Female writer for liberal rag claims the Internet destroyed the West. Really?

For those of you who live in flyover country, "The Atlantic" is a magazine for the hip, cool kidz in NY, DC and L.A.  Its readers are hard-core Democrats, and its job is to support the Democrat party--to the delight of its subscribers and the elite Media.

Yesterday (3/17) the Atlantic posted a piece by a female staff writer--Caitlin Flanagan--claiming the internet has destroyed the western world.  

According to Caitlin this was done not by allowing conservatives to post on Musk's X without being censored, or by allowing conservative websites to exist and post ideas anyone can read, but because of...wait for it...porn.

Caitlin's thesis is that before the internet, porn was "only a pale imitation of the real thing," and that men would always prefer a real woman.  But according to Caitlin--who, let us recall, writes for a hip, cool-kidz, pro-Dem magazine--"then the internet arrived," and everything changed.

Caitlin claims internet porn was

"...so good, so varied, so ready to please, so instantly—insistently—available, that it led to a generation of men who think of porn not as a backup to having sex, but as an improvement on it. They prefer it.
   Men could now have what many see as a rich sex life without ever needing to deal with an actual woman."

Wait, why would men want to avoid "needing to deal with an actual woman"?

Here's a newsflash for ya, Caitlin: you and your self-identified Democrat "elites" have been demonizing men for decades.  Ever hear the phrase "toxic masculinity"?  The sneering liberal term "the Patriarchy"?  Your pencil-dick liberal judges have been destroying men in millions of divorce cases.  The Mainstream Media has written thousands of articles on "toxic masculinity."  Your beloved Democrats in congress and the White House (1992-2000, 2008-2016 and 2020-2024) have done everything possible to demonize men.

And guess what?  Smart men--in great shape, savvy, with good jobs--noticed.

But now you're gonna blame the internet for a few million savvy men deciding most women aren't worth the trouble--totally ignoring your party's role in causing it.  Got it.

Before internet porn, men had an obvious incentive to put up with the stress of dating, (so) they developed the social skills necessary to close the deal: enough resilience to ask a woman out, and then a second woman if the first one rejected them.  But while the relationship was going on, they weren't lonely.

Ahhh, it's reassuring to find you so concerned about men being lonely.  Perhaps some really are.

By good fortune I've loved and been loved by lots of wonderful gals.  But you and your party and your feminist sisters seem to think men need women--even if bitchy and demanding--to avoid being lonely.  But are men actually desperate to avoid being lonely, or is that projection?

Caitlin claims that because teen boys can access internet porn, they get a misleading sense of what sex should be.  So tell us, Caitlin: what do you and your liberal sisters think is the ideal for what sex should be?

When straight men don’t need women for sex, the question arises, What do they need them for?  If it’s having children, these men are going to have to get out in the world and meet some women...

Yes, children are delightful.  But to men who've been destroyed by the legal system in divorce, with your kids held hostage by all-powerful liberal judges, they're hostages of the State.  (And yes, I realize it can go the opposite way too--which outrages me just as much.)<<

Caitlin again:

Someone whose adolescence has been spent using a phone and laptop for sex probably isn’t skilled in making conversation with actual women...

Certainly people who are good conversationalists are often interesting, and most women I've met let the man take the conversational lead.  And a skilled person is interested in their partner.  But the most interesting, women I've known have a clever skill:  an interest in topics that interest men.

Most women don't seem to think they need that skill because men (regarded by Media elites as being rather simple) will be totally mesmerized by their looks.  And certainly lots of men are.  What fraction, Caitlin?

The internet’s biggest by-product is loneliness.  We weren’t made to live this way.  Many of the traits that make us human—compassion, the ability to devote sustained thought to a problem, our capacity to fall in love and to sacrifice for the people we love—are meaningless to the algorithms that rule us.

Ahh, "...to the algorithms that rule us."  She doesn't specifiy, but since the topic of her article is internet porn, that would seem to be a reasonable guess.  She blames men--and internet porn--for the problems she sees--but not a hint of awareness that a number of other causes have an impact--because blaming internet porn--and thus men-- is SO convenient!

Caitlin then notes--correctly--that girls who post sex videos on OnlyFans can make millions of dollars a year.  (Caitlin says 20 times what a girl could earn being a waitress.)  Yes, men with excess cash do give these gals lots of money.  Caitlin uses that opportunity to blame "end-stage capitalism."  Clever.  Never miss the chance to blame capitalism

If the U.S. is doomed, I'm pretty confident that was set in motion way before the internet existed, when liberals, Democrats and so-called "progressives" began demonizing men.  Smart men quickly saw this and some fraction of 'em decided to stop playing.  So what effect does that have on society?

Easy: it results in a lot fewer of what used to be called "nuclear families:" two parents raising kids. There are still lots of loving but naive young women out there who make the mistake of loving moronic brutes who don't help raise their offspring.  And there are still lots of smart, discerning men--admittedly a small fraction--who will continue to pair up with loving, caring women who love that man more than militant feminism.  But lots of smart men have decided to stay single for many years.

Meanwhile liberals like Caitlin will continue to blame internet porn--or "toxic masculinity" or Globull Worming or video games, or drugs--anything, to avoid admitting their own role in the current situation.

Before a year ago I would have said it would be impossible to change this situation, but in the last year many young Americans seem to be waking up.  Of course the Democrats and Media elites are now mounting a furious counterattack, and the outcome seems to me to be 50/50.

Source: The Atlantic

https://archive.is/IwfLu#selection-813.35-921.350