In some ways — in many important ways — Americans are more repressed sexually and socially than those in traditional Islamic societies.

There, at least there are socially accepted ways to proceed. There is a script that works — yes, for women, it works very poorly indeed but there is a path.

In America, however, there is nothing — it’s just a confusion. If you’re a man and you talk to a woman at work in any way other than robotically, you’re an evil harassing creep, while actual harassing creeps pretty much get away with nearly anything. Meanwhile, women are forced out of companies for reporting the actual harassers, while the men who just wanted a friendship often face the consequences the worst of their brethren in their sociopathic nature completely avoid.

There are many other examples, but that was one I was thinking about.

When the conventional wisdom is that expressing anything other than robotic indifference to a woman is harassment (as it is becoming), then we are all doomed. The harassers will still proceed with abandon and many more people will be more lonely than necessary.

All too often, our “fixes” just make things worse.