Whites, N = 24,684
Blacks, N = 4,235 
Other races, N = 1,225Cultural conservatives and old people have the bad habit of assuming that everything is going hell. Data have a way of proving everyone wrong sooner or later.
I know from prior analysis that whites are more intolerant of marital infidelity than they used to be, but I wanted to check for other racial groups. You can see in all three groups shown above that since 1973 there has been a gradual increase in the number of people who say that cheating on your spouse is always wrong. In an era of tolerance, it's refreshing to see so many people close-minded about the issue.
People used to be more indulgent about affairs, at least for men, but now they are much more approving of sex before marriage. I'm not thrilled with either era, but if you're going to be free sexually, I would prefer that you do it before children are involved. We traditionally make a big deal about divorce, but it's breakup of any sort with children involved that's the problem.
People seem to put marriage on a high pedestal now. Higher status people are thinking about how it's the institution where our precious children are raised and how they will be ruined or saved depending on the parenting, while lower status folks will start families without marriage, but still see it as an ideal they hope to eventually have.
And once you finally get married, you've got to get it right (although our expressive individualism makes that difficult). Does Hollywood have something to do with the idealization of marriage? Sailer has writen about the pro-family messages found in some films.
Can we attribute the moral improvement to feminism, to a greater concern for the treatment of women, like we might with attitudes towards wife beating and rape? Damn, I hate giving fems credit for anything. Is it due to a greater desire for couples to have an authentic relationship; to have real honesty?
If you're inclination is not a moralistic one like mine, keep in mind that society's condemnation of cheating benefits us beta males by making it harder for the alphas to have multiple women. If you're an alpha, why are you reading this dumb blog when you could be out on the prowl?
Can we attribute the moral improvement to feminism, to a greater concern for the treatment of women, like we might with attitudes towards wife beating and rape? Damn, I hate giving fems credit for anything. Is it due to a greater desire for couples to have an authentic relationship; to have real honesty?
ReplyDelete----------------------
hehe....haha...BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
"If you're an alpha, why are you reading this dumb blog when you could be out on the prowl?"
ReplyDeleteJust recovering from my latest STD and scrounging money to buy the token Christmas gift for each of my far-flung and rarely-seen offspring.
Ho, ho, ho
Can you cross reference those attitudes with actual cheating behavior? Also, can you reference them to % of population married by era? Finally, can we look to see the married population broken down by propensity to cheat? For the latter: I am thinking of people who say it's wrong to cheat, but would likely cheat if they were married. I believe it possible for someone to recognize a certain behavior is wrong, but to still engage in such behavior. The slight improvement in scores might be related to the fact that in older days, you were expected to be married, therefore, your only choice for additional copulations was to cheat. Today, you might be of the cheating kind, but are under less pressure to marry. Therefore, you choose not to marry and are readily able to admit that cheating is wrong. Your hand is no longer forced into marriage.
ReplyDelete"Just recovering from my latest STD and scrounging money to buy the token Christmas gift for each of my far-flung and rarely-seen offspring."
ReplyDeleteI hear that, Brother! Now send me your new address, I want to send your wife and my kids something.
Who said anything about a wife?
ReplyDeleteYou guys crack me up. I'm not being sarcastic.
ReplyDeleteI've often thought of monogamy as a peace treaty designed to keep males alive. I bet monogamy is most common in areas where males are most valuable relative to females. Otherwise, it's no big deal for the community if a lonely beta drops a boulder on the alpha's head while the latter is asleep. Alpha dies, all his ladies (who never had a close connection to him anyway, since he was always looking out for more action) find that their murderous beta is The New Alpha, etc. No reason for a male to help raise babies at all.
Sort of like the way lions are ... except lions don't offend me.
Somewhere I read that getting violently angry when another guy "has all the chics" is a sign that someone is beta or worse. Maybe ... whacking the alpha may be his only chance to reproduce. The fact that this sucks only enters into things if there is a society trying to keep its young men from getting smashed by boulder in their sleep. Individuals can't make monogamy happen.
Problem: the most obvious losers in promiscuity are low-status males. Complaining about the costs of promiscuity/polygyny gets you labelled a beta. Admitting you're a low-status male is your ticket to being ignored by everyone. (Don't complain - beta male bonobos get their fingers chewed off by females.)
The thing is, there are a lot of other problems with polygyny that aren't as obvious. Like, the fact that fatherlessness sucks. Gangs of fatherless males are no picnic. Alpha males are beloved, get tons of sex, have lots of babies, wind up dead, and get songs written about them. Betas don't fare well in general but those who are decent sneak-murderers do.
So when you stand up and say, "I wish women would stop getting knocked up by players and asking me to raise their babies. I wish they would reproduce with guys like me because I'm not so testo-poisoned that I loathe being around children," don't be surprised when everybody jeers and calls you a loser. Your type built civilization, but apparently you're still a loser.
I love modernity!!
"Somewhere I read that getting violently angry when another guy "has all the chics" is a sign that someone is beta or worse."
ReplyDeleteAnger in general is a sign of an individual who lacks power and control. As Greene says in the 48 laws of power, anger is an impediment to power.
This is actually hilarious, as many PUAs (who consider themselves alpha) tend to miss this point, as they hypocritically partake in the same behavior by berating women and betas.
PUAs are some of the most passive-aggressive individuals on the planet, which isn't surprising if you read the cultural history of losers like the German historian Schivelbusch's book "The Culture of Defeat." Read that book and you'll understand the PUA movement with new eyes (lower class betas who have found a way to fake alpha are driven by revenge and utopian ideals).
You should get that datapoint you read about anger and go show it to Roissy in DC and the rest of the supposed PUA alpha males who have obvious anger issues underneath their writing.
On a slightly related topic, the PUA movement is really a class and social movement. I'd love to see the stats of PUA's class and earnings. I'd reckon they are probably lower middle class to middle class males who desperately want to be part of the upper classes. Hence why you see the mimicking of natural preppy behavior as the PUA alpha norm, i.e: cheerful social behaviour, being well dressed etc.
Over at UR the callow TGGP is using this post to make some kind of point about the triumph of cultural conservatism. I guess I'm too old to get it.
ReplyDeleteTogo I wouldn't worry about it, TGGP is a loud mouthed, arrogant SOB with too much time on his hands.
ReplyDeleteHe is best off ignored, I did long ago with a blog commentator "ignore script" I found on greasemonkey. If you don't ignore him, you'll find that every single letter and punctuation you've written to counter his points have been dissected with laser-like precision into a massive cut-and-paste tirade, which goes to show on the Internet it is those with the most amount of spare time that dominate arguments.
Maybe this has something to do with the increased feminization of men. Men have literally, physically been feminizing for decades. Sperm counts have been declining.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as people become more atomized there are fewer opportunities for married couples to hook up. Our grandparents spent their evenings visiting friends, we spend them watching TV.