Same for the Bacha-bazi custom in Afghanistan ("a custom in Afghanistan involving child sexual abuse by older men of young adolescent males or boys, called dancing boys, often involving sexual slavery and child prostitution").
The proper way to evaluate cultural practices is by looking at what society they create. Western culture is by no means perfect, but as a whole package - it's the best there is. So yes, they would be better.
Sure - if we’re talking about Finland vs Iceland or something like that where people are 95% on the same page. But other cultures have the abusive practices you mention above - and worse. China used to have foot-binding. FGM is pretty common in Africa right now (no jokes about that in the latest Black Panther though).
Western culture already has driven fertility rates well below replacement. Alongside that we also have skyrocketing obesity rates, skyrocketing rates of mental illness and drug dependence/abuse, plummeting testosterone levels, the end of the Flynn Effect, governmental approval ratings approaching zero, and more. Our culture, in its current form, is not even remotely close to sustainable.
There has to be some meet in the middle between "Follow the ancient holy book, or die!" and "Let's hedonize ourselves out of existence." As both those extremes mostly feel like two opposite ends of a horse-shoe, to me.
Yes but it's clear it's not 'western culture' but 'industrial economy'. It's happening everywhere. Eg. Iranian TFR dropped off a cliff since the 80s.
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/466445/Fertility-at-below-r...
Kids used to be income generators, now they're a luxury.
And, like China, it worked too well. Their birth rate fertility rate dropped from above 6 to below 3 in less than a decade. But then it kept falling, to the point of unsustainability. They realized they'd made a huge mistake so they began efforts to try to reverse it. Yet, like China, that has generally been a complete failure.
This is one of the most insidious things about fertility rates. They're not terribly difficult to send low, even to extinction trajectory low. But getting them back up is something that nobody has yet managed to achieve.
Which apparently isn't all that old. And you know, which the Taliban hates. A lot of the evil things the Taliban did (and do!) were justified in outrage over sexual violence.
What’s white about it ?
These days we tend to talk about race and culture in a weird way, where we ascribe bad things to white Europeans, but pretend like aspects of white European culture we think are good (like attitudes on gender norms or sexuality) transcend culture and are universal truths. In a way, that's more condescending than just saying "Europeans have figured out how to do this particular thing better."
I think it's important to be honest. I'm a Bangladeshi who changes diapers and feeds the baby at night because I was raised around people of European descent. Men in my home country overwhelmingly do not do that.
Bangladesh was not an isolated cultural island, where did they import their current gender role attitudes from ?
the real problem of machismo spelled out in the article is not diapers or dishes, but violence against the rights of others
Can someone look at the enlightenment and say “white” ?
Nearly a millennium of rule by Islamic empires.
> Can someone look at the enlightenment and say “white” ?
Yes, and far more so than pretty much anything else commonly ascribed to “white people” these days.
OwO
Your reaction is almost synonymous to this, mainly showing fear women have, statistics for women, etc. Regardless if perpetrators are primarily men, men tend to be victims far more often than women, and far more often than they are perpetrators. For almost every country. Yet the narrative never reveals this, and goes as far as to make it sound like men are predominantly perpetrators (which is a vastly different statement than 'perpetrators are predominantly men').
Even writers who recognize this will quickly dismiss any notion that the West is introducing other problems through the methods used. That statement of 'men need much more civilizing'? That happened, and now boys are walking around thinking they are the problem before they even had a chance to prove themselves while girls are told they can do everything, even get way with (sometimes literal) murder. Western media is arrogant enough to denounce counterculture to boot.
Whether that be better than what is the current state in LA is irrelevant to those preoccupied with looking at the West alone. Doubly so since the situation is LA is generally irrelevant to them and won't ever affect them directly.
But not for the same things
I don’t see the point of saying “men get killed too” - the point is to stop the killing
> and now boys are walking around thinking they are the problem before they even had a chance to prove themselves while girls are told they can do everything, even get way with (sometimes literal) murder
Trying to give you the HN comment benefit of the doubt but that is a very broad generalization that can’t possibly apply to most boys or girls - sounds like BS to me
The man subject in the article is a self-proclaimed victim of toxic masculinity. He didn't die per-se but it doesn't take mental gymnastics to understand that many young men imprisoned for never being taught how to be civilized are as much victims of their circumstance as they are guilty for their behaviors wrought from it.
I think it was Bell Hooks who talked a lot about this, how men are also victims of patriarchy in general, and how overlooking this truth retards the healing progress
At the core of a violent act an individual acts in a way that harms another individual - be it theft, rape or murder. Could be heat of the moment, or cold blooded action. Either way someone gets hurt
In addition to enforcing consequences we should identify the causes and work to continue civilizing individuals