Greentext

I'm gonna say this one time, and you will probably ignore it and continue on as you were.

But maybe, you will reflect upon some part of it later.

I have been on a path that could have ended with an attitude like yours. The sad thing about it is when people tell you that you are creating you own perception that women at large think men are all assholes, or that women at large don't think of you as part of their community, it probably really pisses you off. But you almost certainly are, and it's by how deeply (or not) you are reading into things that touch on those issues, and how willing (or not) you are to set aside your feelings of being attacked to try seeing what is being said.

As one example, the bear thing a year or so ago sure pissed a lot of people off and I am pretty sure I hear echoes of that event (or something very similar) in your comment.

Choose for a moment not to feel victimized by it, and instead look at it like this:

Perhaps, it's a sad commentary on the lived experiences of many women in this country which we all believe to be so safe that so many of them have experienced such a pervasive risk of sexual assault that they regard unknown men as potential threats. We've been calling ourselves the greatest nation on earth for as long as the nation has existed, yet in 2025 a huge percentage of our wives and daughters are unable to feel safe if a strange man is behind them in a parking garage.

Yes, it annoys me for a second when I am minding my own business and I can see that a woman has changed her behavior to keep me in view or stay ahead of me as if I'm going to do something to her when I know well and good I am not. I have never done that a single time in reaction to someone just minding their own business.

But then I realize, in 50+ years, I've had the luxury of never having felt that level of danger in my daily life. I don't know what her reasons are. They might be stupid. But they might not. And I can't really expect her to justify them to me.

So I figure, I hope someone else will help my wife or niece feel a little more comfortable in the same circumstance, and I try to make that annoying woman in front of me who wanted to have a little less fear feel a little safer if I can.

I'm not here to argue with you, just to paint what might be a slightly different picture.

Edited to add sentences I left out...

Edited again to add - are there asshole women who have decided that each and every man is a scumbag? Yes, yes there are. Just like there are asshole men who belittle womens' issues, casually sexually assault them on the regular, and can be unpredictably violent.

Assuming all women are like the first group and using it as a justification for turning a blind eye to the effects of the second group is not a strong masculine position. It's a position of avoidance and of shirking responsibility.