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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 20, 2023

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This would be like if someone left me a letter at my doorstep, which claims to be from ISIS but they don't write much glorifying Islam and Allah and fighting in His name, but just me calling me an infidel and themselves a "violent Islamist group". Plenty of suspects in my neighbourhood, all of them annoying teenagers. I too have an interesting anecdote: a friend of mine approached an escort and requested a quote, but left once she gave him one he couldn't afford. A few hours later, he got a text message from a guy claiming to be from the Sinaloa Cartel. Apparently, they ran the escort service and he demanded that he pay them $1,500 for wasting their girl's time or he was gonna die. That he had 1 hour to look for the money. My friend played around melodramatically acting like he's been scraping rock bottom for several years now and lives with a family he now hates, so they're free to take him. He asked them to send a picture of the girl to make sure they actually had the right guy because he didn't want to waste their time, but never got a reply. He's been waiting for over a year.

Apparently, they ran the escort service and he demanded that he pay them $1,500 for wasting their girl's time or he was gonna die.

Lmaoo.

Does he live in Mexico ?

This is a pretty common scam. If you google "cartel escort scam" you'll instances of it happening in Canada, the US, and the UK.

It's also branched out into just targeting random people as general extortion.

Nope, Minnesota.

Ah yes, that well-known hotbed of South American criminal mobs 😁

Though if people are approaching 'escorts' on the street in Minnesota, maybe it is more of a hotbed of crime and villainy than the popular image suggests! Was it on the street or how did he go about it (you said "approached" which sounds like he walked up to her, but if he did it via text or something that would explain how the 'Sinaloa Cartel' got his phone number).

I mean, if the asking price of the negotiable affection was too rich for his blood, how did this criminal mastermind expect him to be able (or willing) to fork out $1,500?

IIRC he had made a request on their website, and they required him to leave them his number so they could tell him where to meet the girl on text. It was some masseuse place as a front, he had to take the back door for 'special services'. I find it interesting that they didn't give him the quote right then or indeed list the prices on their website. Unless he was after something comically specific which, knowing him, probably isn't off brand.

All things considered, he seems to have been lucky in the result, even if not the kind of lucky he was hoping to be.

Was it on the street or how did he go about it

Asking for a friend? :P

More that if you're in the gang of people pretending to be the Sinaloa Cartel in order to run a variant of the badger game, I'm more inclined to think that is Ye Olde Traditional Street Walker rather than someone taking bookings online and seeing clients in a hotel room.

Ah yes, that well-known hotbed of South American criminal mobs 😁

In fact, the cartels are pretty much everywhere in the US now, even in the boonies. I saw a documentary the other day about how they've even started infiltrating Native American reservations. Basically some cartel guy hooks up with a NA girlfriend, she brings him along to parties, and pretty soon they are running a drug trade on the rez.

I feel like this is a reference to something, so…evidence?

The evidence is the documentary I watched on YouTube. Are you accusing me of making up seeing such a documentary, or are you claiming the documentary made this up? Obviously I can't speak to the accuracy of the claims in the film (it was a guy interviewing people on a reservation, so I guess it's possible they were making it up).

I’m not accusing you of anything. I thought it was plausible that you were making a joke about the low, low standards of evidence when it comes to drawing a line. Like how people make jokes about Anchorman being a documentary. It doesn’t sound like that’s what you were actually going for, so yeah, I’m curious as to the documentary.