Oh my god there is actually, somehow, an argument going on, on the dash, about whether it might be a good idea to bring back dueling as a social practice, because then if a Gawker-style journalist impugns your honor you can challenge them to a duel?
Like, look, it is generally agreed that “cultures of honor” are terrible. Most people today find culture-of-honor practices like dueling both abhorrent and kind of ludicrous. And if you want to defend all of this very unfashionable stuff then … actually mount a defense of cultures of honor. Explain why we should have this thing, with all it entails: the cycles of violence, the making-tragedy-out-of-minor-slights, the vast uncertainty (imagine if any of your male friends or relatives could die in a duel tomorrow and that would be normal). Do some sort of actual analysis. But saying “we should bring back duels because then Sam Biddle would think twice about making fun of me on his blog!!!!” is the definition of confusing O(1) for O(ɛ). If you are sensitive enough to think that snide Gawker posts actually matter then you are too sensitive for a world with duels, okay?
Huh, I think I started this topic, and it had nothing to do with Gawker, it was me scratching my head over what to do with young men trapped in the exact culture-of-honor you describe (although they don’t consider themselves trapped, of course) and the uncertainty about whether people will come home in the morning, or if you’ll be picking them up from the hospital, like last week.
So like, it’s an existing problem, and unlike formal dueling, it tends to involve attacks from ambush with superior numbers.
(As I pointed out, dueling is already legal in the form of MMA bouts).
“Fight me in the octagon” will never be taken seriously, though. These people want to bring back a culture where social pressure will effectively force you accepting a dual. The idea being that many people on the left are professional victims while also being foppish, whiny babies who would back down if they ever had to back up their words with violence.
Which really doesn’t square well with the notion of leftists as violent and aggressive towards anyone they dont like, rioting over the littlest things. Like, what, you think they’re willing to provoke riot police but are terrified to fight you one on one?
