Below is an extract from an article published in the US quarterly Dissent Magazine, entitled “Cockblocked by Redistribution: A Pick-up Artist in Denmark”.
We tweeted a link to it yesterday but dismayingly nobody seemed to notice it (not a single retweet last time we looked), and it really deserves reading. It’s an aspect of Nordic social democracy and gender equality that you don’t hear much about.
“Thirty-three-year-old Daryush Valizadeh, known to his predominantly heterosexual male fan base as Roosh, is a well-known pick-up artist within the worldwide ‘Seduction Community,’ which relies on pop evolutionary psychology to teach the art of getting laid.
Its origins date back to dubious neuro-linguistic programming ‘speed seduction’ theories in the early 1990s, but the Community rose to prominence with investigative reporter Neil Strauss’s 2005 bestseller exposé The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, which spawned a VH1 reality show and drew aspiring ‘PUAs’ to online forums and self-proclaimed gurus promising foolproof seduction strategies.
Roosh enjoys middling success as the author of the ‘Bang’ series of travel guides, which trains readers to seduce women based on derogatory ethnic stereotypes. In Bang Brazil, Roosh warns his followers that ‘poor favela chicks are very easy, but quality is a serious problem.’ He vows never to return to the Polish city of Katowice unless forced to ‘maintain the pussy flow.’
Roosh’s predations haven’t gone without recognition. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization, included Roosh’s personal blog in a March 2012 report on American hate groups; it quotes an Icelandic feminist group that described Bang Iceland as a ‘rape guide.’
But Roosh’s Denmark directory diverges from his usual frat-boy Casanova fantasies liberally seasoned with rape jokes. Don’t Bang Denmark—note the dramatic title change—is a cranky volume that (spoiler alert!) probably won’t help any Roosh acolytes score.
Roosh calls it the ‘most angry book’ he’s ever written:
‘This book is a warning of how bad things can get for a single man looking for beautiful, feminine, sexy women.’
What’s blocking the pussy flow in Denmark? The country’s excellent social welfare services. Really.”
Click any of the blue text to read the whole article. If you’re a woman, it might just do more to convince you of the merits of independence than anything else ever could.
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I saw this yesterday and didn’t make it past the intro section. I thought, oh no, Stu has gone off topic again.
For the reassurance of others, it is on topic, and it is worth reading past the intro.
Aye, controversial.
He would hate Aberdeen, but that’s not due to social welfare, some quine would batter him.
This has also been posted on Nordic Horizons, and it’s your typical “Jantelov” tosh.
I did RT it, but not from yourself.
I had a conversation with my wife about it, the idea that a society doesn’t have to make its citizens insecure, in this particular case women, is a laudable goal
Good article, but is the ‘pick up artist’ taking the pish. I suppose he’s big amongst the 15 year old male virgin community. He typifies a certain american republican mentality. But to be honest he’s probably never been with a woman. The point about the danish welfare system was a great one. The less some women are dependant on asshole partners the better. Neo liberal Capitalism you can stick it! 🙂
@BM
“..it’s your typical ‘Jantelov’ tosh”
I’m sure the irony, in your point, won’t be lost on those who know a bit about the philosophy behind the thinking. Pretty clear from the article as well.
Perhaps you can, at least, elaborate on your point, or point us to a source which supports your theory.
Have you spent anytime in Denmark?
And does anyone know how I can get a copy of ‘A fugitive crosses his tracks’?
Exhausted all usual online places.
Wow, Denmark is awesome.
Was there not a global survey recently which indicated that Danes were amongst the happiest or ‘most contented’ people on earth?
A very progressive country, and not a bad model for Scotland once we become free of London’s colonial shackles.
P.S. Unionists reading this might wish to note, Denmark has no nuclear weapons, is in NATO, is in the EU, and has its own currency, the Danish Kroner, and has a much higher standard of living than the UK. They don’t have oil.
