Predictions

I just finished watching "Armitage III" on Hulu. The original release was in 1995, but quite a bit of it is quite topical even today.  Without getting into spoilers, it takes place on Mars, has robots as sexbots (but not explicitly graphical) and has a strong anti-feminist tone.  There's a lot more including the evolution of Artificial Intelligence.

Artistically, the style is not my favorite, but the quality of the animation is very high considering when it was done.  I was very surprised when I went back to see when it was created and found out it was that old.  The subtitles take quite a bit of liberty with the dialog, I don't speak Japanese and even I caught a number of places where "that's not quite what was said".

If you like science fiction and don't have a dislike of anime, I recommend this 4 episode series.

GLBT thoughts

As should be evident from my writings, I'm not exactly a political liberal.  In fact, I find liberals are usually too narrow minded, which is an accusation thrown at a lot of conservatives.  Instead, I try to look at the facts and make up my own mind.  Still, a lot of liberal thoughts and events do pass through the information streams I tend to follow.  Even though I often disagree with the conclusions drawn, I think it is important to not only know what is going on, but to understand how people came to those conclusions.

Currently the media and a large number of liberals find it chic to beat on people like me, straight white males.  I hear it on the radio, I see it in the papers, I hear it from the pulpit and I get it in person with some of the social groups I participate in.  It has gotten to be more than tedious.  But, I also have to realize that I live in a town that really doesn't make a big deal out of people's gender preferences or orientations.  My favorite realtor is a lesbian, one of the instructors I take classes from is gay, so what?  I've been over to their houses for various social events and felt quite welcome.  I've shared a hotel room with a transgendered woman.  I know a number of other transgendered folks, it's not a big deal to me.  I treat people as people, sexual interests are only a small part of interpersonal relationships to me.

So I'm beginning to get what some people mean when they talk about straight white males being privileged, it's true that there are very few groups that have a deep and abiding hatred of people like me, it's more of an ongoing dislike that pervades society, but very few people actively want to see me dead.  On the other hand, there are no organizations who are interested in my continued well being or lending any sort of support when I'm going through a rough spot.  This is a huge contrast to the large number of organizations who are dedicated to helping the GLBT and other groups.  There really are folks out there who want to see GLBT folks dead and others who want to help them live.  This is in contrast to folks like me, where there aren't many folks who want to see me dead, there also isn't anyone who cares if I continue to live, even my church was only interested in my money, not me as a person.  My world is one that not only doesn't care whether I live or die, it's one where no one would notice if I died for many months.

So, while it's easy to feel pity for "those folks over there" or to believe the ongoing narrative that you are being discriminated against because you belong to some group or another, don't let it blind you to those around you who, as individuals, sometimes need help and support.

Ummm, What???

 There's a new video going around that I'm told is supposed to be feminist.

http://youtu.be/4v9gXTkf_tY


I'm guessing the producer of this is deeply convinced that everyone who watches this video will find it intuitively obvious that the claims are false instead of actually doing research and seeing how many are true.

Or maybe I'm taking this at face value and there is something much deeper going on, I'm not very Machiavellian.

Visit to a local church

This past Sunday I visited a local Unitarian-Universalist church that I haven't been to for a couple of years.  Back then they were between permanent ministers, now they have had a new minister since August.  She's seems nice enough, but I suspect she is a raving feminist.  There was a guest in the pulpit this last Sunday, so I didn't get a feel for her sermons.  However, the service had some of the usual feminist touches, including substituting "She" for "He" when referring to God.

I think the one thing that annoyed me the most was the children's storytime (a common feature in UU churches).  The protagonist was a little girl (no surprise there) who repeatedly followed her urges in spite of being warned about the dangers who then gets off by being cute.  This is a really bad lesson to be promoting.  Choices have consequences, and the education in moral and ethical behaviour is one of the reason many parents take their children to church.  Telling little girls that they can get away with their misbehaviour is doing them (and the rest of society) a great disservice.

I find the Unitarian-Universalists churches to be interesting.  While they to be open and accepting of diversity, most of the time it's only a very narrow kind of diversity.  Not being politically liberal seems to be one of the kinds of diversity that they won't accept, even though the Universalists tended to be of a rather conservative bent.

