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What do you say to all the studies which find correlation between marriage/children and reported happiness?
Full disclosure: I sometimes argue against them, eg by pointing out that happy people are more likely to get married. But from an opposite perspective to yours: I think men in traditional marriage are, not oppressed, exactly, but too often treated like beasts of burden, expected to do unpleasant work and provide money to women and children, without a right to expect anything in return.
I tell those studies I'm sure glad they found people who want to be married and have children, because of course they would be happy to fulfill those personal goals. I'd also tell those studies to ask themselves how many people think they're happy with marriage and children, because I think the answer would be "a hell of a lot". I am of the opinion one of the unforeseen cultural changes in the USA caused by Industrial Revolution in the late 18th/19th centuries was elevating a style of parenting that has created a national crisis in child abuse; specifically, emotional neglect. Thousands upon thousands of children were raised emotionally neglected, and as a result they neglected their own children, which went on and on. Entire generations stumbling through a fog of fear, obligation and guilt in every aspect of their lives, including and most damning with their marriages and their children. Essentially, there are more people who are married and are literally not capable of supporting a marriage emotionally than people who are and can do so.
Dangerous territory. Doubting what people say? We might doubt the ones that make more outlandish claims, too, like the ones who claim to be happy on drugs, happy in polyamory, happy pretending to be a different gender, unhappy because [something]phobia is rampant...the entire edifice of quoting dubious studies to underline some debate point will come crashing down.
To be clear, I think this kind of "people say" statistics are a spook. Might as well read in entrails.
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Delusion. How can being shackled to a shrieking harpy lead to more happiness? Your statement conflates two things, what is the correlation of happiness with children absent marriage?
It's negative. The happiest group is married with children, the unhappiest unmarried with children. Also known as "the people who have their shit together" and "the people who don't have their shit together".
Anyway, because of this, the correlation between marriage and happiness is way stronger than between children and happiness. So if I'm conflating two things, it's not to the advantage of your 'shrieking harpy' argument.
Just like how your previous administration told you to believe their statistics over your lying eyes on the question of economics, only to quietly revise it later, I will not believe your assertions of how a typical marriage goes.
I just presented the statistics, I even said I am sympathetic to the 'henpecked husband' trope. I need more than your naked assertion of governmental lying to dismiss studies, even and especially those I would like to dismiss.
Did you? Your assertion was just as naked.
Which one?
That pairing up is beneficial for a man. You say that you presented statistics, but I only saw your word for it. But save the effort, even if you linked some data even which was proofed against the replication crisis, I still wouldn't believe you. I will never believe that there exists a pairing between a man and a female, where the female is infertile and asexual, where it's beneficial to the man.
I didn’t say that. Also don’t simultaneously doubt my word on what studies say and preemptively dismiss them. You have insulated your position from evidence. You are hostile even though our object-level positions aren't far apart. Your comments are terrible and you should feel bad.
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