539
Painful to recover from (discuss.online)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] phx@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago

I mean, that's a fun take but realistically there are plenty of women who put a lot more stock in looks (just as men do) an immediate financial ability.

That jock who got a job that's physically demanding might be making more out of high school, but the IT nerd who went for they education and got a good tech job was likely on a slower burn path to self-improvement with better pay, possibly improving looks over time (or at least less of a beer belly). At least before AI started killing the tech sector again, so maybe the jocks will be coming out ahead for awhile.

Also, there's also nothing wrong with being a good dude with average intelligence who works hard. Just don't pick an red-hatred idiot. And intelligent nerds who don't learn social skills can absolutely still become nasty incels.

[-] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

The thing there is that when people say "people are attracted to intelligence" the intelligence people think of is different than the type people are generally attracted to.

Highly analytical intelligence is a type of intelligence. So is the ability to make correct choices in a variety of situations.
Almost every athletic endeavor entails being able to assess situations quickly and accurately, and know how to respond. Team sports require group coordination, training and predicting teammates behavior.
That's intelligence, but it's often considered a lesser sort than the analytical sort.

It's why people see the people doing work that requires the type of less prestigious intelligence as less intelligent, and see people being drawn to them as proof that people aren't really drawn to intelligence.

To be blunt: it doesn't matter how strong you are if can't read or get confused by the garage door opener every day.

It's the same as saying that people aren't attracted to appearance because plenty of people are drawn to normal attractiveness people.

[-] phx@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago

That's actually a good point about sports intelligence. Pro athletes likely have a certain almost instinctual grasp of certain physics even if they aren't running the actual numbers in their heads.

[-] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 2 points 17 hours ago

You can take away the qualifiers. :) and it's not instinctual, just practiced.
The notion that athletics doesn't require intelligence draws away from the understanding of exactly how much practice it takes to hone the skills to that level.

And, for a fun reference, the typical NFL player has significantly more traditional education than the average person.

[-] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 day ago

I wouldn't put too much stock into the jock versus nerd stereotypes.

Life isn't an RPG with stats that come at the cost of other stats. Being bad at sports doesn't make someone more likely to be good at school (if anything, the correlation might run the other way). And charisma, ambition, intelligence, physical appearance, athleticism, work ethic, are all distinct factors that sometimes feedback on each other, and feed into things like wealth, happiness, attractiveness, etc.

[-] phx@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago

Life isn't an RPG, but there has definitely been a push by certain groups to value looks and strength or martial prowess over intelligence and education, particularly in North American culture. Yeah, somebody can be an athlete without being dumb, and as another person pointed out there actually a lot of high-speed decision-making that requires intelligence to pro-sports.

At the same time, there are people who very much lean towards looking buff, tough, but not too bright as they categorize intellectuals as losers or socially unwanted. Similarly, there are girls or women who will emphasize their looks and actively hide their intelligence. Il This over time leads to a willful ignorance that IMO is worse than simply being of lower IQ or lacking education.

[-] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 21 hours ago

I'm not aware of any culture in which hiding one's strengths is a common response to one's own surroundings. Placing value on a particular characteristic does not imply that a completely unrelated characteristic is undesirable. Plenty of beautiful smart people out there, and even in a society where beauty is prized above all else, why would someone beautiful hide their intelligence?

For whatever it's worth, in my circles (urban white collar millennial professionals in dense cities), most people are both athletic and intelligent. There are plenty of finance bros and tech bros who have Ivy League degrees (sometimes Ph.D.s, M.D.s, J.D.s) that represent real academic achievement and can also turn around and dominate on a basketball court or in a fighting gym. Lots of smart people like gyms, whether we're talking resistance training, Olympic lifting, CrossFit/Hyrox, endurance cardio sports like marathon running or biking, winter sports like skiing, etc.

That's also consistent with what I saw in my high school. Most of the top students headed towards Ivy League or similar caliber schools were also athletes who were very good at a competitive sport for the school. The "nerd"/"jock" dichotomy we expected from John Hughes movies never really materialized, and the popular kids tended to be people who were both good at school and good at sports.

[-] phx@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

And yet where do you think the demographic that voted for the guy that shits his pants and falls asleep comes from exactly, and moreover continues to double-down on supporting him even to their own detriment? How about the people who modify their trucks to spread black smoke just to "own those pissy hybrid drivers and cyclists"?

The continued attempts to enumerate activities that would have fit on Jackass (and likely watched the same on repeat).

Never knew a pretty girl in school who got good grades but hid then and played dumb?

There's plenty of people who embrace an absurdist mentality and openly reject anything that requires actively using one's brain.

[-] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 16 hours ago

There's plenty of people who embrace an absurdist mentality and openly reject anything that requires actively using one's brain.

I think they're old, fat, unathletic, and unattractive.

I know Trump voters. For the minority who are actually young, they're much more likely to be loser incels who are both bad at sports and didn't get a college degree (much less post graduate educations). It's aggrieved losers trying to make sense of the world, who are generally unattractive on most metrics: poor, unhealthy, unathletic, not very smart.

It's like looking at people who work in the trades. Plumbers and welders and carpenters. They tend to be in worse physical shape than, like, lawyers and doctors, who obviously have better intellectual and academic credentials.

So if you're surrounded by losers, I'm just gonna ask that you stop being impressed with them.

[-] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

Women like beer bellies, and big forearms.

Everything men hate, women like.

[-] MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

"Just don't pick an red-hatred idiot" took me a sec to parse.

[-] SoleInvictus 3 points 1 day ago

It's a typo but the intended group still fits! Love it.

[-] phx@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Yeah I meant to your red-hatted but hatred seems to come with that package too so...

this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026
539 points (100.0% liked)

Lemmy Shitpost

41344 readers
2547 users here now

Welcome to Lemmy Shitpost. Here you can shitpost to your hearts content.

Anything and everything goes. Memes, Jokes, Vents and Banter. Though we still have to comply with lemmy.world instance rules. So behave!


Rules:

1. Be Respectful


Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.

Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.

...


2. No Illegal Content


Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.

That means:

-No promoting violence/threats against any individuals

-No CSA content or Revenge Porn

-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)

...


3. No Spam


Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.

-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.

-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.

-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers

-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.

...


4. No Porn/ExplicitContent


-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.

-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.

...


5. No Enciting Harassment,Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts


-Do not Brigade other Communities

-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.

-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.

-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.

...


6. NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.


-Content that is NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.

-Content that might be distressing should be kept behind NSFW tags.

...

If you see content that is a breach of the rules, please flag and report the comment and a moderator will take action where they can.


Also check out:

Partnered Communities:

1.Memes

2.Lemmy Review

3.Mildly Infuriating

4.Lemmy Be Wholesome

5.No Stupid Questions

6.You Should Know

7.Comedy Heaven

8.Credible Defense

9.Ten Forward

10.LinuxMemes (Linux themed memes)


Reach out to

All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules. Striker

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS