The first ten on today’s playlist:

What’s the biggest stereotype about men that’s not true?

That we only care about sex and are just unthinking sex brutes who have no other concerns or reason to exist. And, further, that the only reason that we talk to or help women is in the hopes of getting sex.

It often puts us in a weird double bind. Be nice to a woman or help her in some way? Oh, you just did that because you want to have sex with her!

Be neutral or not that helpful to a woman? Well, then you’re a terrible person who is obviously horrible to someone who clearly needed help! But then if you actually do give in and help, you must have only done that (as noted above) because you wanted to bang her!

It really bites ass. I’ve defaulted to just not being helpful as it’s better than dealing with all the weird accusations and ideas. Look, buddy, I’m tired. It’s hard enough to make time to have sex with my own partner much less anyone else.

A lot of the feminist project of the past 10-15 years has been an attempt to keep undesirable, annoying, pushy, aggressive and dangerous men (roughly in that order) away from PMC liberal women. It hasn’t worked well, of course. It has in actuality resulted in exactly the opposite of its intent in most ways.

The simple fact is that annoying, aggressive, dangerous and pushy men do not know or care about feminism and do not give a crap about if women wish them to stay away or not. The net result is that now women are more often approached by those types and never by any other; hence why you see fairly-frequent posts by PMC liberal women on Reddit like, “Why Do Men Never Talk To Me?” and such.

Lady, that’s exactly what you asked for. You got it. Ride public transit, though, and many men of the kind you definitely do not want all up in your face will be there.

You chose your choice. Now live with it, just like men do.

The first ten on today’s playlist:

I’ve spent enough time in places like Germany, Japan, Romania, Vietnam, Turkey, and Peru, to understand how different we are when it comes to food, and to see how little it matters to us, culturally speaking, compared to almost everyone else.

Same. American food culture is appalling. It’s just incredibly bad.

If you’ve lived outside of the US you don’t need data to tell you Americans eat quickly, and mechanically. We gulp our food down like starving beasts intent on moving onto the next thing, while everyone else takes their time, savoring the experience.

Not sure there is any one reason for this. Part is the Puritan work ethic-infected culture, part is that food is just considered meaningless fuel here. And part is a whole lot of Americans have never traveled or lived overseas, and when they do travel they only eat at McDonald’s still.

The article made me miss Eli’s church barbecue I used to get in Bradenton, Florida. Damn that was good. Not quite the best I ever had, but until you’ve had barbecue made by someone who really cares about it being great, you don’t know how amazing it can be.

Note that “Eli’s” wasn’t a restaurant. It was a literal 900-year-old-looking dude named Eli who made barbecue at a church down the street from where I worked. I smelled it one day and then went and found it on foot. I was the only white person there as it was a black church (no one cared). Then every time I got a whiff of that glorious scent, I went to get Eli’s barbecue.

Because that’s how you find the best barbecue: by scent.

A more accurate representation of America.

(AI-generated, obviously. Ain’t no handgun in the world ever had a mag like that.)

Locked Tomb trilogy.

I could not get more than 20 pages in. It was horrible. Dull, repetitive, the protag was incredibly annoying and uninteresting. I think it was just too Gen Z for me.

I was randomly laid off yesterday without warning and got kicked off of everything once the meeting ended.

I love having enough money that if I get laid off, my reaction is to go out and hike and just relax for a while. How I grew up really sucked. No more of that for me, thank you.

The world’s a lot easier when you have the best partner in the known universe. From demon-killing to galaxy-conquering, she’s definitely the one. I chose wisely.

About the below, people get really, really angry when you suggest that everyone is more puritanical now. Even though it is obviously true. Probably because it is obviously true.

Everyone on Metafilter is a fucking idiot.

Jesus Christ, what a bunch of clowns. I was rolling my eyes so hard I nearly created a black hole. I wonder if they realize how like Church Lady they all sound, and how like children at the same time? Gen Z and younger millennials really do have a mental age much younger than their actual calendar age, I think. Many of them act and think like 10-year-olds even into their early 40s. That sex is “ick” to them is a good as sign as any. As well as a fucking puerile word like “ick” being used by them so often.

Most of them are also intellectually arrogant but utterly clueless as to sociocultural history at the same time. It is a sight to behold.

Partially, I work out for aesthetic reasons and if I took Wegovy or Ozempic I’d mostly take that for aesthetic reasons, too. It’s weirdo liberal shit that you all see this as “cheating.”

And here’s what I say to that, as I do to many, many things: FUCK ALL Y’ALL! In the most emphatic terms, fuck each and every one of you fat, weak bastards.

Just makes me work out harder and look even better. Hell yeah.

I think these explanations for the increasing gender divide in political alignment are very incomplete, at least for Western countries. Those interpretations aren’t wrong, exactly, but all miss something really large.

What’s missing is that feminism has become increasingly about demonizing men’s sexuality and mere existence over the last two decades and that has caused many men — including me — to be highly resentful and unsupportive of modern “men are inherently evil” feminism. Most men remember the harsh transition from being seen as a cute kid to being told around 12-14 that you have now devolved into being inherently terrible and dangerous despite being exactly the same person you were just a few months before.

Then to be further told as an adult that this fact will never change, that your sexual desire is immanently abhorrent and harmful, and that you are an irredeemably bad person just because the skin you’re in — well, that goes about like you’d expect. Feminism should not exist to coddle or comfort men, but at the same time I don’t think it should exist to de facto treat men like a group or orcs who want nothing more than to rape and rampage.

How did anyone think that’d actually help?

Be the galactic overlord you want to see in the world.

Most modern dating advice is 180° wrong because it’s optimized for neoliberalism, HR- and algorithm-friendliness and most certainly not for personal flourishing.

Modern Advice: Date only those exactly like you in every way.

Actual Good Advice: Date people with some overlapping interests but not identical to you — having some divergent interests can really enrich both of your lives, and/or allow you to have some time apart.

Modern Advice: Don’t date anyone you know.

Actual Good Advice: Friends and acquaintances are most likely to have enough similarities to be worth dating, and you can vet someone over time that way. Remember: Tinder wants you to stay lonely and longing.

Modern Advice: Date people only born the same year-ish you are.

Actual Good Advice: Date people of a wide variety of ages (if legal). Such restrictions harm you more than they help you (or anyone).

I could go on. But modern dating advice is purpose-built to please neoliberal HR departments and the algorithm. It’s terrible as it applies to real humans. Ignore it all. Or don’t, if you wish to be unhappy.