Botond173
6d ago
Point taken, but that's not really what I had in mind. Can we say with certainty that Taylor's endorsement was an important net gain for the Dems? Did it actually matter that much?
Botond173
6d ago
Roughly half a year ago there was a discussion here on the cultural legacy and (then) recent renewed interest and negative portrayal of the Woodstock ’99 music festival in the mainstream media. I haven’t seen the two documentaries in question but I’ve heard commentaries on them, and they agreed that much of the sneering and hostility present in their narratives is actually directed at the nu-metal genre in general, and the antics of Fred Durst in particular. I was sort of surprised that nobody mentioned this in the discussion. Anyway, it certainly doesn’t surprise me that much that they’d contextualize the whole incident in that way, as nu-metal is generally seen as an embarrassing and pathetic cringefest which was a plague upon pop music at the turn of the Millennium, thankfully one that largely disappeared after a few years as quickly as it appeared. And it was roughly at the zenith of its popularity when this festival took place, which was dominated by nu-metal bands.
When I’ve heard these commentaries I started looking for more on Youtube as my interest was piqued. Back when the BBC Learning TV channel existed it ran a rather good one-hour documentary on the incident but unfortunately I wasn’t able to find it. (I saw one or two other short documentaries from the same period i.e. 2000/2001.) I do recall, however, finding some news report which featured a segment from an interview with Sheryl Crow, who also performed at the festival and had a rather bad experience. I saw this YT clip about two years ago and can’t find it again unfortunately. To paraphrase from memory, she argued that the reason she found the whole scandal repulsive was that the white male nu-metal fans who committed numerous acts of arson, vandalism, rape, harassment etc. were mostly from functioning middle-class homes in the suburbs, objectively privileged by global standards, yet were constantly angry and destructive and couldn’t even put it in words why. She basically accused them of toxic masculinity even though I don’t recall her using that exact expression, but I wasn’t surprised anyway because she came across as the average lipstick feminist.
Leaving the subject of the festival aside, I wonder how nu-metal will be viewed in the context of the culture war. It appears to me that as a phenomenon it was a canary in a coalmine, providing an outlet for the angst of the young white (mostly) male members of a social class that was turning into the precariat under a system of late-stage capitalism, whose average quality of life was about to start collapsing. (Rising rates of mortality, alcoholism, illegitimacy, fatherlessness, unemployment, opioid addiction, prescription pill abuse etc.)
Botond173
6d ago
I vaguely remember some right-wingers (at least Walt Bismarck for sure) making the argument a couple of months ago that it’s a dumb mistake on the part of some(?) Republicans to agitate against Taylor Swift due to her activism. Their reasoning was that it doesn’t make political sense to alienate the swifties, as most of them are just average women who don’t necessarily reject traditional gender norms and aren’t hardliner wokes. In light of recent election results, what can we make of this argument in retrospect?
Botond173
6d ago
One certainly doesn't expect to hear about Buddhist rebel militias in the news, that's for sure.
Botond173
12d ago
I decided to post this here, as women's revealed preference for men taller than themselves is culture war fodder to an extent.
Do there happen to be statistics about the growth in the average height of male and female elementary and high school students after 1945? Either in the US or anywhere in the West? I’m asking because I think it may be possible that whatever level of average height difference there used to be between young men and women has decreased in the past few decades for whatever reason, which may also contribute to female hypergamy getting increasingly frustrated.
Botond173
13d ago
Somehow I doubt that either the Russians or the Norks would provide Nork soldiers with unsupervised/unmonitored smartphones with unlimited browser access. Why would they be given smartphones anyway?
Botond173
13d ago
Except what could they possibly spend that money on and where? Legally and at home, that is?
Botond173
13d ago
Do there happen to be statistics about the growth in the average height of male and female elementary and high school students after 1945? Either in the US or anywhere in the West? I’m asking because I think it may be possible that whatever level of average height difference there used to be between young men and women has decreased in the past few decades for whatever reason, which may also contribute to female hypergamy getting increasingly frustrated.
Botond173
14d ago
I don't think there were violent riots, only protests, but the whole scandal was a harbringer of things to come, especially the ludicrous levels of media bias on display.
Botond173
14d ago
Radicalism can take multiple forms and follow different incentives. Political factions of different temperament and composition will have different reactions; that much is self-evident. The attitude may be ‘the enemy is winning, we have nothing to lose and will not yield, it’s us or them’ or, in the opposite case, ‘now they’ve shown weakness and lost their spirit, it’s now or never, hammer the iron while it’s hot’. But to outsiders, it all probably just looks the same in most cases. (‘Why the fuck are these insane twats going crazy?’ etc.) A Kamala victory would’ve probably resulted in the de-radicalization of leftists on average, but it’s foolish to assume that it was not going to drive the radicalization of any leftist groups anywhere.
Botond173
14d ago
I distinctly remember that one criticism from dissident right-wingers directed at Trump in the early years of his presidency was that his bellicose behavior will galvanize rabid and destructive leftist groups into action, and not only will he lack the willingness to confront them but he’ll also not give any support, direct or indirect, to those who do, leaving them out in the cold. Off all things Trump was ever criticized for, this is what I as a dissident rightist always found to be the most (and pretty much the only one) damning.
Botond173
27d ago
Also, single mothers are probably rather susceptible to liberal trans propaganda on average.
Botond173
27d ago
I see. So I've read the other replies and I wonder in what way desegregation even remained as a policy after that. Is it basically just a case of politicians and officials paying lip service to an ideal, or are there tangible measures in place?
Botond173
27d ago
I think the main factor was that normie-friendly lipstick feminism gained a lot of traction at the expense of other liberal tendencies for various reasons. Eugenics in practice necessarily entails a certain level of limitation put on women’s sexual autonomy. Whether you’re giving incentives to desirable people to breed or to undesirable people not to breed, you’re in effect curbing women’s sexual choices one way or another. To mainstream feminists, that’s a no-no. You can’t do that, because it’s bad. So either eugenics or lipstick feminism had to be expelled from under the roof of liberalism.
Botond173
27d ago
from majority minority schools to majority white ones
I see. Did it also take place the other way around?
Botond173
28d ago
Will trans issues be seen as the weird 2010s, early 2020s political project that had ardent supporters, but eventually withered away and died like the desegregation bussing movement?
As a non-American, can you please explain that example? Was it the bussing part that got unceremoniously dropped, or the desegregation part, or both?
Botond173
28d ago
Fair enough. The part about sons is wrong then. But the rest of my argument stands, I think.
Botond173
28d ago
Trans issues were never going to be a permanent part of the Dem ideological setup because it’s precisely the children of PMC urban Democrats (ie NYT readers, DNC and associated think tank / lobbyist staffers etc) who are at increasing risk of coming out as trans.
I'd argue that this is incorrect because, as far as I can tell based on my ideological prejudices (yeah), the children most likely to want to transition are the children, especially male children, of left-leaning single mothers (mostly stressed-out and miserable ones), and single motherhood is rather rare among the demographic you described.
Anyway, do you think this is something they're aware of themselves? If yes, when did that realization set in? There has already been ample time for that. The trans culture war has started more than a decade ago.
Botond173
28d ago
True. I remember there used to be dance clubs / discos specifically catering to teenagers under 18. They were the same as normal clubs but there was no alcohol served.
I'd argue the situation of the white precariat class started eroding many years before 2008 but their problems were papered over by cheap credit and these trends remained unseen under the surface while public attention focused on the Bush Admin's wars and the usual culture war issues. I recall that Steve Sailer observed the data and concluded that negative trends in white life expectancy started around 2002.
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