The Swagger #12 – Thursday Edition

Racists and "Multiculturalists" Don't Understand What Culture Is, and Here's Why

Greetings from Pattaya, Thailand. It's Thursday. Forgive the tardiness, and this is an abbreviated edition—and in return, no paywall. I've been caught up in lots of moving pieces. Now that things have normalized, publication of The Swagger will go out on time and on schedule on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday of each week, rain or shine.

In this edition of The Swagger

1. The Almost Win-Win Move From Condo with a View to Condo with a View. From post to a little less posh.

2. Racists and "Multiculturalists" Don't Understand What Culture Is, and Here's Why. Twenty years ago I developed an idea about culture I dubbed "culturism," as a distinctly different thing from racism or tribalism. I published it. People still don't get it.

1. The Almost Win-Win Move From Condo with a View to Condo with a View

The Old View

The New View

Since this newsletter is relatively new, having just surpassed its one-month anniversary, I realize there are many subscribers and even premium members who may not be fully acquainted with who I am or the essence of my work, which spans a 20-year history at FreeTheAnimal.com. With that in perspective, I intend to occasionally share insights of a more personal nature, allowing you a glimpse into my life and ethos. For those who have followed my journey over the past 10, 15, or even 20 years at FreeTheAnimal, this will simply be business as usual.

I've been living in Thailand for four years now, though my connection to this remarkable country began much earlier. If you've seen the photo captioned "The Old View," it depicts the bay I first arrived at aboard the USS Reeves in Pattaya, back in 1986—a full 38 years ago. Little did I know then that I would one day reside upon the very hill visible from the deck of that ship. That inaugural trip marked the beginning of a series of visits—half a dozen or so over the following five years—primarily to Pattaya. Then, after a 29-year hiatus, I returned in mid-January 2020 to Chiang Mai, intending a two-month stay. My plan was to be relatively nomadic, perhaps visiting Japan, where I lived for five years in the '80s, and exploring parts of Eastern Europe, given my familiarity with Western Europe from my two-year stint in France. As an American, my experiences living abroad have been diverse, and these days, I find myself preferring life outside the United States, though that's a discussion for another time.

My four-year tenure in Thailand was unexpectedly extended due to the global scaredemic. During that period, I lived in various locales, from rural Thailand—where I built a home—to spending the last two years in Phuket and, most recently, settling in Pattaya for the past year. In October, a friend of mine, an Englishman, Tony from Phuket, reached out. Tony had a condo in Pattaya that he seldom used and offered it to me for rent. After seeing pictures and hearing his asking price of 20,000 Thai Baht per month, I negotiated the rent down to 12,000 Baht for the first three months, with an increase to 15,000 after 90 days—all without the formality of paperwork or deposits.

In early January, after four years continuous in-country, I decided to visit the USA, landing in San Francisco to spend a week with my mother, followed by a brief detour to the Philippines on the way back—a country I hadn't visited in 30 years. Upon my return to Bangkok on January 17th, Tony called to inform me he had sold the condo—offered a price he couldn't refuse—but assured me that the closing process would allow me a couple more months. Considering the circumstances and the deal Tony gave me, I had no grounds for complaint.

Finding a new place to live wasn't just about relocation; it was about maintaining a certain standard of living conducive to my work on this newsletter and FreeTheAnimal, not to mention my personal lifestyle, which includes regular gym visits and chick chasing. After carefully considering my options and the areas in Pattaya that appealed to me within a determined budget, I found the near-perfect place. While the view might not rival the "million-dollar view" of my previous abode, it's still pleasant and carries a sense of nostalgia—I can see my old place just 200 meters away. The space is comfortable, and importantly, it's received the seal of approval from the main gal I'm seeing.

So, all things considered, I'm content with where I've landed and here's an oh-so-brief video of the new place with a view.

2. Racists and "Multiculturalists" Don't Understand What Culture Is, and Here's Why

Two decades back, lounging on the sofa beside my then-wife, I embarked on a conversation she likely doesn’t recall. We delved into a topic that, even at that time, dominated discussions: race. It was all about race—incessant talk of racism and racial issues. But here’s the twist in my narrative: I posited that the core issue wasn’t racism per se. It was something else entirely, something I had spent considerable time mulling over.

Everyone seems quick to play the race card. Encounter someone whose actions or demeanor clashes with your own, and suddenly, it’s a racial issue. “You’re a racist,” they shout, as if it’s the only insult in their arsenal. But seriously, could we truly be living in a world densely populated by racists? That notion seemed far-fetched to me. It prompted a deeper reflection on my part, leading me to a different conclusion. What we're dealing with here isn’t racism—it’s something I coined as 'culturism.'

