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Tom Swift's avatar

Thank you for writing about the world I live in.

The primary value of your work could be informing inexperienced homeschool alumni of the more unsavory aspects of modernity.

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Kryptogal (Kate, if you like)'s avatar

Lots of guys enjoy doing things like fixing dishwashers and working on mechanical projects. I'd say probably even the majority? The whole country outside of the cities is filled with guys who have workshops, stand-alone garages where they tinker with their various toys and machines, etc. Single/divorced guys are the ones who will really get into that stuff big-time and just spend literally all their disposable income on it and end up with like multiple vehicles/trailers/ORVs/whatever in various states of repair that they like working on, when there's no wife around to tell them "no" on buying that new $600 tool they want or whatever.

So I guess I'm just saying that everything you've described here is, I don't think, much of a problem for any such guys and that "trad" lifestyle will be quite suitable for them because they like doing to that of build/fix/hunt/protect whatever stuff anyway. You're basically just telling them that the things that are already their hobbies will be an expectation of their wife...no problem bc they will actually ENJOY building her a chicken coop or whatever and think it's fun. Win win for everyone.

It's only a problem with city-dwelling guys who want to live a cosmopolitan, urban lifestyle but for some reason insist on some emotional attachment to the purported benefits of trad values that are in fact totally unsuited to urban living. I mean why not just become a cosmopolitan liberal person with the attendant values if you're going to live a cosmopolitan urban life?? There's a reason that politics in every country and all through history have had an urban/rural divide, and it's bc the material realities are just so very different.

And if you want to go halfsies, well that's called the suburbs and indeed so many people like living in them...sort of the best of both worlds, with ur an amenities but enough of privacy and DIY ethic to satisfy one's year in for their own mini homestead. Though of course what suburbanite moderates see as the best of both worlds, the country hicks and the city snobs will both mutually look down on contemptuously, as artificial, fake, not sufficiently committed or pure enough for their preferred mode, etc. C'est la vie. IMO wanting a trad wife or life while living in a city is equally as ridiculous as trying to be a country lord while never getting your hands dirty or knowing how to fix things (or owning serfs to do your labor for you).

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