The Game is Always Rigged

Why fairness is not, and has never been, a valid metric

I usually attempt to avoid politics, religion, and ideology on this site, because the emotional attachments of most people to their particular political, religious, and ideological identities tends to seriously cloud their ability to pay attention to what is actually being said about the Socio-Sexual Hierarchy and the various male behavioral patterns instead of reacting to what they imagine is being said.

Just today, I banned a commenter who attempted to put a theological spin on things and claimed that which is observably true is somehow “repugnant to Christianity”. The retardery of the erroneous theology and the category error aside, there is absolutely no point in permitting anyone who is going to attempt imposing their own filter on the discourse here to participate in it. In short, those who wish to engage here need to accept that this is a place for discussion of the SSH in a practical context.

That being said, even the practical context sometimes requires discussion of the points of intersection between the SSH and some of these emotional hotspots, such as the identifiable behavioral patterns demonstrated by current political figures. After all, whether you love him or loathe him, it is useful to know that Donald Trump is an Alpha and his future behavior can often be reliably predicted on that basis.

One unavoidable aspect of SSH awareness is the intrinsic unfairness of the environment in which we operate. It’s not fair that women seek out Delta competence when they need it, but don’t hesitate to reject those same men because they are more attracted to a worthless, peacocking Alpha who offers them nothing more than heartache. It’s not fair that the kindhearted Bravo who, against his better judgment, gives a troublesome Gamma a second chance, only to find himself in social disgrace in his hierarchy after being stabbed in the back by that same Gamma.

Even the most beautiful suffer from the unfairness of opportunity cost.

No doubt every single commenter here could provide ten SSH-related incidents of obvious unfairness that they have either personally witnessed or experienced themselves.

But in that vein, I think it might be helpful to be reminded that it is the fallen world itself that is intrinsically unfair, that expecting or demanding fairness from anyone is insane, and that in the rare instances that one meets with fairness, one should greet it with appreciation, awe, and gratitude, as well as an awareness that the experience will be akin to seeing a rainbow, which is today, brief and beautiful.

Therefore, I recommend to you all to read Simplicius’s summary of the state of the world as of December 31, 2024.

Given the bizarre coordinated nature of every Western nation’s mirrored crack downs on fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, the total delegitimization of democracy and elections, the absolute spiteful disgust that our ruling elites have shown to the common man, the farmer, the blue collared laborer, the wage slave—given all these things, and how remarkably coordinated they have been across the governments of the West, 2025 has taught us that the entire Western order must necessarily be taking direction from a centralized node of governance somewhere. That somewhere may be in the backrooms of the WEF or Bilderberg or what have you, but the rule by fiat from above is now clearer than ever…

The world is now entering a period of strongman lawlessness due to the systemic breakdown of previous international institutions and guardrails which have held some semblance of ‘order’ across the globe. Now it’s becoming nearly passé to speak of, and actually carry out, illegal seizures of land, occupations, etc. From Israel’s demarche on Syrian territory, to Turkey’s brazen calls for revanchism, to Trump’s sudden and inexplicable rousts around the annexation of Greenland and Canada—the lack of international order, the lack of spine in ‘rule of law bastions’ has become nearly surreal.

What we’re seeing is not new, to the contrary, it is the culmination of a world order that was already in the works when John Stuart Mill, in 1861, articulated the rational justification for its being.

“Society should treat all equally well who have deserved equally well of it, that is, who have deserved equally well absolutely. This is the highest abstract standard of social and distributive justice; towards which all institutions, and the efforts of all virtuous citizens should be made in the utmost degree to converge.”

—John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, 1861

In other words, unfairness is metaphorically baked into the cake of the society in which you live, it is the highest abstract standard of that society and every institution is converged toward it.

Which is why it not only makes no sense to complain about this person, or that job, or that institution, treating you unfairly and even less sense to conduct yourself in a manner that expects, demands, or nonsensically “requires” fairness from anyone but yourself. Instead, begin each day in the manner recommended by Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher.

When you wake, say to yourself: Today I shall encounter meddling, ingratitude, violence, cunning, jealousy, self-seeking; all of them the results of men not knowing what is good and what is evil. But seeing that I have beheld the nature and nobility of good, and the nature and meanness of evil, and the nature of the sinner, who is my brother, participating not indeed in the same flesh and blood, but in the same mind and partnership with the divine, I cannot be injured by any of them; for no man can involve me in what demeans.

—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations, 180

Of course, Marcus Aurelius was an optimist. Not being a Christian, he lacked a true awareness of the nature of evil, and being a good man, evil harbored so little attraction for him that he could not understand the wicked, men for whom evil serves as a magnet and a guiding light. But his point stand. Every day you will meet with unfairness, meddling, ingratitude, violence, cunning, jealousy, and self-seeking, every day you will encounter everything from the prickly pride of Alphas to the malicious envy of Gammas, and every day the only individual over whose behavior you have even a modicum of control is yourself.

The game is always rigged. The game has always been rigged. And yet, the game must be played.

Happy New Year.