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Yeah. I grew up in a third world country and moved to North America pretty late. I never realized how sheltered and weak Americans were till I joined a well kno

Yeah. I grew up in a third world country and moved to North America pretty late. I never realized how sheltered and weak Americans were till I joined a well known YC company.

meowtimemania 5y ago
Can you expound? In what ways do you find them weak? I can think of many but curious on your perspective
- thrownaway564 5y ago
  Antonio García Martínez: "Most women in the Bay Area are soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit. They have their self-regarding entitlement feminism, and ceaselessly vaunt their independence, but the reality is, come the epidemic plague or foreign invasion, they’d become precisely the sort of useless baggage you’d trade for a box of shotgun shells or a jerry can of diesel."
  - baryphonic 5y ago
    If you quoted him in context, you'd show that he regarded this particular lady friend of his as a "strong woman" in both body and mind. Why didn't you do that?
    - anigbrowl 5y ago
      Most likely because we don't all know his individual lady friend, but we definitely know people who are 'women in the bay area'. If a person makes a broad sweeping statement then qualifying it with an individual exception is no more significant than some tiny disclaimer int he corner of a billboard.
      - lliamander 5y ago
        I'm fairly sure that if his comment had been about (for instance) white men in the bay area, he would still have his job.
        anigbrowl 5y ago
        That's a different question. White men as a group have high social and economic status, so a broad-spectrum put-down isn't likely to impact them very much. Women have spent a long time trying to overcome exclusionary social mores, and have correspondingly less social and economic capital, so it's in their interest to cooperate against overt sexists.
        baryphonic 5y ago
        I've seen a lot of white homeless men around the Bay Area. In fact, the ratio of homeless white men to homeless women of any race is quite high. Do these homeless white men have high social and economic status? I'm curious to know when it is appropriate to generalize based on group membership, and when it is not. EDIT: More curiosity from me: Has anyone demonstrated that any women were actually impacted by his statement (again, a few lines taken out of context from, well, a book-length book) in any real way? The assumption seems to be that now he's irrevocably tainted as sexist, like some sort of charged particle inducing sexist discrimination on any nearby woman according to some inverse square law. I have yet to understand how a flippant (and joking) sentence or two in a book somehow causes anyone any real harm.
        lliamander 5y ago
        Saying "white men can take it" is not the moral high-ground you think it is.
        baryphonic 5y ago
        I just looked up the suicide rates, and holy cow.[0] How many additional white men have taken their own lives because they are assumed to be able to "handle put-downs?" [0]https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/suicide/rates_1999_2017.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/suicide/rates_1999_2017...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
ed25519FUUU 5y ago
Good times make weak men, and all that.
anon7725 5y ago
> I never realized how sheltered and weak Americans were People are people. I would try to view it through the lens of power dynamics and in-group signaling rather than weakness/strength.
- mbrodersen 5y ago
  Strength is the ability to deal with difficulties and different opinions. Weekness is being threatened by anybody thinking even slightly differently.
eloff 5y ago
I feel like this is true, especially of younger generations, in many rich countries. I think maybe because it takes challenge and pain to grow and things have been quite comfortable for a long time for many. It could just be my perception. But I've never seen so much anxiety, such reluctance to do hard things, and such inability to focus. Social media may be largely to blame.
- sergiomattei 5y ago
  It's not any of those things. It's the fact that your generation likely faced a much different set of problems than the current one does. Every generation fails to understand the upcoming one. Common thought throughout the ages.
  - eloff 5y ago
    You don't even know what generation I am. I'm younger than you'd guess. You didn't address any of my arguments, other than to say it's just my perception, which I admit, is a possibility.
    - rootusrootus 5y ago
      This entire thread is a trainwreck. I feel like I just walked into a slightly more polite version of Voat.
      - andrewzah 5y ago
        This is basically every HN thread when it comes to anything related to race in u.s. politics.
- mbrodersen 5y ago
  It is not just your opinion. Read the book “antifragile”.
  - eloff 5y ago
mbrodersen 5y ago
You need to experience challenges and overcome difficulties to build a strong character. The same way the immune system needs to be exposed to bacteria and dirt to become strong. When you aren’t, the result is a weak fragile personality that can’t cope with the slightest unexpected derivation from how they expect things to be.

