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As a guy with most of a medical degree: falling and hitting your head on concrete can be a motherfucker. Results are a crapshoot and can be anything from a mild concussion to death. I saw a young, fit teenager that very nearly died and will be crippled for life with brain injury...because he fainted and fell off a step that was a foot and a half high. Plenty of manslaughter cases come from fistfights that take place in parking lots; one man knocks the other out and the loser falls, hits his head on the pavement, and dies. I think that this guy was KO'd by the thrown megaphone, hit his head on the concrete, and was mortally injured.
Wait, you're studying to be a doctor, and you still can't get laid? wth?
It's not terribly uncommon here in America; I know...let's see, three medical students or residents that have lots of trouble getting dates or have never had girlfriends. At my (decent, US) medical school, it's very interesting indeed how the short guys in my class and the short interns are focused on their careers while the average and tall ones have girlfriends.
Now, I don't think there is anything all that bad about this state of affairs. It may be that society needs a niche of celibate dudes for life paths that don't mesh well with marriage and children, and 'choose said guys by lot based on height' doesn't seem that bad. Consider things like the draft lottery. Also, the short guys that do get married or get into relationships with women that aren't morbidly obese or literally batshit crazy are a testament to the strength of the human spirit, etc...I've seen it done. Once. The man in question is going to be a literal brain surgeon and is the most charismatic person in our class; we think he could have a good career in politics. Your 5'4" family medicine resident or even a pint-size Navy SEAL ain't up to snuff. Such is life - there is nothing terribly wrong with the fact that short men must be remarkable, accept lifelong celibacy, or decide where they want the ambulances.
Uh, if becoming a doctor will attract women(and I have no doubt that this is true; I’d be more surprised if it wasn’t) then why are you bothering with ‘the hock’ to try to get a date instead of just waiting however many years?
Because he's crazy. Not in a neat DSM-5 way with a legible diagnosis, just a surfeit of common sense and an excess of self-loathing. There's no pill for that I'm aware of.
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Because I'd basically be a mark for a gold digger at that point; I don't necessarily know if I can improve on that by going on the Hock, but 'survived being chucked into the Alaskan wilderness in winter' definitely seems to on the surface fulfill the 'become remarkable' criterion. I'd like to make it very clear that this does not guarantee success any more than lining up at the starting line of a local 5K means you're going to win. It's a generally necessary but by no means sufficient condition.
So too, there would still be the 'hypocrisy' element; I believe that my subpar physical appearance and autism make me more or less disgusting for potential partners and I'd still be autistic and bald as a doctor. So I'd be asking my partner to do something I wasn't willing or able to do myself: endure pointless suffering. Making some autistic ugly-ish doctor happy through enduring pointless suffering day after day (from being with someone you consider gross) isn't a sacrifice that I'm currently worthy of. "Having a shit ton of determination and being willing to endure Hell on Earth for no goddamn reason" seems to be a building block of being worthy of that kind of sacrifice, if anyone truly is.
I know one bald, short and autistic doctor personally, and the only reason he's not dateable is because he's physically deformed and also schizophrenic (yet another case I personally diagnosed as a med student and had ratified later, you'd think someone would notice since both of them had doctor parents).
You're salvageable. There are almost certainly anatomically and mentally normal women who would happily date you if you keep working out and dress decently, especially since you'll be a doctor unless the Hock kills you.
Yes, I am well aware that there are desperately poor women in Cambodia or Thailand or hell, rural India who would date a man they are deeply and viscerally disgusted by in order to pull themselves and their families out of crushing Third World poverty. This is one hell of a sacrifice, I admire the hell out of that kind of resolve, and I don't think I'm worthy of it. I've met maybe a handful of people that are...maybe one percent of the population? Two? I'd sure as hell say that most of the people reading this ain't worthy of that, even though I think most people here are fine people and decent human beings.
