As an almost 70 year old man, I have some advice for young men.
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12. Consider a great many patently foolish and ludicrously risky things. I'm not saying DO them, because that would mostly be foolish, but CONSIDER them. Consider joining the SAS, being a supermodel, driving a formula-1 racing car, competing in the Isle of Mann TT, being a Michelin Star chef. Think through what it would take, would be like, and what it would likely cost in blood and money
Explore them, deeply feel them, and for the most part, thank fuck you won't ever do them. Learn about you
If you have enjoyed or found these useful, maybe consider reading my short stories or books, and consider leaving a review.
About half of my shorts are available for free at Physician's Weekly, my eBooks are on Kobo, and my paperbacks are orderable at most any bookseller. My novels are mostly about endearingly psychopathic girls.
First read the free chapters, though.
My fiction is as pithy, but has far more murder and amusingly fatal accidents
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This person is more than just rude and ignorant, they’re an apologist for the (relatively recent) rise of patriarchy.
Are the propagandists of patriarchy welcome on Mastodon? Not on this 77 year old man’s watch.
I’d like to also point out that “screwturn” not only fails to provide evidence that anything I said was untrue or irrelevant, he has no way of knowing for sure that I *am* a man. For all he knows for certain, I’m virtual crossdressing, so for all he knows for certain, he’s insulting a woman. He’s *definitely* insulting women in general. By denying women’s history he’s denying women's agency.
He’s also lying. No, it was not “always” like this, nor shall it be forever. Even today there are groups and circumstances in which women are equals. Have doubts? Read up on anarchist culture.
The rise patriarchy, like the even more recent rise of capitalism, was a collective mistake. We’ll get over it like we got over the divine right of kings.
Don’t trust him. He’s a closet patriarchist, preaching defeatism. No, women don’t need to “lie back and enjoy it” because “that’s just Nature’s way”. Women have always resisted male (or any) domination, sometimes with “extreme prejudice".
Lev, please
1. You don’t need to be heard. Rather shut up. (See link)
2. You clearly misunderstood what I wrote. Maybe lay off the sauce or change meds
3. You clearly misunderstood the scholarship on the (very contested) interpretation of (very rare) grave goods that (may) suggest that *some* women, in *some* cultures, were *sometimes* also *periodic* participants in warfare in the 300,000 or so years of modern humans.Also
Fuck off, you blowhard
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As an almost 70 year old man, I have some advice for young men.
Please boost this if you think it will help
1. Your voice doesn't need to be heard. In fact, realizing that you don’t HAVE to have an opinion on everything and voice opinions or ideas in meetings or social gatherings, is amazingly liberating. You can actually just shut up, and relieve yourself of all that effort and stress. Let Bob utter his embarrassingly dumb idea, let Shirley have a say. You can just let it be for the most part
@screwturn Hell, back before I was visibly [gestures vaguely at current self], I actually struggled to convince my coworkers that I didn't have an opinion occasionally, which means that there's at least partially pressure from people expecting that behavior. Learn to override and shut down those toxic expectations before they take hold.
(There were a whole bunch of times where my coworkers didn't appear to understand that "Can't form a a reasonable opinion with the amount of information available" was even an option. Back when I first started, they were asking for my opinion on topics and systems I knew nothing about, and didn't seem to believe that I truly didn't have any due to that lack of information)
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Lev, please
1. You don’t need to be heard. Rather shut up. (See link)
2. You clearly misunderstood what I wrote. Maybe lay off the sauce or change meds
3. You clearly misunderstood the scholarship on the (very contested) interpretation of (very rare) grave goods that (may) suggest that *some* women, in *some* cultures, were *sometimes* also *periodic* participants in warfare in the 300,000 or so years of modern humans.Also
Fuck off, you blowhard
(1.) Contested? Where? By who? Be specific.
(2.) I clearly *understand* what you wrote. It’s not scholarship. It’s blather. Actual scholars defend their statements with evidence, not ad hominems.
(3.) If I wanted to be insulted by reud, ignorant trolls I’d have stayed on Xhitter. Maybe you should go over there where your sort are welcome. At least then you wouldn’t be trolling the feminists of Mastodon.
