 All right, let's get into men going their own way, men going their own way. So I did a segment, I did a short video on this. I did a segment on it on a show a few weeks ago and then we posted the short video on this and it got a lot of views, not a huge amount, but it got relatively a lot. It was a big spike in the beginning and it got more thumbs down than any video I've ever done. Like there's more thumbs down than thumbs up. That never happens, right? That never happens in my videos. Usually it's 95% thumbs up, 5% thumbs down. So a lot of people were upset by the video and I was accused and somewhat justifiably that I had not done my research. And I started off the thing, somebody asked me this in a super chat so I didn't know it was coming. I didn't expect it. I didn't really know and maybe I should have done a little bit of research before commenting but at the end of the day my comments would not have been that different. So now I've done a little bit of research. I'm not going to research this extensively because I don't find this interesting or important enough to research extensively. But I do find some of the comments that were made following the show interesting because there's a lot to say or they expose a lot of misunderstandings about objectivism which I'd like to clear up. And secondly, a lot of what I think of misunderstanding about human psychology and about what happiness means or what happiness requires and about how to deal with the state of the world today. So I thought that the comments I got on MGTOW, MGTOW, were interesting, interesting enough to do another show not so much because I'm interested in the phenomenon of MGTOW and people said it's not a movement and okay it's not a movement, it's a set of ideas. There's no movement to do anything but it's a set of ideas. I think it's a very flawed set of ideas but it's not that the ideas are significant enough it's that they bring up a lot of issues that are interesting. So I thought I'd cover some of the comments here. I won't name the people commenting, although you can find them on my page. I'll just read some of the comments to you and comment on them and we can go through there. I just think there's a lot of interesting things that come up as a consequence of this. All right, let's see. See he says I don't have, this guy says I don't have a romantic relationship and I'm pretty happy. Who are you to decide for me what brings happiness? Now that is, that's a big issue. Who am I to decide for somebody else what brings happiness? It's an important issue. And this is the question that we have to answer. Is there, is there an objective, are there objectively things that bring about happiness and objectively things that diminish happiness? And this is crucial to our understanding of objectivism. Because this human nature, qua human nature, require that you do certain things in order to achieve happiness or not. You know he continues to say I have no problem with women. I'm just not interested in romantic or sexual relationships, at least not yet. Society is so incredibly judgmental about that, but it's my life. I would have assumed an objectivist wouldn't understand that. I understand it's your life. I understand you must make decisions about your life absolutely. And I also know that there is an objective reality out there. And human nature, humans have a particular nature. And happiness in spite of what Jordan Peterson says, happiness is not something random that just happens to you. Happiness is not something that just occurs or doesn't occur. But there's certain things you have to do in order to attain happiness. Now, I don't think that having a romantic relationship is the most important thing for human happiness. Indeed, objectivism holds that the most important thing for the attainment of happiness is to be moral. It's to be virtuous, which means to use reason, to use your mind, to use rationality in the way you live and how you live. And to be productive, to have a career. And a lot of the criticism they got would, you know, I'm busy, I'm at work, I'm pursuing a career, you know, I don't want a romantic relationship and fine. If that's the reason, if you're just too busy right now, and I like the fact that even this person who made the comment says, at least not yet, good, well, I'm not giving you a timeline, I'm not telling you when, but that's not as far as I can tell men going the wrong way what it stands for. But if you don't want a relationship right now, if you don't have time for romance right now, you're trying to establish yourself before you have that romantic relationship. Great, fine. So, I think the first thing is to recognize that the objective stand is for happiness. Second, the most important thing to be happy is to be moral. It's to act according to the morality of self-interest. And we can talk a lot more about why that is so, and I'm actually going to have Tiva Smith on the show on Monday, that is tomorrow, and we will talk about that. But in pursuing one's life, in pursuing one's value, there are certain values that are so important that I don't think one can really be fully happy. One can really fully live as a human being without them. And I would say there are three such values. I mean, there's reason, purpose, self-esteem, which are kind of Iron Man, it's cardinal value, but one level below that. I'd say one is a career you love. A career you love. You love doing it. You love going