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What’s so bad about a gold digger? You want female companionship, she wants a nice life, pick someone smart enough to have reasonable desires and know that divorce isn’t a massive payday(it rarely is and you’re not exactly a billionaire where even a chump change settlement is life changing money, I’d assume), you’ll both bond and make the most of the situation. As I understand it the median woman considers a husband who puts effort in and values her much more of a catch than one who is conventionally attractive and funny; it seems like that’s well within your power.
The issue with gold-diggers is the fact that they're likely to leave you when you're no longer gold. You might fall sick, or lose your job, and then she's off to the next one.
It's hardly a binary notion, women are in general attracted to wealth and status after all, which I don't find reprehensible in the least, but in my eyes, a wife should be willing to stick with you through thick and thin.
This isn't to say a woman who's with you for the money is a bad alternative to being single, but not only is Skook OD-ing on blackpills, I sincerely doubt he's so far gone that he can't land a woman we wouldn't call a gold digger.
While he might be short and (terminally) autistic, I think once he's a practising doctor he'll have plenty of above average looking nurses drawn to him, and while they might like the money or status, that doesn't necessarily mean them hoes ain't loyal. Besides, he says he works out, so it has to count for something doesn't it?
Worst case is a mail order bride, plus a solid pre-nup, though he should get one anyway.
Now, to put a mild spanner in the works, I wouldn't bet on him finishing his residency and them becoming a casual millionaire in less than a decade that is the norm for an American doctor, for the same reason I'm unlikely to be a consultant psychiatrist, AI is going to make us effectively obsolete in like 5 years max, maybe a few more years accounting for regulatory inertia.
But she won't know that! And by the time it's obvious, everyone else is fucked too ❤️
That is precisely what I’m trying to talk him out of before he gets himself killed wandering around in rural northern Alaska.
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The plot just keeps thickening on The Motte, from all quarters it seems.
This has been Motte Lore for a while. For what it’s worth, I agree with Mr Hock, I wouldn’t necessarily want to be the guy for whom an MD was the primary differentiator between whether a woman would date me or not. Not that I think Skookum’s celibacy is necessarily involuntary, I just don’t think his argument is complete bullshit. I’m curious to see what he considers his female equivalent, and if he’d date her.
Only recently have I begun to pay attention to what username goes with whom. I knew a few back on the Reddit days but I don't feel like I see many of them here. Or maybe I forgot or wasn't as attentive as I should've been. It's easy to forget Mottizens aren't just idiosyncratic chatbots but real people--but where, of what age, and sometimes even male or female I often have no idea.
Re: Skookum I am not always clear on what his argument is, other than he has a rather burning self-hatred, finds himself physically repulsive, and projects that self-image in such a way that he assumes women feel the exact same about him (visceral loathing). Also apparently he has seen, heard about in his own social circle, or somehow internalized the idea that women are homicidal and one of them might kill him at some point for something he inadvertently does. Or that he will be somehow attacked for showing interest in a woman. Or whatever. And finally, that an act of MegaChad adventure bravery (The Hock) will be the redemptive quest that will make him into...something better than what he feels that he currently is. (Instead of the suicidal misadventure of a man with an all-but-clearly stated deathwish, which is how I see it.) (Please correct any of this if you like, @SkookumTree, I don't want to misrepresent you.)
As far as whether or not having a med degree is social pheromone, I wouldn't doubt it. I guess there are physicians who agonize over whether women are into them "just for their MD" but I don't think I'd care so much--there's always something that flips a woman's switch (or nothing that does), and while sometimes it makes sense (tall, wealthy, deep blue eyes, muscular, clean fingernails, whatever), sometimes I think it's more random. I found this post recently by @raggedy_anthem insightful, even if it doesn't really provide any clear path for those seeking one.
I have just discovered "SkookumTree" apparently means "brave tree" in Chinook jargon, which was interesting--I'd thought it was just a weird-sounding word.
Most of the repulsion's not physical, although my decidedly below average physical appearance doesn't do me any favors. I'm no Quasimodo, which I'll admit to here.
