Pongalh
13hr ago
Murphy's "it just feels in my gut wrong" isn't going to cut it. It can supplement it though. And you say "pretended to be doing," but it's just weak empiricism, not a total absence. It's cursory and vaguely suggestive, which counts for something. Scattershot qualitative impressions are in a similar boat.
Pongalh
13hr ago
Lots of the creativity of the 70s came out of super-cheap housing in cities and a dole system that didn't ask too many questions,
Maybe you're talking past each other. The other commenter is talking about singularly spectacular artists, whereas what you mention here cultivates "scenes" and creative group endeavors.
Pongalh
14hr ago
But Murphy came with no empirical evidence whatsoever. And there was more to the discussion than that.
Pongalh
1d ago
Right. Having to pay for a simulacrum of a conversation they wish they were having with a badass power couple wifey just feels patronizing.
Pongalh
1d ago
pseudo-intellectual
What's pseudo about it? She's genuinely an intellectual. In fact she bested Meghan Murphy in their debate over porn and sex work on Benjamin Boyce's podcast a few years ago. I remain more on Team Murphy, but she lost that battle.
Anyway, maybe it's just me being jaded and experienced, but I don't see the value in spending so much on these women. They're still just meat sacs after all, they don't warrant such money being spent on them. There's no way they are so differentiated from some other attractive, smart woman that they should command these prices. Do they come with some state-of-the-art virtual reality experience that enhances the encounter, Strange Days-style?
I'd like to see a profile on the guys paying for these women. That would be more illuminating. If they're twenty-something rich, nerdy Asian guys, that would track. If not, I'd have to revisit my murky thesis. These men might too be enchanted by the aesthetic of it all, just like some of the women who will see the article and especially the photo that comes with it. "I'm with this high-end escort like I'm in some Mission Impossible movie or something. It's a cool story I'm in. The people looking at me from across the hotel bar don't know she's an escort, anyway. They may think she's with me organically, and that we're a power couple out here slaying."
Pongalh
3d ago
Maybe it means vaccine went from "get it and you won't get X" to "get it and it reduces your chances of getting X somewhat"
Pongalh
4d ago
In discussion of Graham Platner today on Breaking Points, Platner is given kudos for claiming he was a bad boyfriend in the past, but that the current accusations against him and nebulous and thin gruel. Points to them for not falling back on Believe All Women (even if because the worst complaint against him is from a Republican who dated him, so it's thought to be motivated), but it occurred to me how unlikely it would ever to for a woman to feel the need to 'fess up to being "a bad girlfriend" and atoning for it, for a political career. It'd be like, "Psh, yea I was a BRAT, and anyway who said I was a bad girlfriend? Probably some douchebag who thought he was owed sex."
I don't care how many times someone asks me if I want to eat pieces of shit for breakfast. I'd say no every time.
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