r/MensLibIndia 101: Introduction

Alright, you lot. noobhemingway here.

There is something I’ve been thinking over the last few days. In my research for PUA and PUA-adjacent topics that push men towards conservatism, I realized something. There aren’t any content creators who are household names who explicitly creates content to move people to the left. Sure, being entrenched in the online political space as I am, I know names like Kyle Kulinski or Vaush but they are also very Anglocentric content creators.

On the flip side, Ben Shapiro or Jordan Peterson are almost household names at this point, even if their agenda is also Anglocentric. I believe this is because their content or the crux of the argument is approachable even if you’re not in the Western world. Shapiro’s “Facts don’t care about your feelings” or Peterson’s demonization of leftist talking points don’t have cultural barriers.

The people who would unofficially be the face of Breadtube in my opinion from people like Shaun or Abigail Thorn to Khadija Mbowe are all content creators who focus on culture, philosophy or pop culture in their part of the world and so while it is extremely normal for someone like me to queue up Some More News when I sit to study or write, I can’t expect everyone to have the perspective I have.

And so, I decided to do this, a series of articles and posts that are introductions to ideas, philosophies, and movements. These will be mostly be opinion pieces with a few links and further reading. Consider it akin to an introductory course you’d take at uni, the 101 class. I’m not going to say everything but I’ll say enough that you have an idea of what people are talking about and if you are interested enough, you’d end up being more of a leftie than I am.

Disclaimer here: I’m in a unique situation since while I grew up here, I was never able to or allowed to connect with Indian culture, be it from my own perspective or people bullying me because of choices I had no control over. I didn’t know my mother tongue till I was 10 and I couldn’t speak it well till I was 24. I’m also dark-skinned. So, I was mocked and/or excluded from a lot of normal stuff. And so I might miss a lot of things that could be lived experiences for y’all and please, for the love of everything holy, talk about it in the comments because I just honestly wouldn’t know otherwise.

And so, the people for whom intersectionality makes sense, gender abolitionism is your dream, or who understand privilege, this isn’t for you. You know what I know and you might even know more. All y’all go and be awesome. This is for people who don’t know where to start and find it daunting to get through 10 videos and 20 essays.

TL;DR: Short opinion pieces all throughout December while I work on my longer articles. Also, I dislike the silence.

The longer articles are two at the moment, one about PUA and PUA adjacent culture (which I’m hoping to be done with after Christmas) as requested by u/desi_cr33p and another opinion piece that features stuff that is a bit closer to me, which I feel should be done next month.

As I finish each article, I’ll update this post with the relevant links so that there is one giant list of links. And also, hopefully, I get shit right. I’ll be starting easy and talk about self-awareness first and tie it to both mental health and empathy.

See y’all around!