Yeah. I grew up in a third world country and moved to North America pretty late. I never realized how sheltered and weak Americans were till I joined a well known YC company.

meowtimemania 5y ago

Can you expound? In what ways do you find them weak? I can think of many but curious on your perspective

thrownaway564 5y ago
Antonio García Martínez: "Most women in the Bay Area are soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit. They have their self-regarding entitlement feminism, and ceaselessly vaunt their independence, but the reality is, come the epidemic plague or foreign invasion, they’d become precisely the sort of useless baggage you’d trade for a box of shotgun shells or a jerry can of diesel."
- baryphonic 5y ago
  If you quoted him in context, you'd show that he regarded this particular lady friend of his as a "strong woman" in both body and mind. Why didn't you do that?
  - anigbrowl 5y ago
    Most likely because we don't all know his individual lady friend, but we definitely know people who are 'women in the bay area'. If a person makes a broad sweeping statement then qualifying it with an individual exception is no more significant than some tiny disclaimer int he corner of a billboard.
    - lliamander 5y ago
      I'm fairly sure that if his comment had been about (for instance) white men in the bay area, he would still have his job.
      - anigbrowl 5y ago
        That's a different question. White men as a group have high social and economic status, so a broad-spectrum put-down isn't likely to impact them very much. Women have spent a long time trying to overcome exclusionary social mores, and have correspondingly less social and economic capital, so it's in their interest to cooperate against overt sexists.
        baryphonic 5y ago
        I've seen a lot of white homeless men around the Bay Area. In fact, the ratio of homeless white men to homeless women of any race is quite high. Do these homeless white men have high social and economic status? I'm curious to know when it is appropriate to generalize based on group membership, and when it is not. EDIT: More curiosity from me: Has anyone demonstrated that any women were actually impacted by his statement (again, a few lines taken out of context from, well, a book-length book) in any real way? The assumption seems to be that now he's irrevocably tainted as sexist, like some sort of charged particle inducing sexist discrimination on any nearby woman according to some inverse square law. I have yet to understand how a flippant (and joking) sentence or two in a book somehow causes anyone any real harm.
        lliamander 5y ago
        Saying "white men can take it" is not the moral high-ground you think it is.
        baryphonic 5y ago
        I just looked up the suicide rates, and holy cow.[0] How many additional white men have taken their own lives because they are assumed to be able to "handle put-downs?" [0]https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/suicide/rates_1999_2017.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/suicide/rates_1999_2017...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

ed25519FUUU 5y ago

Good times make weak men, and all that.

anon7725 5y ago

> I never realized how sheltered and weak Americans were People are people. I would try to view it through the lens of power dynamics and in-group signaling rather than weakness/strength.

mbrodersen 5y ago
Strength is the ability to deal with difficulties and different opinions. Weekness is being threatened by anybody thinking even slightly differently.

eloff 5y ago

I feel like this is true, especially of younger generations, in many rich countries. I think maybe because it takes challenge and pain to grow and things have been quite comfortable for a long time for many. It could just be my perception. But I've never seen so much anxiety, such reluctance to do hard things, and such inability to focus. Social media may be largely to blame.

sergiomattei 5y ago
It's not any of those things. It's the fact that your generation likely faced a much different set of problems than the current one does. Every generation fails to understand the upcoming one. Common thought throughout the ages.
- eloff 5y ago
  You don't even know what generation I am. I'm younger than you'd guess. You didn't address any of my arguments, other than to say it's just my perception, which I admit, is a possibility.
  - rootusrootus 5y ago
    This entire thread is a trainwreck. I feel like I just walked into a slightly more polite version of Voat.
    - andrewzah 5y ago
      This is basically every HN thread when it comes to anything related to race in u.s. politics.
mbrodersen 5y ago
It is not just your opinion. Read the book “antifragile”.
- eloff 5y ago

mbrodersen 5y ago

You need to experience challenges and overcome difficulties to build a strong character. The same way the immune system needs to be exposed to bacteria and dirt to become strong. When you aren’t, the result is a weak fragile personality that can’t cope with the slightest unexpected derivation from how they expect things to be.