@Vermillion-Rx I'm about to go to sleep, so I'll try to keep this short so I can look over some other stuff

He's partly right, concerning forgiveness.

Here's where he's wrong:

1) if someone hasn't wronged you, there's nothing for you to forgive. A known thief who has stolen from multiple people but not from you isn't really eligible for your forgiveness.

2) you can choose to overlook someone's promiscuous past, but it certainly isn't a moral obligation to do so. In fact, it's quite foolish to do so. It would be like trusting that thief from my example in #1 with a hefty sum of your money.

I predict he's going to learn the hard way in a few years, if this isn't just rage bait, engagement bait, whatever.

Tag @lurkerhasarisen @houseoftolstoy this thread gives me deja-vu; didn't I engage one or both of you in something similar a few years ago at the WAATGM subreddit?

@adam-l

You and I and @FirstLight are in agreement… I was just poking the bear about Sigma Males because that’s been a running joke here for a long time.

I think WE all agree on the basic nuances of the Greek Alphabet paradigm: but it’s hard to explain easily. We all know guys who tend to be naturally dominant. Men follow them and women want to have sex with them: often to everyone’s detriment, because people mistake “alphaness” for competence.

(Read up on Alcibiades… dude was “ALPHA AF,” and he single-handedly nearly destroyed Athens early in the Peloponnesian War because everyone blindly followed him.)

@Typo-MAGAshiv and I are both former military officers, and we’re used to inhabiting a rigid hierarchy that simply doesn’t exist to the same degree in any civilian occupation. The question of “Who gives orders and who obeys them” (the alpha/beta dynamic) is not determined by anything other than rank/position. As I’ve said before here: nobody here who saw me IRL would immediately think that I’m a “Chad” or an “Alpha,” yet I have 1) done reasonably well with women and 2) been the HMFIC on many occasions. My list of past minions includes guys who were in the Battle of Mogadishu (the incident from “Black Hawk Down”), more than a few senior NCOs who could crush my skull with one hand, rangers, SpecOps guys, military cops, civilian cops, etc. In those situations those men followed my orders. If that’s not “alpha” then the word has no meaning. So am I an “Alpha Male?”

I would insist that I’m not, because my “Alpha” status was situational. Some of those guys WERE stereotypically “Alpha” - the kind of guys with natural presence - but they still said, “Yes, Sir” when I gave them orders. I follow the maxim: when in charge; take charge. Some guys can’t, and those guys will always default to “Beta” mode.

In other contexts, I’m just another guy, and if someone has expertise and is willing to lead, I’m happy to stay in my lane (although I reserve the right to speak up if something strikes me as being wrong).