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PaperclipPerfector  11d ago (text post)   33216 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 10, 2025

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I'd guess a mix of predator and salience bias, but possibly also one or two you missed:

  • The MFSP as moral self-licensing: if it's really those men who are the bad ones, then why would the male feminist bother to get too introspective when his own behavior turns creepy? He already knows he's a good person, even if maybe there have been a few misunderstandings here or there. Wiki says this effect may have been exaggerated pre-replication crisis, but I think anyone paying attention to the culture war has seen people insisting Our Heroic Adventurers are nothing like Their Brutish Invaders too often to count; imagine how much easier it is to rationalize failures in one's self rather than just one's favored politicians, activists, and commentators.
  • The MFSP as under-policed serial offender: Joss is the guy who casts the Strong Women Characters! Neil's writing subverts the misogyny in Patriarchal Society! If you've heard some dubious rumors that seem to conflict with that, do you really want to thoughtlessly spread them around? Even if people in such positions aren't initially more likely to offend than male non-feminists, if they don't get as much pushback when they cross lines then they're likely to end up committing more and more serious offenses before they're finally outed.

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