This is an article about the online communities of people who abstain from masturbation. It discusses the reasons people join these communities and the potential harms and benefits. Some people find these communities helpful in overcoming pornography addiction. However, there is concern that these communities spread inaccurate information and may overlap with extremist groups.

  • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
    281·
    10 months ago

    A national poll conducted in late 2022 found that 4 out of 10 Americans believe society has become too “soft and feminine.” Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson did a special for Fox in 2022 called The End of Men, drawing attention to “the decline of manhood, of virility, of physical health, all of which together threaten to doom our civilization.”

    Well that’s fucking depressing but lines up with the MAGA banner comprised of the insecure and ignorant.

    Wonder what society of manliness they want to go back to… Lynchings? The dark ages?

    • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      10 months ago

      Tucker is one of the last people I would take advice from on, well anything, but masculinity in this case.

    • Tremble@sh.itjust.works
      84·
      10 months ago

      You can actually be a manly man without being complete arse. I understand some of the backlash against feminism. Boys are struggling in our school systems. Title 9 is actually used to admit more young men to colleges now, for decades now actually.

      I can even understand the popularity of some of the pick up artists who are popular among men who are not quite the “ladies man”. Better yourself, find things that help make you a better person. Get a hobby, work out. Make yourself interesting.

      But these right wing pundits are fucking crazy.

      I don’t like the term toxic masculinity (edit: if you are trying to better yourself and you say I don’t want to espouse toxic masculinity, I see that as useful (What i mean is that trying to apply it to anyone who offends or upsets you can be problematic.) other than as an idea discussed among academia, but god damn these asshats.

      • OpenStars@startrek.websiteEnglish
        52·
        10 months ago

        If it helps, there’s a noticeable trend recently - except it’s not just recently and probably hearkens all the way back prior to the dawn of the human species - where people do not mean what they say. I mean… I am being genuine here!:-)

        It highly correlates, though is not exclusive to, people being as dumb as a bag of rocks.

        e.g. Jesus commands “Love everyone - especially those you do not agree with”, and thousands of years prior the Old Testament said things like “the worker deserves their wages” (as well as tiny little details about tassels and the hems of robes and shit like that), hence Karens (male & female alike) ignore all the stuff they want to, while twisting the meaning of whatever they can get their hands on of that to kill people with (taking a handful of words in isolation, discarding the context, often not even finishing the entire fucking sentence - e.g. “there is now therefore no condemnation, for those that walk according to his path” an important if highly inconvenient, for them, part!). For goodness’ sake, the Old Testament literally prescribes a formula for “bitter herbs” to cause an abortion!

        And the people that showed up on January 6? Hint, they weren’t “patriots”.

        So if we use the definitions of an idiot, we are going to come away with a ah … “skewed perspective” of said thing - often 180 degrees in opposition to what it was supposed to mean. Hence, I am totally okay with the term “toxic masculinity”, defined in the Oxford Dictionary as:

        a set of attitudes and ways of behaving stereotypically associated with or expected of men, regarded as having a negative impact on men and on society as a whole.

        And if asshats are misusing it, even abusing it lately? Well, they suck, so why would I give one second’s thought to what they want? :-D

        I hope that perspective helps, or at least is interesting.

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
    410·
    10 months ago

    “Spokespeople of online forums like NoFap, for example, have been very concerned with distancing themselves from anything having to do with extremism,” says Burke. “Alt-right, neo-Nazi, white supremacist, antisemitic — they are very clear to say we are not that. But they’re not willing to recognize what I think is just an empirical reality, which is that some people who buy into porn addiction rhetoric also buy into these more extremist beliefs.”

    dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever read. What? Guys are trying to masturbate less? It’s probably because they’re NAZIS

    • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
      43·
      10 months ago

      . What? Guys are trying to masturbate less? It’s probably because they’re NAZIS

      Holy shit, this isn’t even remote close to what you just quoted actually said.

      • systemglitch@lemmy.world
        33·
        10 months ago

        It does if you read between the lines, because it came off exactly like that to me as well while reading it.

        • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
          33·
          10 months ago

          You’re not “reading between the lines” you’re just making shit up to confirm what you want to believe is true. It doesn’t even remotely say this, they’re saying that they think it’s being co-opted by these right wing groups, and they don’t want that to happen.

    • Blueberrydreamer@lemmynsfw.com
      7·
      10 months ago

      Since I’m sure there will be others who don’t bother to read:

      Nofap communities tend to have a large overlap with extremist hate communities, and are often used to spread harmful and misleading rhetoric.

      There’s also no observable benefit to not masturbating. The proponents portray it as some scientifically proven secret, but it’s the same scam as homeopathy and Gweneth Paltrow’s vagina eggs. Big, vague, impossible to disprove health claims supported by anecdote after anecdote.

      • CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
        2·
        10 months ago

        Yes, I did. It tells nothing about why quitting it is bad, and just uses the argument “people spread misinformation”.

        Guess what? The internet’s filled to the brim with misinformation.