"Sports bettors are overwhelmingly male. Compulsive sports betters are almost universally male. …

Nearly half of men believe they could land a passenger jet with zero training. Of course a lot of them also believe that they can beat the house."

~ Jill Filipovic

#men #patriarchy #MaleEntitlement #MaleDomination #betting #sports
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https://www.throughline.news/p/no-country-for-young-men

No Country for Young Men

The powers that be really are conspiring to make life worse for the young American male.

Throughline by Jill Filipovic

@wdlindsy

> Nearly half of men believe they could land a passenger jet with zero training.

Hahaha.

They should try once in a realistic flight simulator to only land a small, single engine propeller plane.

It's an eye-opener.

What I learn from this (and what is the fundamental underlying problem) that a lot of people (likely most of them male) believe they can do a lot of things they have zero experience with.

Maybe it's the Dunning-Kruger effect hard at work.

Plus, also maybe, the peculiar aspect of male socialization by which you ground your self esteem and perceived value for others on what you can do.

Which now surprisingly lead me to the question: Perhaps this particular facet is actually an effect of an utilitarian capitalist system which couples value with skills and performance.

@glitzersachen Studies show that this phenomenon definitely correlates to male gender, and doesn't involve a lot of other people. These studies suggest that something about how men are shaped, tutored, brought up, inducted into the world, evidently imparts an amazing sense of blinding entitlement.

@wdlindsy

I perhaps translated not quite right from my native language. What I meant to say:

The male self image is centered around "what I am able to do". My hypothesis: This (while it has largely become a goal in itself) might have its root in the "traditional" role as breadwinner for the family. Their worth for their family ("what I can give") stems from what they are able to do / achieve.

That's all no justification. Especially not for lying to yourself about your abilities.

And we (as a society, but especially mal subculture) should have abandoned this way of thinking ("breadwinner") long ago, not only because of #patriarchy.

But I am looking for systemic root causes beyond ---let me employ a bit a of hyperbole (my apologies for this already) --- beyond "they're male, so mentally impaired, no other explanation needed".

Which seems where a substantial fraction of discussions on these type of problems seem to end up on social media.

As an accurate statement of symptoms it's enough, I agree. For me though, then pretty soon comes the question of the root causes.

It make a difference, if we think the current state of affairs is (a) biologically unavoidable, (b) a male sub-cultural problem (c) a larger system problem that leaves this problem in male subculture, or (d) something else.

@glitzersachen I think the point is that these behavior patterns are not rooted in biology but in cultural formation. They can therefore be changed. But resistance to changing these patterns is fierce around the world, and one key form the resistance takes is to claim that they are rooted in biology and are therefore immutable.

@wdlindsy

Males are socialized as idiots. I can totally agree with that ...