You're right on with all this. Dads are important in the home for boys for one main reason, which is to be someone they're at least marginally afraid of, to keep their asses at least somewhat in line once puberty kicks in. If there's no dad to have to come home and face to tell him you just got arrested, or kicked out of school, or fired from your job, or caught with drugs, boys are way more likely to do all those things, and ultimately most of them aren't afraid of their moms. It's enough of a disincentive to keep them from doing the truly stupid things they tend to otherwise. But that's the main function. Not some wisdom or fatherly advice. Most boys who had that scoff and think their dad is an idiot and don't listen to any of it anyway.
"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." --Mark Twain
I think you underestimate the influence of a male role model. As a child of a single mother that married a worse step father, growing up seeing my criminal, under-achieving father every 2nd weekend the info you so nonchalantly take for granted wasn't available to me. Just now, after years of decluttering my mind and mental models and interacting with men that show me in real life what the RP tries to teach through internet screens I can grasp the concepts truly. Seeing there is a line you can walk between aloofness and being hostile. That you can be playfully approachable without giving away your power. You are preaching from a very high horse there and I can tell that having a head start in life with a more functional father would have helped me out a lot. This blog is very dismissive of the positive impact even a mediocre dad can have on his son.
You are the target audience for this article. You are assuming there is some kind of special information and if only Dad had been there, you'd have learned it. There is no such information.
Even when Dad is in the home, Dads do not sit their sons down and explain internet manosphere Red Pill lessons about being aloof or playful or male-female power dynamics. That is not a normal father-son moment. Not even a little bit. I understand that men from single-parent homes probably wouldn't know that, but a dad sitting down and telling you the sort of gender dynamics things you read on the internet would be extremely strange - a very abnormal father-son conversation.
Nobody's father had but failed to deliver special information that would have set them up for success in life and made them win at a dating and relationships.
I am not arguing that a father would explicitly do that, I am saying that a real life example would have sufficed. There are so many concepts I could only truly understand once I saw them in real life, even after essays and essays of reading about them
Yes but 95% of people who had dads in their home considered them complete dorks, certainly never saw them display an iota of "game", and disregarded everything their dad ever did say, while laughing at him and rolling their eyes at what an embarrassing old man he was.
I mean, they wouldn't teach them 'agree and amplify'--lots of dorks had dorky dads. But it's another adult in the house who can give a second perspective, and more importantly one who's gone through the same things you did. For all that guys like to complain about feminist misandrist single mothers (and they are definitely a thing), most single moms are trying their best, but they're often overwhelmed and haven't experienced what the boy's going through firsthand. Even a dorky dad can tell you that women prefer good clothes and muscles, and he might be able to tell you the types of women who will settle for dorks. If nothing else he gives you something to model yourself after, and in most cases that's good enough.
I liked your piece without having reading it
Upon perusal of it, I immediately unliked it.
A terrible piece by a cretinous blowhard who is sustaining his uncertainty all the aplomb of millennial ignorance.
You're right on with all this. Dads are important in the home for boys for one main reason, which is to be someone they're at least marginally afraid of, to keep their asses at least somewhat in line once puberty kicks in. If there's no dad to have to come home and face to tell him you just got arrested, or kicked out of school, or fired from your job, or caught with drugs, boys are way more likely to do all those things, and ultimately most of them aren't afraid of their moms. It's enough of a disincentive to keep them from doing the truly stupid things they tend to otherwise. But that's the main function. Not some wisdom or fatherly advice. Most boys who had that scoff and think their dad is an idiot and don't listen to any of it anyway.
"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." --Mark Twain
Yeah, that was me too.
I think you underestimate the influence of a male role model. As a child of a single mother that married a worse step father, growing up seeing my criminal, under-achieving father every 2nd weekend the info you so nonchalantly take for granted wasn't available to me. Just now, after years of decluttering my mind and mental models and interacting with men that show me in real life what the RP tries to teach through internet screens I can grasp the concepts truly. Seeing there is a line you can walk between aloofness and being hostile. That you can be playfully approachable without giving away your power. You are preaching from a very high horse there and I can tell that having a head start in life with a more functional father would have helped me out a lot. This blog is very dismissive of the positive impact even a mediocre dad can have on his son.
You are the target audience for this article. You are assuming there is some kind of special information and if only Dad had been there, you'd have learned it. There is no such information.
Even when Dad is in the home, Dads do not sit their sons down and explain internet manosphere Red Pill lessons about being aloof or playful or male-female power dynamics. That is not a normal father-son moment. Not even a little bit. I understand that men from single-parent homes probably wouldn't know that, but a dad sitting down and telling you the sort of gender dynamics things you read on the internet would be extremely strange - a very abnormal father-son conversation.
Nobody's father had but failed to deliver special information that would have set them up for success in life and made them win at a dating and relationships.
I am not arguing that a father would explicitly do that, I am saying that a real life example would have sufficed. There are so many concepts I could only truly understand once I saw them in real life, even after essays and essays of reading about them
Yes but 95% of people who had dads in their home considered them complete dorks, certainly never saw them display an iota of "game", and disregarded everything their dad ever did say, while laughing at him and rolling their eyes at what an embarrassing old man he was.
I mean, they wouldn't teach them 'agree and amplify'--lots of dorks had dorky dads. But it's another adult in the house who can give a second perspective, and more importantly one who's gone through the same things you did. For all that guys like to complain about feminist misandrist single mothers (and they are definitely a thing), most single moms are trying their best, but they're often overwhelmed and haven't experienced what the boy's going through firsthand. Even a dorky dad can tell you that women prefer good clothes and muscles, and he might be able to tell you the types of women who will settle for dorks. If nothing else he gives you something to model yourself after, and in most cases that's good enough.