site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026

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.

3
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I mean outside of a few careers that'll consistently put you into proximity with attractive young women like acting, music, sports or working in those industries. How are most super-rich guys even meeting unattended barely-legal women and getting into a realistic trajectory to form a relationship? Even graduates and interns are now ranging older than they were historically and there's a huge pressure against shitting where you eat in the workplace.

Maybe the superrich can just get it done, but the fact that Epstein was even like a thing seems indicative that even megarich Westerners aren't particularly great at sourcing their own barely-legal whores thus Epstein being able to become a nigh-on billionaire for what shouldn't be that rare a skillset.

How are most super-rich guys even meeting unattended barely-legal women and getting into a realistic trajectory to form a relationship?

As far as I understand it, they can literally just message them on Instagram.

Likewise, yacht girls are a thing.

Ironically, I think one reason Epstein fell out of favor was... his services became way less valuable as the internet made it way simpler to find young girls to date and predate.

Part of the value of such a guy was simply being the Schelling point before the internet created new ones.

Isn't that more of a thing for rappers/athletes than just random rich guys?

Though then again I guess Elon Musk keeps finding people to impregnate, but on the other other hand they tend to skew to a sort of nerdy offbeat interesting personality moreso than just being girls gone wild.

I'm fine with Epstein going to prison but I also don't think he was doing anything wildly wildly outside of the realm of the average Dubai KTV/yacht-party operator's gamut and if I were an Emirates resident with a thing for 16 year olds there'd surely be a hookup trivially accessible somewhere.