Advice for a Switched-on Southerner
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Summary
A 17 year old homeschooled boy from flyover country wants to join the U.S. Navy. Is it a good career choice for a homeschooler? Or should he go to college to get a high school diploma?
Transcript
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philosophical questions, anything else that you
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Always be getting bigger, stronger, faster, better.
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I'm raised a Protestant, and I'm currently studying
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First of all, absolutely brilliant that you're studying
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You will learn a whole bunch of valuable skills.
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You know, and now they're murdering Christians.
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they use a lot of math doing what they're doing.
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in that there's going to be a lot of math involved.
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So, make sure you get other skills under your belt.
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Take advantage of the educational opportunities
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and all I've read in terms of that is the Bible.
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because I'm lacking in that area of my studying?
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One of the problems that you're going to run into
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when it came out, I think five years ago or so.
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Now, let's say that you grew up watching Aragorn.
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Star Wars is not going to have the same impact on you
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You know, not the same impact that it had on me
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is heavily inspired by both Plato and Aristotle.
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of the traditions and theologies of the church,
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then you will already know a lot of this stuff.
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because you feel like you're reading a very long,
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detailed text explaining something you know already.
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That said, I'm going to try and point you to a few books
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it's important to understand the historical context
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that the West has been engaged in for millennia.
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that just give you an overview of European history
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so that you understand how all of this fits together.
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Plato is really the guy that nailed down logic.
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So, Plato was writing at a time when superstition was rampant.
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You know, where people were begging the gods for favors,
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And Plato was the guy to really nail down logic.
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one of the frustrations trying to explain things to modern people
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We are far, far too logical without any holistic understanding of things.
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You know, like we've trapped ourselves in a little box of logic
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that actually doesn't make any sense and doesn't really take us anywhere positive.
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So, Plato is not going to be that beneficial to you
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who was writing kind of a right-brained response to Plato,
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saying that, like, yes, we need to start with logic, with grammar, with mathematics,
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but we also need to have a holistic understanding of how everything fits together.
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And so, the book I would particularly recommend by Aristotle is Rhetoric.
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I provide a link below, but plenty of versions of it that you can get for free.
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Very profound book about how, you know, art is not something that you can define using logic.
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You know, beauty is not something you can really nail down
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but that doesn't mean that it's not valuable in and of itself.
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Next book, Political Treaties from, you know, I believe it's the 19th century.
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Now, I'm going to warn you right now, this is an absolutely foul work.
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It's depressing and negative, and this is exactly why, if you read this after Aristotle,
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you will see how Hobbes is just, he's like this autist that does not, this spurt that doesn't,
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And so his only solution to having a functional government is to have an absolutely tyrannical state,
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You can draw a very straight line between what he's advocating
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and the modern democratic socialist tyrannies that we're building for ourselves.
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Again, a very ugly book, but you'll start to see the patterns, especially contrasting that to Aristotle.
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And two more books that you should read just generally.
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These are kind of more, these are modern books, okay?
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In fact, that might not be a bad place to start, because it's a very enjoyable, easy read
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that will kind of induct you into what philosophy is really all about.
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It's got some great insights on valuation of things, the importance of beauty.
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You know, I'm working on his Eros and the Mysteries of Love right now.
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He talks about metaphysics, about patterns, about...
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In fact, he flips the modern understanding on its head.
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For instance, evolution is typically understood as the lesser building into the higher.
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And so the higher, we try and take the human mind and break it down into individual components.
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You know, evolutionary psychology, you know, instincts, hormones, chemical imbalances, etc.
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Whereas in his metaphysical view, what's actually happening is that there are higher ideals
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The lower is being kind of pulled up on a metaphysical level to these higher valuations.
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And so the nature of humanity, the nature of the two sexes, is not just arbitrary.
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As he argues, the higher something is on the evolutionary chain, the more it becomes two sexes.
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That the two sexes are actually foundational nodes of reality.
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Heck, you can even compare them to chiral molecules, like left hand, right hand.
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These are very foundational aspects of the metaphysics of our universe.
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It's very refreshing from the simple materialism that you get everywhere nowadays.
