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Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 26, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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The dissertation isn’t particularly deep or profound, but it displays a reasonable knowledge of Heine and his influences, with some reading done and some boilerplate analysis. It’s not something that would be offensive or embarrassing to have under your name.

[Alexander] Soros himself is kind of an interesting guy. He was a long time confirmed bachelor until, late last year, he got engaged to Huma Abedin (she’s 49, he’s 38). I think he spent his entire adult life in and around progressive academia and think tanks and largely adopted their worldview. Soros Sr is less political than often assumed even by close friends; it’s mostly his son. George’s politics are mainly motivated by not being hated by the left after he was slammed in the press for being ‘the man who broke the Bank of England’ and being the subject to a great deal of criticism as a rapacious speculator in the 1980s.

Marrying a divorcée who's eleven years older doesn't really shift the 'confirmed bachelor' assessment for me.

I don’t claim to have a good mental model of progressive academics but it just seems like the kind of thing they do.

True, although I wouldnt have guessed that Huma was the type to be a beard and, in any case, being the progressive activist son of a progressive billionaire isn’t really the kind of thing where one needs one. It can’t be about an heir for Senior either (given he’s inheriting everything) because she’s too old to have more kids.

type to be a beard

Perhaps not for the median degenerate, maybe for billionaire with access to progressive power levers, pact with a demon, etc.

He was a long time confirmed bachelor until, late last year, he got engaged to Huma Abedin (she’s 49, he’s 38).

There are photos were he has models as arm candy, so maybe he over compensated in settling down with someone serious?

I just remember now how uncomfortable the Weiner documentary was and how angry I was on Abedins behalf, who was oddly calm.

Wiki:

In the memoir, Abedin wrote that in the mid-2000s, an unnamed U.S. senator had "kissed me, pushing his tongue into my mouth, pressing me back on the sofa"; she wrote that she had "buried" the incident until accusations of sexual assault against Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 triggered her memory.[24] In an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning to promote the book, she said she did not feel that the senator was sexually assaulting her in that moment.[25]

You can google the story, but it is rather meh. After dinner a senator invited her into his home for “coffee” (who drinks coffee before night? Some people just are oblivious), she was shocked when he kissed her, he was shocked that she was shocked and apologized for misreading the signs. Subsequent meetings with the senator were low key awkward but then she forgot the incident, until it was time to write a book.

In a May 2022 interview, Abedin said she struggles with anxiety and has been in therapy due to the shock and trauma of dealing with her husband's sexting scandal. She also said she has started dating again and feels excited about the process.[69] In July 2022, Abedin was in a relationship with actor Bradley Cooper.[70]

I want to edit my statement: I am not baffled by a billionaires choice to marry her, but instead in her taste in men. Nothing against Cooper, but at some point an adult woman must know that narcissistic politicians, sonnyboy actors and boyish billionaires are maybe not the best partners for long term relationships. Jesus Christ, marry a dentist and provide some boring normalcy to your poor teenage son!

not baffled by a billionaires choice to marry her

I am. It suggests to me he's not a normal healthy man.

He could have married a much younger fertile attractive women. As it is, it seems to me a pact with a demon is more likely, no sense of an Élan vital from any of these people.

(who drinks coffee before night? Some people just are oblivious)

People who aren't schooled in the Classics?