Thursday, October 24, 2013

PANDERING.

Matt Lewis at The Daily Caller:
This summer, I interviewed Dr. Helen Smith about her book Men on Strike...
I know, off to a bad start already. But wait, as the kids say, it gets better:
Her premise is simple: More and more American men are making the conscious decision to avoid the drama and heartache that comes with relationships. It’s just not worth it, they say. 
The Japanese word for this is “Mendokusai.” How do I know? It turns out this same phenomenon is taking place amongst young people of both sexes in Japan. Not only are many forgoing marriage, they are also skipping... sex. It’s just not worth it, they say.
Number one, there's a huge gap between "I don't want a relationship" and "I don't want to have sex." Number two, the Japan study to which he refers is mostly bogus. But when you're dealing with American conservatives, facts are the least of it. Lewis laments:
Could there be a connection between what Dr. Helen is documenting here and what’s happening in Japan? Japanese culture and American culture are, of course, a world apart, but technology has made that world smaller. And, in fact, technology might just be the common denominator... 
Interestingly, in her book, Dr. Helen also argues that online porn is replacing the need for American women.
Oh well then: A reference to technology, and an assertion by Dr. Mrs. Ole Perfesser. What more do you need? The angst extrudes -- Erstwhile sex scold Rod Dreher:
How can an entire country lose the will to reproduce itself, which is to say, the will to live?
Glenn Beck's The Blaze:
WILL THIS NATION’S ‘CELIBACY SYNDROME’ CAUSE IT TO ‘PERISH INTO EXTINCTION’?
At Legal Insurrection, neo-neocon:
When nearly all is permitted (sexually, that is), the prospect of sex loses its forbidden fruit aspect and becomes more ho-hum.
Speak for yourself, honey. But let's not miss the big picture here: Conservatives are beginning to reverse their usual pattern, and are complaining about other people not having sex instead of other people having it. It's kind of a breakthrough!

Alas, there are holdouts. From the Patriot Action Network:
The latest 'trend' that has been called for this is that young men and woman are not having meaningless sex, premarital sex or leading the value of sex being the key to their lives... 
The news is saying this is a bad thing...but in the big picture, is that the truth? 
What isn't being reported, is the transformation that is happening with the young... Many are becoming Christians.
Eventually someone from the central office is going to have to come around and hip this guy to the new realities. I predict conservatives will shift over time from nagging paupers to get married to nagging them to have sex. It'll give them something positive to offer voters. I mean, it's not like they can offer them clean air or water.

UPDATE. Comments are always the best part of alicublog but in this case our gloss squad have outdone themselves. Some are understandable bemused by professional slut-shamer Rod Dreher turning into a sex cheerleader. "When Crunchy Rod is asking us to fornicate, the End Times are upon us," observes DocAmazing. But philadelphialawyer rightly points out that Dreher and his colleagues at The American Conservative are addicted to gloomy "the death of" stories -- and that their prescriptions are, for people who profess a concern for our humanity, weirdly inhuman:
For example, folks should have children not because they want to, not because they enjoy children, or because they think they would be good parents, or because society is accommodating to child raising, but because society, particularly Western society, oh screw it, let's just tell it like it is, because the Great White Race needs them to... 
In other words, people should make highly personal decisions which directly impact their life for the good of the collective... And yet they will turn around and accuse "the left" of suborning the individual to the mass, of being purely utilitarian, of running roughshod over individual conscience, and so on.
Or as Spaghetti Lee puts it, "Fuck like your country depends on it!" Meanwhile trex delineates Matt Lewis' logic model:
I like to call this fallacy "The Transitive Property of Cryptids" or "The Six Degrees of Loch Ness Monster:" 
1. Dr. Helen says men are avoiding relationships.
2. Kids in Japan are avoiding sex.
3. Technology exists in both cultures
4. Women use technology look at porn
5. People look for other forbidden things with technology
6. Loch Ness Monster

196 comments:

  1. DocAmazing9:52 PM

    When Crunchy Rod is asking us to fornicate, the End Times are upon us.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Japanese word for this is “Mendokusai.”

    Computer says "no".



    The English word for this is "Mendacity."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Left unsaid by the conservatives is the effect of stagnant wages on people's reproductive choices. Are people really being celibate, or are they just not reproducing while they're fucking their brains out?


    Also, if the MRAs don't reproduce, that's a good thing... a good thing indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. tigrismus10:17 PM

    Interestingly, in her book, Dr. Helen also argues that online porn is replacing the need for American women.


    It is more likely to make you a sandwich.

    ReplyDelete
  5. XeckyGilchrist10:19 PM

    True, true. And happily there isn't much chance of it, for a lot of them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fats Durston10:35 PM

    How can an entire country lose the will to reproduce itself, which is to say, the will to live?

    Guess they could use, I dunno, Willen der Nympho, eh, Rod?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Spaghetti Lee10:44 PM

    Japanese culture and American culture are, of course, a world apart, but technology has made that world smaller.


    Sure. One's a culture full of workaholics with weird hangups about sex, a refusal to own up to the uglier parts of their political history, urban sprawl and rural stagnation, and an obsession with youth, even infantilization, as a way to avoid harsh reality. But at least Japan has a good railway system.

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  8. mortimer200010:56 PM

    Hilarious. Abstinence good, celibacy bad.



    Not only are many forgoing marriage, they are also skipping... sex.



    In Dr. Helen's circle of glibertarian losers, this is known as "going blue-balt."

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  9. Could there be a connection between what Dr. Helen is documenting here and what’s happening in Japan? Technology has made the world smaller....

    I like to call this fallacy "The Transitive Property of Cryptids" or "The Six Degrees of Loch Ness Monster:"

    1. Dr. Helen says men are avoiding relationships.

    2. Kids in Japan are avoiding sex.

    3. Technology exists in both cultures

    4. Women use technology look at porn

    5. People look for other forbidden things with technology

    6. Loch Ness Monster

    ReplyDelete
  10. Is it worth pointing out the racist undertones in all of this? Every claim they're making to explain the allegedly "sexless" Japanese is rooted in Western stereotypes. Look, I know that making fun of Japan is really easy. I've done it - hell, I did it yesterday. I always feel kind of bad about it, mostly because it contributes to shit like this. Lewis is essentially saying "Japan is in trouble because they jerk off too much." Man, fuck you.


    Besides, what none of these goobers want to talk about - because it would dash a different set of talking points - is that Japan's notorious anti-immigration policies are probably adding to its poor population growth. I've looked into working in Japan, and have basically given up because getting residency there is next to impossible anymore. But let's not talk about that - let's talk about porn and video games and women who want it all and gay marriage.