The problem, as I see it, lies in the rampant conflation of culture with race, alongside an innate human tendency to form tribes. This tribalism, while a natural aspect of human behavior, often gets misconstrued as racial prejudice. To illustrate, let’s consider an exchange I had on the platform formerly known as Twitter (X). It encapsulates perfectly this confusion between cultural and racial differences, setting the stage for my argument.

With 'culturism' in mind, I aim to further explore this distinction, shedding light on how cultural differences, rather than racial ones, often underpin the conflicts and misunderstandings we face. It’s time to identify the real issues at play. Stay tuned as I delve deeper into this topic, challenging the prevailing narratives and, perhaps, offering a fresh perspective on an age-old debate.

Here's how I put it in a recent post at FreeTheAnimal about my recent practice/experiment, in a section called What I Learned By Hyper-Dating Thai Women:

So, here we get into the touchy part, and it’s touchy for two reasons, one of which is valid and the other not. The valid reason is that what I’m about to talk about is generally not for discussion in polite company. That said, I am a transparent, open-book blogger. It’s part of my makeup. It’s so you know he can’t be lying because he wouldn’t say that if he was. The other reason, that’s not valid, is exactly the thing we’re talking about: the feminization of males. Whereas, when you say, “It’s not polite to talk about that,” and I can grant and explain why I extend dispensation in this sense…more often than not, it’s the same sort of virtue signaling and white-knighting males have been trained and conditioned to do, in their process of being feminized by society at institutional and political interaction levels.

The second caveat is that I don’t put this out there to break up good relationships. Not at all. If you’re in a good relationship with a woman, then fucking maintain it. That’s my advice. So, you should read this in the sense of encouragement to not be doing this but to really value more, that what you already have, and seek to make it as fulfilling as possible for both partners, so that you stick around for the good of yourselves and, if you have children, for their good as well.

OK, let’s dive in.

This is a bit of background. As I mentioned before, I lived in Southeast Asia for five years in the ’80s, traveled all over as in my mid-20s, and I did what most young foreigners do in this land. Being not hyper-attractive, but you know—I was never the jock in school or the homecoming king, that sort. I did just OK—but you come here, and that doing just OK in the states is amplified quite a bit. But the thing is, it comes late; it comes when you’re mid-20s, not when you’re 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18. So, that’s what I did back then. Many, many relationships in Japan, Korea, Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, all over the place, lots and lots of women. As far as I could tell, there was nothing unusual about it. Everybody, my peers, were doing the same thing. You probably don’t know that because most of them lie about it. It was other guys who did that, not them. Again, part of the conditioning to say what one estimates that women want to hear.

So, having been out of that game in the United States and married in a monogamous relationship for about 20 years, I came over here. I was 59 years old. I came to Thailand in 2020 and I immediately jumped into doing the so-called right thing. I got myself a girlfriend and after a couple of months, I formalized that and did everything you’re supposed to do in terms of support and be the leader and the supporter and sort of father to the stepchildren, all of that’s supposed to be done. And it wasn’t so much that I was miserable. After all, she’s 32 years my junior, so many aspects were quite exciting. It was just the day-to-day grind and the disappointments after disappointments, the immaturity, deception, and just a sort of hubris and carelessness about it, even in the face of her two daughters who were very attached to me.

So, there’s no need to dissect that relationship. I’m not the only one, and even younger men in their 30s who settled down here experience the same problems. So, that relationship came to a definitive end in the last few weeks of September 2023. Now, coincidentally, at roughly the same time, having been very much serious and regular at the gym, I decided that at my age, it was appropriate to do testosterone replacement therapy or TRT. So I started that, and within a few weeks, by the end of October, I come to find that I have a libido that’s off the charts. I don’t even know if it was that strong when I was 16 years old.

And given that the relationship had ended definitively, I just decided to segue into this life of doing the same thing I did when I 20s, with women who are roughly the same age too, in their 20s. Back then, I was in my 20s; women were in their 20s. Now, I’m 62, and they’re in their 20s still, and lots, lots, and lots. But in that, you’ve got years of experience under your belt, so you see the patterns, and you see the common things that you didn’t see before, or at least that is my experience.

And I am long-suffering and patient.

