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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 18, 2024

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Who cares? This is up there with stealing a balloon on free balloon day. Sloppy? It doesn't matter how careful you are, they will make scandals up. See Kavanaugh

I like my political operators to understand basic operational security because I want them to succeed in enacting the goals of my coalition.

That the enemy uses diverse tactics that make this only relevant sometimes doesn't invalidate that preference.

This translates to something like: "I like my political operators to not get lied about. If they were smart their enemies wouldn't be lying about them." E Carrol Jean. Tulsi Gabbard. Kavanaugh.

But this isn't a lie -- Gaetz really did pay for sex on Venmo & PayPal. There are receipts.

"My opponent is going to lie so therefore the black-letter truth doesn't matter" is a take.

Where did Kavanaugh leave written receipts of any wrongdoing exactly? Afaik there is no evidence for him doing anything untoward, only hearsay.

Our man would still be AG in waiting if all there was was hearsay.

I understand closing the ranks is a sound tactic, but if you can't recognize picking competent leaders is too I can't do anything for you.

Nah itโ€™s cringe to hire 17 year old prostitutes as a 40 year old man, people are entirely within their rights to consider that sleazy behavior.

I can only hope to be so cringe but free at 40.

You planning a move to Thailand?

Excuse me, I'm racist, not gay.

What does age gap discourse have to do with hiring a prostitute?

I think it's much less cringe than hiring 37-year-old prostitutes. And at 400-500 dollars per session she was a real bargain, to boot.

In your view, what are the most and least cringe age of prostitutes to hire, and for what prices?

It's not just age. It's the answer to "how likely would the person be able to have the same experience by asking his wife/GF or hooking up" that determines the cringeworthiness. So it can be age, kink, difference in attractiveness, etc.

Maybe the real cringe is cheating on your wife/gf in the first place. More generally (since I donโ€™t think Gaetz was married at the time of the allegations around him and Greenberg) breaking the law to hire a 17 year old prostitute suggests a certain cringeworthy horniness / lack of self-control at the least.

the girl was allegedly 17 years old in 2017 when Gaetz was 35 and the girl likely had a fraudulent real Florida driver's license saying she was 19

middle-aged women are "within their rights" to think any opinion and it's certainly not surprising they disapprove of rich congressmen their age sleeping with 17 year olds, paying them or otherwise

I'm not middle aged or a woman and I think carrying on a purely sexual relationship with a high schooler while a man in his thirties is pretty cringe.

why?

Because it means, almost definitionally, that he was using her for sex with full knowledge that that is what he is doing, and that she more than likely expected more out of it.

If heโ€™d dated and married her it would certainly be odd, or if theyโ€™d dated seriously and it not worked out. But I donโ€™t think itโ€™s inherently skeevy unless he was a teacher at her school or something. The โ€˜using a teenager for sexโ€™ thing is whatโ€™s wrong.

If he was paying her for sex he wasn't breaking any promises. The skeevy guys are the ones going "yeah baby I'm totally gonna leave my wife for you but now's not the right time so please you've gotta get another abortion come on baby just one more time then we'll be together forever"

A guy who is either dating with the expectation of marriage or paying her pocket money with no strings attached is morally in the clear by my standards.

She was a sugar baby, not a streetwalker, there was an actual relationship there, albeit not a great love story. The moral equivalent is to taking a teenager as a mistress, not seeing one working at a brothel.

Whatโ€™s the threshold for โ€˜middle agedโ€™ in your opinion?

over 30-35

for the record, this wasn't meant to be a personal dig at you because I didn't know you fit this description (or even if you do, but given the mod response I suspect it's at least close); it was meant to be a dig at the middle-aged+ women commentariat who regularly make such comments on the internet

Make your point without the snide personal digs.