Topics covered:
Sydney Sweeney
“Simp” and “pick-me” as intrasexual linguistic weapons in the sexual marketplace. Why you never see a woman call a man a “simp,” and you never see a man call a woman a “pick-me”
That American Eagle ad probably could’ve run in the 2000s with someone like Paris Hilton or Megan Fox and nobody would’ve blinked. But today it’s treated as a cultural flashpoint
Adam Smith’s parable of the “poor man’s son”
A tangent about how Abercrombie and Hollister went from “clothing for hot people” to something completely different
Shared something I read about dictators like Hitler and Mao all hating their fathers but loving their mothers—and what that might mean
The so-called “optimal personality” profile or Big One—high openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and low neuroticism—and why those people tend to be more grateful, resilient, and generally better off
How shaming tactics—especially around appearance or sexual behavior—are a key tool in same-sex status competition
Mate retention strategies—ways people try to keep partners from leaving—and how a lot of insecure men now deploy those tactics broadly on social media, not just in relationships
How these strategies can either be cost-inflicting (like jealousy, control, insults) or benefit-bestowing (like gifts, affection, reassurance)
Negging—the tactic where you confuse someone about their attractiveness with a backhanded compliment—and the best one someone ever used on me
Declining relationships, marriage, and sex among young people — and how the perceived scarcity of worthy romantic partners is fueling more weird, aggressive, and ideological behavior online
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