to work. You love engaging in it. You've got long-term ambitions. You've got long-term goals, and you're working focused on them. Second, which I'm not going to get into a lot today, but I will talk about this another time, aesthetics. To fully live as a human being, to fully live a happy life, you've got to be able to surround yourself with beautiful things that inspire you. You've got to be able to find art, real art, not pseudo-art, real art that is meaningful to you and be inspired by it. And we can get into the psychological reasons why I think that is necessary. And third, given that you're human, given that you're sexual beings, you need to have a romantic relationship. Well, at least you need to try, just like every value. You might not always succeed, but you've got to try. Now, I'm not telling you when you have to have it and how to go about it and so on, but you need to at least try to be happy. Love is part of it. Now, I'm not saying you cannot be happy without it. You can, but to be fully happy, to do the best that you can be, to be the best that you can be, to live the fullest life you can on this planet and not experience romantic love is a waste. It's sad, just like not having experienced great art. It's sad. It's just not living to your fullest potential. And you can do it and you can be happy. But you're not going to be, you're not going to live man qua man, particularly if MG2W wants to reclaim manness. Well, what does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be fully a man without a female opposite you? Without the feedback you get sexually, emotionally, cognitively from another human being that shares your values, that interacts with you at the most intimate level, that reflects back to you your most basic fundamental values. I mean, to me giving up on romance is giving up on a piece of life. Now, I'm not saying it's easy and we'll get to some of the complaints MG2W has about women and about the world out there and about how it's rigged against man fine. But to give up, to accept that that's not going to happen, is just damn sad. It's sad. And it's a cop out. It's succumbing to fear, succumbing to the bad news instead of fighting it, instead of overcoming it, instead of figuring out a strategy to solve it, to beat it, to figure it out, which is what you do in any other aspect of your life. But suddenly in romance, no, I'm just going to walk away. So somebody else comments on this, there can be genuine objective reasons that a person doesn't benefit from relationships. Really, I'd like to hear what they are, from any relationships, from sexual relationships. Maybe they're not classically good looking. Whoa! What does that have to do with anything? So if you're not good looking, you can't benefit from relationships? Why? Can you only benefit from a relationship if the other party is good looking? If you're not good looking, why is that? I mean, this is such a materialist view of sex and relationships and romance. It's pretty pathetic. So if you're not good looking, so what? Are you a good person? Are you thoughtful? Are you smart? Do you have any other attributes? Are you interesting? I know lots of ugly people who have had amazing romantic relationships. So I'm not saying it's not relevant. Sure, it's relevant. It's partially relevant to what you can expect on what kind of goals you can just pick up or what kind of, but if you want to build a relationship, I know a lot of beautiful women who've married ugly men because that's not the most important thing to them. It's how you look. And there's certain things you can do about it, by the way. You can't take care of your body. You can work out. You can stay thin, even if you're not that good looking. Maybe you don't have a lot of money. Oh, no, so it's money. Money is the standard for human relationships. That's what you guide romantic relationships. Women only want guys with money and good looks. This is the problem with the stupidity of, so many evolutionary psychologists and why you guys take it so seriously. It's just not true that women are only interested in good looks and in money. I got married when I was duet poor, no money. She had more money than I did. I mean, I guess you guys, many of you would say that if a woman makes more money than the man, that's a bad thing somehow. That's a negative. Why? It just shows you haven't earned the kind of self-esteem to be able to live with a woman like that. So I don't buy this that you can't benefit relationships because you're not classically good looking or because you don't have a lot of money. Of course you can. Any human being can benefit. Well, any healthy, healthy human being, particularly if you're trying to be a good human being, any human being like that can benefit from a relationship, a romantic relationship with the right kind of woman, not any woman, but the right kind of woman. Maybe they have every time consumer career, agree with that, put it off, find another time to do it. Anyway, this guy says, I don't have a Lamborghini and I'm pretty happy, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't be happy if I have one. Maybe, but again, don't compare a Lamborghini to having a romantic relationship. A romantic relationship is one of the most profound, important, meaningful things you can have in your life. The psychological visibility that you get from having a partner who gets you, having somebody you can share experiences with, having