Oddbean new post about login | logout You're absolutely correct there, although the "until the 1960s most women were housewives" is pop culture copium. That was fully sixty years ago. Women's average political choices have gotten worse not better. Single woman: "people I don't know should pay more tax to support my friend's art" Married woman: "my husband should NOT pay tax to support people I don't know." That is why women's votes change much more than men's after marriage. Don't phrase it this way when applying for research grants or public office, but women on average are much more selfish than men on average. People who want them to make better choices need to admit this and harness it.
Female friends reading this - your shoe size may be pretty close to the typical woman's, but you're about five standard deviations from the female mean on everything politically relevant. Sorry if that comes as a shock :p
Unpopular opinion... We went from a Constitutional Republic to a "democracy" when we gave women the vote.
👍 I’m glad to see that in general, this discussion has made clear that women are not all the same. We’re not, and cultural trends can be overcome. Raise the children you want to see run the world.
We're not more selfish. We're more solipsistic because we're more vulnerable. It's not fair to us, to phrase it like a design flaw.
Selfishness without any context is not a negative thing. In fact, selfishness can be very virtuous. There’s an entire book about it that I know a lot of people around here like 🤣 https://i.nostr.build/AaWWq.jpg
Interesting… My other half is a staunch socialist, we get married in two weeks time. Are you suggesting her outlook will change from that point? I’ve always veered more toward anarchic behaviour myself although we initially met on a political campaign in 2017.
I feel this revelation should come with a trigger warning on here...
Statistically, the chances of her positions shifting on various issues will be high over the next several years. That doesn't mean she will stop identifying as a Socialist, but she may emphasise different things. My personal pet conspiracy theory is that politically-engaged people of all factions have more in common with each other than with normies in many ways. But most are loathe to admit the possibility
I think that's basically horse shoe theory isn't it? I spend a fair amount of time in a state of cognitive disonance but I try to keep open to different and new ideas. I'm very aware of how little I know. A lot of political people think they have the answers but the world is clearly super complex. Lot's of libertarian ideals sound like they work at small scale but we don't live in that world. We have mega corporations, we all use the same tech, capitalism will centralise production as it's more efficient. Like I said, I don't have any answers....
The irony being that Rand, in later life was taken car off by the state... lol I'm aware of her work but that point always stuck with me. Not as a justification for the state but that people can become unwell or just age and often end up needing care. A life of selfishness ended with her in that position which to my mind, discredits her somewhat. I'm vary aware that my world view at 20 is very different to what it is now and I expect the same to be true if I reach 80. Whilst clearly very smart, I think Rand lacked humility and it kicked her in the arse eventually.
Yeah. She thought she was a person who doesn't need other persons. Induhvidualism.
Seemingly unrelated topics mix into our decision-making, as well. A lot of the married women I personally know aren't using effective forms of birth control, don't like abortion, and haven't slept with large numbers of men, so they feel more existential angst concerning immigration and overall crime. Married women are also more likely to have at least one son or nephew, so we care about "male" issues for a longer time.
