AlexAP
Kraken
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2020
- Posts
- 13,802
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I spent 4 years working in a male prison helping prisoners get their GED’s. So I experienced significant amounts of time with the ultimate examples of what happens when things go completely off the rails for a young man. I looked these guys in the eye everyday. I listened to them speak to me in demeaning, threatening ways. I heard the anger, the resentment, the bitterness, and the despair. And the reason was incredibly obvious: absolutely none of these guys had male role models. None of them had a father, a coach, a teacher, nothing. No one ever took the time to teach them how to be a man. So what happens? These boys remain boys. They have strength, but no restraint. They have aggression, but no pursuit. They have pride, but no self-respect. They’re never guided into manhood. They’re never believed in. And they’re never reassured that their failures will eventually lead to success.
I thought the prison was the worst I’d ever see, but after 3 years in social media with a predominantly male following, I can say with confidence that I have seen more anger, resentment, bitterness, and despair on the internet than I ever did in the prison. Something has happened to a large swath of men. Something that cannot be explained by just a lack of dating success and some dissatisfaction with the feminist movement. Men aren’t “checking out”; they’re giving up. They’ve taken nihilism to a whole new level. They’re dismissing self-improvement as a waste of time and using their bitter loneliness as an identity and a label (which ironically has given them a community of other bitter lonely guys).
I’m doing everything I can to get these men to see the hope that exists, and I’m praying that these creators that validate and romanticize their misery will stop and join me. Because I’m starting to fear that many of them are just going to be left behind. The way I see it, you can resign yourself to a life of misery, or you can be miserable in your pursuit of happiness. I don’t even know if these men want to be happy though… and that’s the part that really makes me sad.
Source:
I thought the prison was the worst I’d ever see, but after 3 years in social media with a predominantly male following, I can say with confidence that I have seen more anger, resentment, bitterness, and despair on the internet than I ever did in the prison. Something has happened to a large swath of men. Something that cannot be explained by just a lack of dating success and some dissatisfaction with the feminist movement. Men aren’t “checking out”; they’re giving up. They’ve taken nihilism to a whole new level. They’re dismissing self-improvement as a waste of time and using their bitter loneliness as an identity and a label (which ironically has given them a community of other bitter lonely guys).
I’m doing everything I can to get these men to see the hope that exists, and I’m praying that these creators that validate and romanticize their misery will stop and join me. Because I’m starting to fear that many of them are just going to be left behind. The way I see it, you can resign yourself to a life of misery, or you can be miserable in your pursuit of happiness. I don’t even know if these men want to be happy though… and that’s the part that really makes me sad.
Source:
