan living with us. He’s very polite and good with the kids. He wants to be a police officer, which is apparently quite common for people of his age (considering how dangerous that job is in Afghanistan, I’m surprised anyone wants that for themselves or their kids, but people are willing to sacrifice a lot to build a better country).
There are real risks and violent people out there, but so often the narrative is the same: Group X is dangerous. They are inherently violent and oppressive and don’t share our humanity. None of their demands are reasonable and we cannot negotiate with them. While this can seem like the current reality, it really doesn’t have to be that way. I’ve mentioned this before, but Germany is not a monoculture with no immigration, yet it still has much lower rate for many serious crimes. There’s three times as much rape in the US. Five times as much murder. Nine times as high an incarceration rate. Men in the US are more than twice as likely to commit suicide as German men. Over 75% of Germans feel safe walking alone at night, while 41.84% of Americans do.
Germany isn’t as good as it can get, either - not by a long way. Sorting this stuff out is demonstrably better for everyone - we all need community and it’s a hopeful thought that we don’t have to be overly concerned with people’s explicit demands - other people are not all that different from us and our happiness is not incompatible with theirs. ISIS fighters demand the domination of extremist Islam, but what they need is security, opportunity and community. Many of them are motivated by the need to support their families, which we can actually relate to. Scott Adams suggests that men become killers if they aren’t given sex. That’s manifestly untrue, and we can address people’s needs without submitting to their demands. Considering the fact that there are more unmarried couples living together in Germany than the US, men here probably do get more sex (and seem much less obsessed with it, to be honest). It’s not because women gave into men’s demand for sex though.
One of my favourite things to see recently was a brochure talking about treatment for depression. On the one side, it talked about symptoms for women, which are related to a number of external factors and are often more internally focused. The hospital offered a number of things including support groups for women. On the other side, it talked about symptoms for men, which can be related to similar or different factors, and can be more externally focused (including a greater tendency to aggression). The hospital offered a number of things including support groups for men. Just matter of fact, addressing the issues and offering support without judgement.
4 Likes
I agree with everything you have said, except this:
Not “accepting” in this instance means death. that is not a choice and not acceptance.
I know you’re not trying to minimize, but thats what its coming across as.
What I’m saying is that the assumption in both cases is that people will just get used to it and accept their role. In both cases, the psychological damage shows that this is not true. I’m not saying PTSD from fighting and being raped are the same, just that people have often assumed that “they’ll be fine”.
2 Likes
Genghis Khan didn’t seem to lack for sex partners (to use the term “partner” loosely); genetic tests suggest that 0.5% of people alive today are his direct descendants.
Pretty sure he wasn’t famous for his laid back, non-violent attitude.
2 Likes
I’m always amused when people do Derrida-style deconstruction on the public statements of a humorist. Get the popcorn and dim the lights!
Empirical evidence suggests that Mr. Adams is right (at least in the formulation given by the headline, that is - “without access to sex, men can become killers”).
Sex has many positive effects both physiologically and psychologically on men. The evidence for this is overwhelming. I don’t see why anybody would want to deny that, and if your political or social ideology conflicts with that, you might consider the possibility that your ideology is broken.
Personally, I do my best to treat women better than men, because they are better than men. I don’t need men. Men can certainly be good friends and useful members of society, but their companionship isn’t inherently necessary to me. Men are pretty useless compared to women or even a good cat, frankly.
2 Likes
I need men. I need my dad, my grandfather and my sons. And all the teachers and mentors & friends who happened to be male. Without them, I would be depressed, disconnected and half the person I am. Need the women, too. And my dog.
7 Likes
Personally I think I need my dogs more than I need any of y’all.
(I may have been playing The Long Dark too much of late)
9 Likes
The only dogs I need are the ones I talk to on the Internet.
6 Likes
I realized the other day that the only “celebrities” I follow on social media are dogs. Its all dogs. All the way down.
5 Likes
He’s rich and white, and has bought a paper that says he’s a certified genius. Police is busy pinning down and shooting people that aren’t in those categories.
Scott Adams is the Frank Miller of comic strips, and andropause is making things worse for them…
2 Likes
I have been giving him the benefit of the doubt, assuming this is why he’s so angry and misogynistic right now. But it’s been going on long enough that I’m wondering if I’ve got it backwards. Certainly he seems to be coming off the rails. I hope he gets some therapy-- it’d probably be useful.
7 Likes
One thing that definitely isn’t good for young men (or women, for that matter) is lack of opportunity and isolation. If you’re a Brit in my generation and think that the gender pay gap doesn’t live up to the hype, you’d be right:
What’s more, unemployment is almost double as high for men in that age bracket (this statistic is for unemployment benefit claimants in the UK):
The gender gap in university is at a record high too, so this difference stands to increase. Men with low economic opportunity and social isolation (which is statistically greater than for women, and many programs are specifically aimed at women) have higher levels of depression, which is bad for everyone. Isolation is a growing problem for young adults anyway, and without employment and a steady income it is worse.
4 Likes
I’m not sure what your point is?
The gender gap is still real… from the report that chart is from:
The gender pay gap for median earnings of full-time employees decreased to 9.4%, from 9.6% in 2014. This is the lowest since the survey began in 1997, although the gap has changed relatively little over the last 4 years. A similar trend is seen when full-time and part-time employees are combined, although the gap is unchanged from 2014, at 19.2%.
Look at that gap in skilled trades!! I mean sure, we’re ALMOST at parity in retail sales, hooray! But what about the rest? How can you say that the pay gap doesn’t live up to the hype?
And even the chart of unemployment rates for men 18-24 is only 2% different than women the same age?
(http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/november-2015/table-a05-nsa.xls)
I honestly do not understand your point, its like you’re trying to support some of Scott Adams points about something but I don’t know what and I don’t know why… is youth unemployment and generalizations about gender pay gaps going to lead to terrorism?
I’m not saying it will lead to terrorism, I just said it will lead to depression. There isn’t some men’s fund where all the money gets shared out equally. If you’re in my generation, it makes no difference that your father makes more than your mother - actually, it’s a bad thing if you’re a guy, because you’re more likely to lose your job to balance things out. If you are a woman between age 20 and 40, the gender gap is in your favour, especially when you consider the unemployment and university entry rate (which is not as marginal). You may think this serves men right, but a healthy society needs men and women who are able to participate.
Your link doesn’t separate by gender - female unemployment is 54% of male unemployment at 18-14, and it goes up to 56% after that. Men tend to identify with their careers more than women, so unemployment has a particularly serious effect on their mental health.
It’s not some kind of link between unemployment and terrorism, just that breaking down the figures paints quite a different picture and shows that there is a very high unemployment rate for men <40, which is masked by the figures for other groups. That will lead to a lot of socially isolated men who have never had a proper career, which is not good for society.
That chart has different tabs for gender. (Also you are reading “inactivity” instead of unemployment.)
The unemployment rate for men 16-64 = 5.8%, for women its 5.5%.
Look, I’m not trying to say that unemployment or depression isn’t an issue, but trying to make it a male only problem and pretend that the gender gap isn’t real just smacks of gender essentialism and sexism. Do men succeed at suicide more often? Yes, and thats tragic. Women attempt suicide much more often, and that is also tragic and needs to be addressed. Trying to say men have it worse is … grotesque. (Didn’t you just lecture me about not making things a competition on another thread? Why are you doing this here?)
I just don’t understand why you’re coming onto a thread discussing a man who essentially said men need unfettered access to a vagina or else they’ll kill everyone with all this MRA crap.
“Yes, but, the gender gap isn’t that big, what are you complaining about, men have it soooo much worse.”
2 Likes
