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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 2, 2024

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I apologize if you’ve made this clear before, or if I’m confusing you with someone else, but I have to ask.

Were you conscripted at some point? Did you, in some other way, find yourself coerced into violent service in the manner you describe? Perhaps you “volunteered” under the tremendous social pressures acting on men, but now regret it?

Because it’s easy for me to view discomfort with childbirth and objection to the draft as two sides of the same liberalization of society. An assertion that the existence of an option does not oblige any man or woman to take it. That, knowing the risks and benefits, one might choose to reject the bargain, cutting a different path, so long as he promulgated the liberal principles which allowed him a choice in the first place.

And I know you’re someone who understands the masculine urge for violence. This is probably my favorite thing you’ve written. Men are clearly getting something out of the voluntary side of dirty, violent, tough jobs. Even setting aside the prospect of pay.

But here you’re suggesting that can’t be enough. That men, as a class, aren’t seeing the same benefits from liberalization. That the prospect of coercion or even just discomfort washes out any benefits men might claim. And that the least women can do to remedy this, the only way to make up for the hardships they’re imposing, is to “give him a kid or three.”

I don’t understand you.

objection to the draft

I don't know anyone, regardless of political opinion, who thinks (in the US) that the Draft is even viable. Everyone would ignore it and the president who implemented it would quickly be found on a lamppost.

Right - the US Draft is like the Queen's/King's Assent in UK. Sure, in theory, they could veto something, but the monarchy would be effectively over the next day in an overwhelming vote supported by strong majorities of every party.

Anything that would require a draft would be met with unequalled volunteers anyway. I realize this part of the Internet thinks all of the Red Tribe thinks the military is all woke and ran by transgender furries and woke anti-racist generals, but the actual cause of the downtown is the best ecoonmy for low wage workers since the late 90's and much higher actual standards of recruits. But, if China or Russia actually did do some wild attack or whatever, and we needed recruits, they would come.

I would agree thats about how it would play out.

Men are clearly getting something out of the voluntary side of dirty, violent, tough jobs.

Yes. Status and achievement. Which is useful for...acquiring and providing for a family. Men have these drives because sitting around is probably a less successful strategy towards those goals.

There's a reason one of the benefits of jihad is a bevy of heavenly hotties. There's a reason the "cliche" male action movie involves bravery and/or violence followed by being rewarded by a objectified love interest. There's a reason many societies become less stable and men engage in more risk-seeking behavior when the number of available partners are low.

Most people don't get whatever sort of grand satisfaction from their job elite feminists think all women are being denied by being reduced to mothers and partners. It's a toll to secure status, life and family. Men do certain difficult jobs because it's just a niche they in particular can slide into to pay their way.

Men are clearly getting something out of the voluntary side of dirty, violent, tough jobs. Even setting aside the prospect of pay.

Because it helps them work towards something. Same reason young guys might join gangs, even though the ends of such a group are antisocial, because it feels like a purposeful life. Controlling territory, feuding with rivals, terrorizing the countryside. We can't easily separate the male from his violent nature, but we can prevent it from falling into destructive patterns.

And that the least women can do to remedy this, the only way to make up for the hardships they’re imposing, is to “give him a kid or three.”

Kids intrinsically provide you with purpose, once you're 'saddled' with the responsibility of protecting these hapless, defenseless little humans from a fairly dangerous world. And in most cases you DON'T need to enact violence to keep your own kids safe (although if the need arises, you better have prepared for it, you won't pull John Wick skills out of your ass), but having CONFIDENCE in yourself, being able to stare down any problem without flinching, and defending your family from those that would harm it requires one HELL of an ironclad mindset, which I daresay most flabby 'soyboys' simply aren't able to cultivate.

Some people develop that motivation after the kids, but in my mind the capacities should be developed as part of becoming a worthy partner, and being able to demonstrate the 'value' to a mate.

And so I want to build up men who are capable of violence, but also capable of controlling it, reining it in, and deploying it only where necessary. And once that's done, you've got a male who is more secure in their ability to operate in society because he does not cower due to the everpresent risk of physical confrontation. And THAT is the sort of guy who is 'worthy' of finding a high value woman.

And I want to give those guys a PURPOSE to pursue. I do not want to loose a cadre of violence-trained men on a world without direction, goals, or purpose. But there are exceedingly few purposes that are going to appeal to such men other than those inbuilt instincts to procreate, build a family, and defending a homestead.

The male urge to be violent works to get them hyped up to go and kill the hated enemy in military operations, especially if you tell him he can plunder wealth in the process. On the homefront, you also have to appeal to his instincts to protect his family, his kin, his property, and give him enough direction that he doesn't HAVE to go around killing to assert his masculinity.

Or if you like, you have to balance the Testosterone with Oxytocin.