    ReplyDelete
  11. mommadillo12:06 AM

    Dr. Helen also argues that online porn is replacing the need for American women



    I can't speak for anybody else, but I'd much prefer beating off to online porn to fucking Dr. Helen, so I guess she's kinda got a point.

    ReplyDelete
  12. trizzlor12:09 AM

    I predict conservatives will shift over time from nagging paupers to get married to nagging them to have sex.

    Nah, these people just have a guilt fetish. They're upset with "secular progressives" for having guiltless sex and they're upset with the Japanese for having guiltless celibacy. It's like those old antiseptics - if you're not feeling the pain of guilt then it must not be working right.

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  13. To play devil's advocate, he might have been angling for the phrase mendokusai on'na, "troublesome woman." But that's all it means - contrary to what a lot of Westerners seem to think, words in East Asian languages are still just words. They don't have all have deeper meanings.


    I'm not good at devil's advocate, am I?

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  14. Explains a lot about her husband's fantasies, doesn't it?

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  15. ChrisV8212:23 AM

    If you conducted a survey and asked men if they were forced to give up one thing, pornography or sex, which would it be, I'd wager 90% would give up porn. I fuckin' love porn, but I fuckin' love fuckin' more.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Spaghetti Lee12:29 AM

    "Fuck like your country depends on it!" has always been a right-wing slogan, though. It's personal pleasure they don't like.


    To the extent that this is happening, in both America and Japan, I think that if you can't buy a house or a car or go to college without drowning in debt, and you can't find a job that pays well enough to live decently, why bother seeking a long-term relationship? If you want America to get its mojo back, make financial independence something to look forward to, rather than the equivalent of being alone in a cabin with only a baseball bat as a weapon and ten man-eating wolves clawing at the door.

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  17. BigHank5312:32 AM

    ...the effect of stagnant wages on people's reproductive choices.

    They're a hell of a lot cheaper than children, but even condoms cost money. And then there's the whole, "Your parents' basement, or mine?" discussion, which can get awkward.

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  18. BigHank5312:34 AM

    Don't worry--I'm sure Rod has no intention of allowing you to enjoy the act.

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  19. If he's angling for a phrase, he needs better bait. Adding another word is not that difficult.

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  20. It just sounds like an MRA classic - the idea of women being too...well, troublesome. Not sure why he had to fish around for a foreign turn of phrase, except that mendokusai on'na sounds classier than "bitch."

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  21. BigHank5312:48 AM

    I wanna know what happened to Dr. Helen's honest libertarian do-it-yourself Galtiness. Why on earth has she got her panties in a knot over what is fundamentally a collective problem? More of her preferred social legislation has been passed in the last twenty years than in the fifty before--isn't it hypocritical to denounce the fruits of the tree you planted and tended? If some rational young men decide they can take care of their sexual requirements without hiring an outside contractor, what business is it of hers?

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  22. montag212:49 AM

    *bzzzzzt* *whirrrr* *click* *buzzzz*


    Does that ever get the Ol' Perfesser tingly.

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  23. The other implication is that single v. married is a simple choice - that you're single because you want to be single. Hey, assholes, I'm trying here.


    Actually, looking back at my lifestyle choices over the past decade, I fit the conservative ideal almost perfectly. But with this particular breed of natalist dink, it doesn't matter - I'm not married, which means I'm obviously a drunken video game addict with my dick in my hand. Thanks fellas, can't imagine why I'm reluctant to come over to your side.

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  24. moelarryandjesus1:00 AM

    I want to know what Chunky Reese Witherspoon thinks about this crisis.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Spaghetti Lee1:05 AM

    I think there is something there in terms of there being an undercurrent of asexuality in Japanese culture, though-people smarter than Matt Lewis have commented on it, including many Japanese social scientists and artists. The extremely short and simplified version, from what I've read on the topic, is that in response to both the horrors they both committed and suffered in World War II, along with the suffering of their national identity after surrendering, postwar Japanese culture ramped up already-existing societal values like deference, calmness, and politeness, and when you apply that to sex, you get a culture where innocence and "cuteness" rule the day over aggressive sexuality, which I think is not unfair: compare American female pop stars to Japanese idol singers, for example. And people just flat out having less sex is the logical conclusion of a long, deep, and multi-sided cultural trend.


    I don't think it's good or bad, moral or immoral: it just is, and the most you can say about it is that it will probably put a squeeze on Japan's economy over the next few decades (although looking at the countries dealing with overpopulation, underpopulation seems like the better problem to have). Lewis and Dr. H's problem is that they don't address these cultural differences, and just assume (as conservatives do) that anything they don't like can be blamed on Godless Secular Progressives and their wicked ways distorting the natural order.

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  26. Formerly_Nom_De_Plume1:22 AM

    One's a culture full of workaholics with weird hangups about sex, a refusal to own up to the uglier parts of their political history, urban sprawl and rural stagnation, and an obsession with youth, even infantilization, as a way to avoid harsh reality.


    And the other is Japan!

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  27. DocAmazing1:24 AM

    "Fuck like your country depends on it!" has always been a right-wing slogan, though.


    Lie back and think of Lynchburg.

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  28. shorter rightbloggers: "LET'S FUCK!"

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  29. "Fuck like your country depends on it!" has always been a right-wing slogan, though. It's personal pleasure they don't like.


    Indeed. Augustus used basically that message (well, in Latin)** because of his alarm over perceived low birth rates, but certainly not as an encouragement for proper Romans to actually enjoy it.


    **Yes, I am avoiding the obvious conjugation jokes here.

    ReplyDelete
  30. montag21:30 AM

    When the right wing starts talking about sex, you can be fairly certain that reproduction is on their tiny little minds. To them, it often comes down to economics. Krugman, I think, once said that after averaging out the highs and the lows, GDP growth closely tracks population growth. More children means less need for immigration, one of their grand bugaboos. More children, often, means more nuclear families, one of their touchstones. More children (often in concert with non-portable health care) also means less job mobility--and that's just wonderful for business owners. And, inevitably, there's a racial subtext with regard to birth rates.



    With more taxpayers coming into the workforce each and every year, it tends to mask the extent to which the wealthy do not pay their share. And, lots of babies keeps a bunch of industries humming along and profitable with less need to compete on price and quality than would be the case in a scarcer market.


    But, mostly, it's about keeping white bread America just the way it is.

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  31. Spaghetti Lee1:31 AM

    I guess I'm not edumacated enough to know what the 'obvious conjugation joke' would be. The only Latin sex joke I even know is the old standby Veni, vidi, veni.

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  32. Tehanu2:00 AM

    I bet he'd believe it if we told him the Japanese word for "business" is "sosumi".

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  33. Tehanu2:01 AM

    It's true in her house.

