@DManiac

Is it a hallucination. Certainly I'm speculating to a degree.

Suppose I say "It's my birthday tomorrow. I'd like a train set".

Am I saying that I'd like a train set as a birthday present? I think most people would say yes. However, these two statements may well be unrelated. It could be a complete non-sequitur and I'd be surprised and delighted if someone bought me the train set but it seems quite likely that I'd said this expecting the listener to put 2 and 2 together,

When we communicate we rely to an extent on the other person to fill in the blanks. Good communication is making sure that they fill in the blanks in the way you intended. Certainly some people will always misinterpret, sometimes deliberately.

just read this, and thought it made for a pretty good description of our dear cartoonist... "[Robert Anton]Wilson described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth". His goal being "to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything".

Imply - to suggest something indirectly.

By making those two statements, you are suggesting that there's some intention to link the two. Hence you are implying this.

No. You are not condoning it until you link cannibalism to the natural instincts of men.

"If I say Dutch men are the tallest in the world, which of the following facts have I implied?"

5. That you use imaginary data.

"If I say I invented a robot that can be used to help feed babies, quadriplegics, and some mentally handicapped people, what else have I implied?"

You've implied that there's some level of equivalence between these groups.

If I give some hypothetical situations and a selection of strawman answers in a poll, what does this imply?

1. That I'm trying to force people to reject a very narrow subset of possible reactions using an implicit set of false dilemmas

2. That I'm a moron who really thinks that these actually represent the nuances of opinions.

This is not responsive to your post but after following the saga of "Square Pegs" what strikes me most is that most women have no idea how strong the biological imperative to procreate is in SOME men. Maybe "rape" was too strong a word. Is the way a male monkey or ape mates in the wild qualify as consensual sex or rape? From what I've seen it looks like the females don't have a lot of choice. Is it absurd to draw a comparison between modern day men and apes?

Imagine you raised a female and male in an isolated room with no exposure to other people. Since they grow up in isolation they never learn any of our morals or social norms. I believe that by the time they are 14 the male would have had sex with the girl, with or without her consent. If you think he wouldn't then it seems to me the only explanation would be that men have become genetically programmed to seek a woman's permission before having sex. I don't think there's any evidence of that.

While some people may like to think we have evolved beyond our humble animals beginnings and made a leap to a different plane which separates us from the animals, I think a quick read through papers should disabuse anyone of the notion that we are not just a capable as ever of acting on biologic natures.

For some reason I'm reminded of this one particular backyard sleepover I attended in 1979. I was 13 years old, and myself and several other boys spent the evening doing the typical things boys did back in those days, one of which happened to be starting a fire in the big metal trashcan that seemed to be standard issue for all backyards of the time.

We also had a tall stack of paper Dixie cups and a can of gasoline for the lawnmower. The outcome was certain.

We took turns putting a tiny bit of gas in a cup and then carefully dropping it in the fire, which would result in a nice, satisfying fireball. Of course this escalated until even we, the ones dumb enough to be doing it in the first place, realized things were getting out of hand. But instead of quitting while we were ahead, we naturally thought 'time for the Grand Finale'!

So we prepared one last cup of gasoline, nearly twice as full as the previous record. Nobody wanted to get close enough to drop it into the fire, and we almost chickened out, but at the last minute one of us volunteered to toss it into the fire from a safe distance away. Unfortunately, far enough to be safe is pretty much the same as too far to be accurate. The cup caught the front edge of the can and flipped, and about half the back yard was instantly in flames.

I vaguely remember things being pretty intense for a while, with lots of yelling and flailing about, but we did manage to get the fire put out and nobody got hurt. We also learned that burning gasoline floats on water and that the moldy old tarp from the woodpile is more effective than the hose in this type of situation. This would not be the last time this knowledge was relevant for our little group.

The yard didn't fare so well and there were many subsequent ass-chewings.

I don't know, it just somehow seemed like a good time to tell this story. Thanks for all you do, Scott, I !$%*!$% love this blog.

Have you seen the commercial where the guy tells his wife she looks like a beach angel and she screams with joy? That's the sound I made when I read 4. I'm a socialist. Taken out of context... *squeeeeeeal*

We blew it!
"The part that interests me is that society is organized in such a way that the natural instincts of men are shameful and criminal while the natural instincts of women are mostly legal and acceptable."

I think we got off track a little. So, creating a bit of clarity...

Natural Instincts of Men:

