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Man insisting he is an ‘Alpha Male’ seems awfully keen to follow the lead of other men on the Internet (newsthump.com)

submitted 1 week ago by MHLoppy@fedia.io to c/theonion@sh.itjust.works

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Local man and self-proclaimed “alpha male” Simon Williams, 35, was today spotted scrolling through his phone to double-check what Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson, and whichever shirtless ‘manosphere coach’ just went viral on TikTok would like him to do next.

Despite declaring himself a lone wolf who “bows to no one,” Simon appears to have constructed his entire personality out of recycled advice barked at him by other men online, including how to sit, how to eat steak, and the correct facial expression to wear while pretending to own a Bugatti.

“He keeps saying he’s an independent leader of men,” said a friend, “but then he’ll excuse himself mid-conversation to watch a YouTube short of a cigar-chomping influencer explaining the correct way to dominate a handshake. [...]

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[–] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 10 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Reminds me of Charles Darwin regretting On the Origin of Species because it was used to justify race science and eugenics.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

But the alpha male thing is different in that it was discovered that status isn’t really a thing in wild Wolfpacks. The observations from this study used wolves in captivity. The alpha wolf study has been debunked.

[–] kossa@feddit.org 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Then again: the bulk of humanity lives in shitty captivity of economic shackles 😅.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

That's ultimately what the eugenecist is selecting for, whether they know it or not. A better slave; an Eloi.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

But evolution is actually real though...

[–] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I should have been more specific. He specifically regretted adopting and popularizing the phrase "survival of the fittest" in On the Origin of Species because European imperialists used it to justify genocide and the Atlantic slave trade.

He wrote The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (which emphasizes cooperation and compassion as crucial for human evolution rather than competition alone) in part as damage control but the cat was already out of the bag.

These atrocities would have likely happened regardless but he certainly felt guilt over contributing to their justification.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I gotcha... I guess my point was that at least the original thing was based on reality. The "alpha male" wolf thing ended up not even being real.

[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 days ago

Meh, it was a woefully inadequate explanation of social behaviour by not acknowledging that it was specific behaviour to a very specific environment. "Survival of the fittest" is also woefully inadequate as an explanation of evolution and creates all sorts of misunderstandings. He would have had an easier time teaching the concept without that phrase.