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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 1, 2024

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See, in the twist cap situation, I would always lead with, "may I offer a suggestion?" When they inevitably agree, you're now offering solicited advice. You've engaged them in asking for your help, which makes them inherently more open to accepting it. "Don't offer unsolicited advice" doesn't mean "speak only when spoken to." And of course etiquette always takes a back seat to actual danger.

Sure, but I expect in the West if you are in a situation where e.g. a fat woman is complaining about her dating life and you go "may I offer a suggestion to help?" and when she says yes you respond with "I think it would help to lose weight to improve your odds" it is still seen as unsolicited advice. Sure you can say it's rude, but lots of things are rude while not being unsolicited advice, however this response will still get seen as unsolicited advice even though you did the whole "may I offer a suggestion to help?".

And of course when I say we give unsolicited advice in our culture it's usually crouched in such language too, it's very rarely "you should do XYZ" straight out, it's almost always "may I offer a suggestion?" and if the other person says no then your duty is still discharged, they rejected your offer of help, you are no longer liable and can go on with your day.

I think it would help to lose weight to improve your odds

The obvious difference here is that almost everyone already knows this, probably including the person you're talking to, which is not the case in the bottle-cap or shark-infested waters examples. Indeed, the latter two aren't actually unsolicited advice, they are unsolicited unknown information which is very different.

There is almost no-one for whom 'lose weight' will be novel and actioned advice.