Welcome to my weekly digest for January 27, 2023. For new subscribers, this contains a roundup of my recent writings and podcasts, as well as links to the best articles from around the web this week. You can control what emails you get from me by
"My observation has been that once women reach the point around age 45 at which they are definitively childless and unlikely to marry, there’s a trend towards them hardening and becoming even more militant."
The other day I was listening to a conversation between my wife and an older friend of hers who fits into the "over 40, single, childless, and basically resigned to never marrying" category and, unlike my wife, mostly seems to socialize within this category. Though this woman is churchgoing and not exactly militant.
And one thing she said to my wife that stuck with me was, "You know, I think you're the only friend of mine who isn't on anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medication, or both." Which, statistically, ought to describe less than 25% of women in their 30s-40s (half that rate for men), but it wouldn't surprise me at all if spinsters were heavily overrepresented in this category of being permanently medicated on mild-altering chemicals.
It's also a good reminder about this entire world of chemicals that's otherwise basically invisible to men like me, for whom the idea of medicating the blues away is literally unthinkable -- it's a course of action I've never given a second's thought to for myself.
The incredibly poor Democratic governance of flagship US cities is a gift that conservatives and the Republican party is likely to squander, based on what I have seen.
While I would never expect a majority of SWFs to go conservative, 25-30% would be in play if there was a real conservative push for decent governance and quality of life in the cities.
SWFs as defined here would see greater than average benefits from public safety improvements. This group deals with the same housing cost issues as anyone in a coastal city. This group is likely to be more technocratic in their leanings, and could be made to be quite skeptical of the dubious organized labor influence on flagship cities.
Culture war and immigration fights are not going to be a winner with this group (and a lot of other people for that matter). But conservative of good conscience could keep those things in the back pocket, or ignore them, while running completely sensible campaigns based on good governance in the cities. The Giuliani playbook is alive and well even if its namesake is doing everything to assure that he will not be for very long.
Right now the cities are so un-competitive that I am a registered Democrat just to vote in primaries. This seems like an opportunity too good to waste when you have plenty of people who would go the other way given an even slightly-matched alternative.
"My observation has been that once women reach the point around age 45 at which they are definitively childless and unlikely to marry, there’s a trend towards them hardening and becoming even more militant."
The other day I was listening to a conversation between my wife and an older friend of hers who fits into the "over 40, single, childless, and basically resigned to never marrying" category and, unlike my wife, mostly seems to socialize within this category. Though this woman is churchgoing and not exactly militant.
And one thing she said to my wife that stuck with me was, "You know, I think you're the only friend of mine who isn't on anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medication, or both." Which, statistically, ought to describe less than 25% of women in their 30s-40s (half that rate for men), but it wouldn't surprise me at all if spinsters were heavily overrepresented in this category of being permanently medicated on mild-altering chemicals.
It's also a good reminder about this entire world of chemicals that's otherwise basically invisible to men like me, for whom the idea of medicating the blues away is literally unthinkable -- it's a course of action I've never given a second's thought to for myself.
The incredibly poor Democratic governance of flagship US cities is a gift that conservatives and the Republican party is likely to squander, based on what I have seen.
While I would never expect a majority of SWFs to go conservative, 25-30% would be in play if there was a real conservative push for decent governance and quality of life in the cities.
SWFs as defined here would see greater than average benefits from public safety improvements. This group deals with the same housing cost issues as anyone in a coastal city. This group is likely to be more technocratic in their leanings, and could be made to be quite skeptical of the dubious organized labor influence on flagship cities.
Culture war and immigration fights are not going to be a winner with this group (and a lot of other people for that matter). But conservative of good conscience could keep those things in the back pocket, or ignore them, while running completely sensible campaigns based on good governance in the cities. The Giuliani playbook is alive and well even if its namesake is doing everything to assure that he will not be for very long.
Right now the cities are so un-competitive that I am a registered Democrat just to vote in primaries. This seems like an opportunity too good to waste when you have plenty of people who would go the other way given an even slightly-matched alternative.