From Ara Maxima. Driven by an observation that in the USA, where homosexuality is now the approved form of masculine networking by the elite, you cannot be close to another male lest you are considered to a sexual partner.
As society becomes more insane, I increasingly wear its disapproval as a badge of honor. So, while homosexuality initially threatened male culture, we may find that the wholesale descent into perversion and degeneracy will allow the few, sane men left to rebuild their own male culture without much concern for others’ views. But to say that men should not care at all whether they give the impression of an inclination to sodomy, especially in a decent society, is the opinion of a sociopath. Good men prefer to be honorable and to have the good opinion of their fellows, insofar as this can be done honorably and their fellows are themselves worthy men. There is a saintly kind of detachment from public opinion; but your sense of detachment from public opinion seems less like the saintly variety (which is born of humility and a concern solely with the approval of God and of one’s conscience), and more like the shameless variety (which is born of sensuality and a seared conscience).
When we look at the friendships from the past and allude that they were sexual, we have fallen far below the heights we attained.
The author of the now-defunct Minarchyblog pointed out that one of the biggest problems with widespread homosexuality is that it makes all male friendship or association of male-only friends immediately suspect. The natural order of male companionship is replaced with the unnatural order of male-female “just friends” friendships.
Male friendship still exists, but it now has to be about something. It is why so many of us go hunting, fishing and cycling. Or, in my case, get involved in combox arguments
Where I choose to live, I cannot be in close association with a girl or woman lest the two of us be suspected of being up to something untoward.
Cross-gender hugs outside of family are verboten. Same-gender hugs are a bit better. We have a religious tradition of the Christian greeting (the holy kiss), which is strictly between brethren or between sisters.
Outsiders often remark “men kissing each other is gay!” The proper answer is that, no, it’s not gay; it’s ordained by the Bible in three different places; and we’ve been doing this for hundreds of years, and we don’t plan to stop now just because for the past 50 years, homosexuals have managed to pervert normal tokens of affection and friendship that are not sexual at all.
I’m a Presbyterian. We are the frozen, prickly ones. We have difficulty doing handshakes when it is time for sign of peace. Hugs… that is for the close family.
100 years ago in any traditional European culture (and still in some today that haven’t been overwhelmingly pozzed), men still greet each other with a kiss. In north America, men are now expected to greet each other with a rather effete bro-hug.
Yuck.
And there are reasons I now avoid the USA