Drinking lots of beer,
Farting,
Not caring for the kids good enough, !$%*!$%*!$%*!$%* watch this",
Inventing Rohypnol,
Dropping it in her drink,
Falling asleep after and not cuddling,
Letting the kid jump off the swingset, breaking it's arm,
War,
Being obsessed with our pen!$ size,
Eating lots of red meat,
Catching the meat on fire first,
Not talking and sharing,
The M16 lightweight, 5.56 mm, air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle,
Wanting to go out with the guys,
Danni Ashe,
Car surfing,
Frottage,
Not asking for !$%*!$%*!$%*!$%*!$%*!$% forgotten Chinese food under the !$%*!$%*!$%*!$%*! everywhere,
Shaking it when we are done,
Not cleaning up,
Driving home the babysitter,
Liking high heels, very tight jeans and pushup bras, (on women)
Not controlling our tone of voice better,
Pretending to like "Must Love Dogs",
Getting grease on her best towels, (Sorry, Honey)
Strip clubs,
Not cracking the window for the kids in the car, when going to the strip club "just for a minute",
Liking big fake t!t$,
Wanting you to diet,
Pickup lines,
The NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, NCAA, PGA, WWF, ESPN, Fox Sports, Spike TV,
Jimmy the Greek, Tim "The Toolman" Taylor, George Bush,
Jackass, Dumb and Dumber, Blazing Saddles, Deliverance, Rollerball (with Jimmy Caan, not the new gay one),
Multiple sex partners,
Girl on girl action,
The lost Easter egg in the air duct, (Sorry again, Honey)
Rick Santorum,
War movies,
Affairs,
Playboy channel,
Video games,
Bachelor parties,
Mud wrestling tournaments,
Our !$%*!$%*!$%*!$%*!$%* fake apologies,
Marriage means we can stop romancing you, right?,
Excessive risk taking,
Watching football all weekend, and on Mondays and Thursdays !$%*!$%*!$%*!$%*! (guys that wear those silly colored head bands, not guys who don't wear condoms),
Well, I guess those other !$%*!$%*!$% too,
Pegs and Holes, the peg or the hole, round-pegged and turgid, all mean sex, right? Ugh huh, Ugh huh, Ugh !$%*!$%*!$%*!$%*!$%* hair crumbs in the sink,
That T-shirt I won't throw away,
Magazines with no words,
Fighting,
Immaturity,
Strip !$%*!$%*!$%*!
Diddling priests,
Liking to break things,
Not looking at the ceiling when you bend over,
Having the emotional range of a teaspoon,
Sexual harassment,
Self centered,
Egotistical,
Lying,
Cheating,
Swearing,
Domineering,
Gambling,
Alcoholing,
Hooters,
Lawn darts,
Being a rape apologist,


Natural Instincts of Women:

Caring for the children,
Making dinner, and not just calling for pizza,
A clean house,
Flowers in a vase,
Generous,
Sugar and spice,
The dinner table,
Lifetime, HGTV, Food Network, PBS, BBC, ABC Family,
Figure skating,
Liking beauty,
Smelling good,
Writing thank you notes,
Honest,
Fruity drinks,
Wallpaper,
Clean clothes,
Not being !$%*!$%*!$%*!$ mature,
Invented sharing,
Responsible,
Taking on more than their fair share,
Play dates,
Working together,
Doesn't complain,
Spa days,
Virginity,
Long fingernails,
Having a vag!n@,
Reasonable,
Compassionate,
Nurturing,
Loving,
Caring,
Giving,
Hair product commercials,
Oprah,

Q.E.D.
Admit it ladies, wouldn't the world be a better place if guys were chemically castrated?
Argue on that b!tche$ - Wanna see my junk!

@dfhofmann:

Yes, let's pretend the problem here was sloppy righting and not a bunch of ultra-sensitive readers and other bloggers who care more about gaining attention (and web hits) by pounding out a feminist screed than actually trying to understand an author's point.

Or should I have put "maybe the problem" to give myself some wiggle room?

"If I say all men have a natural urge to eat, and some men are cannibals, have I implied that all men are natural cannibals? Did I condone the practice of eating people?"

No. You're a vegetarian right? Second one could go either way, because eating people is environmentally friendly. But I'll say no because the first statement is a statement of fact and not an opinion or critique.


"If I say Dutch men are the tallest in the world, which of the following facts have I implied?"

5. That the french are not the tallest men in the world.


'If I say I invented a robot that can be used to help feed babies, quadriplegics, and some mentally handicapped people, what else have I implied?"

6. That robots are useful, that you lack a good QA department to help said people wipe their butts, and that you mixed up the order of two and three.

Speaking as one of your staunchest supporters during the original MRA dust-up, Scott, you've lost me with this one. I have no idea what you are talking about any more, or what you are trying to prove. You have definitely stopped being interesting or amusing.

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results; yes, you have stepped into !$%*!$% crazy territory.

You bastard. I was a fan of yours until you said that all Dutch mentally handicapped babies are racists cannibals.

um - nobody said there was going to be multiple choice

How about Lady Gaga makes another Born This Way video, for straight men.

Women are (select all that apply):

A. From Venus
B. Largely Biologically determined, like men just a little differently
C. Part of the species Homo Sapiens
D. Just like men, minus all the bad stuff
E. Not sex objects, except when they want to be

Scott,

I think you are going to have accept the fact that your writing in the Peg and Hole blog was a little sloppy, particularly for a topic that had the obvious potential to be controversial.

For example:
1) "Powerful men have been behaving badly...." could have been worded "Some powerful men have recently behaved badly...."
2)"... e.g. tweeting, raping, cheating...." could have been worded "... e.g. tweeting photos of their junk, cheating, and -- more seriously -- raping."
3)"The part that interests me is that society is organized in such a way that the natural instincts of men are shameful and criminal while the natural instincts of women are mostly legal and acceptable" could have been worded "Leaving aside the unrelated issue of rape, what interests me is the hypothesis that society is organized in such a way that the natural instincts of men...."

Your continued jibes at your critics, like this one, are making you appear petulant, which I never suspected you of. Better to accept that you need to devote a bit more energy crafting your words the next time you publish a similar thought experiment and move on.

[You make important points that will be the subject of an upcoming post. -- Scott]

How about:

Present-day differences (physical, cultural, legal, psychological etc) between men and women result from (choose all that apply):

A. The United States Constitution of 1787
B. Biology
C. Collective male conspiracy against women
D. Social construction

A better analogy would be: all men like money, some men steal, so all men are natural thieves.

The cannibal analogy is logically incorrect. there's a socially acceptable substitute for rape (consensual sex). There's no socially acceptable substitute for cannibalism.

How dare you saying that babies, quadriplegics, and mentally handicapped people are equally unable?! And no, they don't need your stinking robot to help them. They can take care of themselves just fine. Stop forcing your opinion onto these people!