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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024

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I don't dislike feminists and feminism as much as many people here, but Amanda Marcotte really comes pretty close to the caricatured archetype of a narcissistic self-regarding man-hating harpy for whom "feminism" means "Everything I do should be celebrated and anything that makes me unhappy should be banned."

I remember reading Salon back in the early 2010s when it was Dan Savage talking about whatever degenerate sex act he wanted to do, and Marcottes style was at odds with the prevailing writing style: angry, hypocritical, and honestly just plain stupid. The columns were bitch sessions about why everything bad that happened to them was the fault of a direct male actor, or something vague that ultimately traced back to an ever-expanding-yet-contradictory definition of 'patriarchy'. More men being bosses of company was the patriarchy, while ISIS was something exotic to be pitied. I just checked and her column on ISIS brides had 7 mentions of 'christian', with a total of 3 for 'muslim' and 'islam' combined.

Sadly, Salon, just like Slate and Vice, ended up ditching edgelord degeneracy in favor of boring self-congratulatory emotional indulgences. Everything is the fault of White Man Patriarchy, and in response to the shittiness of White Man Patriarchy I shall document my self-loathing as I try out a Fitness Bootcamp/wilderness scream session, where I am upset the first friend I made in 10 years (a gay activist) tried to hit on me.

She and Valenti (thats the 'I am no longer hot', and 'I drink male tears' lady) are probably the worst examples of hypocritical, boring and frankly stupid feminists who don't even have the grace to be readable or amusing in their staid rants. I also find that their self-portraits are so far removed from how they look in reality that the hypocrisy is something more to level at them, but there is ample reason to despise them without having to launch snide remarks on their presentation.

Sadly, Salon, just like Slate and Vice, ended up ditching edgelord degeneracy in favor of boring self-congratulatory emotional indulgences.

Hey, maybe they'll launch an advice column of ridiculosity. It's not all bad.

Refinery29 is where you would go for deranged women advice columns. Its still pretty decent, but it used to be alot more amusing when trashy hot messes celebrated semiconsensual sex acts instead of modern situationship bemoaning.

edit: sorry not refinery29, which is basic bitch white girl stuff. reductress is the unhinged goblin woman site, which is about babylonbee level funny. that may be insulting the bee, but i find their top tier hits dont quite make up for their normal trash.

Uh, looking at their front page, are you sure it's not satire? Like Slate advice was and is given earnestly, even if a lot of the people writing in to it were/are almost certainly trolls.

oh, yeah reductress is pure satire. as far as ridiculous advice columns go I am not sure if you can thread the needle of 'sincere advice' and 'funny writing'. if anything some of the reductress goblins give better advice for women than the screeds of salon, but admittedly salon is the lowest bar possible.

Slate was, apparently, giving serious advice during its peak hilarity; think an SJW opening a Dear Abby style column which got flooded with trolls trying to see how awful the LGBT person has to be to make him side against them.