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I would say that you're right in some sense: most women are fine with someone respectfully asking them out. But the tricky part here is that there is a minority of women (say, the most sensitive 10%) who get genuinely upset or feel harassed by an indicator of interest in any given setting. When you're asking people out, you don't know what a particular woman's boundaries are upfront, and if you ask out the wrong woman, it can genuinely mess up your social or professional circles. This applies in friend groups and even if you look for positive indicators of interest: one woman might think giving a lingering hug is her being very explicit about her interest, while another thinks of a hug as obviously purely playonic and reacts very negatively if you take that as an okay to express your own interest.

Dating apps prefilter for "acceptable to indicate interest to" and let you avoid an ambiguous landscape that's impossible to perfectly navigate.

the absolute problem for me personally is the lack of social scene, i don't actually remember the last time i talked to anyone single, even at the few parties i forced myself to go to.

>As an older dude who has seen the games that young men play at work, I understand that the hormonal drive for guys is absolutely saturating, but you will fail and fail again if you think that #metoo stops you. If it did, you were misbehaving to start with.

Quite the contrary. I don't want to misbehave or be construed as misbehaving so I never tried anything at all. You see the most negative examples so of course you won't see the ones who don't want any risks at their workplace and put their head down.

Even on HN you will see a lot of people who hate conversing with coworkers and simply want to clock in and clock out, with no interest in making friends. And I feel that's a minor factor that leads to such behavior.

> Wait, what? This reads like the classic boomer complaint that is hard to get to know women when you can't slap their ass in the office any more. "No one can take a joke any more, etc etc"

No, it's the extremism that's a problem. Men went towards TheRedPill and similar idiots. And especially the younger millennial women and younger have seen this garbage for what it is.

However the pendulum swings to compensate. I've heard recently from quite a few places the old radical quote from 2nd wave "sex is always rape because of patriarchal power imbalance".

I've also slapped precisely 0 butts in the workplace. Nor have I said the usual shitty "women do _" things. But the problem is so many younger generations's women are overly on guard.

Hell, I've had them (at work) ask "don't I look good?", seeking attention. I flatly said that I don't make comments on appearance of men or women.

If I wasn't already with someone, I'd likely be with nobody. It's too toxic out there as a man or someone who presents as a man.

>If I wasn't already with someone, I'd likely be with nobody.

How did you end up getting with someone in that case?

It was pretty much complete luck, on both our sides.

Neither of us were looking for relationships, or sex, or whatever. We've never done any dating apps.

We met literally in the Starbucks line. Conversation started up, we both had time and sat down for coffee. It just went from there. We've been together for 10y.

Would it happen like that or similar again to either of us? Nope. Nor is it repeatable.

I see. Indeed very much happenstance.

Still it gives me a tiny shred of hope and encourages me to just keep stepping outside even when I don't fully feel like it. If there's some chance encounter where I can find a great friend or even a partner, I don't want to squander it being stuck alone in the house if I can help it.

Is it not possible there are multiple extremes at work here? The boomer example you provided is something I think is generally agreeable: it's not acceptable to go around slapping asses (man or woman) in the way you describe.

However, when the (alleged) "victim's" interpretation of something is given as much weight as it is in these laws (and it is--anyone who's had a corporate sexual harassment training course knows this), it greatly increases the risk of even more mundane interactions being reported as harassment. Even if the real rate of reports is tiny (or even unchanged from an era prior to the existence and refinement of these laws), the perception of risk still matters.

>if you think that #metoo stops you. If it did, you were misbehaving to start with.

If you read up on the Richard Stallman #metoo cancelation attempt I'd really like to know how you thought he was misbehaving because from my perspective it was simply used to jeer at and bully somebody vulnerable.

I think it's pretty rational to think that could happen to somebody else.

I could spontaneously combust tomorrow, but I don’t build my life around that. Interacting with people has a risk associated with it. For women, this risk is much higher. For men, now with things like #metoo, the risk has been raised. If you are out talking with a woman and get weird/bad vibes, politely excuse yourself and stop interacting with them. Don’t dig a deeper hole. The majority of woman will let you know if they are not interested. Poor social skills does not excuse behavior which makes someone feel unsafe.

>For men, now with things like #metoo, the risk has been raised.

Yes, that was my entire point. The movement didn't only mean that more Weinsteins got what they deserved. It also lowered the bar of what is considered "creepy" and raised the risks of behavior which is perceived as such, whether legitimately or not.

A lot of people basically don't have strong enough urge to fcuk. Something is skrewed with the chemistry. Social aspects are just noise around it.

What right does society have to demand that men act docile? Nobody cares an iota for our SAFETY, let alone our comfort.

A society that isn't built on reciprocation is not a society worthy of my respect.

Approximately everything RMS has done in his life is "misbehaving". That's why the FSF is famously ultra-combative.

His activism is quite bad for profits and that makes some people angry at him.

This indirectly led to him being accused of being a sexual predator but it doesnt mean he actually is one.

What about the part of his activism where he makes up stupid baby names for everything he doesn't like, shouts at all his colleagues and eats skin off his toes?

The attempts at character assassination are a natural side effect of his profit-hostile activism.

The attacks on his character and the noisy tantrum Google had over AGPL a few years ago (e.g. even banning it from their own version of github for a while) are manifestations of the same desire to see him and his movement nullified.

It's funny because the GPL is not anti-profit, as there's two very natural models for it: one where you sell commercial licenses for people who can't use GPL software, and one where you sell support and development contracts for it.

It isnt anti the concept of profit, it just had the effect of chewing through a lot of profit margins. The GPL was responsible for breaking Microsoft's desktop OS monopoly, for instance.

A watered down FSF run by an inoffensive do-nothing would be a better outcome for big tech than leaving him in charge. Hence the all the attempts to cancel him, including via cynically hijacking #metoo.

None of that makes him a sexual predator. You're using "he's a weirdo" to imply "he's dangerous". Obvious bullshit.

I never said he's dangerous. I would say he's obnoxious and antisocial.

Why would you bring that up in relation to " Richard Stallman #metoo cancellation attempt", unless you were trying to insinuate some sort of connection between his "obnoxious antisocial" tendencies and the sexual predator allegations (that is what is meant by "#metoo cancellation attempt")