<Considers Denmark for next year if the vote goes the wrong way>
Robert – that is correct but Danmark has beer, bacon and boogie!:)
Who needs oil?
1) What do these three phrases have in common?
“pop evolutionary psychology”
“neuro-linguistic programming ‘speed seduction’ theories”
“pseudo-scientific bullshit”
2) I wonder how his Saudi Arabia book is coming along. I urge Roosh to start research immediately and take the consequences.
Janteloven is a wonderful myth about Denmark. Actually speak to Danes about it (Danes in Denmark but outside Jutland at least) and they shake their heads in disdain. Denmark is a very egalitarian country but this has very little to do with Janteloven. The progressive tax regime and the built-in safety net are the crucial factors.
The safety net completely changes the power dynamic in this country in so many respects and in an overwhelmingly positive way. In short, you’re far more likely to stand up for – and have confidence in yourself – if you don’t risk losing everything off the back of it. This collective self-confidence provides many benefits for Denmark, exemplified not just by how empowered women are but by Denmark’s business environment and entrepreneurial success, it’s creative industries and it’s sense of civic pride.
If an Independent Scotland gets anywhere near the Danish model of equality, then I will be happy.
What’s not to like?
Sneddon,
I agree entirely. The point I was making, is that Denmark is doing well, even though it doesn’t have oil, so Scotland could easily do just as well, with the added bonus of 60% of Europe’s oil and gas reserves.
With independence, Scotland would become the 8th wealthiest nation on earth (the UK is 17th). Voting YES in 2014 is a no-brainer.
@Robert Louis
I’ve tried to correct Iain McWhirter more than once on this fact but he continues to repeat it: DENMARK HAS OIL.
I should hope this is the case, given that I live in Denmark and work for a Danish Oil Company who drill in the Danish sector of the North Sea (amongst other places). The size of the industry may not compare to that in Scotland but it exists nonetheless.
Incidentally, what became the Ecofisk field in Norway was ceded by Denmark for a bottle of whiskey (or schnaps, or Fiskemann’s or something). Ecofisk became the biggest offshore development in the world. This may seem like it was a bad deal for Denmark but consider the deal Scots got: mountainous and increasing levels of debt and some of the poorest social indicator measurements in the developed world.
While this fact doesn’t contradict any of the good arguments made about about Denmark, it’s a fact nonetheless.
In Sweden it’s called the ‘Swedish Theory of love’. Individuals stand on their own two feet and the state acts as a support when necessary to ensure this is sustainable. People form relationships, perhaps marry and more importantly choose to stay together because they are in love – not because they need one another financially. It is a generalistation of course but there is a lot of truth to the idea and it is fundamental to equality between sexes and in the workplace.
The analogy applies to the union aswell. Scotland can never be equal in the union or in the eyes of independent nations around the world unless it raises and allocates its own taxes and has political (decision making) autonomy.
This Roosh character needs a slap by the way.
Caledonalistic,
Thanks. I stand corrected – apologies to the people of Denmark. See my post above in response to sneddon. The fact is, whichever way you look at it, Scotland has no reason to fear independence.
Denmark actually pioneered the type of clampdown on foreign marriage laws that people were lamenting earlier this week.
I’d just like to apologise to all for my misspelling of whisky. My laptop was set to ‘American’ English and I was in too much haste to notice the auto-correction. I feel dirty and ashamed. Please forgive me.
Caledonalistic,
Just as an aside, Denmark may have given away oil fields for a bottle of Schnapps, but Scotland has given its oil away for free to London for almost forty years. Seems like both countries got a raw deal.
the right wing lost by a small margin to the opposing left-wing coalition, led by Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who on 3 October 2011 formed a new government consisting of the Social Democrats, the Danish Social Liberal Party and the Socialist People’s Party.
From Denmark’s wikipage, Brilliant.
