Strawmanning could be a technique used in humor and satire, but even then it isn’t a “proof” that someone’s views are “genuinely problematic”.
Athol Kay does not explain how this understanding is supposed to pay rent in terms of improved results.
How about this: Two women in their 50s compare their husbands with men who were attracted to them when they were 18, and both see that their husband’s “market value” is lower. Let’s assume there is no other problem in the marriage; they just want to be maximizers, not merely satisficers.
One of them is a “Red pill woman”, she does not divorce and keeps a relatively good relationship. The other one is encouraged by success stories in popular media, gets a divorce… and then finds that the men who were interested in her when she was 18 are actually not interested anymore, and that she probably would have maximized her happiness by staying married. -- This is how the belief can pay its rent.
We see that divorce sucks; what we do not see is that divorce is nonethess rational whenever not divorcing would suck even more.
I wouldn’t advocate staying married for example in cases of domestic violence, and I guess neither would Athol Kay. So we are speaking about “sucking” in sense of “not being with the best partner one could be with”, right? In that case, understanding one’s “market value” is critical in determining whether staying or leaving is better. (By the way, a significant part of Athol’s blog is about how men should increase their “market value”, whether by exercise or making more money or whatever.)
And then, there is the impact on children. We should not expect that even if mommy succeeds to get a more attractive partner, that it will make them automatically happy. This trade-off is often unacknowledged.
Strawmanning could be a technique used in humor and satire, but even then it isn’t a “proof” that someone’s views are “genuinely problematic”.
How about this: Two women in their 50s compare their husbands with men who were attracted to them when they were 18, and both see that their husband’s “market value” is lower. Let’s assume there is no other problem in the marriage; they just want to be maximizers, not merely satisficers.
One of them is a “Red pill woman”, she does not divorce and keeps a relatively good relationship. The other one is encouraged by success stories in popular media, gets a divorce… and then finds that the men who were interested in her when she was 18 are actually not interested anymore, and that she probably would have maximized her happiness by staying married. -- This is how the belief can pay its rent.
I wouldn’t advocate staying married for example in cases of domestic violence, and I guess neither would Athol Kay. So we are speaking about “sucking” in sense of “not being with the best partner one could be with”, right? In that case, understanding one’s “market value” is critical in determining whether staying or leaving is better. (By the way, a significant part of Athol’s blog is about how men should increase their “market value”, whether by exercise or making more money or whatever.)
And then, there is the impact on children. We should not expect that even if mommy succeeds to get a more attractive partner, that it will make them automatically happy. This trade-off is often unacknowledged.