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Lev, please
1. You don’t need to be heard. Rather shut up. (See link)
2. You clearly misunderstood what I wrote. Maybe lay off the sauce or change meds
3. You clearly misunderstood the scholarship on the (very contested) interpretation of (very rare) grave goods that (may) suggest that *some* women, in *some* cultures, were *sometimes* also *periodic* participants in warfare in the 300,000 or so years of modern humans.Also
Fuck off, you blowhard
I’m bored with this troll. I’m going to go something productive with my time. If any of you want to keep listening to his crap, be my guest. I have better things to do.
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I’m bored with this troll. I’m going to go something productive with my time. If any of you want to keep listening to his crap, be my guest. I have better things to do.
Please do, "Lev"
Go and be an excitable blowhard somewhere else.
Also, fuck off, you ninny -
12. Consider a great many patently foolish and ludicrously risky things. I'm not saying DO them, because that would mostly be foolish, but CONSIDER them. Consider joining the SAS, being a supermodel, driving a formula-1 racing car, competing in the Isle of Mann TT, being a Michelin Star chef. Think through what it would take, would be like, and what it would likely cost in blood and money
Explore them, deeply feel them, and for the most part, thank fuck you won't ever do them. Learn about you
@screwturn at nearing 77, yes to all of this
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9. There are no exclusively "masculine" jobs or pastimes, and you will enjoy life far more if you give that whole story the middle finger.
If you like Barbie Dolls, cooking, or knitting, fucking go for it. Don't let some narrow-minded and insecure scold put you off your thing. Do your thing, mix with others who do thing, and help the less skilled do thing. If you sucked at thing but enjoyed it, master small slices of it, and show others how you did that and how you fuck up. You can be that guy
@screwturn @janeishly My grandmother taught me to crochet. In the USA, these things are often done in rural areas during the looong Winters. If burly farmers can enjoy stitchwork, anyone can.
I used to carry my mother's old, unused purses around. They were perfect for carrying my toys and other small bits in, especially on vacations.
These things are all learned behaviors. What's the modern phrase? "Don't start no trouble; won't be no trouble." Teach your children better.
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This person is more than just rude and ignorant, they’re an apologist for the (relatively recent) rise of patriarchy.
Are the propagandists of patriarchy welcome on Mastodon? Not on this 77 year old man’s watch.
I’d like to also point out that “screwturn” not only fails to provide evidence that anything I said was untrue or irrelevant, he has no way of knowing for sure that I *am* a man. For all he knows for certain, I’m virtual crossdressing, so for all he knows for certain, he’s insulting a woman. He’s *definitely* insulting women in general. By denying women’s history he’s denying women's agency.
He’s also lying. No, it was not “always” like this, nor shall it be forever. Even today there are groups and circumstances in which women are equals. Have doubts? Read up on anarchist culture.
The rise patriarchy, like the even more recent rise of capitalism, was a collective mistake. We’ll get over it like we got over the divine right of kings.
Don’t trust him. He’s a closet patriarchist, preaching defeatism. No, women don’t need to “lie back and enjoy it” because “that’s just Nature’s way”. Women have always resisted male (or any) domination, sometimes with “extreme prejudice".
@LevZadov @screwturn buddy you are so far out of your depth it is comical.
your "evidence" that some women had high status, because of the things they were buried with, is not proof that women have enjoyed universal equality throughout history. some women were queens, but it would be silly to conclude that all societies with queens were inherently egalitarian. you might as well might conclude that Margaret Thatcher's use of paramilitary death squads in Northern Ireland is a prime example of "girl power" — women who rise to the top of patriarchal societies are usually anti-feminist and see themselves as the exception to the rules they think other women should live under.
and before you go "but but but anarchists" anarchists aren't immune to sexism. there are so many anarchist groups that have fallen apart because men couldn't shut up and do the work. you don't know what you're talking about and you should sit down and listen instead of posting through it.
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3. Sex is far less important than the media, buddies, influencers, and society would have you believe. It's also a fucking time trap. Especially when you are young, your body and society scream at you to want to be in rut all the damn time. It's exhausting. It also steals time and energy from windsurfing, riding a motorcycle, making curry, and brewing beer - which are all more fun, cost less, and don't involve all the fuss and bother.
