a lot of the university experience implies living away from your friends and family for the first time. fraternities/sororities are a way for the affluent and generally disagreeable people to pay for instant access to a large social network of people from the same demographic (unlikeable, parents have money).

of course you can't only pay to get in, because then minorities might get in there and ruin the whole brand... so existing members gatekeep the "secretive" process behind made up rituals of humiliation to prove loyalty and drive out anyone who might have some self respect.

they are to be avoided like the plague. never join. never go to any of their functions. avoid their houses. every fucking year, kids die from alcohol poisoning due to their "brothers". not to mention all the sexual assaults. "greek" culture is a menace of elitism and sadism. and it's just politically connected enough to be constantly normalized while its excesses are covered up and ignored.

better to be a geek than greek.

[–] Crucible@hexbear.net 7 points 1 day ago

better to be a geek than greek.

damn, I'd totally forgotten about this phrase but it's what everyone said at my university in Canada. Before I arrived the school had ended most of the frats because of the vile culture they generated, and the couple which were allowed to exist had to jump through hoops and had high public behavioural standards. Even then, everyone outside the frats hated them due to the whole '"greek" culture' you described