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 -
Yes it’s the case.
I agree with a lot of what you say, but I still probably place more emphasis on regulatory frictions limiting arbitrage than you. I would say in many ways it’s like the old floor traders at the NYSE or CBOT that made a lot of money but were sometimes like Iowa St or Fordham grads when now markets are ran by like some Chinese dude who won a math Olympiad. Each takes advantage of knowing flow to profit but the Chinese dude couldn’t just show up to the exchange back in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s. Prostitution is basically not prosecuted unless it’s associated with other social disorder while even high end pimping is. The average hoe doesn’t know she should be reading AI doomerism and then throw a few quotes on a website to increase her rate 4-8x. There is only a few that fall into the niche which is kind of like a Fordham grad who had a cousin at the NYSE so started showing up there when he realized their was money.
In a parallel universe where the CIA decided they wanted intel on AI bros and lesser tech bros thru a prostitution ring in San Francisco and tasked me with setting it up with like a million in start-up capital and immunity from prosecution I think I could do it. And cause hoe deflation in San Francisco. I would hire some web guy to make me a bunch of websites; have some training academy where the girls read like SSC, some sci-fi, a few AI-doomer books; rent a bunch of apartments; spend some money prepping them at fancy restaurants. So yes I think you could just counterfeit a bunch of Aella’s crew. So to me the main barrier is regulatory that management is illegal. There are few girls who naturally: 1. Know to live in SF 2. Have a natural inclination to tech bro stuff 3. Have a physical attraction 7.5-8.5 4. Want to be whores. (3) is common enough. (4) common enough if the money is good. (1) and (2) are rare but I think could be taught.
To teach (1) and particularly (2) you have to know they are worth studying. I get the impression Aella was basically all 4 to begin with from where she decided to capitalise on an unplanned opportunity. All the hard work was done for her by happenstance (be attractive, be nerdy, live somewhere where horny nerds have buckets of disposable income, plus be a community of strident norms decouplers) and she just had to stoop and bend over in order to pick up the $3k bills that were lying in her lap.
How confident would you (or Aella) be that you could recreate her results if we crossed off the SF tech bro world that you already understand? What about sports bros, aristocracy bros, oil bros, government bros, etc? What about when that audience is averse to someone who is as indiscreet as Aella?
I think a lot of the women who are (3) and (4) play the same strategy as people on dating sites by trying to appeal to everyone and in doing so fail to distinguish themselves. They're trawler fishing in their crowded local bay instead of venturing out into deep water with a harpoon. If they tried to hunt for men in SF they'd probably think the place to find rich clients was in the shopping'n'restaurants district, not in the comments section of a blog arguing about the geopolitical importance of Taiwan or whatever.
More options
Context Copy link
Sure if you had an infinite budget and ability to recruit, you could counterfeit Aella.
But I think the (5) on your list that is being underemphasized in most discussions of prostitution is: Able to mentally and physically endure and survive the ordeal of sex work while maintaining (2) and (3). Most strippers, porn stars, prostitutes flame out on drugs or alcohol or other self destructive behaviors; both because that kind of impulsivity is what lead them to the trade, and because of the pressures and traumas thereof. They have a short shelf life because of that.
I think it would be a rather low budget. I wouldn’t compare it to especially porn stars. That’s the very bottom of the market. They get paid like $1k a shoot and it’s online which is really stupid. (5) is probably more cultural. People joke that every girl in Miami is a sugar baby. It’s a joke because it’s a truism. So if you start from a different culture it’s not an issue. Getting them into tech boy culture and actually reading a dozen books would seem much harder than dealing with (5). But I think doable.
So I might have to do more Latina and Slavic basically the whitish country origins that are still poor so explicitly using beauty for resources is less culturally frowned upon. Russians and Ukrainians would be easier to coach up into nerd.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link