I have written about AWALThttps://www.trp.red/p/deeplydisturbed/1782previously, but it recently occurred to me that my explanations could us some clarification. So to that end, here are some thoughts:
Overview
Many, if not all of us, can agree that AWALT is not technically true; it is merely an assumption. At least a few of us can point to at least a few good woman who resisted the worst aspects of womanhood. We also know that women can be one way with one man, and another way with another man. So NAWALT – at least not all the time, in all cases. It has some nuance to it- context and a bunch of other things matter.
Yet despite this, we must proceed as AWALT is true. There are a few very important reasons for this.
So to those men who have heard me discuss this in the past, I stand by my original premise: Always assume AWALT.
The Logic Behind AWALT
For me, the logic flows in a circular pattern something like this:
I think you get the idea, no matter how I have tried to “break” AWALT, I always arrive at the same conclusion.
Final Note:
To many women, male feminists, and assorted other allies, AWALT can sound like an insult or a put down. But on the contrary, it is a simple acknowledgement of the power of feminism. Because let’s face it men – feminism has effectively won the “gender war”. They lost a few battles, and there are still a few skirmishes, but that ideology owns us now.
And just like any other conquered people, each of us must find a way to work within this new system. After WWII, the Japanese were given an entirely new governmental structure, schools, post office and even labor laws. And over time they went back to being Japan (with a twist?). But for a while, they had to accept being ruled over by a conquering force under the direct control of a military General officer.
When the British took over India, they reacted as Ghandi told them to react: Just sit down and do nothing. Imagine a billion people taking beatings but refusing to stand and work. Passive resistance won in the long run.
Ask any of the 100 million dead Ukrainians and Russians if they could go back and do one thing over, I would bet that at least a few million would say “I should not have trusted my neighbor.” Because in times like these, you must assume your neighbors are Party spies seeking to gain favor, or avoid being subject to scrutiny. In the long run, centralize planning fell apart and the Oligarchs took control. And things are fairly calm now.
The same thing can be said of Weimar Germany, in which neighbors called the police on their very own friends and neighbors. Germany lost the war, as did the rest of the West, and to this day the common German citizen is not much more than a peasant, forced to pay for the sins of elites from long ago. Who knows if they will ever be truly free again.
And because so many people can so easily be coerced into harming the good people around them, and and because the consequences to getting this wrong can be so catastrophic, trust will be in short supply in such societies under such conditions. It is simply how humans can get under certain types of duress. Add sex/gender differences to the mix and it compounds things by an order of magnitude.
So for the foreseeable future it would behoove us all to assume in all cases at all times that AWALT, because your very life and well-being may depend on it.