Comments on The Boyfriend's Introduction to Feminism

Just to clarify, it is an app that has heterosexual options and people on it, not e.g. Grindr.

It isn’t exclusively for gays or lesbians. I chose it because it has lots of filters related to various queer sexualities. Also, for more clarity: I am a man and I do not use it to meet men. Since I am not sure what ways you expect these apps to be better I wanted to make sure you were dismissing it for accurate reasons.

So straight people are welcome and do use it. The main thing IMO is that its user base are skewed towards any flavor of queer or queer-friendly.

It’s “annoying, condescending, and anti-truth seeking” for him not to post things he considers irrelevant?

If you think someone is biased, a good option is using a debate tree. Then bias matters less and it’s easier to get clarity about the debate.

Another option is considering: do you know how to write an essay (quickly and easily using pre-existing knowledge, no new or ad hoc ideas) saying what bias is, how to detect it in yourself or others, how to double check when you think it’s present, how to communicate bias claims effectively, how to provide clear, compelling evidence/arguments for bias, how people should respond to bias accusations, what to do about bias, why, etc? Do you have a lot of expertise about bias, with enough practice and mastery that you expect your expertise to hold up during a difficult conversation? If the answer is no, then you should recognize that you don’t know what you’re talking about and bring up bias in an uncertain, tentative, explorative way, if you bring it up.

I think no single word captures that and intensifiers don’t solve the problem. You could say they’re lying by default with rare exceptions. I think communicating that idea clearly requires at least a phrase like mine. You used a two independent clause sentence which I thought was clear.

In less intellectual contexts, where clarity is less important, a strong word like “incredulous” can work better than using “really”. Sarcasm is another informal option that can do jobs that “very” can’t.

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No. I’m guessing @anonymous45 thinks there’s a gendered asymmetry here.

This is a controversial premise. When you make various statements based on it, that’s called begging the question (aka assuming the conclusion). It’s generally not going to be productive to talk about issues based on this disputed premise instead of debating the premise itself.

Did you fail to recognize that many people disagree with your premise? Were you unaware of controversy? If so, that’s a sign of being in an echo chamber. If that’s not it, then there could be an issue with how you approach debate or something else going on.

How did you determine whether or not that channel, @ZackarySmigel, is redpill/manosphere/biased?

I reviewed their titles and thumbnails. They were inconclusive. There wasn’t open redpill/etc, but nothing contradicting it either and a few small hints they might be redpill/etc. And it’s a chronically online single 30ish year old white guy with 262k subs whose channel description is “a mix of: social science, bad jokes, and internet culture” (so plenty of redpill stuff would be on-topic; it isn’t e.g. a math channel). So the prior probability of redpill/etc there is significant.

The comment section for the video you linked has potential incel signs:

And it sounds like they failed to get a partner from over 100,000 dating app swipes. For a guy who is successful on social media, who is presumably charismatic, to fail that much at dating suggests potential redpill, both as a cause (misogyny alienates women) or a consequence (people who fail at dating are more likely to get into redpill).

Why aren’t they dating one of their many fans? Did they try and fail? Is their channel audience 90% male?

Do they not really want a partner very much? That is a potential redpill sign. While it could be fine in general, that’d make it bad to do the dating app video.

I watched none of his videos.

The 3 x 0 = 0 comments are due to a joke in the video. Hinge advertises something like get 3x as many matches with premium, and he got no matches/dates. I don’t remember if he got 0 matches or some matches and 0 dates.

I considered that it might be in the video but I didn’t want to make an accusation just based on that guess.

Are you trying to imply that it’s better if the YouTuber himself made an incel-friendly joke than if it’s just in his comments?

I watched some of the video but did not finish it.

Initial impression is he was blaming apps for being scammy and deceptive, not blaming women. But I probably got 1/4 or 1/3 of the way through, so he may blame women later.

If he is blaming the apps & app is one making that advertisement, joke could arguably still just be targeting the app, not commenting on women per se.

Edit: I agree the joke does appeal to incel biases though.

Yeah but that doesn’t matter.

In general, successful social media creators have target audiences in mind and target them. If you make incel-friendly jokes, you get incels in the comment sections on all your videos and elsewhere. If you want to reach other audiences, you target your material to them instead.

Dating apps are scammy and don’t work is an incel-friendly claim. It shifts blame for their loneliness from themselves to society. How are they supposed to meet women when dating apps are terrible? Also third spaces are dying, they aren’t supposed to hit on coworkers, various criticisms of bars and clubs (or the women who go to them), etc.

It helps excuse incels who try dating apps and fail because of their character flaws. They can blame the app instead of their own behavior using the app.

It also excuses incels who don’t even try dating apps because they’re too anxious, insecure, cynical, resentful, etc.

How did you find this video or channel?

For this one, I’m not sure. I had seen at least one video of his before, it might have been suggested or it might have been via searching for videos about dating apps in general (which I’ve done a few times as research).

Also the 3x thing starts at around 9:58

When did you come up with the idea about prioritization and decisiveness? While talking in this forum thread or in the past?

No, just explaining why it’s a common comment. It seemed relevant considering you mentioned not watching the video (or any of his).

So the YouTube algorithm knows you watch redpill videos and put this channel in front of you, and you knew this video contained an incel-friendly joke and incel-friendly overall theme, and then you shared it as a definitely-not-redpill, definitely-outside-your-echo-chamber example?

Yeah, good point.

I assume then @anonymous45 would answer my very first question with “no” — quoting for clarity:

Women should not use the same standard and thus should not reject him for the same reasons.

So it follows that everything after that question is also a no and/or irrelevant, since I was building from that question.

(I think this is why you often recommend just asking short questions and not long posts trying to argue/explain lots of stuff.)

So basically you had a premise that it should be gender-symmetric, and you didn’t recognize or take into account that the premise was controversial, so some of what you wrote basically begged the question (assumed the conclusion).

I just said something similar to @anonymous45 at Comments on The Boyfriend's Introduction to Feminism - #210 by Elliot

Not exactly, for that post I searched for videos. I had seen at least one of his videos before, though I can’t remember if I’d seen that one before (I watched it the other day in any case). The time I was introduced to him could have been via feed or via searching. I don’t recall.

I don’t think it being incel-friendly is a good reason not to share it or to dismiss it. For example, if some truth-seeking unbiased scientists set out to analyze dating app dynamics and found that there were problems and biases that roughly align with what people complain about, then would that not be an incel-friendly result?

Maybe I misunderstand and you mean more the jokes, tone, and subtext rather than the results themselves?

I wouldn’t call his channel a redpill channel or him a redpill influencer. Maybe he is appealing to that market in that video, though. His video was more in depth and detailed than the others in the top few search results, so I shared that one. He also includes data (his own) going back like 2+ years.

This is another controversial premise. It’s used as a premise in passing while making another point. I don’t think it’s being recognized as controversial and meriting debate even though some of the talking points that contradict it are well known.

There are women who claim that SA is common. There are surveys. You’ve probably heard 1 in 4 before (which doesn’t strictly contradict it being done by a small % of men, but is often accompanied with claims that it’s not a small % of men). And there are men who claim that ~all men want to do SA and would do SA if they knew they could get away with it.