This guy put it better than I could have done myself.
Was I correct at least on your username?
Also, let me ask you again whether you have a good deal of outdoor and survival experience. Do you hunt? If so, with what? Can you clean game? Are you familiar with how to preserve fresh meat in a way that it doesn't go rancid and doesn't attract scavengers?
Can you identify poisonous plants in the area you will be? Are you familiar with the wildlife in that area, including the dangerous wildlife such as fucking bears that can wake from hibernation even in February and maul you viciously so that you die a violent, wretched, painful death? How are you with building shelters? Making fires if your lighter /matches fail you? Avoiding common mistakes like making fires on rocks or setting up camp near water? Are you able to orienteer without a compass in thick cloudy weather without sunlight? Can you track if necessary? Do you have reliable maps and information about the area you will be at the time of year you're planning to be there?
Do you have any sort of GPS so the inevitable rescue personnel can find you (or your corpse) without undue time expenditure or danger? How are you with extreme, bone-chilling cold? Have you made any lists of necessary cold weather gear? Are you steeled for unpredictable weather changes? What if you get sick?
Are you avoiding stupid cold weather clothing like denim and cotton? Did you know granola bars are rock solid in winter weather and basically inedible?
Etc. Don't do it, don't do it.
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I get the appeal of old forum culture now, even if by the time I had reliable internet access Reddit was already slaughtering them. There's a charm in having familiar faces and in-jokes within a community that isn't so large everyone becomes interchangeable and anonymous, even it they're using pseudonyms.
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I've seen several accounts of men in this position who didn't receive any interest until they got their MD at which point it was fish in a barrel.
That aligns with my personal experience in India, to an extent after adjusting for the nebbishness of the guys and the lower levels of sexual activity in general.
The majority of my male classmates made it through the course without touching poon outside a cadaver or a female volunteer in the ward, while I think at least half of them still haven't gotten laid, at the very least they know they're not going to remain unmarried if they want.
Goes to show most people can't think ahead, an American med student is the perfect blend of high potential value that's grossly underrated, once they're done with their residency they'll be millionaires in a few years. Catch them before the competition heats up and they know their worth I say.
@SkookumTree hey wanna marry me? I could use the naturalization, and if you're that terminally horny and alone, any hole's a goal right? At the very least I'll give you 1:1 rizz classes 🙏
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For my MD-holding short friends that are still residents and not attending physicians: sure. Fish in a barrel...a very large barrel the size of an Olympic swimming pool, with a BB gun to shoot at them with. Water's murky, too.
How short are you
5'6"
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I think he's said he's 5'5 or 5'6, which while in extremely inconvenient territory, still isn't outright dwarfism.
At the very least there are plenty of tiny Asian women who wouldn't consider that a deal breaker when all the other practical considerations exist.
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Some states in Australia brought in 'One Punch Laws' to specifically address the grey area between common assault, manslaughter and murder to better align with the communities' sense of justice.
It was motivated by alcohol fueled violence in nightlife areas, but would be equally applicable here. A lot of effort went into educating the community that throwing a punch could lead to a homicide.
I think a one punch law in the US would not align with a lot of communities' senses of justice. Two guys get into a fight, there's a bunch of shoving, then one of them socks the other in the nose and they fall and hit their head and die... and the survivor gets the max penalty for any crime in Australia, life in prison?
There are differing versions of the law in different states. There seems to be certain requirements for the 'unlawful striking leading to death' laws to activate. In some cases it needs to be a single punch thrown under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. In other cases harsher sentencing is reserved for 'coward punch' strikes where the victim is unaware that the strike is taking place (punch from behind for instance, or attacking a random passerby).