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Two of them you can get for free, the other ones you'll actually have to pay for.
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That would be a really good induction into philosophy.
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That will set you up with the basics, so now you know what you're doing.
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And after that, you really just gotta pursue your own interests.
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Like I said, one of the challenges with all of this is that with a lot of it you're gonna feel like you've read it already.
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Because you have. These books are so influential and so widely cited that you have read most of them.
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So, you know what, if it's really boring you, don't kick yourself if you decide to skim or move forward a little bit faster.
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Which is why you also want to put them into the historical context.
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Understand why it is that this book was being written in this era.
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Or that, you know, that book was being written in that era.
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You want to understand the history and the development of the whole thing.
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Most of the social interaction I get is through church or going to ballgames with some friends.
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I find it very mind-numbing talking to people in my age range.
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They can't hold conversations on anything except sports and video games.
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The moment you mention anything to do with economics, they are immediately disinterested and bored.
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My question is, should I bother forming bonds with this community if I'm leaving in a year and a half?
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Well, that's a bit of a difficult question to answer.
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Just from reading your email, your diction, I would say you're definitely in the top 5% of the population IQ-wise, if not a lot higher than that.
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So, growing up in a small town, it's going to be very hard to find people that are operating on your level.
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In theory, I love small towns. In practice, I need to be in cities.
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Because finding peers to hang out with, finding people that are working on my level, is just bloody near impossible in a small town.
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To find people that are operating on your level, you're going to need to move to a city.
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Even though there's, obviously, there's the downsides of living in a city, which I don't even need to go into.
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And unfortunately, on top of that, like, it's absolutely clear, you're homeschooled, you're studying math, you're studying grammar, you know.
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We are living, like, we have garbage people these days.
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And you're going to find a lot of people like that.
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On the one hand, you know, it is good to get out there and meet people.
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And, you know, you need to learn to accept people for what they are.
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And one thing I do think you'll find in the Navy is that you'll be working with people that aren't necessarily as intelligent as you.
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And yet, you'll get along very well with them, because they're hard-working, because they've earned their stripes.
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You know, that's literally a saying, a military saying, that double chevron on your shoulder, that you earned those stripes.
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And so those sorts of people, those accomplished, hard-working, maybe not, you know, scholarly, not super intelligent, but hard-working, decent.
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And they are very good people, very positive people.
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I mean, you might need to dumb down your interests a little bit with these people.
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But you'll find that they actually make very good companions, because they're not narcissists.
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So I would question, is the problem with the people in your town that they're unintelligent?
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Or is it that they're narcissists, that they're phonies, man?
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To go all holding Caulfield on you, they're all a bunch of phonies.
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I kind of suspect, I kind of suspect that the latter is more of the issue.
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So, you know, take the people as they are, but don't waste your time hanging out with a bunch of losers and smoking pot.
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There are, you know, it's, and this is something Aaron has said.
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Like, the hard part about actually living a good life is that so few people want to live a good life.
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You know, it's hiking up the mountain and being the only one up there.
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You know, but the interesting thing is, when you are hiking up a mountain, when you're doing something like that,
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everybody you meet on the hiking trail is just a really cool person.
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You know, it's like, you can just see instantly, like, I could be really good friends with this person.
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And it sounds like you don't have people like that in your life.
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You know, you don't want to, like, you don't want to hate the world.
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You don't want, you got to take it for what it is.
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You want to go out and have as much fun as you can.
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But ultimately, it's going to be, you know, you're going to meet great people in the military.
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If you move to a major city, you're going to meet really cool people in that city.
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There's a couple of people I still talk to from high school, but it's, you know,
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high school is just wherever your parents decide to live.
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You know, you're going to find your real friends in your 20s.
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If you meet somebody good, don't be antisocial.
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You know, but at the same time, don't worry about it too much.
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You will meet interesting people down the line.
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So, although you will have to get out and find these people.
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It's easier when you're younger, especially if you do some college,
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if you do some university, you'll meet some really good people there as well.
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You'll meet a lot of idiots, but you'll meet some good people.
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You know, the meet-up hiking, meet-up whatever.
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Is dancing something I've been wanting to get into?
