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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 18, 2024

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I looked up the scandal on Wikipedia. He allegedly had sex with a 17 year old (who he claims he thought was 19)? That's what's made him radioactive? Is there anything else I'm missing? The wiki section for this says "UNDERAGE SEX TRAFFICKING" so I was expecting he was ordering 9-year Ukrainian war orphans to his house or something, but this really underwhelming. Technically a crime, yes, blah blah blah, but reminds me of the pearl clutching over Lewinsky.

I think it was the paying for sex part.

I'm still amazed that someone would be not only so stupid as to not use cash for an illegal transaction, but would actively document it using transparent innuendo.

If anything, being this sloppy should be disqualifying. If you can't even get consorting with whores right as a politician, how are you going to do anything more sophisticated with the whole bureaucracy against you?

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

Nah it’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 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 don’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.