Want to take a minute to point out one of the instances where blue pill society suckers men.

Fukking engagement rings.

I mean, guys are being deceived and lured into a life of misery by the Marriage-Divovrce Industrial Complex (thanks for that great term, @redpillbanana) in every way. But one of the most egregious offenders is the jewelry business.

A lot of people don't realize that engagement rings are a very recent invention, historically speaking.

The very first record of a diamond engagement ring being given to a finacee dates to the 15th century (thanks for the note @Jim Canuck) and for centuries they were only rarely given, and only among the upper classes of Europe.

In the 19th century they began to be given between couples of the American upper class, where an engagement ring was a way for pretentious couples to show the world that the lady was marrying a "man of means."

That's right. Engagement rings were all about guys showing, and girls flaunting, the "providership" value of the lady's "catch."

Then in 1938, in the depths of the Great Depression when diamond sales were in the shitter, the De Beers diamond monopoly came up with one of the most brilliant maketing scams in the history of retail (or nefarious, depending on whether you're making money off it, or getting suckered by it.)

How were they going to get diamonds selling again when the economy was shut down? Well, the De Beers consortium went to the Mad Men and hired NW Ayer & Partners of NYC to get sales moving again.

The Ayers team had the brillaint (nefarious) idea of popularizing the idea that the providership prowess of men was indicated by getting a romantic ring for their women, and the pricier the ring, the higher his (and hers) status would be.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/how-an-ad-campaign-invented-the-diamond-engagement-ring/385376/

They also completely scammed the naive public into thinking diamonds are investment-grade jewels. There are jewels that have investment qualities, because of limitation of supply, and ready resale market. Diamonds do not meet those criterions:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/

So keep in mind boys: there are always going to be peeps out there trying to take advantage of the sexual marketplace, and men's blue pill disadvantages in it, to scam men out of their money, their time and their resources.

Remember that the essence of The Red Pill is: think for yourself, and examine everything in the light of cui bono before you spend your time or your money on it.

Origin of this post: Nothing stresses blue pillers more than engagement ring buying. They have an inner voice telling them that it's bullshit, even while they're out at the jewelry shop with their GFs stressing about whether they'll look cheap, and how much financial ruin this ring is going to bring upon them.

I have discovered that this can be a surprisingly effective way to plant the seeds of doubt among blue pill robots who are on their way to marriage jail. Doesn't require any cognitive dissonance, in fact the fact that diamond rings are BS agrees with their inner voice. kind of like seeing a "glitch in the matrix" to quote Trinity.

And to finish, here's another article http://tinyurl.com/lq3n62n , TinyURLed to avoid offending the thought police robots on this subred.

Postscript. A lot of guys have commented on the fact that you can't resell engagement rings, or any other diamond rings, for that matter, although some stores will give a full store credit to guys who cancel their engagment.

One guy has started up a website for disintermediating the jewelry store segment of the Marriage-Divorce Industrial Complex. Sort of like an ebay for diamond rings.

https://www.idonowidont.com/

Disclaimer I have never bought a diamond ring for a chick, and have no intention of doing so. I have never used this site and can't vouch for how good it is. Just posting this as a service to those who might be in a pickle.

FWIW, the guy who started the site claims he had bought a $10,000 ring (!!!) before he cancelled his engagement, and found he couldn't sell the fucking thing.