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  34. Clio's Bitch3:06 AM

    The agita here stems mostly from the "Demographic Winter" trope, which is working its way through the miasmic right-wing gestaltenubercolon (fake German, of course, being the province of all proper rightbloggers) and the fact that lower birth rates put less of a strain on the environment (inevitably delaying the rapture) and give workers more leverage to tell terrible bosses to go fuck themselves.

    Whatever grain of truth there is in some of these charges (technology commodifying sex --which was never a commodity before then, obvs--) or that habits have changed post-sexual revolution gets sucked out, leaving only the sludgy detritus of right-wing bugaboos: sluts and how they don't make men want it enough, plus all the aforementioned economic feudalism and racialized paranoia.

    As others have noted, the kicker (as it always is for rightbloggers) is that many of Japan's problems (though we should not simplify since demographics are complex-dynamic) trace themselves to what might be called "conservative" ideals:

    - Xenophobia
    - Runaway market inflation with respect to family valuation, videlicet decent housing and good social mobility
    - Poor family planning (the Kōrō-shō is pretty hidebound)
    - Relatively little nation-wide planning for the expected environmental and infrastructural problems which underpopulation will exacerbate (though as others have noted, possibly a "better" problem to have when compared to a Malthusian conundrum.)
    - A childlike faith in technology making all of these problems go away (hence Japan's monomaniacal fixation on automation.)

    If it weren't feeding into their delusions of grandeur, I'd call their ability to at least discern the outlines of a problem --that thin beam of noble reality peeking into the fetid bowels of rightlandia-- whilst still insisting on policies and a culture that will run headlong into those problems a sort of poignant fatal flaw.

    But that's too literal for these assholes, and we also have to live with them, so I'll just go with Ha!Martia.

    Because you gotta laugh, right?

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  35. So I guess this campaign is probably coming to America soon:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyVWmCG-onk

    Don't Not Have Sex!

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  36. sophronia3:27 AM

    You will never, never, never get Dr. Helen or her acolytes to admit that the problem is with Japanese culture, because they have all spent the last 20-30 years wishing that American women could be more submissive, deferential and calm. More like the Japanese, in other words.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Smut Clyde3:30 AM

    Are there any children in Rand's books? Because, you know, total leeches. And it's not as if children are going to look after you when you're old and senile, not unless you bring them up as non-Randians.

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  38. Smut Clyde3:34 AM

    "Fuck like your country depends on it!" has always been a right-wing slogan


    And it has always been combined with the Yellow-Elephant school of military service, i.e. the onus is on the readers to close the reproduction gap, and not the writers (who have other priorities).

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  39. Smut Clyde3:36 AM

    I only know the obvious declension jokes, which all involve the difficulty of declining Atequila.

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  40. Smut Clyde3:40 AM

    It only seems yesterday when the right-wing scoldosphere was hyperventilating and all out of shape about the casual campus hook-up culture. No, wait, it *was* yesterday.

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  41. Spaghetti Lee3:47 AM

    'Scoldosphere' is gold.

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  42. Spaghetti Lee3:54 AM

    Objectivism requires there to be a large chunk of unworthy people to suffer in the absence of the chosen ones-otherwise, how can you tell if it's working? Ergo, fewer new babies = fewer future poor people to make examples of.

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  43. Smut Clyde6:50 AM

    More and more American men are making the conscious decision to avoid
    the drama and heartache that comes with relationships. It’s just not
    worth it, they say.



    I believe this is called a "Drone strike".

    ReplyDelete
  44. GregMc7:25 AM

    The notion that, by not having sex, I'm pissing some of these people off is comforting, I suppose, as is the idea that I'm somehow part of a movement.

    ReplyDelete
  45. mortimer20007:31 AM

    When the right wing starts talking about sex, you can be fairly certain that reproduction is on their tiny little minds.
    ...
    But, mostly, it's about keeping white bread America just the way it is.


    You betcha. We won't see right-wingers advocating more fucking for minorities any time soon, given their belief that non-white folks breed like rabbits and are stealing America™ from them.

    But the present crap under discussion is just one more example that the main purpose of almost every right-wing whine is to bash liberals and liberal policies. None of it has to make sense from one minute to the next, and it's usually rooted in abject racism. So they'll bitch about the wanton sexual depravity of the left and then complain how feminists and liberal PC are destroying the lusts of white men and taking all the fun out of date rape. So they'll do anything to keep women from abortion, but believe that if "you could abort every black baby in this country your crime rate would go down." They want every man, woman, and child to own a gun but stop and frisk is a great idea because black. All taxes are evil but there is no amount of money too large to waste on military hardware. They "support the troops" because flags are cheap, but not the cost of their healthcare.

    And on and on. Is it any wonder alcohol is so popular?

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  46. chuckling8:15 AM

    I suspect there actually is something to it. Just an anecdote, I know, but I was at the beach one day and overheard a conversation between two very pretty young women behind me. One was complaining that she wanted to have sex, but when she went back to the bedroom her boyfriend was jerking off to porn on the laptop. She was doubly pissed because they only had one laptop and she couldn't watch porn too. True story, and I even managed to not be the kind of creepy old guy that would turn around and offer my services.


    Anyway, the point I'm getting to is that even if there is a trend among the younger crowd to prefer pornography to sex, it's no business of the government, much less a bunch of moralizing pseudo-religious assholes. Why should anyone care other than the people involved? And given the way overpopulation is clearly destroying the planet, if pornography turns out to be an effective form of birth control, I say fire up the laptops people.

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  47. redoubt8:26 AM

    I Atequila, II Atequila, III Atequila, Aream

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  48. redoubt8:42 AM

    Interestingly, in her book, Dr. Helen also argues that online porn is replacing the need for American women.
    Language taken from the proposed Fembot Purchase Research Group (FPRG) grant application (that the University of Tennessee will turn down. Again.).

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  49. L Bob Rife8:49 AM

    I could also see a bit of Fantasy Dinner Party Gotcha, where Brave Conservative notes that porn is replacing women, and Clueless Libtard guest hastily jumps to defend porn with something like "What's wrong with porn? I just jacked off to midget transexual videos on my phone in the bathroom a minute ago.". In this fantasy this results both in shock and revulsion, and laughter and ridicule, as their mental image pans across the table victoriously.

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  50. Derelict8:52 AM

    Although I have to wonder how her husband's penchant for robot sex factors into this.

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  51. Derelict9:05 AM

    Anyway, the point I'm getting to is that even if there is a trend among the younger crowd to prefer pornography to sex, it's no business of the government, much less a bunch of moralizing pseudo-religious assholes.


    Obviously you've been sleeping through the last 40 years of Republican political philosophy. Allow me to summarize it for you:

    Get government out of the boardroom and into the bedroom.

    Hence the constant push against abortion and contraception while also constantly pushing for abolishing any and all business regulation.