And what it all boils down to is that men and women are so vastly different, fundamentally, that it gives you a perspective on all this stuff in the West going on and how impossible it is and how it is doomed to fail. Now, interestingly, Southeast Asia—Thailand and Cambodia, I assume Laos, I’m not sure, and I know for sure Philippines—there is this phenomenon called ladyboys. They are males who are very feminine, typically very feminine-like features, and they often get boob jobs but otherwise remain intact. Maybe take some hormones, and they practice their art, if you will, of being a woman, and some are quite good at it. But this thing, this practice goes back hundreds and hundreds of years. The first known writings of it were by Chinese people visiting some temples in Cambodia, and they wrote of these ladyboys, and it’s only now they’ve starting to use the word “transgender” more and more, which is ridiculous because “ladyboy” suits just fine. It’s perfectly descriptive.

So, it’s different because it’s part of the culture now, and it’s a distinct thing. They’re not men; they’re not women, or they’re not considered to be. In fact, the word in Thai is katoey and when explained, they will say “different kind of women.” So, they’re not saying, “I am a woman.” Alright, I digress a little bit and interestingly enough, while they have the mannerisms of women, they don’t really act like women. They’ll gang up and beat up people and stuff like that. Other things, they’re quite cunning and sometimes the same behavior that you find in predatory males, only they’re dressed like hot chicks.

So, there’s that. But what it all boils down to is that men and women are very, very different. So, my experience with this hyper dating has just driven that home, and it’s shown me the contrast between here and what’s going on in the West, and the West is doomed, increasing marginalization and decay because of this feminization of everything. Whereas in Asia, they have it because human beings are human beings; but they compartmentalize it. They put it in the closet, so to speak, or they keep it in the closet, except in areas where it’s Carnivàle, to use a metaphor.

So, that’s one part. The other part of what I’ve learned goes out to the dudes that are part of the so-called Manosphere or the red pill movement or men’s rights movement or whatever you want to call it. And the message is this:

Stop. Complaining. About. Women.

Just stop it, for fuck’s sake, and realize that this incessant “girl’s weekend” style complaining and commiserating by dudes is unbecoming and is, in itself, feminine behavior.

Doing that only signals that you’re weak, like a pathetic trapped animal, and don’t know what to do and couldn’t do anything even if you knew.

And I’m going to show you why, here in photos. I will give you a hint. Right now, where I sit, on a 24/7 basis, you can go into the dating app that’s most used here, and if you narrow your search to women that are from the ages of 18 to 45, which is where I have mine, you will find that there are 141 pages of results in a 15 km radius. How many profile photos on each of those 141 pages? 84 is the answer. So, at all times, there are about 12,000 women available.

  1. Pic: Screen shot of less than half of the 1st page of results, 35 of 84 women, many stunners

  2. Pic: My in-app inbox of 10 unsolicited and unread messages in less than half a day.

  3. Pic: Screen clip proof of my filters and results. Yes, there are 12,000 available hot women in 15 Km, any direction. Use some other excuse that you can’t get laid.

  4. Pic: My pretty basic profile pictures I use. These get 20-year-old Thai chicks to initiate contact with me, every day.

… So this is the place I put up the paywall and your natural resistance kicks in, and you lie to yourself, “It’s OK, I got the gist.”

No. You do not.

A few days back I sought to convey some essence of what I've learned to my friend, Noah Revoy, a sought-after relationship coach I've interviewed a number of times at FreeTheAnimal.

I get tagged by a "white supremacist" sort of dude in a barrage of presumptions, assumptions, psychoanalysis, projection, and to top it all off, it's my fault Western Civilization is total fucked, and it's all on my shoulders.

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I reply, but it's not all so important to the context here. You can take a look if you like.

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A brief look at the stuff he posts and reposts on his X profile suggests to me where he, and probably most of his 48 followers, are coming from (from ignorance, and a conflation of race, tribalism, and culture).

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Discussion

Here's what I wrote about it 20 years ago, almost to the day...May 6, 2005, in a post called, simply "Culturism".

Some years ago, I came up with that term (ask my wife), and according to Google and Merriam-Webster Online, it doesn’t exist as an English word. So, I’m claiming it and defining it; here and now.

What I mean by it is:

Culturism: 1. The judging of one or more cultures as superior to one or more other cultures; 2. The establishment of a hierarchy of moral standing from ideal to evil with respect to human cultures.

It’s nothing like the prejudgment inherent in racismculture does not depend on race. A person of any race can be born into any culture, but can later leave and adopt any other culture.

