I don’t care if people are turned away by it. We’ve gotta have one place that is pure, where people can speak truth and be as politically incorrect and offensive as they dare, and not make reason bend over backwards in the name of popularity. And this is that place.
No, it isn’t. There’s already a pretty strong taboo against discussing politics, even though there’s a lot of important ways politics interacts with rationality. And that’s because even though it is theoretically possible to talk about politics safely, rationally, in practice it simply doesn’t last, and has an overall negative effect on the community as people descend into tribalism.
I think there is plenty of good stuff to talk about regarding PUA. But it is going to have consequences. Women will be turned off unless it is discussed extremely carefully. Sooner or later someone will slip up and say something NOT careful, which comes across as sexist. The first few slip ups will be accidental and forgiveable, but unless there is a constant pushback from women and female-advocates, it’s going to gradually get worse, and most of the males won’t even notice. If there IS constant pushback and reminders whenever people inadvertently point out sexist thinking, many people will not say “oh, my bad,” they will say “come on stop overreacting” which a) often ends up being sexist all by itself and b) creates a dichotomy which leads to tribalism. So for most intents and purposes, PUA counts as politics.
In this case, the slip up was in the very first line of the post: Lukeprog started with the words “Attraction and Seduction for Heterosexual Male Rationalists.” This already suggests to women perusing the site that this is a site for heterosexual males, and the word “seduction” already is implicitly objectifying women. It’s possible for someone to have done it tastefully and carefully, but this post wasn’t it and the people reacting negatively to it are perfectly justified.
No, it isn’t. There’s already a pretty strong taboo against discussing politics, even though there’s a lot of important ways politics interacts with rationality. And that’s because even though it is theoretically possible to talk about politics safely, rationally, in practice it simply doesn’t last, and has an overall negative effect on the community as people descend into tribalism.
I think there is plenty of good stuff to talk about regarding PUA. But it is going to have consequences. Women will be turned off unless it is discussed extremely carefully. Sooner or later someone will slip up and say something NOT careful, which comes across as sexist. The first few slip ups will be accidental and forgiveable, but unless there is a constant pushback from women and female-advocates, it’s going to gradually get worse, and most of the males won’t even notice. If there IS constant pushback and reminders whenever people inadvertently point out sexist thinking, many people will not say “oh, my bad,” they will say “come on stop overreacting” which a) often ends up being sexist all by itself and b) creates a dichotomy which leads to tribalism. So for most intents and purposes, PUA counts as politics.
In this case, the slip up was in the very first line of the post: Lukeprog started with the words “Attraction and Seduction for Heterosexual Male Rationalists.” This already suggests to women perusing the site that this is a site for heterosexual males, and the word “seduction” already is implicitly objectifying women. It’s possible for someone to have done it tastefully and carefully, but this post wasn’t it and the people reacting negatively to it are perfectly justified.