I legitimately don’t know what Fraternity is and why it’s normal in America and why these dudes are standing like this.
US fraternities are the burger version of UK boarding school noncery. At its core, a frat just a social club for drinking, social networking for careers after school, and organized sexual assault of female classmates. The latter activity replaces the british pederastry since frats are college only and most US colleges are co-ed.
Freshmen wanting to join a frat (“prospects”) will “rush” it during “rush week” which always involves dangerous levels of alcohol consumption and arcane hazing rituals, as seen above.
I have very little context here, but I’m guessing the ritual is to stand completely still in a dark wet basement while a stereo randomly blares scary noises from the other room. Any prospects that react are eliminated and can’t join the frat.
For an entirely different flavor of toxic american culture see Sororities.
Having to get tortured to build a network is something.
And the new entrants take away from this that they get to do it to others once they’re in! Should help people understand why student debt relief is seen as inconveniencing people who already had to pay back their student loans.
Also normalizes getting overworked and exploited for them when they enter the workforce.
At first its way more about having friends assigned to you and access to all the “cool” parties and all the overly intoxicated young women there. Some sororities are sometimes partnered to a frat and encourage sex with members of that frat. Sometimes its a requirement to get in.
The best thing I’ve been told about frats is they force you to cooperate with people you’d otherwise hate, which is something I’ve heard unions do as well.
Take me with a grain of salt though. I was never in a frat and my college forced all “Greek Life” organizations to cut national ties decades ago.
Some sororities are sometimes partnered to a frat and encourage sex with members of that frat.
Fun fact: This goes back to Leland Stanford wanting to do eugenics with students at Stanford University and encouraging matchmaking to breed ubermensch by encouraging top performing students to pair up. Yall should read Palo Alto a History of California Capitalism and the World, that book is fuckin bonkers. I’ll try to find a PDF when I get home.
Johnny, you haven’t been around long, but you’re a high quality poster. Always informative!
So I went looking to track down the pdf and funny enough the only source I could find was this: https://mega.nz/folder/cuMwjRyK#eDPayQSdYFwaCh9qr8zzPw/folder/UiF1RDpT
Which I found through a link on this site. There is a boatload of other good material in that mega folder too including a bunch of audiobooks. That should probably be linked in the sidebar or something and also @Cowbee@hexbear.net would probably love to have that as one of our resident scholars.
I’m certainly no scholar, but this is a really cool find! Thanks for linking it for me!
I’m certainly no scholar
4·9 days agohttps://annas-archive.li/search?index=&page=1&sort=&display=&q=Palo+Alto+Malcolm+Harris
There are PDFs, EPUBs, and MOBI on libgen, z-lib, IA, etc.
Edit: in Combat Liberalism in that mega folder
This book was produced in EPUB format by the Internet Archive. The book pages were scanned and converted to EPUB format automatically
And the result is exactly as anyone could predict: Bad.
ⓘ This user is suspected of being a cat. Please report any suspicious behavior.
Yeah I have not really looked over everything in that folder but I found there was a ton of good shit in there especially audiobooks.
Some sororities are sometimes partnered to a frat and encourage sex with members of that frat. Sometimes its a requirement to get in.
Excuse me, what the heck?
Why would anyone join? And how does this not become a national scandal and get shut down?
Well its never a national rule so its always localized to the specific chapter when one becomes a scandal. But also Greek life is heavily institutionalized within most college systems and there are powerful alumni. Every school have a long reputation of trying to make sex scandals go away as quickly and quietly as possible.
But also that requirement is usually presented as a challenge to the prospect to accomplish on their own. To prove you’re the right type of hot to be in our clique etc. Many young women will volunteer for this.
There’s also the fact that it seems like a lot of frats (at least by me) completely own their houses and have almost no ties to the schools, it’s like they have hardly any oversight. When a pledge dies (usually from alcohol) they may do something like trying to ban students from joining but they pretty much always let them back in after a few years
It’s actually exploiting a psychological phenomenon, when the more you have to work/suffer to get something, the more it feels valuable.
