And a lot of the people they call 'beta males' are probably having a more active sex life than they are. I'm as unmanly as you get- I don't like sports, I'm not into action movies or guns or knives or anything related to those things, people being loud and raucous make me highly anxious, I'm into all sorts of esoteric stuff when it comes to music and TV and film, I love nerd discussions and I cry when I'm sad. I may possibly even "cry liberal tears" in their worldview.
And yet I've also been happily married for over 24 years.
So I guess I'm cool with being a beta male.
Edit: I forgot to add that I don't like beer in my list of 'ways I'm a beta male.'
At least you're not one of the ones who start listing types of beers that I will definitely like if I tried them without them understanding like this is saying "you just haven't had the right kind of zucchini bread" even though my problem with zucchini bread is that you can't make it without it having some sort of base zucchini taste.
I've seen it in the wild. The common assumption is they're aware of their social shortcomings and attempt to close them by exclaiming things that are only relevant to their insecurities, which are obviously unrelatable to other people. So it is important in securing their world, but dismissed or ironically belittled in the opinion of anyone else.
It's not healthy. I think if people were more empathetic to them, it would help and their behaviour would cease. They've only ever wanted to feel accepted or needed in society
they're aware of their social shortcomings and attempt to close them by exclaiming things that are only relevant to their insecurities
I mean I’m pretty aware of my shortcomings but it doesn’t lead me down to an alpha/beta philosophy.
Maybe I’m old-school but just trying to improve those (if I want to) and generally not caring what people think seems easier to me than inventing a whole alpha/beta worldview.
The point being, their shortcomings are already related to the alpha/beta mindset, they don't create it. They may be insecure about height, lack of affection growing up, being seen as a disappointment, etc. So they defensively project an image of themselves onto others, but only they see it.