Why isn't jerking off more valorized as an easy dopamine hit that's also literally good for you?

_number8_@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 341 points –

people have been demonizing it for most of the AD years i think but it's quite pleasant really. are there any proven negative effects?

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Religion

I'd like to go a bit deeper.

I don't think people invented socially controlling practices because they found religion, I think they found religion to frame the invention of socially controlling practices.

Masturbation is a gratifying act that relives pressure to settle into a rigid domestic arrangement that serves to make more workers and soldiers, and create dependents that need fed, and whose well-being would be threatened if a parent became defiant and provoked the ire of elites.

Masturbation is good for the individual at the expense of the nation and its rulers. So it's inevitable that priests would decry it as an affront against god, as that's historically been their purpose.

Citation needed.

Which part? I think this is all subjective opinion.

Their statement started off with "I don't think" which generally means it's an opinion that may or may not have evidence. As long as they don't present it as truth and fact, it doesn't really need a citation.

That an opinion lacks evidence does not alleviate the requirement that its factual allegations be supported by evidence. "I don't think the surface of the earth is curved" may be an opinion, but it's a provably wrong assertion, and adding a disclamitory phrase to it doesn't excuse the statement from evaluation.

this is a message board not a dissertation, nobody has to do shit

Yeah, my bad. I forgot how cool it is to just spout whatever bullshit you want. Hurray for ignorance.

No wonder humanity is doomed.

Then you should simply call that person a dumb ass and move on in that scenario. And their statement was loaded with qualifiers that indicates to the audience to not take their claim seriously. This isn't debate club or a Congressional hearing. It's a niche internet forum.

Pretty sad when religion claims to abhor evil, happens to be the source of a lot of it. Right? I can’t name a single thing religion ever did for me other than make me miserable.

IMO, and without actual data to back it up, I reckon religion (and religious difference) is responsible for the most suffering throughout the history of humankind.

I feel like even without religion we’d find ways to make each other miserable ‘cause we’re just an awesome species like that.

Yeah, no dispute here, mate. We're pretty shocking like that. But I think religion stands out as an example of the worst, most inventive way we've come up with to subjugate and hurt people.

As a species, we've convinced ourselves that religion should be protected rather than inspected. We let lots of bad things happen in the name of religion. It's bullshit.

I don't think it's the source. I think it's a tool of social control that enables the powerful to create a bare minimum willingness to be ruled. For a long time the doctrine of Christianity was the Divine Right of Kings. Now it's the Prosperity Gospel. The books did not change but the people with all the money and power ensured the church leaders who served their interest had most of the money and thus followers.

If we didn't have religion, some other social construct would arise, and I'd argue, has arisen to fulfill it's role. Modern economic theory justifies the current power order in an unfalsifiable way that reminds me of religion.

Religion could be a liberatory force in society. In fact it has been. The liberation theology movement in South America and numerous heretical movements in the late medieval period are both examples of progressive Christian social movements.

Thank you. I think anyone who spends a lot of time reading about history comes to these conclusions.