I don’t think hazing is a uniquely American pheonomenon
Frats aren’t above pedastry either, many of them deliberately try to get local high school girls to attend their parties.
A fraternity is a college club. Young men join them to make friends, party, and form connections that may help their careers down the line (the female version is known as a “sorority”). A “pledge” is a young man in college who wants to join the fraternity, and pledges often have to go through a period of hazing in order to be accepted as a full member. This sometimes results in abuse scandals, like what you see here.
You might ask yourself “why would anyone submit themselves to torture”, well fraternities are pretty vital to rich kids to land jobs outside of school.
I was in one for a few months, but it was a new one with like 10 of us and the hazing was stealing crosses from the local KKK chapter so we could have a bonfire and drink beer.
Overall not too bad, there were a couple of weird guys, but that was one of the only ethnically diverse ones on campus lol
The pledge week was funny too, all the other ones had like a civil war era sword or some other legacy bullshit and these guys were just all laying around hungover with sunglasses on. When I asked them what their deal was they said “we like drinking and fucking with the local KKK”
I was in one for a few months, but it was a new one with like 10 of us and the hazing was stealing crosses from the local KKK chapter so we could have a bonfire and drink beer.
Okay in this instance I will allow it, carry on.
stealing crosses from the local KKK chapter
You’ve got to be ancient for those to have been around.
This was like 12ish years ago. The local (kkk) chapter was literally just 2 hicks in the mountains lol. The (fraternity) chapter president grew up there and hated them.
There was a Klan rally in California in like 2015 lmao
Enduring weeks of brutal torture is totally worth it to own a Ford dealership in Arizona.
Hi folks it’s Chud Truckly from Truckly Ford where YOU name your price! :deadinside:
Thanks
and they call it “greek life.”
One sorority made a girl drink water until she overdosed. The girl died. I thinknhazing might be illegal in some places but they still do it. It’s just a social club. In engineering school, you could get old tests for classes from a local frat house. We even had one professor that straight up told us to do that. I had a close friend in one, he is still my friend and was a really nice guy. Delta Chi was a nerd frat though, my other friend in Sigma Nu was wondering whybI would hang with Tue nerd frat guys.
Fraternity is how yankees reproduce, they all get half naked in a damp basement and congeal into a big heap snail-style before laying egg clutches in the bottom floors of parking garages. These Americans probably just finished laying their eggs when discovered.
What a lot of people don’t understand is how distinctly these biological characteristics affect the ecology of the local biome. Because they’re so reliant on car infrastructure for mating and reproduction, yankee ranges select for such infrastructure. When you look at a desolate, car infested place like Texas, we must remember that God didn’t make it that way, it was the goddamned yankee.
the goddamned yankee.
spits
a lot of the university experience implies living away from your friends and family for the first time. fraternities/sororities are a way for the affluent and generally disagreeable people to pay for instant access to a large social network of people from the same demographic (unlikeable, parents have money).
of course you can’t only pay to get in, because then minorities might get in there and ruin the whole brand… so existing members gatekeep the “secretive” process behind made up rituals of humiliation to prove loyalty and drive out anyone who might have some self respect.
they are to be avoided like the plague. never join. never go to any of their functions. avoid their houses. every fucking year, kids die from alcohol poisoning due to their “brothers”. not to mention all the sexual assaults. “greek” culture is a menace of elitism and sadism. and it’s just politically connected enough to be constantly normalized while its excesses are covered up and ignored.
better to be a geek than greek.