Make friends with more women, just bc they are interesting
@screwturn im still comparatively a younger man and agree with the whole thread and want to add a corollary here: sex gets better later anyway and its not going anywhere
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5. Physical strength is overrated. The dude with the six-pack, massive biceps, and thickest neck, is still a thin-skinned animal without fangs, scales, stinger, or horns, who couldn't even outrun a crocodile, let alone any of the big cats. An ape half his body mass is more than twice as strong.
Humans are half blind, half deaf, weaklings, and the weediest person wielding a stone-age spear, can put the biggest muscleman in the grave with minimal fuss.
The weakest woman can squeeze a trigger
Most of the human body's alleged flaws are actually misunderstood trade-offs.
* We are weak for our height, but only because we're ridiculously tall for our weight.
* Our eyes work poorly at night, but their color fidelity is top-notch. Animals trying to blend into the scenery often won't fool humans.
* We can't outrun a deer, but we can keep chasing it long after it has passed out from heat exhaustion. Our skin isn't made for stopping claws; it's made for heat efficiency.
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Most of the human body's alleged flaws are actually misunderstood trade-offs.
* We are weak for our height, but only because we're ridiculously tall for our weight.
* Our eyes work poorly at night, but their color fidelity is top-notch. Animals trying to blend into the scenery often won't fool humans.
* We can't outrun a deer, but we can keep chasing it long after it has passed out from heat exhaustion. Our skin isn't made for stopping claws; it's made for heat efficiency.
I guess the moral of this story is that it's silly to lament what you don't have while forgetting what you do have.
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6. The "rugged individualist" loner myth, is just that. Hardly anything gets done by individuals. Even the most individual creative occupations, like painters, sculptors, poets, inventors, writers, hardly EVER do their stuff in isolation. Even the grumpiest fucker, like Newton, collaborated, and ALL the big discoveries and inventions involved a lot of collaboration and exchanges of ideas
Next time some guy wants to sell you on the idea on lonerdom, know for sure it's a scam. It's always a scam
Agreed. Humans didn't grow to 8 billion in number and spread to every single continent on Earth by always going it alone. They did it in groups. Big groups.
Consider, for example, what we did to the smallpox virus. That was an effort made by our ENTIRE SPECIES to wipe out an age-old threat.
We are the humans. Resistance is futile.
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Most of the human body's alleged flaws are actually misunderstood trade-offs.
* We are weak for our height, but only because we're ridiculously tall for our weight.
* Our eyes work poorly at night, but their color fidelity is top-notch. Animals trying to blend into the scenery often won't fool humans.
* We can't outrun a deer, but we can keep chasing it long after it has passed out from heat exhaustion. Our skin isn't made for stopping claws; it's made for heat efficiency.
@argv_minus_one
This is true.We have two physical advantages over most other animals
- heat tolerance
- ability to smell petrichorBut that's it.
We are thin skinned, musculatly weak, and slow, and fhe laughable muscle man trope is in stark contrast to how feeble we are.
Our secret sauce is complex collaboration, not physique.
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@argv_minus_one
This is true.We have two physical advantages over most other animals
- heat tolerance
- ability to smell petrichorBut that's it.
We are thin skinned, musculatly weak, and slow, and fhe laughable muscle man trope is in stark contrast to how feeble we are.
Our secret sauce is complex collaboration, not physique.
Yeah, that too. We may have good color fidelity, but we don't have a monopoly on it. We don't even have a monopoly on high heat efficiency; most insects can keep moving longer than we can. But complex collaboration belongs to us and only a handful of other species.
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5. Physical strength is overrated. The dude with the six-pack, massive biceps, and thickest neck, is still a thin-skinned animal without fangs, scales, stinger, or horns, who couldn't even outrun a crocodile, let alone any of the big cats. An ape half his body mass is more than twice as strong.
Humans are half blind, half deaf, weaklings, and the weediest person wielding a stone-age spear, can put the biggest muscleman in the grave with minimal fuss.
