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No one expects young men to do anything and they are responding by doing nothing

robkhenderson.substack.com

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Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they are responding by doing nothing

#191

Post by pessimizer »

nikanj wrote: post #52
pydry wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Defund the police blew up because certain communities' only experience of police is of being harassed, beaten and robbed. It's hardly an attitude that's dripping with privilege. The backlash, on the other hand...

Counterpoint: it’s easy to support abolishing the police, when a clogged milk foamer is the biggest threat to your personal safety. Live in a wonderful sheltered community, say ”I don’t see why we would need law enforcement”

Ah, "latte-sipping liberal."

edit: There's something correct here, because if you want to look for people who supported defund, they were probably working in food service, making you coffee.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they are responding by doing nothing

#192

Post by meken »

rayiner wrote: post #3

This is an important read, especially this part. > This highly educated and affluent person prioritized stability for her own children. But refused to publicly endorse this value so that less fortunate children could also benefit from family stability. I’m from a rigidly socially conservative immigrant family that professes fashionably liberal values in public—imposing a double standard between “us” and “Americans.”…

It’s weird.

Society has tried to influence me that money, wealth, status, career are beneficial.

I was raised middle class.

But I’ve never quite seen the point in all of it.

All it’s really led to is a lifetime of beating myself up and asking what’s “wrong” with me.

So I’m not sure more expectations and guilt is the answer.

It’s hard to see how that would have done anything more for me.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they are responding by doing nothing

#193

Post by refurb »

nottorp wrote: post #36
gumby wrote: post #19

It’s interesting to read these (plausible, far from absurd) analyses from the Anglosphere when we have an alternative to compare, to whit the northern European democracies where marriage is in steep decline across all social classes yet the societies are more successful (at least if your metrics are things like poverty rates, lifetimes, nutrition, stress, etc).

US thinkers have no idea what a social safety net is so they draw their conclusions without taking that option into account.

It’s also fun seeing US thinkers explain what life is like in Europe but clearly never lived there and are actually wrong about a lot of it.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they are responding by doing nothing

#194

Post by deebosong »

AviationAtom wrote: post #79

I teach many folks that have just left high school, and entered the military. Their being content with doing pretty much nothing shocks me. Seeing the military enabling the behavior, even more so. All because recruiting is so hard right now. Many of the recruits do join the military because they have exhausted other options. It's sad to see how productive society once was, versus where we are now. It legitimately mak…

I'm not that young, but not old enough to have witnessed generational patterns of young men shifting as a cultural phenom.

That being said, what do you feel is the cause of a drain in motivation on the endemic level? For some reason my gut reaction is to think that it's the outsourcing of jobs to other countries, and wages stagnating while prices go up. And then couple that with social media, of the life we're all told we're supposed to live, and now young men have less opportunities, less income with higher prices, and having a false idealization of "the good life" shoved down their throats.

I don't need to insist what I'm thinking is correct, but that's just what I'm kinda seeing in broad strokes. Could be way off. I also don't know if there's a version of this in every generation, or if in fact the current generation is a new/ fringe case that requires very different approaches for how to address it on a macro & interrelated scale.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they are responding by doing nothing

#195

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

archhn wrote: post #169
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I broadly empathize with what you're saying here, this: > No one that believes in their country becomes a criminal. seems completely indefensible. There are all kinds of criminals who see it as a legitimate way to exist and thrive within society. There are also many different kinds of crime, including white collar. Particularly when you live in a "got to get ahead" society, pretty much anything that can you hel…

The law is supposed to be the sacred foundation upon which a nation is built. Perhaps this view of law has been forgotten, which further emphasises my point about corruption. Breaking the law, in a serious way--I'm not talking about jaywalking--shows contempt for the foundational order of a nation. When I was younger, boy scout and all, I truly believed breaking the law was the worst thing one could possibly do. I wa…

> Things have certainly changed

It's hard to take this seriously. Crime as a way of life has a history dating back centuries, even millenia.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they are responding by doing nothing

#196

Post by throwaway6734 »

bo1024 wrote: post #133
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Society would be a hell of a lot better off if more people practiced what they preached. I really respect the hardliner commies and theocrats on their respective ends of the spectrum for consistently doing this and for consistently acknowledging and not liking when they are forced to do things not consistent with their beliefs. As a side note with regard to familial stability in general, look how dis-incentivizing fa…

It sounds more like the author wants "elites" to preach what they practice.

They largely do?

Divorce rates are much higher among people with lower educational attainment

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they are responding by doing nothing

#197

Post by seibelj »

titzer wrote: post #157
seibelj wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “only experience of police is of being harassed, beaten and robbed.” I think your representation of blacks and the police is woefully misinformed and is a figment of liberal imagination

Just wondering how many AirBnBs in Compton you've checked out.

Yes Compton would be so much better without police! If only we could defund them

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they are responding by doing nothing

#198

Post by refurb »

paconbork wrote: post #146
dijit wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It all depends on what you’re aiming for, socio-economically. If you want billionaires then the US model is much more successful. If you want a wide middle class then the Swedish model is more successful. If you want happiness then the Danish model is more successful. If you want to eliminate poverty then the Finnish model is more successful.

Sweden and Norway have more billionaires per capita than the US does.

Heritable wealth is much bigger in Europe than the US.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they are responding by doing nothing

#199

Post by Aunche »

dijit wrote: post #101
endisneigh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious to see the source showing European democracies are more successful, controlling for socioeconomic status.

It all depends on what you’re aiming for, socio-economically. If you want billionaires then the US model is much more successful. If you want a wide middle class then the Swedish model is more successful. If you want happiness then the Danish model is more successful. If you want to eliminate poverty then the Finnish model is more successful.

It's disingenuous to compare a country with another country with 1/30th the size. Otherwise, you'd come to the conclusion that Sweden would be better off as a tax haven like Luxembourg. Massachusetts matches the Nordic nations by most metrics, and blows them out of the water in terms of median income.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they are responding by doing nothing

#200

Post by igetspam »

Helitioo wrote: post #7
rayiner wrote: post #3

This is an important read, especially this part. > This highly educated and affluent person prioritized stability for her own children. But refused to publicly endorse this value so that less fortunate children could also benefit from family stability. I’m from a rigidly socially conservative immigrant family that professes fashionably liberal values in public—imposing a double standard between “us” and “Americans.”…

We need to find a better reason why this happens. I don't believe it's liberal social values which are not lived by. First of I would believe it's an educational problem and second it's a 'who cares' problem. There are plenty of areas/ghettos of low income and low education around. The blog also contains the following: "The people with the most money and education—the class most responsible for shaping culture and cu…

I don't know about "undermin[ing] the norm" but I see this kind of hypocrisy in my own family. They shout about all life being precious and abortion being murder and also how single mother's need to get harder and how they shouldn't have to pay more taxes to help lazy poor people. Both positions have one thing in common: they negatively impact non-whites and the poor more. They can't self reflect and see it, unfortunately. My family is not unique. It may not be intentional but they still clearly think that the only way they can succeed is by having others fail.
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