Willie,
Pia is long gone now. And what was said in public didn’t necessarily pan out in reality. A lot like the unworkable policies you hear from UKIP and the Tories that eventually die away. That said, there is an element within some of the bigger cities who are pretty hostile to certain groups of immigrants. Denmark is not perfect by any means. The right-wing are a small minority though having previously gained a share of power in coalition with Venstre. Venstre means “Left”, by the way. Venstre are the main ‘right-wing’ party in Denmark. The ‘left-wing’ party, The Social Democrats, are in power now.
I raise this because I’ve been bemused recently by the claims in the MSM that Scandinavia is turning right-wing. Bollocks. Scandinavia is shifting right but it’s not much of a shift and these so-called ‘right-wing’ parties generally remain (far) to the left of the ‘centrist’ neo-liberal parties in the UK. Sweden has apparently been ‘right-wing’ for years: does it appear right-wing to you?
Even Pia’s crowd in Denmark were left on many issues out with that of immigration. Denmark’s social outlook and politics in general are remarkably similar to those of Scotland. So similar I find it eery at times. I’ve no doubt the Danish model would be better suited to Scotland than the current UK model.
Caledonalistic thanks for the correction. Only one thing about Denmark I don’t like, the legoland town. I find that scary. What do the figures get up to when the visitors go home? 🙂
Danish life good, governance good, beer goodish and bacon…mmmmm good!! Wake up Scotland to a better way, a better life….lets Vote YES in 2014 and bring home the Bacon!
Timely tweet from Thomas Widmann:
Denmark has just recorded the biggest balance of payments surplus ever: http://epn.dk/okonomi2/dk/ECE6073284/rekord-overskud-pa-betalingsbalancen/ … (in Danish). Small countries work! #indyref
theycan’tbeserious,
Perhaps a forewarning: bacon in Denmark is awful! The only bacon you can find is the really streaky kind, 1) because Danes love pork fat, and 2) because they export all the quality back bacon. I buy bacon when I’m in Aberdeen and take it back to Denmark with me. Thankfully, you can still find the best haggis, whisky, shortbread and taiblet in Scotland. May it forever remain the case.
Interesting read. On my travels as a younger man I found Danish women very hospitable. I suppose the contrast with tall, good looking Danish men must have been irresistable 🙂
On a serious note, my eyes were really opened to a better social model by how Denmark is run. Their tax isn’t that much higher than ours but you can see where it goes.
@WillieZwigerland
Well quite. I’d don’t see an independent Scotland having a populist party like the Danish People’s Party.
We can make comparisons, look to their welfare model, but we are not Denmark.
As for the ‘myth’ of Janteloven, well it was fictional, as I understand, but from the little I’ve read on it, so far, there are a fair few who think it has some role in today’s Denmark.
But @Caledonistic, if you can point to writings etc that say it’s a lot of fairy tale cobblers then let me know.
I appreciate you live there but in my experience you can find all shades of opinion in a country.
After all in parts of Scotland you’ll be told the SNP and YES are all a bunch of (too many derogatory words to choose from).
Albalha, how come ALL your posts have a ton of annoying linebreaks at the end of them that I have to clean up?
@Albalha
And does anyone know how I can get a copy of ‘A fugitive crosses his tracks’?
Hi, I had a look online as well to no avail. You could ask for an inter-library loan at your local library, or if you have access to an academic library, they can probably source it quicker.
@DonDeefLugs
Cheers, looks like it’s the library, sure the Mitchell will have it.
And in general re Danish immigration policy and the changes since the new government, this article seems a decent place to start.
link to cphpost.dk
Albalha,
that’s fair point. I could find things but they’d most likely be in Danish and, in any case, I know I could find as many articles supporting it – I’ve read a few myself though exclusively in English. All I can add is that no Dane has ever raised the subject of Janteloven in my presence. It has always been an expat (e.g. me) who raised the subject and even those Danes who were fairly well versed in the source material (and many were barely aware of it) were pretty sceptical of it’s relevance to modern Danish society. I’d be suspicious if they were hostile to the concept but most dismissed it out of hand.