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  52. Pope Zebbidie XIII9:05 AM

    V Atequila VI Atequila VII Atequila, more.

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  53. Helmut Monotreme9:10 AM

    Left unspoken in many of these "onoz teh baybeez!" articles from the right is the fact that much of our economy is based on the assumption that the population will continue to grow. Social security works because there are more workers than retirees. The housing industry relies on a steady stream of new homeowners starting families or trading up. If the population were to stabilize or begin to decline, even slowly, there are quite a few sectors of the economy that would feel the crunch. So part of the outrage from the right is the nativist paranoia so ably mocked by everyone here, but there's also a heaping helping of justified fear for the state of their 401k.

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  54. chuckling9:18 AM

    I guess "sleeping" is the polite way to put it.

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  55. glennisw9:21 AM

    One wonders at the supposed authority of Dr. Mrs. Ole Professor to speak to sexuality and the cultural aspect of sex given that she's married to a guy who prefers machines. Unless she's getting some on the side, she has barely a glancing acquaintance with sex in her life.

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  56. Halloween_Jack9:41 AM

    Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, amirite?


    oh, wait

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  57. Halloween_Jack9:44 AM

    Well, it's not so much eliminated as simply repressed, and that tends to come out in other ways.

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  58. Halloween_Jack9:45 AM

    I want to hover discreetly around this comment in the faint hopes of a glimpse of ankle.

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  59. XeckyGilchrist9:48 AM

    It sure is.

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  60. deggjr9:50 AM

    Don't have sex? I may have to go all mavericky here (if I get the chance).

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  61. XeckyGilchrist9:52 AM

    They have to win the war of ideas at home, dontyewknow.


    ...urgh, imagining the reproductive equivalent of that is putting me in need of the brain brush.

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  62. GeniusLemur9:53 AM

    "PERISH INTO EXTINCTION"
    *tweet* Abuse of language! Five-yard penalty!

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  63. XeckyGilchrist9:58 AM

    I often wonder if we got in a war with Japan because we were too much alike to tolerate one another.

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  64. tigrismus9:59 AM

    You got any porn?

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  65. Jay Schiavone10:01 AM

    Like the way he patronizingly refers to her as "Dr. Helen." No wonder she loves it over there.

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  66. Halloween_Jack10:09 AM

    there's a huge gap between "I don't want a relationship" and "I don't want to have sex."


    Yep, but Dr. Helen & Co. know better than to directly criticize, say, the PUA set, because they're their allies in hating feminists. So they take this mess and roll it up into general Fear of a Brown Planet; they want the paler poors to breed more Caucasian help for the "job creators" to fulfill their Downton Abbey fantasies. Of course, they're also in the "don't breed if you can't afford it" game, but things like internal consistency are for other professors.

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  67. Magatha10:12 AM

    Miranda...

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  68. Mr. Wonderful10:21 AM

    You're good enough. You have such a large caseload, who can blame you?

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  69. Mark_Bzzzz10:23 AM

    I can believe that jerking off is the most common type of conservative sex. Hell,, it's probably most common for most people but moderates don't do it with two dildoes and a wet suit.

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  70. Mr. Wonderful10:43 AM

    Interestingly, the German word for Fantasy Dinner Party Gotcha is just those four exact words squashed together.

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  71. philadelphialawyer10:43 AM

    It seems as if conservatives are always worrying about something not happening that used to happen, and that absence is going to spell the end of the world, one way or another.
    Over at TAC, which is actually one of the more moderate and reasonable of conservative sites, and where Dreher blogs, in just the last few months, besides the "we are becoming like the Japanese and are in danger of no longer having sex (and babies)" thing, I have seen posts on the end of August vacations, the end of people looking at the stars, the end of religion in general (gay marriage, of course), the end of American Judaism in particular, the end of liberal democracy (can't exist without religion), the end of romantic love (because without the Christ is love metaphor thingy, folks won't be in love, or something, even though folks were in love before Christ, as well as folks who never heard of Christ being in love, but whatever), the end of the novel and lyric poetry (same deal, can't exist without Christ), the end of local culture (TV and the internet, docha know, said the internet website!), the end of cursive writing (I kid you not!) and so on.
    They seem to constantly overrate the degree of "loss" and to overrate the importance of losing certain things. Sex is not going away, and the decline of cursive writing is not like the decline of Rome.
    All of that fits in with their deep pessimism and fear of change (they speak openly of some sort of "Benediictine option," in which they all retreat to monasteries or the like, to escape the new, fallen world, as in the "Dark Ages"), but there is also this strange notion of some sort of global or at least society wide "volunteerism" on matters that one would think would be of personal concern, that is going to, or should, at least, save the day. For example, folks should have children not because they want to, not because they enjoy children, or because they think they would be good parents, or because society is accommodating to child raising, but because society, particularly Western society, oh screw it, let's just tell it like it is, because the Great White Race needs them to. Folks who don't believe in religion should work harder at it, or just pretend to believe, if all else fails, because society (again, Western society, ie the white race) needs them to.
    In other words, people should make highly personal decisions which directly impact their life for the good of the collective, so that the folks at TAC and elsewhere in conservaland can continue to enjoy their "group rights" of being in the ongoing, religiously based, majority culture. And yet they will turn around and accuse "the left" of suborning the individual to the mass, of being purely utilitarian, of running roughshod over individual conscience, and so on.

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  72. Dr. Hunky Jimpjorps10:47 AM

    Hair-shirt condoms!

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  73. Mr. Wonderful10:58 AM

    This astute litany points up the essential incipient madness at the heart of what we're now left calling "conservatism." I rail at their hypocrisy as much as (read: more than) the next guy, but it's pointless. They can't help but be hypocrites, because their every political tenet and value is, they actually think, based on *principle.*



    The more you assert that your life and opinions are guided by abstract principles, the more you must be either a fanatic or a hypocrite. Liberals have principles too, of course, but mainly want to address objective, documentable social problems. Conservatives, if not motivated (per Keynes) to simply defend greed (the one principle they do honor), are authoritarians eager to please Daddy--Rush; Jebus; either Koch--and reactionaries, who "want their country back."



    Actually, it's worse than that: they begin with their feelings and unconscious fears (of which they are oblivious), and come up with a "principle" to justify it. If the new one contradicts the one of five minutes ago, so what? It's a free country.

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  74. BigHank5311:31 AM

    make financial independence something to look forward to


    A lot of people would be satisfied if financial independence was made feasible, instead of the cruel joke it is now. Between pathetic 28 hour-a-week minimum wage jobs, six figure debt for college degrees, and 300 applicants for every job opening, tossing one off not only looks like a good short-term plan, but it's also the only entertainment they can afford.

    ReplyDelete
  75. "Fuck like your country depends on it!"

