The line between gossip and talking about others lives when they're not around

[AmsterdamAssassin]

But we are animals who emulate others

No, we're not.

We're not animals who can just follow our instincts. We don't just 'follow our nature', especially if our nature is harmful to others.
As children we might emulate others in order to learn about life, but adolescents have to stop emulating and become adults.
Maturity means growing up and not acting on your immature impulses, becoming responsible and accountable for your actions. That is what is meant with 'become a mature masculine man'.
And that is how you attract high quality women, by being an actual man, and not a boy in man's clothes.

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss event, small minds discuss people.

Of course, but I talk with my friends a lot, and inevitably we talk about our mutual friends at some point.

If I'm talking with a random dude, it's always about ideas, business or work usually. I had a impromtu "double date" recently and I didn't know any of them. When the two girls left to go to the bathroom for 15 minutes (obviously to talk about us) I talked with the other guy about getting work visas in Bali/Thailand and that whole "digital nomad/passport bro" lifestyle, we did not talk about the girls, or any girls, whatsoever. When the two girls came back, they said "were you guys shvt talking us the whole time?" lmao, classic projection. Women are the ones who gossip and talk about sex in detail and they assume we do the same thing. It doesn't occur to them that men run the world precisely because we are so interested in discussing ideas.