I’ve lived here for many years and speak the language. Just as I’m able to identify opinion in Scotland that wildly contradicts my own, I’m capable of identifying it in Denmark. So far I haven’t found any such opinion but I’d be more than happy to listen carefully if I were to find it. Janteloven is a fairly noble concept, after all.
All the good bacon is exported. A Dane wouldn’t know a good bit of bacon if it jumped up and bit him. They are so used to getting the crap thats left.
They don’t live as long as you might think ether. A lot of smokers and tons of salt on their food.
Let Scotland find it’s own path with the common weal firmly to the front.
Robert Louis
Denmark does have oil, much less than Norway and Scotland though.
I have spent time in Denmark, off and on for about ten years. It is curiously a country where I could not live permanently. It is to me a bit to well ordered. Democracy flows upwards, which is a great idea but it means that everything is politicised, although in a non partisan Punch and Judy way.
The State is all pervasive and effectively Danes have signed a contract with their administration to act as a sort of supra family. You hand most of your money over to it and then they decide how much of it you get back. They are City spivs and crooks but this all pervasive body politic of the people. In Norway Judges are politically appointed and reflect that in their interpretation of the law. Poliitical parties have Youth Wings and political Summer Camps.
As for the gist of the article if you are of the “loadsamoney” gold medallion type of exploitative sexual player yer ontae plums in Denmark. The women are far too sophisticated, emancipated and educated to fall for that. They have good jobs, security and no need for a man to be their defender and master.
This is not to say that danish women are nuns, far from it. They actually can and do make the first move as I can attest to and a Scottish accent, yes they all can tell the difference, goes down well.
One night stands probably do happen, as anywhere but as I said they will make the moves. In Denmark women are more interested in talking, sizing you up and developing a relationship, albeit for a short time. They need to know you. Rape is almost unheard of in Denmark and the perpetrators are always males from a sexually repressed culture where male dominance and privilege , where the “possession” of women is the cultural norm.
An interesting point is that despite having very generous benefits, when compared to the UK especially, they have very little employment protection. Companies can at short notice lay off workers if they can prove to an inspector that it is necessary for the survival of the company. As workers are on the boards of all ( I think) companies such a situation would already be obvious and the TUs will support the unemployed until they get a job as will the State to ensure that redundant workers are retrained or educated (fancy an MSc in pollution studies to raise your employment chance OK).
As I said the State is big Momma with money to help her children.
When there for more than a month or so, I took the train and boat to Hamburg to get a fair few beers, shout and sing a bit and have surreptitious pee in a dark lane. All just not done in Denmark.
Re sex, the Danes legalised pornography a long time back and reported a drop in rapes and other sexual violations. They even have male brothels. I am informed that there is a three story building in CPH where the higher up you go the wilder become the available sexual services. I have no idea what happens in the loft but it must involve Great Danes, of the two legged type; bestilaity is a no no too.
Great country, good to visit and for many a great place to live.
I would welcome something similar to Denmark for an independent Scotland but it would need to be evolved slowly and be more in keeping for the Scottish character that a model plonked down from on high.
@Caledonalistic
I don’t know, as I said. I need to do more research on it. Though the Dogme film philosophy, which I do know more about, seems to have a bit of the Janteloven about it.
Could Scotland ever make a film like Festen, I wonder.
correction to above
They are NOT City Spivs etc. It must something with predictive text. sorry, not a Freudian slip.
@revstu
Oh dear, not a clue. Here was me thinking I was doing so well with my double returns too. So I’ve typed that first line, will now do a double return ..
And here we are. I will do no more returns and click submit. Still a problem?
Someone should post this to one of Stu’s usual critics shouting ‘Look! The misogynist’s at it again!’
“Someone should post this to one of Stu’s usual critics shouting ‘Look! The misogynist’s at it again!’”