    I am interested in your newsletter.

    ReplyDelete
  76. This summer, I interviewed Dr. Helen Smith about her book Men on Strike...


    It's not a strike if nobody wants to employ you.

    ReplyDelete
  77. SomeBodhi11:43 AM

    I thought it was two wet-suits and one dildo

    ReplyDelete
  78. sharculese11:54 AM

    And let's not forget that when a wingnut says 'people aren't having enough sex' what they mean is 'white (and honorary white) people aren't having enough sex.'

    ReplyDelete
  79. Jaime Oria11:55 AM

    "DIE INTO MORTALITY" ?

    ReplyDelete
  80. IncongruousAmoeba12:01 PM

    Thanks for this -- I live in Japan, and I get tired of this kind of thing. Really though, it's just a convenient target because nobody in America really knows anything about Japan, so they're free to imagine or make up whatever the hell they like.

    ReplyDelete
  81. They should be glad Obama is so bad at being Hitler that he forgot to initiate a propaganda campaign to encourage the new brown Master Race to make even more babies than they already do.

    ReplyDelete
  82. Mark_Bzzzz12:13 PM

    Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't.

    ReplyDelete
  83. IncongruousAmoeba12:28 PM

    I have to disagree, but I will just say this: even if we assume there is a difference that should be explained (or that *can* be explained), why do we assume it is Japan that must be explained and not America? Why isn't there a reason that American female pop stars are slutty? (the exaggerated strawman version of your comparison)


    In any case, I have yet to see any evidence that there *is* such a trend.


    As for the article in question, these are people who draw political conclusions from the color of their shit in the toilet -- to paraphrase Roy, not addressing cultural differences is the least of their problems.

    ReplyDelete
  84. To be fair, if we're discussing sexual hangups in Japan, underpants gnomes apparently could make a profit.

    ReplyDelete
  85. 'white (and honorary white) people aren't having enough joyless, procreation-focused sex.'


    As the kids nowadays say, FTFYWNHS.

    ReplyDelete
  86. IncongruousAmoeba12:33 PM

    Actually, that's the one part I don't disagree with, too much: mendokusai means "too much trouble", it's just not specific to dating or sex -- like the Urban Dictionary says, "pain in the ass". Of course, if PITA isn't the word for "not dating" in America, then "mendokusai" isn't the word for "not dating" in Japan, but I think it's more of an overblown metaphor than a factual error.

    ReplyDelete
  87. Mooser12:39 PM

    "When nearly all is permitted (sexually, that is), the prospect of sex loses its forbidden fruit aspect"


    I mean, you know, absolutely! I mean, what if people got married, established a home, and then, with all the support and encouragement of society, had children? Where's the fun in that
    No, two scared kids, filled with sexual conflict and bodily ignorance, and afraid of going to hell or catching an STD? Now, that's how America should keep it's population up.

    ReplyDelete
  88. Mooser12:44 PM

    Well, it beats fluttering like a wounded bird in her boudoir, held captive by kohl.-rimmed eyes dilated by belladonna, until a merciful syncope releases you from the sense of your own moral degradation!
    Well, until the unemployment checks run out. Then, it's back to the boudoir

    ReplyDelete
  89. Mooser12:47 PM

    I only mention the bit about "fluttering like a wounded bird" because it happened to a friend of mine, and he told me about it.

    ReplyDelete
  90. Mooser12:50 PM

    GregMc, believe me, I know somebody who is really pissed off because I'm not having sex. But I try not to act out.

    ReplyDelete
  91. M. Krebs12:51 PM

    Last I looked, they still use women to make porn. Though there has been a general trend toward robotics since the invention of the breast implant.

    ReplyDelete
  92. coozledad12:55 PM

    Helen also argues that online porn is replacing the need for American women.



    Good God! Porn is making sandwiches now!?

    ReplyDelete
  93. Mooser12:56 PM

    "But, mostly, it's about keeping white bread America just the way it is...."


    '...portrayed in TV shows and movies.' There you go, it's fixed.

    ReplyDelete
  94. coozledad12:58 PM

    I hadn't seen this before I commented. I'll see if I can get my wife to make you a sandwich.

    ReplyDelete
  95. In England everything is permitted unless it is forbidden.
    In Germany everything is forbidden unless it is permitted.
    In Italy everything is permitted even if it is forbidden.
    In America, everything is forbidden unless we need you white folks to fuck more to produce more wage slaves and cannon fodder because I can't be bothered to get a real job, serve my country OR have a Quiverfull.

    ReplyDelete
  96. Mooser1:00 PM

    "*Yes, I am avoiding the obvious conjugation jokes here."


    I got it, anyway! August (after Augustus) is such a sexy month!

    ReplyDelete
  97. Gromet1:01 PM

    "When nearly all is permitted (sexually, that is), the prospect of sex loses its forbidden fruit aspect"

    I read a thing written by a doctor whose minister's nephew told him the kids today don't even masturbate anymore. And why should they? Society no longer tells them that touching a part of their own body will damn them to eternal torment! It's the end of common sense.

    ReplyDelete
  98. Mooser1:02 PM

    I think you'll want to replace "country" with 'confederacy'.

    ReplyDelete
  99. Mooser1:03 PM

    "I fuckin' love porn, but I fuckin' love fuckin' more."


    That's fine, but just remember: There is no such things as "safe sex"! If it's not dangerous, it's not sex.

    ReplyDelete
  100. Mooser1:08 PM

    "True story, and I even managed to not be the kind of creepy old guy that would turn around and offer my services."


    Have you no manners, no chivalry, at all? Have you sir, at long last, no decency? Did you expect the young lady to tap you on the shoulder, or send you an engraved invitation?

    ReplyDelete
  101. Mooser1:11 PM

    "Society no longer tells them that touching a part of their own body will damn them to eternal torment!"


    Yes, that's true, but they'll finally have a use for soap.

    ReplyDelete
  102. I suspected as much... you'd be "floundering like a wounded moose" amirite?

    ReplyDelete
  103. Mark_Bzzzz1:32 PM

    Ribbed for her pleasure.

    ReplyDelete
  104. Nah, too sane and responsible.

    ReplyDelete
  105. In a roundabout way, though, he's done this. Why do you think there's a contraception mandate? It applies only to Real True Christian white folks, so that the dusky hordes can even more easily outbreed them.

    ReplyDelete
  106. Well, certainly.
    Especially in our desires to dominate the Pacific.

    ReplyDelete
  107. What do you mean, "now"?