Therefore, I can proclaim unabashedly that I am a “culturist.” That is, having lived in both Asian and European cultures for significant time, and having experienced all other mainstream cultures in my world travels, I judge that all cultures on Earth are to varying degrees inferior to the idealized American culture (according to my standard of value, which is conscious human life). Moreover, I judge some cultures to be predominantly evil, such as certain Middle-Eastern sub-cultures. I wouldn’t classify the greater Arab culture to be evil, but I would classify it as generally ignorant and primitive. The American ghetto sub-culture, populated predominantly by blacks, is stupid and self-destructive — through and through. The American redneck sub-culture is ignorant and trashy.

Consequently, I bear a certain prejudice (to varying degrees) against any adherent to any culture that’s not idealized American, including irrational American sub-cultures. This can vary from a simple air of superiority to outright disgust and hatred. But, as I said, anyone can at any time escape one culture and adopt another, so my prejudgment here is not based on anything that a person can’t change. That’s a critical distinction.

Another important identification is that it’s utter rot to suggest that race determines culture or that a person can’t escape the cuture into which he’s born and raised. This is just a way of making excuses when a person’s culture is toxic, idiotic, or evil. “Hey, man, your culture’s fucking stupid. If you’re not stupid, then do something about it.”

All that said, it’s important to point out that I do also appreciate cultural diversity. There’s a lot I love about Asian culture. I enjoyed living in France and traveling around Europe. After all, those are my roots. My wife is of Hispanic origin, and though her family is far more American than Mexican, I enjoy a lot of the diversity they’ve retained.

And, in fact, that’s what makes American culture the best culture. It’s capable of absorbing the best from all other cultures. In so doing, American culture is, on the whole, far greater than the sum of its constituent elements. It’s also why people from the world over want to come here. It’s not just the dream. It’s that the dream is part of an idealized culture, a culture big enough to absorb everything good.

I bring up this bit about culture now because Thomas Sowell (a black man and an intellectual) has an interesting theory about culture. Go read his article summarizing his new book about how modern Black sub-culture is a direct descendant of ignorant American redneck sub-culture.

In my previous post, the emphasis was on delineating the differences often misinterpreted as racist views. These views, I argued, are more accurately about the behaviors prevalent in various cultures and the extent to which we either appreciate, disdain, or find ourselves intrigued by them. These behaviors can resonate with us on a visceral level, either positively or negatively, and everything in between. Let's get down to it even further. Consider why people globetrot with such fervor. High on that list is the allure of immersing themselves in foreign cultures. For some, it's a mix of envy and admiration for these cultures; for others, it’s the thrill of the unknown. The reasons are manifold, ranging from the aesthetic appeal of landscapes, architectural marvels, and culinary experiences, to the spiritual depths of religious practices vastly different from those in the West. Take my life in Thailand, for example. The food and its cultural significance are phenomena I've embraced wholeheartedly after years of savoring and preparing Thai dishes myself.

In Thailand, a staggering 97% of the populace practices Buddhism. Islam is professed by about 2.5%, leaving Christianity at a mere half percent. In a nation of roughly 70 million, that’s about 300,000 Christians. In contrast, the United States sees about 63% of its population identifying as Christian – that's 210 million people out of the total. Which is better? That's subjective. What matters is your perspective, your openness to experience the diversity the world has to offer.

Expanding on this, let's tackle the conflation of race with societal organization. In our ancestral past, humans naturally gravitated towards forming tribes, a division of labor rooted in gender, age, abilities, talents, and personal inclinations. This primitive societal structure required a 'Goldilocks' number of members for survival—not too few, but not too many to avoid internal strife. Race was a non-issue then; the concept of different races emerged much later with mass migrations and the mixing of populations. The notion that races serve a purpose in evolution is misguided. It's merely about adaptation to geographical conditions and survival needs, including dietary sources and environmental challenges.

The diversity in human skin color, for instance, can be attributed to the intensity of sun exposure, with darker skin offering protection against UV rays. There's no grand design in the existence of different races. Rather, as humans spread across the globe, they formed distinct tribes and, consequently, unique cultures characterized by specific behaviors. Unfortunately, these behavioral traits are often mistakenly attributed to race, a fallacy that overlooks the fact that any individual, regardless of race, can adopt and embrace these cultural practices and traditions. These cultural elements, deeply rooted in history, played a crucial role in ensuring the safety and survival of these communities.

I hope this sheds some light on the issue. Next time you encounter the term 'racism,' I urge you to consider whether it's genuinely about disdain between races or if it's actually about the behaviors associated with certain cultural groups. Distinguishing between the two will serve you well.

...Until next time, in the upcoming Sunday issue of The Swagger, where I continue to challenge conventional narratives with unapologetic frankness.

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