Pettifogger

I have to navigate these dumb ads all day on X and now we've got posters bringing them here for free

I'm not sure what this really accomplishes for Starbucks if they can still wear pride pins and have green hair and nose rings and ladybeards

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How is this determined, and under what circumstances? Is hanging out in a Home Deport parking lot sufficient cause for the federal government to harass me and demand to see proof of legality? How about just being on the street having brown hair and brown eyes? There must be some guidelines.

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I'm sure plenty of people agree with this classically liberal take. But here's how it happens in reality:

The GOP and libertarians spend their energy on free market lip service for a couple of decades (even while failing to really shrink government or the regulatory state).

The Biden administration, buoyed by the absence of meaningful safeguards opens the border and imports millions of illegal immigrants with zero vetting or consequence. The libertarians and classical liberals say and do nothing while this happens.

The population has enough, and votes for sweeping change. We're then left with a massive logistical nightmare that completely overwhelms our administrative processes, at which time classical liberals wake up from their naps and say "hey, you can't ask for proof of legal status just because that guy is a mile from the border and wearing a shirt with a Mexico flag and has a knapsack and can't speak English! You need to spend 6 years in the administrative state before you can get him out of here!"

I wear a decent bit of their stuff, both slacks for work and running gear.

TBH it's one of the few places these days where I haven't been disappointed in quality.

She's a clown. Personally I like her for her entertainment value, but I don't think she'd be a very good public official.

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This is crap.

Either we believe in the 1st Amendment or we don’t.

There are bad interpretations of Islam, and craven manipulators of it. I also believe it’s a religion based on a false prophet and its followers are on the wrong path.

That being said, I don’t want the government in the business of deciding what people worship. Deal with the bad faith practitioners and the ones that persecute people in the name of that religion, but blanket statements like this are simply not American.

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I don't think it's inconsistent with the 1st amendment to say you think Islam is largely incompatible with America and in that sense, should not be culturally accommodated.

I disagree with banning Islam or making life miserable for Muslims simply for identifying as Muslim. But I think the ideal would be a culture and society that is so settled and confident in its core values that Muslims who can't acclimate to that feel very uncomfortable and leave voluntarily. And you can apply that to any other faith/mindset/etc.

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This somewhat goes back to my point about men not wanting to be traditional themselves. You're going to have a much more likely time finding that traditional spouse in a rural setting due to culture. Those settings are more socially conservative, religious, etc. But there is a tradeoff. Those settings aren't conducive to modern jobs, your SOL will be less, and you'll have to be a "man's man" to make up for it. You also are less likely to find matching levels of intelligence/education, which causes its own friction in relationship dynamics.

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An overarching caveat - We're probably (you and I, many in this thread) biased because we're professionals, we live in fairly affluent areas, we have disposable income, etc. We may hunt and work on cars but we probably do them as hobbyists, not out of need/benefit/"as work." So it's a microcosm of the rest of the country, admittedly, and may be hard to extend broadly at times.

And that may extend back a ways - some of the traditionalist ideal I've formed comes from my grandparents, my wife's grandparents, etc. - who were also affluent, professional, semi-urban, etc.

But by way of example on your above point - I have some cousins and nephews in their early-mid 20s and they're traditionally minded, conservative, have degrees from tier 1 schools. They're good looking, former athletes, Christian, etc. They're just good catches all around. They work on cars, like to build things, etc. (admittedly for sport, not need).

But what I've found interesting and what I think they find frustrating is that their appropriate match now isn't the prettiest girl at church, it's some wannabe tik Tok influencer. Obviously the incel guys (or any guy) can't feel too sorry for that plight, but I do think we're in an era where "high value" men and women can nonetheless be very mismatched, and I'm sure that only gets worse the further down in the hierarchy you go.

That's obviously anecdotal, but I think "men's men" exist everywhere, especially in the southeast. You can find traditionally minded guys in every suburb in America. But I think the pool of traditionally-minded women is smaller and smaller, regardless of area.

I think both things are true.

I think it is "harder" out there, at least if you're searching for a wholesome spouse. I feel like you do about marriage and its inherent value and that this incel attitude is unhelpful.

But just like I think there are some very real obstacles for young people trying to make money, own homes, etc. while simultaneously thinking the softness of the current generation only makes those things harder - I think there are some serious issues confronting traditionally-minded men when it comes to finding wives in this era.

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The world is much better off with women being independent and equal. That independecne and equality coming at the expense of men is problematic for both because, again, at the end of the day man is capable of physically imposing his will on woman...and will when forced to do so....it happens in many cultures around the world even today and has happened in the past...and women do not do well in those societies...

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I was with you until this...in a sense. I think women are equal in the sense that they should have largely the same rights under the law and be treated with the same dignity as men. But they're not equal physically. They're not equally well-suited for the same types of work and attitudes about the world. Us pushing that narrative (and then women pushing it on each other) almost certainly contributes to the insanely high amount of mental health issues/medication of modern women.

That’s a valid take and all the more reason that our institutions spending the last decade poking the bear by telling men they’re toxic, racist, sexist etc. without any concern for the truth of that was a bad idea