    ReplyDelete
  108. Jaime Oria2:14 PM

    Well, I dunno if one can draw any conclusions viz asexuality or compulsive wanking or It Takes A Million Otaku To Hold The Nation Back from this article, but it sure seems to hold more water than any of Dr Helen's nonsense:
    http://dangerousminds.net/comments/want_to_see_whats_ahead_for_americas_young_pay_attention_to_whats_already_h

    ReplyDelete
  109. Spaghetti Lee2:28 PM

    I don't think America is the "norm" and doesn't need explanation, if that's what you're implying. The discussion at hand was about Japan, is all.

    ReplyDelete
  110. Bethany Spencer2:31 PM

    Pervert.

    ReplyDelete
  111. Smut Clyde2:32 PM

    Lucky Pierre, always in the middle.

    ReplyDelete
  112. Smut Clyde2:35 PM

    There is no such things as "safe sex"!
    Perhaps you need a bigger safe.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Smut Clyde2:39 PM

    what Dr. Helen is documenting here
    Objecion! "Document" implies factual evidence.

    ReplyDelete
  114. Smut Clyde2:40 PM

    the old standby Veni, vidi, veni.
    Who are you calling Weeny and Weedy?

    ReplyDelete
  115. Jay B.2:47 PM

    When nearly all is permitted (sexually, that is), the prospect of sex loses its forbidden fruit aspect and becomes more ho-hum.


    The celibate is right. Sex was way better when you couldn't or shouldn't have it. It was the frisson of the altar and the altar boy that made child rape in the Catholic Church the turn on it was, now that it's totally OK, most priests can hardly be bothered. Likewise, it was WAY better when closeted guys would have to hustle in toilet stalls instead of openly dating or something. Shame was the thing, the turn on, the reason why sex was so so good. Sure, it may have led to lives of quiet desperation, loneliness or massive institutional horror foisted on innocent kids by monsters, but it was the forbidden that made it so exciting. All it took was a war-mongering right winger to point it out to the yawning sexual libertines among us in order to really show the potency of repression.

    ReplyDelete
  116. RogerAiles2:48 PM

    DMOP's turning men Japanese
    She's got them turning Japanese
    I really think so.
    No sex
    No drugs
    All whine
    About women
    Nobama
    Ayn Rand
    Glenn's schlong
    No wonder she barks

    ReplyDelete
  117. "Interestingly, in her book, Dr. Helen also argues that online porn is replacing the need for American women. This is partly because online porn doesn’t sleep with your friends, nag you on game day, or sue you for child support."



    Because all women are good for is fucking, fucking around, bitching or dragging your ass to court.



    And then you read the comments after this pathetic piece of puke and – surprise! – the call is answered by a bunch of worthless fucks with limp dicks who blame women for their miserable lives.

    ReplyDelete
  118. glennisw2:54 PM

    When nearly all is permitted (sexually, that is), the prospect of sex loses its forbidden fruit aspect
    Oh, brave new worlds where no one's family upbringing or life experience causes repression!
    The fact that other people might feel free to do something doesn't forbid you from still being able to mess up your own family as much as you want to!

    ReplyDelete
  119. RogerAiles2:57 PM

    Fantasyabendessenparteigotchadammerunggemutlichkeit

    ReplyDelete
  120. Halloween_Jack3:05 PM

    *monocle drops out of my eye*

    ReplyDelete
  121. JennOfArk3:07 PM

    You could build a great Penthouse Forum letter off of that first paragraph, if'n you cut off the last sentence of it.

    ReplyDelete
  122. JennOfArk3:16 PM

    Shit, it's not just most of our economy. It's the entire fucking capitalist system that doesn't function without infinite growth. Which is why it's a stupid system to enshrine in the first place.

    ReplyDelete
  123. tigrismus4:02 PM

    This is also why no one has ever had sex on their honeymoon.

    ReplyDelete
  124. Gromet4:07 PM

    I thought it was because they were too tired from riding the Tea Cups and Space Mountain. (Ugh, couples that honeymoon at Disneyland, what is wrong with you?)

    ReplyDelete
  125. Dr. Hunky Jimpjorps4:10 PM

    Maybe there's a lot of tinfoil and Autotune foreplay.

    ReplyDelete
  126. Smut Clyde4:24 PM

    When nearly all is permitted (nutritionally, that is), the prospect of food loses its forbidden fruit aspect. I'm sure I would enjoy bacon and lobster more if I were Jewish.

    ReplyDelete
  127. Gromet4:32 PM

    Ah yes. We just need to elect a Republican president who understands this law. Then he (or she!) can masterfully tell Iran it can haz all the nukes it wants... and voila! Iran loses interest in nukes.

    ReplyDelete
  128. merl14:45 PM

    or even no porn at all.

    ReplyDelete
  129. Haystack5:40 PM

    Nicely put, Mister. And sticking to principles sounds better than enslaved by primal dread.

    ReplyDelete
  130. M. Krebs6:31 PM

    Since it's a noun, I believe that should be Fantasyabendessenparteigotchadammerunggemutlichkeit.

    ReplyDelete
  131. whetstone6:44 PM

    It turns out Men On Strike is the first book researched entirely by blegging:

    Indeed, much of Ms. Smith's material comes from the comments section on
    her own "Dr. Helen" blog. These commenters tend to be men who got burned
    in a divorce or other relationship."


    But it's ok because they are all rational actors:

    A right-leaning libertarian, she is a believer in homo economicus.
    The general retreat of men from their traditional responsibilities, she
    reasons, reflects a rational calculation of costs and benefits. When
    men go on strike, she says, they “are acting rationally in response to the lack of incentives today’s society offers them to be responsible fathers, husbands and providers.”


    So dropping out of college is an economically rational response because there, women are told that "most if not all men are rapists."


    This is the ultimate legacy of Ayn Rand: transforming butthurt gestures of pique into stoic, unassailable logic. As a cold-hearted Darwinist myself, I appreciate the self-selection. Enjoy Galt's Gulch, hope there are enough blow-up dolls to go around.

    ReplyDelete
  132. whetstone6:57 PM

    Being old enough to remember when online porn was available to the lucky few, I do not recall that its purpose went unfulfilled before, though perhaps liberals are more creative.

    ReplyDelete
  133. Gotta outbreed th' heathens!!


    I'm actually disappointed that the Japanese study is baloney. Need. Fewer. Humans. Everywhere. And frankly, I got ill at the thought of Bob Dole on Viagra; don't make me think about Today's Republican Elite doin' the nasty.

    ReplyDelete
  134. XeckyGilchrist8:17 PM

    Wrong! Freedom of Lightbulb Choice is really a concern!

    ReplyDelete
  135. XeckyGilchrist8:18 PM

    (beats up an entire bar full of toughs)

    ReplyDelete
  136. XeckyGilchrist8:18 PM

    Stop that or we'll kill you to death.

    ReplyDelete
  137. Shruggggg8:26 PM

    Nope. As I remember it, Rand's fictional world included no babies, no senior citizens, no disabled people, no race or nationalism... in other words, no reality to puncture that perfect bullshit bubble world in her crazy, crazy head.

