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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

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I suspect that the current age-gap discourse actually serves to benefit powerful/wealthy older men, as they become the only ones with enough clout to ignore the social shaming... and the only ones with enough appeal to convince a woman to ignore the social shaming. Acquiring a hot young girlfriend thus becomes even more of a flex and proof of their own status.

Well this is gonna be a fun little narrative violation then. That is just about marriage rather than girlfriend but wealthy people are also significantly less likely to divorce as well. They tend to marry when they're young and then stay with their wives.

Haha but you see the issue there.

Bill Belichick isn't married.

Leo DiCaprio doesn't marry his girlfriends.

Nor does Toby Maguire.

Likewise, consider the rise of Sugar Dating as an informal institution.

This is my point. It actually relieves the pressure to marry these women since they lose any real leverage they might have had.

They're getting to have the cake that is off-limits to normal guys, and eat it too by having no legal or social commitment obligations imposed.