[throway33]

I'm curious why you interpreted the GP's comment this way. In my experience "find a mate" typically means "find a life partner". This is similar to the usage of the term in the original article ("future wife"). I see no reason to think that someone who says "it's hard to find a mate" would leer at someone or call someone they barely know their "mate" prior to being in a serious relationship.

[IncRnd]

I didn't interpret.

The parent comment used the word mate.

The word leer refers to the leching that was discused in the article. The article says, "a number of female students have approached me, noting they are disgusted and uncomfortable with the amount of leching taking place". Lech and leer are semantically related words. [1]

[1] https://thesaurus.plus/related/leer/lech_after

[throway33]

> The parent comment used the word mate.

Yes, but not in the context of calling their "prospective cuddlybear" a mate.

[IncRnd]

It was the exact same context, a commenter on HN lamenting the difficulty for 80% of men to meet a women, unless one is aggressive, made as a comment in an article about a group of older-year, leching males. You are interpreting that to mean "find a life partner".

[throway33]

Yes, I am.

> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

[IncRnd]

I wasn't interpreting anything.

From reading the text of the actual article, "and a number of female students have approached me, noting they are disgusted and uncomfortable with the amount of "leching" taking place".

From the comment I had replied to, "but it's damn hard to find a mate if you are not in the top 20% of (straight) men, and basically requires you to be aggressive like this".

> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

Please respond to the article and not an interpretation of partial words and phrases taken from comments. Frankly, it wastes time and derails actual discussions from happening.