    ReplyDelete
  138. XeckyGilchrist8:42 PM

    Not always: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Honor_of_the_German_Mother

    ReplyDelete
  139. Smut Clyde9:17 PM

    Society has any number of taboos and inhibitions about crapping, but the forbidden-fruit aspect of shitting in the street does not make it any more pleasurable. Or so I hear from a friend.

    ReplyDelete
  140. Haystack9:26 PM

    Yer on a roll, bud.

    ReplyDelete
  141. Mooser9:50 PM

    Probably. And the sad part is, I moose like a wounded flounder, too.

    Now, if you'll excuse me, I have several grudges to nurse. I often bottle-feed them until they are old enough to fend for themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  142. Mooser9:54 PM

    "Sex is not going away, and the decline of cursive writing is not like the decline of Rome."


    From what I've read, the decline of Rome was actually nothing like the decline of Rome, either.

    ReplyDelete
  143. synykyl10:14 PM

    Ask not what your country can do for you, ask who you can do for your country.

    ReplyDelete
  144. IncongruousAmoeba11:21 PM

    Isn't that a really, really* low bar, though?


    * repeat as many times as necessary

    ReplyDelete
  145. montag211:33 PM

    Well, yes, if you mean tv shows and movies of the `50s, which are the cultural wellspring of conservative fantasies about how the world works.

    ReplyDelete
  146. montag212:05 AM

    Ah, well, conservative nostalgia and fear of the decline of big-C Civilization have gone hand in hand since time immemorial. it wasn't that long ago that women riding bicycles signalled the end times.


    A thousand years from now--if we last that long--our descendants may well look at the likes of the very concerned Mrs. and Mrs. Ol' Perfesser and think that they were savages simply affecting the trappings of civilization while behaving badly (extolling the virtues of .50 caliber sniper rifles and brainless patriarchy may figure into that).

    ReplyDelete
  147. montag212:16 AM

    "Enjoy Galt's Gulch, hope there are enough blow-up dolls to go around."


    Hmm. These are people who are self-evidently not good at sharing, so they'd best plan on bringing their own.

    ReplyDelete
  148. [aftermirth]
    "While Not Having Sex," apparently.
    [/aftermirth]

    ReplyDelete
  149. Smut Clyde5:27 AM

    Sometimes Turnbull's description of Ik culture -- contentious though it was -- comes to mind as the archetypal Randian society.

    ReplyDelete
  150. TGuerrant7:12 AM

    7. Dildos

    ReplyDelete
  151. Derelict7:57 AM

    This comment is giving me the Vapors!

    ReplyDelete
  152. Derelict8:02 AM

    Every conservative parent I've known has been dead-set against sex education in the schools. "That's a job for the parents!!!!" they bellow. When you ask a natural follow-up question such as, "Well, did your parents give you a complete sex education?", you find out the answer is invariably "No." And when do these parents intend to give their kids "the talk?" Two days after the wedding, usually.

    ReplyDelete
  153. Derelict8:06 AM

    Ah! But the law in its majesty prevents both rich and poor from defecating in the street! Thus, one will never see the likes of David Koch crapping in the azaleas on Park Avenue.

    ReplyDelete
  154. TGuerrant8:24 AM

    Alt.: Dildokusan (m., sup.), dildokukun (f., inf.), dildokuchan (ch.)

    ReplyDelete
  155. TGuerrant8:31 AM

    Plus which Dr. Helen should be focusing on those horndog Chinese instead. There are 1.35 billion of them and they just won't stop doing it. She better damn well get some porn into that country and soon!

    ReplyDelete
  156. Answer an Ad in the paper and write your own. Thats how I met mr. aimai. For every crooked foot there's a crooked shoe. This has been a PSA from the entire world that believes in you and knows you will find the right person.

    ReplyDelete
  157. How does Mendokusai relate to Rashomon?

    ReplyDelete
  158. One thing there aren't, though, is children. Haven't they been having the naughty, non reproductive sex for at least the entire time they've been having it--however brief compared to robot orgasms?

    ReplyDelete
  159. TGuerrant9:08 AM

    Ah for the good old days when men were men and women were chattel!

    ReplyDelete
  160. Anyone remember the topline media hysteria over discovering the transformation of the imaginary respected Japanese paterfamilias into a "garbageman" when the "salarymen" were demoted and fired and turned out to have no meaningful homelife at all--their wives and kids having had no contact with them for the duration of their marriages or childhoods there was simply nothing for them when they were demoted or booted from work. That must have been during the lost decade, I think. At any rate I remember endless pop journalist articles about how terrible it was and how many were committing sucide. The take home point of all this was to say "Japanese--its so weird! We thought the women were all submissive and sexy but the truth is they were just hard working gold diggers who could care less about their lord and master. And don't get me started on those drones! They've got no anima.

    ReplyDelete
  161. The point is that the servant class is not reproducing itself and therefore not paying into Social Security or paying Tennesee taxes and for police, fire, Fema and all other government services that dr. mrs. helen and her spouse actually rely on. This is not really a problem given that we, unlike Japan, have a lively immigrant community--legal and illegal--to replace the workers not born to the white upper class (and, of course, they never were born to that class of people since they gave birth to new upper class people not workers). But Dr. Mrs. Helen isn't worried about that. She'd like to believe that when she goes into a nursing home she will be carefully tended by white ladies but she suspects its going to be hispanics and blacks and she really isn't happy about that.

    ReplyDelete
  162. Huge, huge props for the Ik reference.

    ReplyDelete
  163. Why do I think both of you had a formative experience of humor that derived entirely from Mad Magazine?

    ReplyDelete
  164. I'm trying to imagine the mesages left on answering machines in the honeymoon suite:


    "Darling...dad and I want to talk to you, can you please pick up...?"
    "Darling?"
    "Darling?"
    "Darling?"

    ReplyDelete
  165. Really, I rather thought he was crapping all over all public spaces.

    ReplyDelete
  166. Whats weird about this--which is like saying "what is weird about a boneless horror that lurks under the bed--is that its fine to say that people are rational actors and follow their incentives but doesn't this also apply to women? You might just as well argue that women are stepping up and performing the social and emotional roles that used to be assigned to men because men aren't performing them, or the way they perform them comes at too high a cost for the women. Which is basically the argument they make about Japan--men and women are following their bliss and deciding not to fuck. Here, men and women are following their bliss and deciding not to get married and that the men are going to choose to shoot themselves in the foot and not go to college, while women are going to continue to try to thrive, educate themselves, and form families. Everybody does what logic dictates. So why complain?