I pledged at a frat in college and got dropped because I wasn’t “making enough connections” with the 80+ dudes who I could remember maybe 20 of. Was encouraged to rush by my “friend” who ended up being the worst roommate OAT a few years after that. I suspect a much larger reason for me getting dropped was the multiple times they assured me it was “totally cool” that I was the one dude there who wasn’t drinking and didn’t succumb to their peer pressure for it. One of those situations where they “respect my decisions” but also offer me alcohol constantly
better to be a geek than greek.
damn, I’d totally forgotten about this phrase but it’s what everyone said at my university in Canada. Before I arrived the school had ended most of the frats because of the vile culture they generated, and the couple which were allowed to exist had to jump through hoops and had high public behavioural standards. Even then, everyone outside the frats hated them due to the whole ‘“greek” culture’ you described
In Western Europe, fraternities shape about 70% of the political class. They break down your morals and make you do horrific acts so that if you’d ever betray the ruling class, they will have enough material to discredit you. They are not primarily social clubs. Their core function is to create an elite class that helps its members get in powerful positions and protect their financiers, the capitalist class.
I’ve never heard of frats in western Europe akin to anything that the US has. England and some other places love posh boarding schools, which is not at all the same as a frat. It’s shitty in other ways.
David Cameron fucked a pig in his frat, the event was called “Piggate” when it was leaked to the press. The European fraternities are just more up-market, called “societies” and “clubs” and styled in overtly upper class ways compared to what the americans style them as. It’s the same thing though.
Calling a toff club a “frat” sounds weird. It would be like if John Cena started talking about opening up the bonnet of his car.
Yeah it is weird using the same word but functionally they do the same things and serve the same purpose.
Aren’t frats present at most colleges, and aren’t they much easier to get into?
OP isn’t asking about “clubs for rich people” which seems what you’re reducing this to be. Frats focus much more on providing housing to members as well, don’t they?
And it really seems more like an Anglo thing. I mentioned the boarding schools to begin with, because I knew of Eton and the English with their weird stuff. But that’s not the same as having these “societies” at every university - and especially not for whole of western Europe.
Compared to American frats they’re quite different though. The societies and clubs like that (which are mainly an English thing) are more like an expanded skull & bones society, as far as I understand it. American frats, from what I know of them, are present at basically every college and much more accessible that the secret societies for the wealthiest kids in England - or whatever the variant is in other parts of western Europe.
I’ve never heard of Gamma Phi Delta in Berlin College (because I think colleges are very much an Anglo thing?) having some big hazing scandal or whatever.
If the argument is just “clubs for rich people exist” then yeah? But that’s not really helpful for OOPs question.That’s prob in the UK, in Spain i’ve never heard about anything like that
edit: nvm, they do exist, though I think it’s much more lighthearted than in other places, unless maybe with old super rich unis
I don’t know how to respond to this, just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
I don’t know, show me a french, a German or a Spanish frat that’s similar to the American stuff. Calling the different semi-secret societies that exist everywhere the same as an American dudebro frat seems quite odd to me. They’re not the same thing.
I don’t see how the pigfucker club from Eton for England’s wealthiest pricks is the same as an American frat, nor is it the standard of indoctrination for western Europe. I’m sure every country has some get together for rich and wealthy kids, but saying they’re similar to the American greek frats seems incorrect on many levels.
I suppose you could respond by also explaining how the things you’re thinking of are the same as an American frat. But I guess I’d start by just giving examples.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Sanda_Dia
The hazing was a ritual of the Reuzegom fraternity at KU Leuven
Also the reason why you don’t see more German fraternities is WWII. They know it’s not a good look: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/31/austria-dissolve-fraternity-linked-far-right-freedom-party-songbook
A group of young white guys networking, drinking, and hazing each other is not unique to the US and I don’t even know why it’s being suggested as such. At best they’re not as common because people in Europe seem to have a sense of the common good and will ban them. But they do exist. It’s not about them being the exact same because obviously cultural distinctions exist. Just because Burschenschaft dresses it up as Medieval sword duels doesn’t mean it’s not a similar thing.