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Just make sure you do work on your social skills.
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Get out and learn how to get along with people.
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If I screw one of the girls for my church and she squeals later if she's unhappy, you know, I'm fucked.
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I don't like putting that sort of power into a 15 to 16-year-old girl's hands.
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I'm not one of those MGTOWs that doesn't even try, but chastity, I'm not sure I can uphold that with my faith.
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First of all, let me start with the chastity thing.
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If you've managed to be chaste this long, it might be worth holding on to that.
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Now, the problem, like the reason it's so tempting to be unchaste is because most women are garbage.
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But most women, they're narcissists, you know, they want something one, they want something another.
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And they might be fun to flirt with, fun to take on a date, but they're really not good for anything but short-term flings.
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And the Manosphere, it's written reams about this.
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I find Anne Barnhart, I find her absolutely inspirational.
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She is such an amazing individual, such a righteous lady.
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And to me, somebody like her, a woman like that, of such moral conviction, of such integrity, I am trying to be the sort of man that deserves a woman like that.
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And, you know, if you're traipsing around with tramps all the time, do you deserve a woman like that?
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You know, like, do you want to have all this baggage that you need to make up for?
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It might be worth holding on to, particularly if you can find a decent woman at some point.
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Now, what is this about your family ostracizing you if she squeals?
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So, let's say you go on a date and you have a little roll in the hay.
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First of all, if you're playing your cards right, like, don't be pushy.
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If you're playing your cards right, there really isn't too much to worry about.
00:26:09.000
The women you worry about are the feminists, are the social justice warriors.
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And so, I guess, you know what, if she's really...
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I don't mean like she reads a lot of politics, because obviously nobody does that in your town.
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But if she's the sort of woman that is constantly manipulating people, if she's a mean girl.
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You know, if she's gossiping and lying about people and she's really catty.
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But if she's just typical, shallow, but honest, and you have a roll in the hay with her, you really don't have that much to worry about.
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You don't want to knock her up and get stuck with that.
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It seems to me like you're worrying too much about her squealing.
00:27:03.000
But also, if she squeals, if she says like, you know, we had premarital sex, and I take it there's an expectation in your community that you shouldn't.
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If your church is that infected with feminism, why do you care if you're alienated from that church?
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And the idea that your family would just be just furious with you for this?
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You know, chastity is one of the hardest things in our species, okay?
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You know, you really might want to hold out for a decent woman.
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And they're a lot easier to find if you are chaste.
00:28:02.000
But if all these people are going to alienate you, exclude you, and hate you for this...
00:28:10.000
Well, first of all, are you sure that they would?
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And second, if they would do something like that...
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We're not talking about how you, like, tortured a house cat or murdered somebody.
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We're talking about premarital sex for crying out loud.
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Half the popes were married when they weren't supposed to be.
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It really bothers me that you're worried about this.
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You need to find people in your life that won't be so harsh...
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Like, I mean, it's one thing to get a girl drunk and take advantage of her.
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It's another thing to have a friendly role in the hay.
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So that kind of suggests to me that you're worried about it.
00:29:15.000
That sounds like a lot of controlling behavior.
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Are you codependently involved with people who are very controlling and very manipulative?
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You know, definitely be paranoid around the feminists.
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But if you're more worried about the church and your family excluding you over this.
00:30:01.000
You know, on the one hand, who cares what they think if that's how they're going to behave.
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At the same time, you probably don't need that BS.
00:30:08.000
You know, it'd be better to have your family liking you so you can get them to, you know, loan you money and whatever.
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You know, learn how to flirt with them, dance with them, whatnot.
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And, you know, it's probably a good idea to stay chaste until you find a woman that's actually worth your time.
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But go on a lot of dates so that you know a lot of women so that you understand what women are like.
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That way you won't get sucked in by some manipulative psycho that just wants your benefits.
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Anyway, I hope that was all useful information for you.
00:30:56.000
It sounds like you got your head on straight and that you're moving in the right direction.
00:31:02.000
And, again, folks, if you have your own request, go to Arini's Insight.
00:31:09.000
But I try to make sure the answers are good and useful.