Uniquely Evil and Silly Ideas
Radical Feminists, Incels, and the absence common sense
A joke I love is that when Americans hear the word “culture,” they think of some combination of foreign language, spicy food, and colorful clothes. Of course those can be aspects of a culture, but what does the word actually mean, more broadly? In The Beginning of Infinity, David Deutsch defines it as a “set of ideas that cause their holders to behave alike in some ways.” An open-minded person from Boston who is a fan of the Enlightenment and a dogmatic Muslim from Syria hold different sets of ideas, and therefore they behave very differently.
With this definition in mind, let’s look at two cultures within America I’ve been thinking about because I find them particularly unsettling, for many reasons. At the highest level, they are disturbing because they are incompatible with the growth of knowledge and civilization. At the simplest level, they are just plain stupid. The two cultures I’m referencing can be summed up as men who tend to hate women in general, and women who tend to hate men in general. Popular terms for these two cultures are Radical Feminists and Incels.
To break it down, let me define each culture a bit more. What are the sets of ideas that cause these holders to behave alike in some ways?
Radical Feminism argues that the patriarchy is the main structure organizing society, and ending women’s oppression requires taking it apart, not just achieving equality. Meanwhile, “Incels” (short for “involuntary celibates”) are online groups of guys who have been unsuccessful in developing romantic and sexual relationships, and respond to this with intense resentment and hostility toward women in general.
The root issue with the Radical Feminists is that they view all differences between men and women as culturally imposed, rather than biologically influenced. Not all differences mean there is discrimination at play, and recognizing that there are biological sex differences between men and women doesn’t contradict equality. It’s simply observation. Consider the demographics of certain professions. Nursing and teaching are female dominated, while engineering is male dominated, and young boys and girls consistently prefer different types of toys. None of this necessarily means there is sexism or excessive imposing of behavior going on, although there undoubtedly could be in certain cases. More often than not, these differences reflect natural preferences.
On the other hand, the root issue with Incels is illogical bitterness. There is a great speech by the legendary football coach Nick Saban where he talks about the importance of nothing. “You get up every day…you’re entitled to nothing,” he says. What does a woman owe a man she doesn’t know, who begins to pursue her? Nothing. If he displays he has no charisma, no wealth, and no love to offer her, what basis does he have to be bitter about her rejecting him? Zero. Yet this is what Incels do. Instead of focusing on how to improve themselves by becoming more physically fit, having good hygiene, cultivating style, working on being articulate, building confidence, and carving out a respectable career path, they just condemn women in general. It’s childish, and it doesn’t make sense.
It’s hard to comprehend how lost you must be to denounce the entire opposite sex as a whole. Yet that is essentially what these types are doing. Obviously they are not clear-headed enough to consider how deep a source of meaning and happiness a loving relationship is. Or the more obvious fact that no one could even exist had a male and female not come together in the first place. I pity many of these people in the sense that there is no way, deep down, that they are not miserable.
Both of these ideologies are built on victimhood and resentment, and therefore are bound to fail. As Will Durant said in The Lessons of History, “the family is the nucleus of civilization.” People who reject family formation and the opposite sex think they are making some sort of heroic social and political statement, when really they are just removing themselves from the future. Biology and demographics don’t care about the men complaining on Reddit or the women lecturing in gender studies class. Groups that stop making families stop existing.