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There are many reasons that America cannot have nice things. Becoming a fractured, low-trust society is one. But the second article you linked pointed out that people here just don't want nice things enough to push for them. They tolerate disorder.

I try very hard to avoid scapegoating, but I can hardly think of a social ill in America that does not have to do (at least in large part) with leftism. Politicization of every institution leads to incompetence and lack of accountability, leading to distrust of institutions. Leftist race-baiting means we cannot deal firmly with any social pathology, because a disproportionate number of the miscreants we will have to deal with harshly are non-white. (Read the other linked article about Denmark.)

Please, someone, expand my thinking horizons by showing me that leftism is not involved in every social ill in America.

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Aaron, you're mentioned in the latest 'Christ the Center' podcast from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

The host, Camden Bucey, is interviewing Fred Greco, a pastor from a Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) congregation, who's also a former lawyer and an expert in parliamentary procedure and church polity.

Toward the end of the podcast they discuss recent developments in the PCA. Fred Greco is hopeful that the PCA's spin toward liberal policies/doctrines and resultant disunity has largely been checked by denominational leadership resisting the temptation to abandon ship and set up a splinter church, and instead focusing on solid governance and reasserting control.

The podcast itself is here: https://reformedforum.org/podcasts/ctc838/

You can go to about the 43:45 mark to hear the segment I've mentioned. You're mentioned at around 50:40.

They also record on video, and have posted a YouTube version; here's the direct link to the segment: https://youtu.be/EzYUODj1RWE?si=bzUkPW3TD7fwXzZ2&t=2627

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Thanks. I'll check it out.

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We've seen this poly thing coming for a while, but it's news to me that it has infested the dating apps in this way. I need to ask someone who is in the dating trenches about it. The dating app business is brutal. It's funny that we think of dating apps as being so widely used and transformative to our society, but the largest player, MTCH (owner of Match.com, has a market cap of around $10bn. Or approximately 1% of, say, Facebook.

I knew a couple who did the poly thing a decade or so ago. The man had a girlfriend and a wife. His wife was allowed to have a girlfriend (not boyfriend) but couldn't find one despite looking for one for years; I guess not many lesbians are interested in a married woman. In any event, he eventually left his wife for the girlfriend, surprising not a single person except his wife.

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Not sure if anyone will see this, but for what it's worth, I followed up and asked a few single people who use apps, and they concur, with annoyance, that the poly/open marriage presence on the apps has noticeably increased in the last 2-3 years or so, even in our little corner of the Bible Belt. It's an epidemic. One more reason to try to meet a wife in real life.

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Thanks for the report. I've long said most men are disadvantaged in using dating apps.

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