Paleo Retiree writes:
- Amy Alkon wonders why, in these hyper-feminized days, some women are worse at standing up for themselves than women used to be.
- Facebook follies.
- Shockeroo: Political leaders aren’t pleased when everyday people start discussing secession.
- I’m sure it’s a firetrap but it still looks like a divinely-inspired piece of folk architecture to me.
- Steve Sailer wonders if the NYTimes considers loan-originator virtuoso Rebecca S. Mairone to be innocent by virtue of being a woman.
- Some responses from Laramie itself to the current book claiming that the Matthew Shepard murder wasn’t a hate crime but a drug-deal-gone-wrong crime.
- A great couple of questions from Chuck Ross: “What makes progressives prone to reporting these hoaxes in the first place? And what makes them avoid a correction when one is needed?”
- I’ve been shocked by the way population growth has disappeared from the public conversation. So I was relieved and thrilled to read this good interview with population-growth journalist Alan Weisman. Here’s Weisman’s current book.
- Did women evolve to be catty?
- Some eye-candy for the ladies and gayguyz.
- Gypsy music.
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
Amy Alkon, b. 1964, is a member of the Fast Times at Ridgemont High generation. Thus outside the camp of those born in the later ’70s, who were the most impressionable to the date rape hysteria of the early-mid-’90s. That’s when the “men are evil, women are victims” idea took hold, and people rarely radically alter their worldviews as they age.
Women born after the late ’70s grew up when the “men are evil” thing was becoming more and more standard, hence only more likely to take the victimist worldview for granted.
Young people were way more out-in-public in the ’80s, and that gave girls practice at standing up for themselves regarding the unpleasant events of daily life. Getting a gun pulled on them — not. But some sleazoid who won’t take no for an answer, they learned how to deal with (alone or with friends — young people hung out with each other a lot more back then too, particularly girls hanging out with boys who could intervene for them).
As girls began sheltering themselves from (evil) males during the ’90s and 21st century, they got less and less practice dealing with real world annoyances coming from men. Hence their feeling of defenseless and helplessness. A defenseless person feels more threatened by a trivial unwanted advance, so now even risible cases of guy pressure feel tantamount to forcible rape. Cocooning weakens the spirit.
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That’s an interesting point, tks. Even during the ’90s I was wondering what kind of long-term impact the feminist hysteria of the decade was going to have. I guess now we’re really seeing it.
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Kudos to Chuck on his piece.
As to his questions: It seems to me that our belief systems are increasingly based on models rather than on observable facts. In the case of these hate hoaxes, the model dictates that whites oppress blacks, that men rape women, etc. So specific cases don’t really matter, because the overall truth of the model is beyond question. To believe otherwise would be heresy.
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The two greatest terms invented in the last five years, IMHO: “The Cathedral” and “The Narrative.” Amazing the power they have.
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Agreed. I think of both all the time.
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