Thank you for the link to Reuzegom. Again it seems like it’s an outlier and not a common thing for Europe. Reading about it, it seems more like a studentverbindung than an american frat. But for some reason they’re called the same thing. I found this list of frats and sororities in france, which, again, make it seem like not a very common thing. There it’s more a product of french canadians, and even then the list is incredibly short.
A group of young white guys networking, drinking, and hazing each other is not unique to the US and I don’t even know why it’s being suggested as such
good thing that’s not what I’m saying. I feel like I’ve made it very clear that’s not what I’m saying.
Just because Burschenschaft dresses it up as Medieval sword duels doesn’t mean it’s not a similar thing.
I mean it does though? OP is asking about american fraternities and uses a picture of a hazing ritual. It’s pretty clear it’s not “hey do rich people meet and network in clubs at institutions for education?” Reducing it to “there are clubs for rich people everywhere” is inane, especially when american fraternities are - as I’ve already said - much more widespread and much more accessible to the common person.
Yes and dangerous hazing rituals exist in European fraternities. It may seem more widespread in the US because the US is more homogeneous than the group of European countries. Plus the media like movies and all push it to the front.
Why are you continually ignoring what I write?
In not saying their exactly the same as American fraternities. In fact, I don’t even know what American fraternities are like. I’m just describing how fraternities function in Western Europe. You might not think of them as fraternities, but they fall under the definition of a fraternity. They are elite associations of university students that are very hard to get into, have extreme hazing practices (every so often someone dies during these rituals) and as I said, 70% of politicians at least in my country are proud ‘alumni’ of these associations. They shape our political climate to an extreme degree.
It is bizarre to me how you’re attacking me because you think I’m wrong when I’m describing how fraternities shape our political climate and then demanding me for proof instead of explaining how I’m supposedly wrong. You could also just ask for clarification if you’re so curious.
It is bizarre to me how you’re attacking me because you think I’m wrong when I’m describing how fraternities shape our political climate and then demanding me for proof instead of explaining how I’m supposedly wrong.
I’m sorry, but if you feel as though being asked questions is an attack, then that’s on you. I’ve explained how I disagree with you. And you were the one who said you didn’t know what to say, why are you mad when I give you suggestions on what would work?
And your argument is: “I haven’t heard of them, so they must not exist”.
The whole purpose of these associations is for their function to be hidden from society, so of course you don’t hear from them if you are not a student here. Maybe interact with my arguments instead of keeping your eyes and ears closed to them and thinking you’re in the right just because.
I’d love to provide you with a nice article that explains everything to you but sadly most media is also owned by frat alumni so it is rare to find any substantial analysis on the political power of these fraternities.
And your argument is: “I haven’t heard of them, so they must not exist”.
It’s not? You seem to be unwilling to engage with what I write, so why respond?
This might actually be correct.
These are literally incubators for the future generations of the ruling class.
Depends on where. I was responsible for our grades for a year, had access to every member’s records. Our average GPA was like a 2.3 lol.
Down south is different though, real old-money types, still terrible students but they actually have connections where it doesn’t matter lol
People with lower GPAs but were part of a fraternity or sorority have higher lifetime earnings than those with higher grades who were not part of Greek life.
America is doomed to fall with how many incompetent kids hold high positions
you know the epstein shit? frats are like a microcosm of that in every university across the country but they mostly assault their classmates or groom highschoolers.
Oh that’s just cracker gitmo
Buddy, I’ve lived here going on almost 37 years, and even I don’t know what the fuck is going on.
Super real American anthropologist here. I have a degree on American culture, except don’t ask to see it. The paper as well as the university that gave it to me fell into the ocean. I do not recall which ocean.
This here appears to be a form of trance that is induced by the consumption of an alcoholic concoction not too dissimilar to the baijiu we have in the civilised world (I believe they usually have something they call “Clamato” mixed with something they call “Natty Lite”, but it can also be made with “Four Loko” and “V8 Vegetable Juice”. The etymologies for all of these words are lost to time) during a coming-of-age ritual known as “hazing”, believed to stem from getting into a drunken haze off of “moon shine” (also similar to baijiu) and shooting each other with flintlock pistols (which also produces a smoky haze) as a pastime in medieval America.
