Snapshot · Modern Wisdom
Young liberal women report experiencing sexual harassment online more frequently than conservative or moderate women, partly due to higher political posting activity drawing hostile responses.
Where this was said
At 11:52 · chapter starts 8:48
Williamson asks why women feel less safe even as civilisation progresses, and Cox traces the answer to a systemic shift in who bears responsibility for safety. Where institutions — family, schools, places of worship, police — once enforced norms and provided accountability mechanisms, trust in those institutions has collapsed across generational lines, with young women showing the steepest drop. The result is a felt sense of 'no one else will protect me,' which Cox links to the rise of boundary-policing language in therapy culture. Online harassment provides additional fuel: since the mid-2000s, gender and sexual harassment online has risen significantly, with young liberal women experiencing it most — partly, Cox hypothesises, because they are more active sharing political opinions that attract hostile responses from certain male users. Williamson introduces the tail-risk framework: the internet takes extreme-tail events and makes them feel like the midpoint of the bell curve. Cox ties it together: once the algorithm identifies a woman as interested in safety content, the flow of scrunchie-covers and pepper-spray ads is self-reinforcing, constructing a world that feels genuinely dangerous regardless of base-rate reality. [1] — Daniel Cox "Women feel less safe not because danger has increased, but because trust in institutions — police, churches, schools — that used to enforce…" 08:48
Women feel less safe not because danger has increased, but because trust in institutions — police, churches, schools — that used to enforce safety norms has collapsed. Young women are far less likely than older women to believe those institutions will handle sexual assault responsibly, leaving them with only individual self-protection as a fallback.
The internet is preselected for the most shocking, outlandish stories, so prolonged exposure makes extreme tail-risk events feel like average everyday reality. This affects both sexes: men think all women are manipulative; women think all men are dangerous predators.
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A study conducted before and after the pandemic found that the share of Americans with a regular third space — a community gathering spot outside home and work — fell roughly 20 percentage points and has not recovered.
Survey data shows a massive generational divide: most over-50s believe their parents viewed them as average, while a majority under-50 say their parents viewed them as special.
When asked whether a woman cheating is morally wrong, young women were far less likely to take a hardline stance than older women or men, suggesting a shared-fate or experiential factor is shaping the judgment.
Survey data shows that men with more close friends are significantly more likely to have recently gone on a date or be in a committed relationship, highlighting the link between social integration and romantic success.
When gambling is legalized in a state, bankruptcies go up 30%, illustrating the societal costs Scott Galloway associates with the online gaming industry.
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