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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   4648 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 16, 2024

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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Do you have any interesting/unusual heuristics to share?

I'm sure this isn't original, but I think I derived it independently--the social status of pedestrians in the outdoors public is inverse to the amount of possessions they carry with them. Someone dragging a luggage is homeless while a backpack means low income. Highly contextual with lots of exceptions of course, but if you're walking/jogging on a trail in an affluent area, chances are people not carrying anything are less a threat than people lugging large bags and backpacks.

  • Men with signs of financial stress/low status can(and usually will) be very helpful with car trouble.
  • African Americans are usually pretty nice if they feel they’re being treated well. African Africans usually take politeness as an indication they can get a better deal by screaming and being pushy.
  • A poor, white woman approaching you in public is asking for money with nothing to offer in return. Anyone else, on the other hand, has something to sell, probably for much more than it’s worth.
  • Opera music playing in public is a sign of a seriously bad neighborhood. The merely poor neighborhoods play mass-market music appropriate for whatever ethnic group happens to live there.
  • A heterosexual man who seems to enjoy showing skin is younger, sometimes much younger, than he appears; full grown men dress more conservatively.

Opera music is the sign of a bad neighborhood? How does that even work? Did all the thugs decide to copycat Alexander Delarge?

The theory is that undesirables don't enjoy listening to it, so it's a cheap way to "move them on" without having security or police actually have to interact with them and risk a confrontation.

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