Rex Kerr
2 min readOct 23, 2023

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But you just threw the statistics up like they were supposed to prove something. You didn't link them to patriarchy. You didn't even define patriarchy.

For instance, gang violence and the aspiration of neutral law impartially judged (by, in practice, mostly male judges) are almost diametrically opposed to each other.

You (seem to?) call them both "patriarchy".

That's hardly helpful. Dominance hierarchies based nominally on egalitarian principles are one of the most effective ways of suppressing the violence of violence-based dominance hierarchies.

Furthermore, you can't document that X causes Y by saying, "Y, Y, Y!!!".

Can't you tell the difference between "X causes Y" and "Y exists"?

Yes, there are unacceptable levels of sexual violence against women. Act-Like-a-Man axis attitudes: yes, they (self-reportedly) play a role. But that's just one (violence-heavy, honor-culture) instantiation of patriarchy. If you defined patriarchy as exactly that, I'd be largely agreeing (but I would then have to disagree that U.S. culture is predominantly "patriarchal"; there's a lot of opposition to the sexual violence part). But because you won't, but also haven't showed any links to any other type of patriarchy, I don't agree. You need to show the whole link: not just Y, but X causes Y. The X you specifically are talking about. If you say "we have to get rid of fish; fish poison people" and you show me a lionfish stinging someone, I'm only going to agree that certainly lionfish can poison people, not that all fish do, and then ask: what proportion of fish are venomous?

You gave evidence that an authority gap exists, but I already acknowledged that a modest one exists. I disputed how big the gap is.

Your rhetoric included statements like, "a demonstrable and very extreme "authority gap"" and "We can't be partners in shaping society when most men are actively, and sometimes violently resisting that". You haven't provided evidence that comes even remotely close to establishing anything that strong.

94% of people in the U.S. say they'd vote for a woman as President (https://news.gallup.com/poll/254120/less-half-vote-socialist-president.aspx). 80% of people say it's "very important" for women to have equal rights with men (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/07/14/most-americans-support-gender-equality-even-if-they-dont-identify-as-feminists/; in other polls the numbers are even higher if you simply ask if they should). Even two-thirds of Republican non-feminists agree that it's very important!

The Reykjavik Leadership Index for the U.S. is 76 (not reported on their site, but Wikipedia reports it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reykjav%C3%ADk_Index), which is hardly a "very extreme" authority gap. It's a moderate one that needs improvement.

Finally, I linked things including stories about how things are better in other parts of the world despite (apparent) patriarchy, which is only irrelevant if you want your opinions to remain unchallenged.

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Rex Kerr
Rex Kerr

Written by Rex Kerr

One who rejoices when everything is made as simple as possible, but no simpler. Sayer of things that may be wrong, but not so bad that they're not even wrong.

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