Got sucked down the Red Pill rabbit hole because of that post Rob and Esther were hatereading. It’s crystallized an idea that I hadn’t quite been able to articulate until now:
PUA culture cares more about embodying a certain ideal of masculinity than it does about winning. Even if we accept their idea that social relations are fundamentally adversarial, their recommendations for getting ahead in an adversarial system are pretty dubious. I can’t help but notice that “weak and effeminate men,” a category this Illimitable Men article mocks relentlessly, includes the majority of the most powerful people in the world. If your model for acquiring power places the last half dozen US presidents among those who are too emotive, concerned with being liked, and willing to engage in vapid pleasantries to get anywhere in life, maybe devote some time to thinking on the phrase “Procrustean Bed.”
The point that really made it click was this one: “Psychologically and symbolically, folding means you have ‘lost control and given up’ in the way that a player folds when they surrender in a game of poker.”
Okay, I get it, poker is the metaphor of choice for people who want to signal a certain sort of hard-nosed, pragmatic intelligence. But to do that, it helps to have a basic understanding of poker. You know what the best poker players do all the time? If you guessed “fold,” then congratulations, you know more about poker than Illimitable Men does. Stone-cold bluffs aren’t actually all that common outside of the movies. They’re often good drama, rarely good poker: your opponents are not idiots, and while it may make you feel very manly to raise big on every shit hand you draw, it will also make you predictable, not to mention committing you to throwing away substantial amounts when your opponent clearly has a hand that will trounce yours.
It’s not hard to see how this applies to the life philosophy of this crowd. Not only is cutting your losses clearly the right choice in many situations, surrendering can have strategic value even in cases where one isn’t clearly going to lose. Unpredictability is an asset. Commitment of resources to the areas in which they’ll provide the most benefit is important. The Red Pill philosophy is fixated on winning every battle, and that leads to a lot of lost wars.
Oh my god, that poker analogy is an exquisite self-own
(Good post in general too)
1 month ago · tagged #nothing to add but tags #pua cw · 142 notes · source: dagny-hashtaggart · .permalink