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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 5, 2024

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  1. men and women are different and sexism is load bearing to society.

  2. shit work has to be done, and a lot of it is sufficiently crappy that coercion is necessary for anyone to do it. You can use economic coercion or you can use actual slavery, your choice.

  3. people are lazy and conformist and they like their pleasures and comforts. 9/10 of them will pick whatever option looks like the easiest way to get a fun, comfortable life.

  4. never bet on a student before his studies start to pan out- too high a failure rate.

  5. there is a developmental window for learning a society’s set of ‘basic adult skills’- for us, things like driving, communicating electronically, managing and keeping a schedule, etc- and if you blow past that window, pretty good chance of being screwed.

  6. girls grow up faster than boys do and are ready for adult roles earlier. They also have a harder time recovering from early mistakes later on. Of course, after a certain age, guys can’t either.

  7. most people need to believe in the supernatural or they won’t do things right.

  8. listen to your elders, they probably know more than you.