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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 1, 2024

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This is the sort of thing where I think "me too" actually makes sense.

It would make sense if we had any semblance of coherence in the rules governing the relations between the sexes, but you can't do this "all bets are off, only consent counts" free-for-all, bash people for "taking advantage of" inexperienced women, as you're declaring anyone claiming there are differences between men and women to be sexist.

who is "you?" me? I didn't make the rules. No one does, it's a massive freewheeling anarchy. Let's just look on the bright side and be happy that it has some positive benefits, even if overall I hate feminism and anything related to it.

Besides the reporter who gets a pelt, who is this benefiting? Who gains in the long run?

Many high status men will continue to sleep with young women regardless , many aren't as public-facing and woke as Gaiman so have less to fear from this particular form of reactive punishment. (Andrew Huberman just had a recent case of "hell hath no fury" journalism and he just...ignored it) Many women like this will probably continue playing these games, come to regret it and they'll never get even that brief moment of vindication when stories like this going viral before having to go back to their anonymous lives.

It certainly makes no difference to the great mass of humanity if a rockstar discovers that 19 y/o groupie isn't as easy a target as they assumed.

This is akin to saying that there're "positive benefits" if you burn someone's mother-in-law as a witch and she turned out to be absolutely awful at PTA meetings. It's not a benefit, it's a coincidence. If it was a benefit, it wouldn't be anarchy.

Hopefully the positive benefit would be that one fewer young woman suffers emotional distress from getting pumped and dumped by an older celebrity. It's hard to measure that benefit, because it's hard to see "could have been a victim, but wasn't, thanks to a well-functional society" but it's still there.

Alternatively, fuck it, let's just give all our young women to the upper class in a giant harem, like the ottoman empire of old. The rest of us can be eunuchs or die in foreign wars. That sounds like a great society!

It's hard to measure that benefit, because it's hard to see "could have been a victim, but wasn't, thanks to a well-functional society" but it's still there.

Where is this "well-functioning society"? I thought we were talking about anarchy?

I think you're thinking of this as sexual Bukelism: we shoot all the gangsters and, yes, sadly some innocents will be caught in the crossfire but then kids can go back to playing in the yards. No, it's more like gangs killing people for wearing the wrong colors, or the wrong brand. It's disorganized, capricious and ultimately meaningless to most people.

None of the problems with sexual inequity will be solved by a woman trying to cancel a high status man who didn't treat her the way she wanted. The game will continue, with adjustments. In a sense, it's a reinforcement of the status quo; the "eunuchs" are already non-characters in this great drama.

What are you actually arguing in favor of, at this point? rich celebrity dudes should get a harem while the birth rate plummets? Or we all just kill ourselves in random gang warfare?

Alternatively, fuck it, let's just give all our young women to the upper class in a giant harem, like the ottoman empire of old. The rest of us can be eunuchs or die in foreign wars. That sounds like a great society!

Ukrainian men are close to living the dream you describe. Giving away their young women to thot around in night clubs and on Tinder abroad, and themselves potentially dying in a domestic war. Three cheers for male privilege!

right. i was being sarcastic, in case that wasn't clear. Ukraine sounds terrible to live in. For anyone, but especially for men right now.

who is "you?" me? I didn't make the rules. No one does, it's a massive freewheeling anarchy.

I don't think this is true. There are people who make the rules, though I accept you're not one of them. But you do seem to be supporting the rules, so I am addressing you.

Let's just look on the bright side and be happy that it has some positive benefits

It doesn't. The incoherence of the rules is causing massive damage to society, and I haven't seen any upside to it.

I don't know, what are "the rules" of society here? I don't even know anymore.

In the specific case of Neil Gaiman, "don't fuck the nanny" is both a well-known social rule, and the law of the land (as workplace sexual harassment). It isn't a difficult case.