Some example punishments:
10 years for a single punch thrown outside a birthday party leading to death while the assaulter was drunk
10 years after a thug punched a surgeon trying to enforce a no smoking sign out the front of a hospital leading to death
10 years for punching someone unprovoked from behind at the casino food court while drunk leading to death
8 years for punching someone after the victim supposedly stole the killer's food from a takeaway 'hole in the wall' after a night out leading to death
Minimum sentencing seems to be around 8-10 years and that seems to be the standard punishment given for these sorts of offenses after 10 minutes of googling. Some offenders are eligible for parole after serving half their sentence. Seems fairly reasonable to me, particularly with the ability to allow parole.
Maximum sentence of life imprisonment doesn't seem to have been given out yet and would presumably require aggravating factors.
All this being said, these laws seem to be for a 'one guy throws a single punch (starting the fight) and retreats' situation rather than 'two guys willingly start shoving each other, participating in escalation to a brawl' scenario. Details on the OP seem to be murky at the moment.
Yeah. You do have things more akin to a consensual fistfight duel than one asshole attacking another guy who might just have been a bit less of an asshole that day. In that case I think a much more minor sentence is appropriate...two guys deciding to take it outside and one of them dying from what's basically a shitty bare knuckle boxing match might mean a year or two in prison basically as punishment for fucking up a duel that wasn't supposed to kill anyone.
Life imprisonment is a bit excessive here, and 8 to 10 years sounds like what you'd expect for manslaughter.
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Everything I've heard from medical professionals and people with combat in their professional life tells me the same thing, to the extent that I sometimes find it baffling that enough of us survive to adulthood to keep the population going. Our skulls are fragile, and the Earth can be very hard and sharp. I also had a friend whose then-young-and-healthy coworker died 2 days after hitting her head on the ice. She seemed fine the next day and even came to work, but she was dead the day after. These have certainly shaped the way I treat potential head injuries and also how I consider altercations; I think anyone attacking anyone else while in any environment with hard surfaces gives the defender the justification to use lethal force in self defense, including firearms, because I don't consider firearms an escalation compared to hitting someone when there's concrete or even asphalt nearby. Either way, you're establishing that you consider the other person's life to be expendable, and the other person has a right to defend against that, even if that requires killing you.
I don't know. I'm sympathetic to your viewpoint, and from what I've heard of redneck territory, starting a fistfight if you aren't on reasonably friendly terms with the rest of the room gets you shot. I don't entirely agree with you: "getting punched in a parking lot brawl" is a hell of a lot less likely to kill or maim you than "getting shot by a guy". The results of the former are a crapshoot; most fistfights end without anyone being killed or maimed.
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I remember this case from the Floyd protests. Though I had forgotten that Gugino didn't die, it still seems that the effects were quite serious.
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As one with one and change, I certainly agree. Humans are both surprisingly resilient and also extremely squishy, and you don't fuck with blunt-force trauma to the cranium if you can help it.
I count myself lucky that I'm a peaceful person who hasn't thrown a punch in anger since middle-school, if I'm risking my noggin it better be for more than a drunken brawl.
I train in martial arts for self defense, specifically Muay Thai, and while I focus on all good fundamentals as you should, I add a lot of additional focus on shots to the body for more or less this reason.
While it goes without saying that you shouldn’t fight unless absolutely necessary and you are unable to successfully run away, I’m trying to stop the fight as fast as possible and also not catch a case.
So I’m talking shin kicks to the liver or floating ribs, knees to the solar plexus, punches to the liver, downward elbows to the collarbone, leg kicks, and stuff like that.
Most of these blows are extremely painful to the point of being debilitating if landed with power and expertise, will sap someone’s will & ability to fight, and with enough practice you can bruise or crack ribs, fold peoples legs, rupture livers, knock the wind out of someone in an instant. Since most street altercations are initiated by drunk and/or high morons with no training and little to no defense, a fight can be ended pretty quickly by working the body or cracking their legs with your shin.
And most importantly; compared to blows to the head you’re much less likely to kill or cripple someone, break your hand or foot against someone’s skull or jaw, and/or catch a murder or manslaughter rap.
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