somebody to share a bed with, having somebody to have sex with, good sex that's spiritual and material, is incalculable. It's not like having a Lamborghini. All right, this guy says it would take a lot, a hell of a lot for a woman to deserve my interest. Wow, this guy must be something. So it doesn't surprise me that few have met the mark. Well, go after the few. And I'm not talking about looks, I'm talking about intellect and personality, good. Well, good, but if there were few, go for it. Pursue them, what are you waiting for? All right, now I wanna bring up some issues that were raised about the legal environment, or first let's talk about feminism. So this guy says, I'm not sure our DSP has progressed from mid second wave feminism to the feminism we have today. I can tell you firsthand, the feminism we had back in the 70s and 80s was cute, the stuff we have today is downright toxic and dangerous to all men. I believe you. Third wave feminism is disgusting, it's horrible, it's awful, it's awful. Don't date a feminist of the third wave. How many women do you think are real third wave feminists? A minority of them. There are plenty of women out there who don't believe in this crap. They might have learned in school, they might even go through a phase where they believe in some of it. But most women don't believe in it. And yeah, finding a good woman is hard. Finding a woman good enough for you if you've lived up to the morality, if you will, of objectivism is hard, but that doesn't mean you don't try. That doesn't mean you give up. That doesn't mean you surrender. I mean, I can't think of anything more unmanly than surrendering in the face of a bunch of feminists. Go out there and find a good woman. And if the fact that women work, if the fact that women somewhere wouldn't make more money than you do intimidate you, then you've got a problem. I think the fact that women are smart, the fact that women speak up, the fact that women are engaged, the fact that women work, the fact that women don't cater to all of our needs as if they're slaves of ours, I think that's all beautiful. That's all amazing. Yeah, women who think they're superior to men, women who think that they deserve something because they're somehow better. They're wrong and bad and stay away from them. Women who think that if you open a door for them, that you've insulted them, yeah, stay away from women like that. But there are plenty of women who are not like that. And even if you want a woman, even if those of you want a woman who is compliant and is gonna rub your feet and there are plenty of women like that out there, if not in America and other cultures. But to give up on the whole realm is just silly. Go find a good woman. Go have a proper romantic relationship. Don't give up on life because of feminism. Again, that is a defeatist proposition. What about the legal status? If you get married and you get a divorce, now first, not all marriages end the divorce. You know, 50% of them do. You can have a prenuptial agreement. You can structure it any way you want. And you should have a prenuptial agreement because we know the court system today is biased. It's not very objective. It often favors the woman. So, you know, fix it, have a contract. But again, anything we do in life has risks. With anything we do in life, there is the potential for something to go bad. Anything we do in life, the state can come in and take our stuff and intervene in a way that destroys us. It doesn't mean you don't do it. I'm in finance. The government is all over the place and in all kinds of irrational and unjust ways. Do I just say, oh, well, what the hell with that? I'm not gonna pursue my career because something bad could happen. The government could be unjust to me. I make money. Do I stop making money because I have to pay taxes and evil institution? There's risk in getting married. There's risks in having a romantic relationship. I don't even think marriage is that important. You know, date somebody, live with them, have a contract. Don't get married. Just put together a contract between the two of you. Marriage is not as important, but live again. Don't give up on romance. Don't give up on a long-term relationship. Don't give up on a benefits for it because you're afraid. Because you're afraid. I mean, I'm all full, but I think this point of view has some very bad views about women, about, again, about the kind of the genetic view of romance, which is all based on looks and money and stuff like that. And somebody's getting excited because I said no marriage. You know, marriage is fine. I'm married. I've been married for a long, long time. And it's great. It's great to be married. But if you don't want to get married, don't get married. I'm not about that. I'm not complaining about the issue of marriage. I'm complaining about people who, on principle, don't want a long-term romantic relationship. Some have even given up sex because they don't want to have to deal with women. That's pathetic. That's pathetic. And that's what I'm reading from your comments and comments that people are saying. Therefore, MGTOW, all right? I love this comment. Somebody said, maybe you should stop shaming men to return to the plantation. Really? Being a man in a marriage is slavery? Where do you live? I mean, I guess you had a bad parent, so you had awful, awful parents. If you think bad fathers, if you think that being married is comparable to being a