I'm gonna give partial credit to the comments for pointing out that rugby/football, boxing, MMA, and violent video games all already exist and are generally available throughout rich democracies. However, I will only award full credit for a refutation of the idea that competitive violence is innate to men.

I actually personally happen to think it's bad when people die but you do you weird lesswrong guy

Guys literally only want one thing (righteous death-matches) and it's disgusting.

Epistemic status: slightly hungry.

Allow the commercialization of duels, side bets on outcomes, and customized sporting arenas for such venues.

Oh come on. This has to be the root of this crazy transparent skin post

...The vast majority of guys I know who have been in a lot of fights (me included) are quite happy never getting in a fight again? Like, there's definitely a few weirdos and dudes with anger issues who love fighting, but the shine wears off pretty damn quick for most people, and they'd rather avoid the fight in the first place? I really don't think real-life arenas and duels would work the way this guy thinks.

(I used to work as a bouncer in a bar, haven't been in a fight since then, I prefer keeping it that way. Also, fair notice, I wasn't actually a very good fighter- I was the average-sized, unintimidating bouncer, my job was to head off fights before they happened, so the bigger bouncers and bartenders didn't have to intervene, and I was good at talking drunks down. I wrestled a decent number of drunks when I had to, but that did not an impressive fighter make, I'd suck at Colosseum fights, lol.)

If romans liked the colosseum so much how come gladiators were slaves?

What the hell happened to LessWrong? I rember it being rather humble and profound, very much like the title would imply. This article would be rightfully mocked if it were posted on 4chan, let alone on LessWrong.

Wtf did I just read

Is this the mid 2000s? Am I reading the idiotic edgy screeds that my tweenaged peers were writing, inspired by early internet celebrity maddox?

Ah the poster here mistakes fantasy for real life. You would expect somebody who runs in a bdsm positive community (sort of, im ignoring the abuse). (Most) people who love to be tied up and spanked during a scene would not love it if somebody randomly came into their house without their consent and sexually assaulted them.

(Assuming for the purposes of my post that this isn't just an updated instance of Poe's Law.)

Weird how these authors never think this through to the part where they're the scrawny whiners spending time posting annoying things on the internet, and the obvious targets of the people training for actual things (war, paramilitarism, martial arts, target shooting competitions, et cetera) to pick fights with so they have somebody to beat up.

OK, I can steelman this. Back in the day you could fill the Colosseum with water and have simulated naval battles in it. That's pretty badass and I would actually watch some gunboats (maybe without the cannons for safety and fairness) duke it out in a pool.

Even so, we have combat sports in this day and age. Gladiators were professional athletes and the fights were arranged to seem deadly while making sure a gladiator could expect to see retirement age. Kinda like MMA with impractical anime weapons. Executions by blood sport were a separate matter, but I doubt most of the people on the receiving end felt much of a rush of the righteous warfare.

In any case I can disconfirm. Am a man, don't wanna fight. It's dangerous, traumatic and painful and I'm a short out of shape nerd. I've had more training than most people on how to maximize my K/D ratio in the woods lugging around an assault rifle, but I think just training was nightmarish enough. There are very few if any things worth being in a war for.

Also what the fuck kind of brainworm metastatization is happening in this guy's... comment policy?

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/hhbibJGt2aQqKJLb7/lc-s-shortform?commentId=gC5JD9wkgaR3ueS97

People have told me with a straight face that the smartest people in the world post on LW. After this post, I am inclined to believe them.

When I see "pica" I think of a typeface, but from context, the author is using a different definition. Do men who want to fight find themselves craving the taste of dirt?

You cannot understand much of modern culture until you've recognized that the state's blunt suppression of the male instinct for glory has caused widespread symptoms of pica that dominate our politics, media, and online interactions.

*pica (usually uncountable, plural picas) (pathology) A disorder characterized by appetite and craving for non-edible substances, such as chalk, clay, dirt, ice, or sand. *

@dgerard you can sign up and fight in ukraine right now lol

@dgerard like how he has to close with a bald "I am not joking", because how else would this be distinguishable from satire?

Serfs you must bow before your techno overlords! You would do well to remember your place amongst these god-men!

what about "the war on drugs" makes them say it was a failure in the peculiar institution since the end of the premodern period and the advent of modern capitalism lol? too many sparring partners of a certain melanin configuration not available to participate in all the naturally emergent belligerence?

We already have martial arts & competitive video games, which is just this but without people actually dying. What more do you guys need???

Besides, if the benevolent robot god these people believe in is coming soon, it should be able to create a simulated world, indistinguishable from reality, where people can fight each other to the death over and over again for all eternity without any consciousnesses ceasing to exist.

There is a kernel of truth in this clusterfuck.

One time I was down insanely bad for this girl, and for a little while I got these intrusive thoughts of protecting her from an attacker. I don't normally think about that stuff and I noticed how sudden and unusual those thoughts were.

My friend and I figured it was some Y chromosome shit