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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 22, 2024

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Jokes are not a problem, pranks aren't a problem

They absolutely can be a problem, just because feminists like to harp on about lad/bro culture doesn't mean that it's this flawless beacon of jovial good natured fun and they're just jealous harpies trying to drag us down.

I've definitely seen people be seriously hurt, physically and emotionally by both pranks and jokes, being the cause of some of that hurt myself over the years. It's pretty easy for banter and fun to get out of hand and there should be a way to tamp down on that energy and get things under control if the aforementioned lads can't self regulate and are causing problems. Feminists and progressives see no value in lad/bro culture and are therefore completely fine just ripping the whole thing out root and stem, but to deny the possibility of problems or bad behaviour that might need moderating/limiting to me feels like a knee-jerk "defend against the out-group" response.

Yes anything can be a problem, my point is that jokes and pranks are not in and of themselves problems, and that is a common theme I see in the discourse - the crimes men commit are perfectly legal activities that, like almost everything else on the planet, can be a problem if done with bad intentions. Following an incident those bad intentions are then assumed part and parcel with the actions, which quickly turns into those actions are tied to those intentions, which becomes those actions are the same as those intentions.

There are 750 players in the NHL. Even if junior hockey has twenty times the players, nothing they do matters or is a problem. Using a couple of thousand concussed Frenchmen to further emasculate all of society very much is.