I'm glad I went and I will drop back in from time to time, but it's obvious they don't want someone like me, except maybe for the money.

Those poor deluded fools

One of the professional organizations I'm a member of is currently having a rather drawn out discussion about coming up with a harassment policy for conferences and shows.  And, while they may try to sound egalitarian about how it applies to everyone, it's really about those "poor oppressed women" in who are being driven away from computing and other IT related careers by the hordes of obnoxious sexist males they encounter.  There is also a strong undertone that sexism, harassment and oppression have gotten a lot worse over the past few years.  Yeah, right.  The reality is that women are trapped into continuing to play the victim card by the liberal narrative that many geeks and nerds follow, since women aren't allowed to actually stand up for themselves.

So, how did this come about?  Well, geeks and nerds are typically not very socially adept, I know because I am one, so they tend to believe the stated rules of behaviour in our modern society.  Which, of course, are total bullshit.  Add to that the removal of social restrictions on female hypergamy even over the past decade or so, and fewer women than ever are willing to spend time around those sorts of "losers", when there's some hot bad boys they can be chasing after.  This leads to women making more and more excuses for their behaviour, and the geek brigade takes their words at face value, instead of seeing the truth.  And, as the demands from the women get shriller and shriller, the foolish nerds become even more obsequious.

It took me decades to get rid of the misconceptions I was raised with about gender relations, mostly because things weren't all that bad thirty years ago.  With the way things are going today, I wonder how long it will take for the younger generation to wise up.  I know that I am trying to move the process along, with a few small successes, but that by trying to understand both sides of the issues I have placed myself in no-man's-land and folks at either extreme are going to be taking shots at me.

And he keeps going...

It seems that Mr. Scalzi is still at it.  He's feigning wide-eyed innocence and asking "Why are so many folks saying such angry things?".  Umm, yeah.  He is obviously enjoying poking a lot of folks in very sensitive spots and chortling over their responses.  There's a name for people who take pleasure in causing others pain (and it's not M.B.A. graduate).  Maybe he's doing it out of a desire to save their souls.  Or was that Torquemada?

It's kind of pointless to argue with anyone who has that strong a sense of self-righteousness, whether they are liberal or conservative.  It will take a much greater shock than mere words to shake that sense of infallibility.  As always, I hope it will be some sort of positive life changing experience instead of a negative one.

Since he is a highly trained professional, I recommend against getting into an argument with him, with his eloquence, he will almost certainly win.  Other than that, I do envy the fantasy that he is successfully living in.

A dissenting view on beta treatment

I've been reading University of Man for a little while now and I find myself disagreeing with his current "Shame the Beta" drive.  To start with, the whole idea of making people feel ashamed or guilty has been way overdone in modern society.  It's just piling even more negativity onto men who are trying the best they know how to have a life and relationships. 

There is a lot of talk of "Alpha" and "Beta", with Alphas being defined as men who display dominance.  But what is dominance?  The most common definition in the manosphere seems to be someone who is unrestrained by the rules of society.  These kind of men will gladly destroy anyone and anything to get what they want, they are vandals.  This works really well for picking up and bedding women, but in the long run it is unsustainable.  Another kind of Alpha is the leader of men.  Not through being bigger and badder, but by being better.  The sort of man who attracts followers through admiration instead of fear.  The sort of man who then pulls his people up instead of beating them down.  That's the sort of man who builds civilizations.

I have personal experience with the vandals of our society.  That's the normal behavior in modern business and it really sucks.  I've also had experience with having troubles and learning that there is no support for people like me, the world would be happier if I just went off and died.  I'm probably not unique in having experienced that there is only ridicule abuse and exploitation when I asked for help.  This is not the sort of world I want to be a part of.

So, I'm calling to all of you who read this to reach out and help your brothers.  Go ahead and get the hottest girl for yourself, but make sure your brother gets the second hottest.  Help your brother learn the annoying truth about gender relations.  Not by beating on him, but by being his friend.  Not with scorn, but with wisdom and kind humor.  Try to make the world just a little bit better, in the long run we can all benefit from it.