In my video chat with my friends (a bunch of dudes in mid 20s to early 30s) this week, a friend show off his collection of books he read over the past year. A total of 31 books from scifi novels, literary classics, political theory, outdoors/nature books, and car maintenance. Which got use discussing how we'd all probably "should" (I mean this in the least reactionary way possible) read more. We then started discussing other things we all "should" and things we all "should" know as men. Then we all kinda circled back to so much of the "man-o-sphere" is like half a step away from some real regressive and slimeball mindsets across the spectrum. Then we on to our evening gaming session (we are getting back into RTS and played 2v2 sets of Dawn of War, we are all very bad at the game).
However, it got me thinking that there is probably some value in me knowing how fix the sink or whatever. One friend mentioned he'd love to learn and do more, but everything is so cheap so much is meant to be replaced, it doesn't make sense to learn how to maintain them. Personally I find the idea of self-sufficiency (in the least "rugged man/classical masculinity" online cosplay-y way possible) to be dope, but I find that trying to learn that sort of stuff brings you into proximity of lots of nasty ideology.
Personally I think it's rad a working-class guy like my friend has time to be so well-read and manages to find time for "bettering" (again, I find this wordage to be a bit lib-y in the sense it's often used to make oneself more marketable or whatever) himself without falling into a "12 Rules For Life" sorta trap. I'd love to improve my "manliness" but would like to do so without all the toxicity of the antiquated archetypical stuff.
Sorry this doesn't make a ton of sense. Typing on my lunch break. My question, I guess, is what are some "traditional" values you think are worth "returning to" without the gross underlying traits that make them quickly turn conservative nonsense.
I was thinking about this before I went to bed, but in the Americas it seems like you're taught that the natives were complete savages....like they didn't know how to do anything.....but that doesn't seem to be entirely true. Sure they were less "developed" than the Europeans, but the Inca appear to have had brain surgeons, and the Spanish couldn't even touch the Aztecs in warfare despite having the blicky without having to grab all the other tribes to help fuck em up. Even the Spanish explorers who laid eyes on Tenochtitlan were like "dude what the fuck" because of how impressive it was. Imagine finding a civilization on par or close to the advancement of ancient Rome in what was bumfuck nowwhere at the time
It makes me sad wondering what kind of knowledge they had and all that has been lost after one of if not the biggest genocides in human history. They had been there fucking millenia, and IIRC they warned (and still warned) the settlers in North America to not do certain shit and they still deal with those problems today because they didn't lessen to the natives
American schools are an unchecked breeding ground for still rampant white supremacy. Shit-brained talking points from centuries ago are circulated from parent to child at home and then spread to other children at school. None of the kids know what it is they’re spreading but it still becomes wrapped up in how they think, often for the rest of their lives unless these views are constantly and ruthlessly examined and criticized.
Yeah I read 1491 a few years ago and it really surprised me how advanced some native cultures were and how massive the genocide was (and is).
Reminds me of how certain native cultures used controlled burns to manage the prairies and forests before the wh*tes shut that down (with predictable results).