Can MRAs defeat feminism by acting like feminists?

I had a post yesterday on the declining status of men. Alkibiades followed-up with a disagreement. His disagreement got me to thinking.

The question is: what is men’s optimal strategy for fight back against the injustices of feminism. I can think of a few possible strategies:

1) Extreme-MGTOW: this basically entails men dropping out of society. At the extreme, men would only work for government so as to add no value to society, and they would abstain as much as possible from sex with real, live women. Under no circumstances would they get married. This strategy would, of course, become much easier with the development of affordable sex dolls.

2) Activism: this is basically using the strategies of feminism but applying them in reverse. As best I can tell, it requires no changes in men’s behaviors. I take this to be the current mainstream position among Game-related bloggers.

3) Extreme-PUA/alphaness: under this strategy, we’d all act like Roissy. My understanding is that the goal would not be to save civilization, but to destroy it as quickly as possible, so that we can begin re-building something that works.

I believe that all these strategies will not work.

Extreme-MGTOW won’t work because most people aren’t this introverted. I like people less than almost anyone else I know, and even I’m probably not capable of living a life around the principle of being alone. Plus, a few alphas dropping out of this strategy would still allow a lot of women to reproduce. Finally, extreme-MGTOW does not offer a rewarding lifestyle. This strategy asks men to give up too much.

Activism won’t work because activism is tied inextricably to progressivism and progressivism cannot, and never will, side with men against women. Mencius Moldbug has written on why conservatism cannot ever defeat progressivism. Similar logic applies to men’s rights activism. The system is rigged against us, so we cannot use the methods of the system (i.e. activism) to achieve our goals. To follow a Moldbuggian plan, we’d have to replace – or should I say reboot – the system.

Extreme-PUA will not work because there are not enough men capable of acting in this manner. It’s also not clear to me that the situation is so dire that we ought to recommend the nuclear option. It’s also not clear that we want this strategy to "work" since it doesn’t lead to great outcomes – it leads to a state of nature and life in a state of nature is nasty, brutish and short. In sum, Game can help individuals significantly. However, when Game is applied by enough men, it will stop working and I think its major proponents acknowledge as much.

Unfortunately, I don’t know what will work. If you take away anything from this post, take away my suggestion that men need their own strategy. We cannot simply parody feminism’s strategies.

The first step in finding our own solution is figuring out what it means to be a man – hence my post yesterday. Manliness must be encouraged – some people are doing this already. My belief is that a return to old school (really old school – like your great-grandfather’s) manliness will solve our problems. Feminism started in the early 20th Century. It wouldn’t have stood a chance against men from earlier eras. Perhaps my suggestion has no chance of success, but it has morality, dignity and – dare I say – a certain sense of manliness on its side.