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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 3, 2024

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Failure of your imagination to supply a steel man to your opposition.

Do I have to provide a steelman when it's obvious that nobody involved is thinking nearly as far ahead as that steelman? You think your average feminist or feminist-adjacent who takes a kneejerk reactionary stance against some "incel" generating AI loli waifu or whatever or some horny teen "nudifying" the girl from his Englsih class is thinking decades into the future? I mean decades into the future we're going to have actual sexbots anyway so the same argument then applies to real world conduct.

This is not a brave statement, but I'm gonna double down on "sexual urges that are focused on a 5 year old are abominable" and maybe "and should be to individuals of all sexes"

The problem is, to a lot of women, if you're not in the top 25% of men minimum, increasingly you having sexual urges that are focused on a 25 year old is also abominable to them, especially if you're gasp over 30 (or probably even 28 with some of these people nowadays). And specifically on the issue of underage girls, they'll also conflate 5 year olds and 15 year olds while simultaneously encouraging the sexualization of those same 15 year olds to a degree that would have been considered abominable for 25 year olds 25 years ago, then rage like it's unthinkable when the inevitable happens. It's an increasingly twisted equation that isn't nearly as defined by simple statements that almost everyone agrees with as you want it to be.

Do I have to provide a steelman when it's obvious that nobody involved is thinking nearly as far ahead as that steelman?

Yes, because the purpose of a steel man is to test & strengthen your own reasoning, not to score internet dunk points on your opponents.

The problem is, to a lot of women, if you're not in the top 25% of men minimum, increasingly you having sexual urges that are focused on a 25 year old is also abominable to them

Whether this is true or false, it's materially irrelevant to whether sexual urges that are focused on a 5 year old are abominable.

Yes, because the purpose of a steel man is to test & strengthen your own reasoning, not to score internet dunk points on your opponents.

I don't think it's strengthening your reasoning to go so far beyond what your opponents actually express that it's outside of the realm of what they might even actually believe.

Whether this is true or false, it's materially irrelevant to whether sexual urges that are focused on a 5 year old are abominable.

I'm glad you agree that bringing it up at all is materially irrelevant to what I'm talking about.