    ReplyDelete
  167. The Japanese situation is not baloney, though. They need replacement people to occupy the buildings, perform work, and care for the sick and for children but they are too anti immigrant/anti foreigner to permit people to emigrate and become citizens. So it is closer to imagining the entire society as a gated community in Arizona that won't even accept hispanic day labor for fear those people will want to occupy an abandoned house and stay and have kids. The end result will be as bad for them as the flight of immigrant labor has been for Arizona.

    ReplyDelete
  168. Darren Madigan9:47 AM

    "Fuck because the Great Race needs more babies" = "Shut up and do what you're told". Which is pretty much what every conservative skree boils down to, and what every conservative whiner is complaining about. If we'd all just shut up do what conservatives tell us to do, the world would be a better place. For somebody. Somebody named Koch. Or Romney. Or Bush.

    ReplyDelete
  169. Haystack11:28 AM

    The stealth technology required to allow him to do this invisibly is why he needs all those billions.

    ReplyDelete
  170. whetstone2:06 PM

    So why complain?


    Pageviews? If newspaper comment threads are any indication, 75% of web traffic is angry middle-aged white men who are underemployed or bored at work. And DMOP seems to have realized this. Insofar as she cares, maybe that's why.



    Kidding (kind of). I think what might actually piss me off the most about her is not actually that this war-on-men stuff is bullshit. Even though the demographic that's seen its lifespan dramatically decrease in the past generation is in fact white and undereducated, but is not the one Helen Smith is so worked up about.



    It's that she's encouraging the supposed victims to give up. FFS, if you spot her that feminism won, it didn't win by women dropping out of college and quitting their jobs. A professional psychologist encouraging damaged people to double down on their victimhood is kind of disturbing to me.

    ReplyDelete
  171. JennOfArk2:14 PM

    I'm noticing a pattern in your comments...

    ReplyDelete
  172. Matt Jones2:42 PM

    "How can an entire country lose the will to reproduce itself, which is to say, the will to live?"


    Simple: they've realized that their offspring are going to have to share the planet with the spawn of folks like Lewis, etc and have decided to spare them the hassle.

    ReplyDelete
  173. Smut Clyde3:41 PM

    These are people for whom "the trappings of civilzation" consists of "digging stake-lined pits around the perimeter of the compound".

    ReplyDelete
  174. Smut Clyde3:44 PM

    It is all too easy to imagine the Gulch Culture wiped out by venereal disease spread by shared blow-up dolls.

    ReplyDelete
  175. satch4:06 PM

    Since young people need to feel economically secure before they'll start having children, it was great to hear Raffi Williams, Deputy Press Secretary for the RNC, on Up With Steve Kornacki this morning giving us the Pug plan for health care reform: "What I'm encouraging young people to do is go get a job that gives you health care." Jesus... thanks, Pugs. Being the mooching parasite I am, I never wouldda thunk of THAT!

    ReplyDelete
  176. satch4:21 PM

    "...Clueless Libtard guest hastily jumps to defend porn with something like "What's wrong with porn?"



    I'd be a lot happier if Clueless Libtard instead said something like: "That's the stupidest fucking I've heard you say in the last five minutes, but I'm sure it won't be the last."

    ReplyDelete
  177. tigrismus7:02 PM

    'til your dying day, if ever you live that long.

    ReplyDelete
  178. StringOnAStick7:17 PM

    When one of my aunts totally lost it mentally and entered a nursing home, one of her first reactions was to scream "get that n!gg1r away from me!" when a black caretaker entered. The truly sad thing was that when her kids apologized to the caretaker, she said it happens all the time.

    ReplyDelete
  179. Oh, yes, my step great grandmother who died at the age of 106 about...uh...18 years ago so we are talking a really, really, old person was quite massively racist and angry with the lovely women who looked after her in the old age home. She was a horrible person to begin with so its not like her suspicion and conviction tht they were stealing from her was anything new--she was like that with everyone.

    ReplyDelete
  180. DocAmazing10:09 PM

    Depends who you ask.

    ReplyDelete
  181. our descendants may well look at the likes of the very concerned Mrs.
    and Mrs. Ol' Perfesser and think that they were savages simply affecting
    the trappings of civilization while behaving badly


    I guess I'm just a thousand years ahead of my time, because I already think that.

    ReplyDelete
  182. I thought it was because they were too tired from riding the Tea Cups and Space Mountain.


    Oh, yeah.


    ... Wait, you're talking about Disneyland?

    ReplyDelete
  183. "What I'm encouraging young people to do is go get a job that gives you health care."


    We would, Raffi, but the position of "talentless mendacious asslicker for plutocratic sociopaths" is obviously already filled.

    ReplyDelete
  184. IncongruousAmoeba2:12 AM

    Sure, and I didn't mean to single you out; I think often when we (including myself here) hear something about another country or another culture or whatever we tend to wonder what the explanation for that is, but never think about our side as needing explanation -- and Japan tends to be a common target for this kind of thing, which is a sore spot for me personally.


    But mostly what irritates me is "pundits" like David Brooks hear some factoid that sounds interesting and publish a bunch of pseudo-scientific philosophical masturbation that serves no purpose other than to fellate the egos of the author and readers alike, and nobody even gives a shit whether the factoid is true or not!

    ReplyDelete
  185. Smut Clyde3:54 AM

    Sign up for drug trials. Perhaps the Frau Doktorin investigator will be beautiful, and of the appropriate sex, and will share your sense of humour.
    Or so I hear from a friend.

    ReplyDelete
  186. Well put. I find that "in real life", people who are always talking about "principles", or saying "It's the principle of the thing", are generally people I want to avoid.

    ReplyDelete
  187. In "The Fountainhead" she mentions Italian American laborers and if I recall correctly isn't Gail Wynand, the tragic newspaper magnate, supposed to be "ethnic" in some way? Not that this matters very much.

    ReplyDelete
  188. XeckyGilchrist12:32 PM

    If only those shows had been more explicit about the top marginal tax rate of the day, Movement Conservatism might never have happened.

    ReplyDelete
  189. XeckyGilchrist12:36 PM

    In America, everything is claimed to be permitted but isn't if it's profitable to forbid it.

    ReplyDelete
  190. M. Krebs3:03 PM

    My late mother did the same thing. She'd have been 100 next year.

    ReplyDelete
  191. M. Krebs3:13 PM

    According to Krugman, in a decade or two France will become the most populous country in Europe. I for one welcome our future French overlords.

    ReplyDelete
  192. Yes, but they won't be "Real" french will they? Won't they be all mettissage-y? Also: will they still be interested in all that stinky cheese?

    ReplyDelete
  193. M. Krebs10:10 PM

    I sure hope so.

    ReplyDelete
  194. panchito5:56 AM

    I think this is good so the need marihuana for smoke and relax men

    ReplyDelete