Comment by bros_are_people | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bros_are_people | Hacker News Reader

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bros_are_people

First of all, let me be clear. I was answering YOUR pointed question I had no intention of trying to sway you. I don't at all care about what other people do. I especially do not make harsh judgements about people because of their interests. I am well aware you can socialize outside of a structured system, so there was no need to condescend there.

Second, holy moly...a 10 paragraph rant, with videos! Over something you supposedly don't care about.

Wow, again, I find it odd that the mere existence of fraternities yields such an overt emotional response from some people. You really flipped out and overanalyzed a group that you decided you didn't want to be a part of, and therefore, shouldn't care about.

> They think that because they belonged to a social club for four years and nailed lots of girls that they know how to navigate every kind of social exchange.

Who is this collective they you refer to? How could you possibly know all of their thoughts? Clubs are still made up of individuals, you know. You sound like you're still in college, you're projecting a lot.

> But for some frat guys they think it doesn't end. They never want to leave the parties, the easy nightly fucking, the parties, and all the rest -- and oh yeah, the parties.

This is categorically false. Everyone grows up, eventually. A lot of successful people have been in fraternities. No one said anyone outside of fraternities can't also be successful or social.

There are merits to joining all sorts of social clubs. However all these merits are easily available to individuals as well. There is no need to be so affected by the interests of others! Even if its gasp partying, like you so cleverly pointed out.

I was just answering your question

> Do graduates seriously continue to resent people who were in fraternities that much?

And it's not the existence of frats that's the problem, if people want to join a club at school, there's tons of them on every campus for every kind of interest: chess, forestry, asian lesbian fashion, whatever.

Frats appear to serve the interest of "party and screw around". Like I said, whatever, you only live once and you may as well have fun when you're young. It's not like there aren't other kinds of clubs on campus that aren't exactly promoting a studious approach to life.

But it's the after college that matters. And the kind of behavior I provided links to is the kind of behavior that matters to people and rubs them the wrong way.

> Who is this collective they you refer to? How could you possibly know all of their thoughts?

Why do a bunch of former frat guys create an interesting startup but continue to behave like a group of douchebags? I don't know what their internal motivations are, but I know they're presenting the public image of an asshole in a behavior pattern that's associated with the frat-life. Why they chose to do that is not my problem. I frankly don't care what thoughts they're having that leads them to behave like a barely tamed group of hormone charged teenage gorillas.

But the end result is asinine stuff like this story.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8489273

And this behavior really affects people. Lots of people. It's not a "victimless crime".

It's the people who don't stop realizing they're in a frat long after they're out, the aftermath of the frat-life that real people have to deal with. I know it's a minority of frat members, but the size of the bad behavior overwhelms almost all other conversation you can have about frats, even the relative merits.

> This is categorically false. Everyone grows up, eventually.

I basically agree with you. But we've all met the 45 year old bro who hasn't grown up yet. And a disturbing number of them have been floating up the corporate ladder by riding the coattails of their greek brothers. Some of them even get put into position where they're running companies and are responsible for tens of millions of dollars. There's a specific kind of life this kind of guy has been trying to replicate for a couple of decades, and it's annoying and stupid to everyone around him.

Yeah it's a stereotype, and yeah it's a bad one. I'm not saying it isn't. But it's an immediately recognizable one that most people have come into some kind of unfortunate contact with.

You asked what the problem was that people have with fraternities, I've answered it.

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