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If you've been on twitter in or around the tpot space the last few days, you may have seen Aella blowing up and deciding to go private. I won't recount the whole story, but it is in screenshots in the link earlier.
Suffice to say, apparently she searched her name and saw a ton of vitriolic attacks and discussions around her online presence. She claims that the worst part is the "overwhelming hate with nobody defending me. People are ashamed publicly to support me, they don't want to be called a simp or cringe."
Long story short she basically said that she is heartbroken, is "so sad the world is shaped this way," and decided to quit twitter and go locked for the foreseeable future.
For some quick background, aella is a prostitute. She is extremely successful, and has built up a huge presence on twitter as well as a cult following in rational spheres. She does data science work as well, and claims to be autistic. She is polyamorous and openly promotes and campaigns for that lifestyle, as well as doing drugs. Some of her stunts include things like tattooing her name on the body of men who have sex with her, having orgies while sharing details of who got to get in, etc.
A few darker claims are that she pushed her two younger sisters into sex work (one of them, by her own admission on twitter, was doing camgirl jobs before she turned 18.) She has also said some... problematic things that are edging around support for pedophilia, although she's canny enough not to come right out and say it.
Now as I'm sure many people here agree with, I don't exactly agree with aella's views or lifestyle. That being said I am still torn, the world is a cruel place. At the same time, aella has probably caused harm to a lot of others with her lifestyle and especially her approach to promoting it online.
This equivocation points to an actual underlying tension/confusion I have around liberal expression. On the one hang I think polyamory, sex work, and some of the.... encouragement aella has around minors watching point &c is quite bad, and should not be allowed to happen in the public square. I think a certain amount of shaming is absolutely good and necessary.
However, perhaps I'm frail hearted or something because it does hurt to see so many attack her so viciously, when they clearly have so much hate in their hearts. Perhaps it's Pollyannaish but I wish that we could do our shaming in a more dignified, and less clearly antagonistic way. It seems that most of the people shaming her, from my read at least, clearly enjoy looking down and judging someone harshly, seeing themselves as better than her. From my perspective, that's not just as bad as what she's doing, but still bad.
I'm wondering, I suppose, whether there's a way we can employ shame in a truly good way as a society? Can we somehow shame people without turning into monsters ourselves, in order to protect our children and especially young girls from (imo) degenerate and overall unhealthy lifestyles?
Meh, I've seen support and defense of her, probably here. She's just being a drama queen. (Worst I've called her is a dirty whore, and someone who brags about not showering, sells sex for money, and associates with the sort of people who like wordplay is kinda asking for that)
Yeah.
Remember we're talking about a multi-millionaire who runs in extremely wealthy tech circles, and has hundreds of people who would run to her defense and aid at a moment's notice.
Unnecessary cruelty for cruelty's sake is bad, but my sympathy is limited in the same way it is for any wealthy celebrity who seeks the limelight.
Is she, though? Traditionally the life of the Grande Horizontale has been one of getting a lot of money but also spending a lot of money, and your career lifespan is shorter than that of a professional sportsman. Once your value drops, and clients lose interest in you, the money dries up and then it's the route of blackmail* or tell-all memoirs (see Stormy Daniels touting her affair with Trump all over the talk shows for a modern example), unless you manage to hook a wealthy protector who will take care of you long-term or even, somehow, a husband.
So unless she is very canny about saving and investing whatever money she makes, she may well be in want of a husband to support her in later life.
*"In 1824, one liaison came back to haunt him, when Wellington received a letter from a publisher, John Joseph Stockdale, offering to refrain from issuing an edition of the rather racy memoirs of one of his mistresses, Harriette Wilson, in exchange for money. It is said that the Duke promptly returned the letter, after scrawling across it, "Publish and be damned". However, Hibbert notes in his biography that the letter can be found among the Duke's papers, with nothing written on it. It is certain that Wellington did reply, and the tone of a further letter from the publisher, quoted by Longford, suggests that he had refused in the strongest language to submit to blackmail."
She outright claims to be the highest paid escort in the world or similar. Allegedly $4k an hour, and was a top .1% or whatever Onlyfans performer, allegedly pulling six figs per month (which tracks with other top ranking accounts on that site).
There's probably at least one year where she net 1 million or more on her tax return.
And she's surrounded by high IQ techy/rationalist people. She can get plenty of advice and guidance on wise use of funds.
And, if I may add, if she's not leveraging her San Francisco connections to do some wanton insider trading on tech stocks and startups, she's an abject idiot, which I do not think she is.
That said, she's also claimed she thinks AGI is going to kill us all in the next 10 years, and thus she's not doing as much 'retirement' saving or other long-term planning, so burning piles of money on the altar of hedonism is possible.
Yeah, I wonder. But even the high-rolling courtesans of the past lived extravagant lifestyles (as that was all part of the branding to attract clients) and burned through money. She may or may not have access to good investment advice, for her own sake I hope she does, because being fifty and trying to sell your sagging bosom for paid views is not an appealing future. (Though who knows, there are niche fetishes for everyone and maybe there will be enough custom for sagging bosom pics?)
You know, I was saving this for Friday Fun but it almost fits better here...
If you came of age and discovered internet porn in the early 00's, ideepthroat dot com was legendary. It was this couple, one part a bottle blonde woman with a handsome face and giant fake tits, and the other a dopey sounding guy packing some above average heat. The hook was that this lady had no gag reflex what so ever, and he could literally fuck her face without her gagging or crying or anything. To this day, if blowjobs are your thing, best in class.
Eventually the site shut down, but the clips lived on. They were early 00's quality, but if Citizen Kane can be a masterpiece despite the technology of the time, so are those blowjobs. I heard rumors from time to time, she became a realtor after she quit cam girling. Or that her and her husband had kids and hung it up. Or that they split. No clue if any of it was true.
Well, a couple years ago she decided to return on pornhub. It's gross. Really gross. She's in her late 40's or early 50's now? The giant rock hard fake tits are pretty much the only part not succumbing to the ravages of time. She was shoving comically oversized dildos up her prolapsed asshole. I used to think there was nothing sadder than a washed up rock star who's arthritic spasms on stage make you wish they'd joined the 27 club. But it turns out an old camgirl, first of her breed, trying to recapture some of that young and sexy magic is even sadder. Makes me wonder if in another 20 years or 40 years we'll see these old camgirls auctioning off the chance to be their partner in a snuff film, to die as they lived.
This is so hilariously dark that I hope we see this in some sort of Futurama/Hitchhiker's Guide-esque scifi comedy.
Also, I'm reminded of when I was a teenager running across some photo book at Newbury Comics called "Suicide Girls" which, IIRC, was just softcore porn of women generally in goth makeup and style, but which I mistakenly initially thought featured women who had immediately committed suicide right after. I guess our society hasn't quite reached that level of degeneracy yet.
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