These men largely hail from villages and hamlets from the countryside (although not exclusively) and congregate around a “college” (which may be a loan word, it’s uncertain if any education is mandated by these colleges, as the youth can simply threaten the shaman-tutor for being “woke” and “infringing on their beliefs” and automatically succeed in the class), whose main purpose is to produce (unpaid) athletes for the entertainment of the elders in a congregation called “March Madness”, which I believe is an homage to an archaic custom where they forced their youth into the jungles of Vietnam and “march” forward into spike pits or develop “madness” from PTSD and the conscription.
This gives me “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” vibes and I love it
“college” (which may be a loan word…)
It sure as shit is
I was in one of these years ago during my brief stint at an American university. Hazing wasn’t this bad but I did have to chug galleons of milk that made me puke and did pushups on a floorboard with splinters sticking out.
The life itself is glamorized heavily and you do get a sense of camaraderie. They’re known to throw some of the biggest parties on campuses and they can help you with jobs later on in life with the connections you can make in them.
Americans (i.e. Burgers) are raised in a very atomized cultured. Many Americans prefer the solitude of the automobile to socializing with other Americans. We can see this from their concept of the ‘drive thru,’ which allows the American to indulge in their national past-time of eating grease and drinking ‘big-gulps.’ If they have to socialize, they like it to happen under strict and predictable conditions. The fraternity, which must not be confused with fraternizing (‘friendship’ is an unfamiliar concept in the land of the Burger), is a way for the American to mimic the experience of the schooling system, allowing them to navigate the unfamiliarities of the social world through familiar hierarchies and known structures. Physical punishment is sometimes incorporated as a way to externalize the inner anxieties of the American, and to make visible the invisible hierarchies they are ‘big-gulping’ their way through.
Source:
Many Americans prefer the solitude of the automobile to socializing with other Americans.
I mean, have you ever socialized with Americans? You’d lock yourself in a car too. It’s a constitutionally-enshrined world PvP zone.
You really wanna bake your noodle, people pay six figure loans for this
I left when they sent me a bill lol
There’s are several documentaries about Fraternities i can recommend
Animal House, Revenge of The Nerds, The Skulls…
CW: SA, heavy drinking, violence, general skeezy behavior
Revenge of The Nerds
I guess casually recommending SA that is played for laughs is on-brand for a thread about fraternities
Booger and Poindexter’s synthwave show rocked pretty hard though. I wish I’d known about Kraftwerk back then.
Oh shit, you’re absolutely right
I should put content warnings on all those
Gotta get better about remembering to do that
College Fraternities aren’t really exclusively American and Fraternal University groups and similar organizations have been around for a while. Lenin was in the Russian equivalent of a Frat, I think Marx too.
Historically, a lot of it was about social support for young men at university, many of them were far from home and have never lived alone and Universities often didn’t provide housing or food as much back then, or if they did it was often poor quality, so getting into a Frat was a way to get three hots and a cot. And also they’re just social clubs, you can hang with other dudes and party, make connections that can pay off later in life. Like most clubs they have weird traditions and shit. It’s kind of like Boy Scouts for 18-25 year old men, so less camping and more drinking.
Weird social clubs like these used to be more common in general. Is there a weird old dive bar in your down called like “The Eagles Lodge” or the “Fools Order”? Yeah that’s cuz before Xbox and Netflix it was a lot more popular to do weird shit like go to a club where you all wear Moose Hats or whatever. It wasn’t even just a male or upper class thing, there were clubs for women and one’s with more working class backgrounds.
The really weird shit you see now is almost more because University became more accessible, Frats became less needed and therefore more exclusive, and generally just began attracting a more toxic, hyper-masculine, often upper middle class, background of men who’s rituals got more culty and destructive.