The weakest woman can squeeze a trigger
@screwturn Physical strength for self-defense might be overrated, sure, but consider:
1. lifting heavy things
2. helping people with shit without getting tired
3. muscles are hot as fuck -
@LevZadov @screwturn buddy you are so far out of your depth it is comical.
your "evidence" that some women had high status, because of the things they were buried with, is not proof that women have enjoyed universal equality throughout history. some women were queens, but it would be silly to conclude that all societies with queens were inherently egalitarian. you might as well might conclude that Margaret Thatcher's use of paramilitary death squads in Northern Ireland is a prime example of "girl power" — women who rise to the top of patriarchal societies are usually anti-feminist and see themselves as the exception to the rules they think other women should live under.
and before you go "but but but anarchists" anarchists aren't immune to sexism. there are so many anarchist groups that have fallen apart because men couldn't shut up and do the work. you don't know what you're talking about and you should sit down and listen instead of posting through it.
(1.) I didn’t say that women have enjoyed universal equality throughout history.
(2.) I also didn’t say anarchists are immune to sexism, though we *are* better at fighting it than a lot of cultures.
(3.) Don’t put words in my mouth. It’s rude, it’s dishonest, it’s very bad form.
(4.) It is naive to assume that a person of either gender was a leader and not a common soldier. Common soldiers of any gender are *far* more common than leaders. That’s how it is in their lives, that’s how it is in their graves.
(5.) The Irish death squads were overwhelming male and operated under male command. The Troubles weren’t about fighting sexism. They were about fighting colonialism. Not everyone on earth has the same priorities. Personally, I never got involved in The Troubles except for one scuffle in a bar in SF’s Tenderloin, and I didn’t start it. Not my priority. My first duty is to resist here in the belly of the beast. However, I won’t criticize the Irish paramilitariesI for not doing it my way. I agree with Fredrick Douglass who wrote, "Let every man work for the abolition of slavery in his own way. I would help all and hinder none."
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@screwturn Physical strength for self-defense might be overrated, sure, but consider:
1. lifting heavy things
2. helping people with shit without getting tired
3. muscles are hot as fuck@AVincentInSpace
None of that, although helping people is always goodWith a winch, a jack, hydraulics, the weakest person easily lifts, bends, carries far more than any muscleman, and for longer. Having big muscles is not a thing a young man needs to or should regard as a step into some sort of ubermensch strata. If you desire to be all buff, by all means have at it, but what the body-maxing influencers are selling is bullcrap
Muscles are hotter in the minds of men than in the eyes of women
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(1.) I didn’t say that women have enjoyed universal equality throughout history.
(2.) I also didn’t say anarchists are immune to sexism, though we *are* better at fighting it than a lot of cultures.
(3.) Don’t put words in my mouth. It’s rude, it’s dishonest, it’s very bad form.
(4.) It is naive to assume that a person of either gender was a leader and not a common soldier. Common soldiers of any gender are *far* more common than leaders. That’s how it is in their lives, that’s how it is in their graves.
(5.) The Irish death squads were overwhelming male and operated under male command. The Troubles weren’t about fighting sexism. They were about fighting colonialism. Not everyone on earth has the same priorities. Personally, I never got involved in The Troubles except for one scuffle in a bar in SF’s Tenderloin, and I didn’t start it. Not my priority. My first duty is to resist here in the belly of the beast. However, I won’t criticize the Irish paramilitariesI for not doing it my way. I agree with Fredrick Douglass who wrote, "Let every man work for the abolition of slavery in his own way. I would help all and hinder none."
Are you drunk, Lev?
Because that might explain why you keep misunderstanding what people type.
Again, you don't HAVE to post extraordinarily long, tedious, and banal posts about things you seem not to actually understand.
Rather just STFU for a change
Be kind, be helpful, and post less -
2. Sissyphus was a stupid allegory.
Doing something useless, and especially for which you get no praise, is not as soul destroying as people would have you believe. If you like rolling a rock up a hill and having it roll back down, it's actually huge fucking fun if you just embrace the irony and the fun of rolling a rock, building up a sweat, and then letting that sucker go tumbling down.
Corollary: you don't actually need praise. Just enjoy what you do, and try to do it well
@screwturn my 12 year old self carrying a large block of curb up to the top of a parking garage to throw it off the side
