Thinkpiece Bot  🌹

by going "oh well obviously that is wack but maybe they have some ideas" they shift the Overton Window to be much closer to saying that the Handmaid's Tale is a good idea actually

just like Trump shifts what it is okay to say in public to include horrific misogyny and racism by "saying the quiet thing loud", dealing with incels and MRAs on their terms shifts what is respectable to say in newspapers

people like Douthat are willing to cede the point to incels that the reason they keep going on murder sprees is that they can't get fucked. that's wrong. the reason they keep going on murder sprees is that they were radicalized by online groups that encourage terrorism

toxic masculinity and rape culture make disaffected young men easy targets for this radicalization. easy access to guns makes it so that if they choose to use them they can easily kill and/or hurt a lot of people if they choose to do so

but the idea that access to sex will "cure" these men is absurd. first of all, they all believe they're entitled to sex with conventionally attractive young virgins; they prefer inexperienced and younger women and girls because they're easier to manipulate and abuse

second of all, it's easy to see what happens when these men do get in relationships: they abuse, and sometimes murder, their significant others.

this is also why sex work isn't a solution to this problem; it is just asking sex workers-- already people in a dangerous line of work-- to deal with violent men who hate them.

sex work should be legal so that the workers are afforded the same protections as everyone else, but those workers shouldn't be expected to be a panacea for the problem of violent men. expecting them to do so is just expecting them to be willing sacrifices