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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   28890 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 11, 2024

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I know this is an excellent appraisal because I had never thought of it before yet it's so obvious once spelled out. This tracks fluidly with the fact that all people, when asked to give advice, often give advice calibrated to themselves, their circumstances, and their experiences. It's why billionaire tech bros say "take big risks and skip college", supreme court justices say "be diligent and patient in your studies", and broke boomer beach bums say "just keep on living, man."

This also tracks with something I've noticed over the past five years - young women today have ZERO game. I won't speculate on causes. I would state firmly, however, that mid 20s - 30s women of 10 years ago knew how to flirt (i.e. express interest in a masked way so as to promote escalation while mitigating the possibility of direct rejection) and otherwise be a complement to the strategies that men used to pursue them (if they were, in fact, willing participants in the seduction).

In fact, a lack of flirting was a pretty good signal to perceptive men that she wasn't interested. Nowadays, apparently, a blank stare and monosyllabic responses can mean everything from "you are the most repulsive creature in the galaxy" to "please take me away to the magical love castle on your sex unicorn now."

I would state firmly, however, that mid 20s - 30s women of 10 years ago knew how to flirt (i.e. express interest in a masked way so as to promote escalation while mitigating the possibility of direct rejection) and otherwise be a complement to the strategies that men used to pursue them (if they were, in fact, willing participants in the seduction).

I agree. I was thinking about that when watching some videos of younger youtubers reacting to pickup lines. I know it's always been a popular genre to laugh at bad pickup lines. But they seemed to think the entire idea was a joke. Like, the entire idea of walking up to a stranger and saying something cool to start a flirtatious conversation was just ridiculous. That could never happen, it's as old-fashioned as challenging someone to a duel or a race-around-the-world.

This has always been somewhat of an issue (hence the Family Guy joke from years back about 23 year old girls: "Here's the first three digits of my phone number, email me") but I can't imagine that social media has helped, since it gives girls and young women less experience of interacting with people, including older women who have more experience.

Related: https://youtube.com/shorts/pdrG2xhnFc8

Related related:

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We recognize who lies, it's all in the eyes, chico."

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