This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I've heard this said a lot and it doesn't make sense to me. I'm not at Pelosi's level, but I'm rich. I have no idea how to hire an escort. People think that when your net worth crosses some line, they send you a packet with ways to hire an escort, hire a hitman, not pay taxes, etc... The level of fantasy about wealth than exists in the minds of non-wealthy people is often absurd.
Perhaps the idea is that, as you approach the kind of wealth that allows you to sip ridiculously-expensive champagne in some restaurant, you'll gain the connections and networking that allow you to get a seat at said restaurant. Find-and-replace for any other rich-people thing.
The idea is wrong, then. More often it's the other way around; the social ability to get you those connections and a seat at that restaurant also get you the wealth/
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
You might not know to pay less taxes now, but if you actually cared to learn, you’d start out with some obvious steps, like, for example, asking people who you think might have better idea than you do. Rich people typically are good at figuring out how to get things done, as this is typically how they got rich in the first place. Your last line about “the level of fantasy” is bad, and you should be able to do better than that.
More options
Context Copy link
I feel like there's a level of rich where you have a home office and someone who manages your staff, who probably has a career history of managing rich guys' household staff, and presumably they can field requests like that and discreetly figure out how to execute them. No? This probably isn't like $10M rich, though, it's probably like $150M+. Not that every rich person lives that way, but makes sense to hire people to handle all of the effort in managing your houses, your social schedule, your philanthropies, etc., and I assume that people who do that for a living end up either fielding weird requests like this themselves from time to time or at least developing a network that would help them figure it out.
More options
Context Copy link
I heavily agree with this. It’s not as easy as people think. There’s also a serious vetting issue if you don’t have experience. Even a place like has Eros has as many scammers as real. It’s a lot of work to find escorts even if your willing to pay up. And men want variety so their likely to play a lot of hands which increases risks.
Even if I were to assume that Paul Pelosi likes having illicit affairs with seedy male prostitutes, I find it hard to believe he'd be stupid enough to use his real name or let the guy know where he lives.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
This is code for reducing tax burden through generally legal means that some people may believe to be unfair, against the spirit of tax regimes. Everything from an H&R block tax preparer finding one weird trick deductions for you to a personal wealth manager doing all kinds of interesting work falls under this category. Quality of the services provided and what options are available scale relative to wealth. As does the general feeling of unfairness. Sticking with retail banking/investment/tax preparation with something on the order of 10m USD in assets may be a suboptimal life choice.
More options
Context Copy link
I mean, if you were so inclined, it wouldn't be hard to find out. You can literally Google it
More options
Context Copy link
Man, that was a wild ride. I don't think I will ever be able to use the knowledge, but I now know a ton about the business side of prostitution that I never really even considered.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link