slave. I mean, you don't know what slavery is. You don't know how evil slavery is. And you certainly had no conception of what is possible for a relationship between a man and a woman. So again, I'm quoting MGTOW people who claim to be, this is their thing. Yes, somebody says dating has become really risky. Yeah, it's risky. It's risky, it's worth the risk. Everything worthwhile in life is risky. Everything worthwhile in life involves taking risk in the world we live in today. Again, somebody else says, you will never get me back on the plantation. Sorry you were ever on a plantation. I didn't know there was still slavery in America. But this is the kind of, this is why the set of ideas elicit such negative results for me, right? It's because of this hysteria and the pathetic nature of the commentary. And somebody says here, MGTOW is winning and growing exponentially. Yeah, I know, I mean, so is feminism. It's the world is sinking into a hellhole of irrationality. And this is just another expression of the irrationality and tribalism that the world is going down into. Somebody says, assume your parents were never divorced. No, my parents were never divorced. My parents were never divorced. My parents are still alive, they're still married. They've been married for well over 50 years. And yeah, but even if you divorce, so what? So you're divorced. I know lots of people who've divorced. Now again, divorces can be ugly. And the legal system can be horrible. Bad stuff happens. But I know some divorces that were fine. I know a lot of divorced people that are fine, moved on, didn't work, go on to do something different, right? Why are you letting divorce traumatize you to an extent that you don't want a relationship? So he says, and so you speak without experience. That's right, I speak without experience. I speak for the fact that men and women can have great, long-term, lasting, wonderful, fantastic relationships. I've been married for a long time. My parents were married for a long time. You're giving up on that possibility. That's what's sad. How long have I been married? Oh my God, I better get this right. I have been married in February. So in a month, it'll be 36 years, 36 years. Anyway, you know, so I think the view of a state-enforced gynocentrism, that's what, that's a really, I mean, give me a break. Yes, yes, there's certain issues where the state is enforcing, you know, anti-men things. I think some family courts, certainly, that they'll push for diversity in jobs, all right? But there's so much more to life. And again, you're just giving up, you know? And everybody's saying, M-G-2-O-W is going gold. No, it's not. Gold doesn't give up. Gold, John Gold continues to work. John Gold continues to build his engine. John Gold continues to pursue the woman he loves. John Gold continues to pursue friendship and relationships. Gold is not about, John Gold is not about giving up on a value, the opposite. Going gold is about preserving your values, in a way that they cannot be harmed by the state. It's not about giving up. Gold doesn't give up. He uses the engine. He just doesn't give it for free to people who don't deserve it. So don't use the going gold phrase here, just because you're leaving an aspect of society behind because you're too cowardly to engage with it, it's not going gold. M-G-2-O-W is Gandhi. Yeah, I can see that. I can see it being Gandhi. Yeah, you're sacrificing your life for what? What are you sacrificing it for? What are you giving up all this for? You're not gonna be happier. You know, this is just an outlet for not wanting to engage. Not wanting to engage in your life. I'm not talking about changing the culture. I'm not talking about fighting feminism. You don't have to fight feminism. Just find women who don't buy into it. You're sacrificing for what? You're not gonna change society. Nobody cares. You're not gonna change society. You're just gonna make society worse because you'll have two tribes. You'll have the feminist tribe and the men tribe. And I thought M-G-2-O-W was not a movement. I keep getting told that it's not a movement. We're not a movement. It's a lifestyle choice. You don't make lifestyle choices to change the culture. You make lifestyle choices because you wanna live a better life. Well, this is not about living a better life. Anyway, there we go. I'm sure I'll get a ton of negative comments on this one. I'm sure I'll get a ton of negative thumbs down on this. But this is how I see it. I read a little bit about it this time. I don't think I'm speaking out of ignorance here. I acknowledge the fact that there were a lot of obstacles in the world today. It's harder to find a good woman today than it was probably 50 years ago. It's harder today. Well, on the other hand, I'm not sure that's true. Women today are more educated. Women today are more outspoken. I think those are all good things, not bad things. You have more possibilities. You can go international. Finding a woman that you're liking is the more opportunities today because of globalization and because the world is open than ever before. There's just no excuse. No excuse to give up on romance and to, you know, again, unless it's for a given period of time, I'm focusing on my career, I'm focusing on this, and then I'm going to go back into it later. But you're just missing out on a huge part of life and a huge part of what it takes to be happy and objectively takes to be happy. All right.