Hello and welcome to citation needed, the podcast where we choose a subject, read a single article about it on Wikipedia, and pretend we're experts because this is the internet, and that's how it works now.

I'm Noah, and I'm going to be leading things off this week, but joining me tonight are three guys who are all too white for me to pull off the tall, dark, and handsome bit that I wanted to use to fuck with Heath. Heath, Eli, and Cecil. Okay, Cecil's, yeah. Swarvie, the Italian, Wharf, right? And Eli is, uh, Eli, uh, Paul Dark and Ransom. I'm the dark. If we count like inner monologues. Oh, okay, there you go. When I offer people my dark meat, it's just brazed chicken thighs. That's all it is. They're grateful, Cecil. They're grateful. And they are. Yeah. Right? And listeners, as this episode leads you to reflect on all the more notorious shit Cecil could do with his good works if this podcasting shit didn't pay the bills. I want to remind you that the only reason we can keep him here is because of our patrons. If you'd like to learn how to join their ranks, be sure to stick around at the end of the show. And with that out of the way, tell us Heath, what person, plays, thing, concept, phenomenon, or event are we going to be talking about today? We're going to be talking about looks maxing.

Yikes.

Amazing.

Okay.

So what is looks maxing?

Well, in general terms, it's exactly what it sounds like.

It's the process of maximizing your physical attractiveness.

But more specifically, it's the word for a ridiculous trend and a growing online community,

mostly made of young men who decided that achieving a so-called ideal physical appearance

is the most important thing they can do.

And in order to achieve that, they're doing a wide range of interventions,

many of which are just truly insane and dangerous

and almost all of them tragic.

The basic idea for disaffected young men, the best way to achieve value in society and

therefore achieve happiness, is to maximize your looks at any cost.

Looksmaxers who ascribed to this philosophy are often described as being black-pilled,

having accepted this bleak, fundamental, so-called truth.

Man, men will do anything but go to therapy, huh?

Just like anything, literally anything.

Right.

I don't see how that's right.

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