You imagine they’re interested in anything as inconvenient as facts?
Bugger (I feel tricked),
the fact companies can get rid of employees fairly easily – I’ll challenge that in a moment – is true, but the point I was trying to make earlier was that employees can also quit more or less at a moments notice if they aren’t happy, in the knowledge that they will have reasonable security until they find another job, or training opportunities to explore.
That forces employers to treat their employees with the respect they deserve, particularly if they are valued employees. It took me a good year to adapt to the Danish workplace, the egalitarian environment, the 2-way dialogue between management and employees, the committees, the relaxed attitude to flexible working, the healthy work-life balance, and so on. In truth I was hostile to it for a long time. Boy, am I healthier (and happier) now than I was back then.
As for it being easy to let people go, that’s true in a general sense. You can justify the need for redundancies, but the specifics still have to be run through committee so it’s far more transparent and it’s less easy to exercise personal vendetta’s.
As for summary dismissal, all I can say is that – in my experience – the companies I’ve worked for have always given extremely generous severance packages in order to avoid litigation, even in cases where it was hard to see what the alternative could be. I’m assuming that’s because it works out cheaper in the long run (business sense) although I don’t have a lot of knowledge of the Danish system in this regard. In any case, it worked out very well for my former colleagues.
Caledonalistic
I really cannot disagree with what you say. My experience was not of being employed there but having a Danish wife who had grandchildren and needed to return to Denmark.
She lived in Denmark and I in France so I was a frequent driver and flyer to and from Denmark. As I was resident outside Denmark I had to limit my stays and could not avail myself of their Health service except in emergencies. I once ran out of a prescription medicine and had to get a week’s supply. My wife’s Doctor signed a prescription and smile as she charged me DKK 1,000 ( about £150 then).
I thought about going freelance and setting up a company there but baulked at the costs of setting it up. My car would have cost me about £10,000 to register (about 2 times the value) and I would have been charged, in advance, a lot of SS and estimated income tax (before I had turned an ore) My savings would have been taken from me and I could have then have gone to ask for some of it back to the SS!
What I should have done is declare myself unemployed, married to a Dane and asked for retraining at Copenhagen Business School or Technical University. That would have helped to get inside their system and make the transition over a period of time.
I lived in Virum, where do you live?
O/T I use a newsagent in Bank Street Aberdeen every morning, the owner is a Turkish guy called Cem, as an aside he recently raised £2,000 plus for the local school by running a half marathon, this morning he handed me a Yes Scotland pen, he’s a passionate supporter of the YES campaign, made my day
I’m glad I read this. All in all, it adds more to my understanding of how things work in Denmark and it truly is something Scotland should use as a model when developing the Common Weal. I’ll be honest and admit I haven’t paid a massive amount of attention to gender issues and politics but it’s clear from that piece that whatever Denmark is doing, it’s improving women’s lives (and by extension wider society) no end. Something similar is sorely required here as I can readily testify from my own observations of life.
Bugger,
I live near a small town called Lyngby, greater Copenhagen for all intents and purposes. 15-20 minutes minutes from the city centre. I used to stay near the lakes until around a year ago. I got out before they started draining them to dig the new metro line.
Caledonalistic
Virum and Lyngby are very close, within cycling distance.
Is Lyngby not where the big Hospital is, and of course Lyngby Storcenter.
Added later
Gentofte is where the Hospital is. Danish towns just spill into each other around CPH.
Nordic countries also have an automatic presumption of shared equal custody in event of divorce/separation.
I would imagine it will be a long time before Scotland reches that level of civilisation and decency.
We tweeted a link to it yesterday but dismayingly nobody seemed to notice it (not a single retweet last time we looked)
I shared it on Facebook: I only have a few followers, so my Facebook has a higher saturation.
I understand in Denmark if you don’t like danish streaky bacon its one of the few hanging offences left, just saying Caledonalistic
I luff the stuff and my figure proves it! 🙂