Yep, that's just how it is these days. Let me ask though, does it really matter?

If the girls are afraid of the guys, that's their problem, not yours. Stick the time into something else you enjoy, let nature run it's course. Find a job you don't hate, spend your money as you like, live a happy life without the anxiety of rejection.

Took me longer than I'd care to admit.

The reason these conversations are so unproductive is because some people take the wildest read of these jokes ("all men are rapists") and get offended by them, when the surface reading ("men like the idea of meeting a random woman, women do not like the idea of meeting a random man") is crystal clear and non-controversial. This joke could be from a Seinfeld opening monologue, it's such a generic piece of observational comedy.

You very clearly see something about yourself in this message. Especially since you're being so reactionary about it. The fact that you're so upset about how certain women view men is your own problem. Not theirs.

Literally. It's the bear thing all over again. If you're offended by stuff like this, you're basically telling on yourself.

I sense the argument coming, so I want to put something out there.

Let's think about this using the game Among Us for a moment, hm? Forget about the gender war for a second, just think about Among Us.

In Among Us, there are, let's say, ten people trapped on a space station, but one or two of them are actually aliens pretending to be human. Their job, naturally, is to eat the other humans, in addition to creating enough plausible deniability that they won't be caught.

Now, some common arguments.

"Not all colorful little human beans are aliens trying to eat you."
Well, we know that some of them are, and they really don't want to be noticed. So, how do you avoid being eaten, then? That's right, a little bit of paranoia. In this environment, a lack of trust becomes a survival skill by necessity.

"The 'alien' problem is overblown. In fact, I think they barely exist."
Well, we know, in this video game, that they do exist. The tic-tac people are not going to survive the game by pretending the aliens aren't there. In fact, by refusing to accuse any of your friends, you are enabling the aliens to eat more of your people without consequence.

"I agree that aliens are a problem, but why does it have to include me? I'm not one of them."
Well, in Among Us, it is not possible to know who is or is not an alien on sight alone. You are forced to, by the game itself, demonstrate to other players that you are safe even in cases where you were never dangerous to begin with. Some kind of social etiquette is necessary when our other senses, our eyes for instance, cannot help us.

"Thinking all your friends are aliens trying to eat you is prejudice. It's kind of like being racist to black people."
Well, unfortunately, in this video game, we know with certainty there are secret aliens trying to eat people. As with the point above, we're not going to solve this problem by pretending they don't exist. Is it a little bit unfair that other players are forced to distrust you? Maybe. But, you just can't build trust on this space station without somehow pacifying the alien threat that is built into the game. Every player understands this dynamic.

In real life, let's imagine we have no idea whatsoever how often male aggression presents itself. We don't know if there are or are not aliens.

We can agree, I would hope, that being an alien would be a bad thing, though, right? So, is it not enough to say "I will not be one of those men, and I will stop other people from being one of those men," whether or not those men actually exist? At worst, you've committed to a fight that will never ask you to do any fighting.

You do not have to buy into the idea that most men are monsters to be an enemy of monstrous men. You do not need to concede that you are a monster to be an enemy of monstrous men.

If you insist on fighting about this, I have one or two ideas about that.

You don't believe that monstrous men exist at all, so the paranoia is unjustified. Okay. I think that you're in denial. Talk to some of the women in your life. Ask them about what they've dealt with.

You feel insecure and lonely because people naturally distrust you. I get that. That's hard. Especially in a world where you can barely make friends without a car or money, that's really tough. To a point I've made twice, though, if monstrous men are real, if they really exist, then this unfairness you're subject to will not go away unless the thing that's causing it is dealt with. This is a non-negotiable bit of math that you need to come to terms with.

People don't like being generalized, especially based on something they didn't choose.

Obviously you have a whole imaginary version of me in your head that you can carry on an argument with, so there's no reason for me to waste any more of my time.

does it really matter?

Does a dysfunctional society matter?

Well women don't choose to get raped!

Sure, but that's more a reaction to the comic than the comic itself.

I see the comic as expressing a morbid, comedic irony in reciprocal situations between the sexes: non-threatening in one case yet threatening in the other indicating a deeper issue in society.

Just calling it as it is.

Fun fact, by doing the above, you’ll end up meeting women who don’t feel that way and are relationship material, and plenty of acquaintances who think you “don’t count” because you’re “one of the good ones”.

I think the problem with your argument is the measure of paranoia. It's 100% reasonable to be suspicious and cautious around men, strange or familiar, if you're a woman. The issue I think most men have to this isn't reasonable suspicion or reasonable caution, but rather the over the top reaction women online seem to have.

An example of this might be a youtube video about women checking into a hotel alone vs a man checking into a hotel alone. The man checks in and goes right to bed, the lock on the door automatically engages when the door closes. The example with the woman has her block the one way peephole, double check the deadbolt, brace a chair against the door handle, string a tight rope from the door handle to a firm anchor in the bathroom, unplug the phone, close the blinds, check that the mirror isn't see through, and sweep the room for listening devices. You see this and think it must be satire, and it might be, but then you go into the comments and there's a ton of women saying how true this is and how you gotta be careful of men when traveling alone. Every so often you'll see a comment from a man about how this is insane and all the women respond how he's privileged and doesn't understand why women have to do all this.

No man is going to begrudge a reasonable reaction to strangers and safety, but relating to a comic about seeing a spam notification about singles in your area and locking your door is ridiculous. It's this over the top reaction that men become offended by, not reasonable caution.

if girls are afraid of guys, that's my problem

And then when a woman is raped and murdered in her hotel room, men like you will be saying that she must have wanted it because she didn't even take basic precautions to make sure no-one could get in.

So when women start taking these precautions, because generations of women before them have learnt from experience that when a man rapes you, it's your fault for not taking precautions... men like you now complain that women are overly paranoid and making things worse for themselves, because their precautions are hurting your feelings.

I don't feel safe around muslims because some of them are jihadists.

"This harmful generalization is bad for society"

"Clearly you only feel that way because it actually describes you personally"

Not only is that an unfair assumption, it's also irrelevant to their claim.

If someone is judged as threatening based on their gender, they have been wronged. And what do you mean "stop making it about yourself"? Did they ask to be judged in the first place?