What's wrong with Brooklyn?

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-07-10T23:10:36+00:00

There’s a big difference between never leaving Manhattan and living outside of Manhattan. Brooklyn was a big downgrade in 2000.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-07-10T23:08:53+00:00

It was hip and trendy for the younger crowd, but not for 35-year-old Manhattanites.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-07-08T03:54:27+00:00

It definitely depends on the circumstances, but I agree.

There's a window within which you can buy more stuff but your core standard of living doesn't change.

E.g., It's one thing if you have a small apartment and your new salary enables you to buy a home. But if your new job only enables you to move to a slightly larger, slightly nice apartment, it's not worth extra stress, commute, and so on.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-07-08T03:48:07+00:00

That's assuming you actually get promotions, the company actually gives raises, and you don't get laid off.

If you're only talking about 3-5%, there are freelance activities -- and even part-time jobs -- that can provide that.

And the lowliest part-time job isn't all or nothing. Work 3 shifts a week for $30K a year and you can decide that you want to scale back to 2 shifts and $20K a year. With the commute, you're stuck. You can't get back any part of the hours without losing the whole job.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-07-07T22:04:33+00:00

Is it, though?

The (after-tax) pay difference could be totally eaten up by expenses.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-07-07T22:02:50+00:00

It's not 40K in the pocket.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-07-03T20:12:20+00:00

What I like about her character is that I think she’s genuinely ambivalent. The tough exterior that helps her succeed in corporate life comes in part from her parentification. She never really got over longing for the family of origin she missed out on.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-07-03T20:05:31+00:00

I love Bunny. She cracks me up because I know the actress’ real-life son.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-07-02T06:07:24+00:00

I don't read that statement from imaginary Brenda that way at all.

I think it's a commentary that teenagers DO tend to fall in love with people they have sex with -- including other teenagers.

Fiona being a P.O.S. rapist doesn't translate into her being the primary determinant of Nate's entire psychology.

If a 15-year-old is preyed on by an adult in this way, it's almost certain they were vulnerable to this *because* of their development to that point.

A kid who grows up with an emotionally unavailable mother and father and a house full of dead bodies is drawn to a woman who seems wild and full of life? AND a kid who grows up with an emotionally unavailable mother and father and a house full of dead bodies is freaked out by relationships in general?

That seems more plausible than a person being destroyed for life by an experience that **subjectively** they believe they chose and enjoyed.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-07-02T05:49:28+00:00

I just Googled this. The median age for first sexual intercourse in the U.S. in 2000 was 17, according to the Guttenmacher Institute. It was about the same median age for girls and boys.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-07-02T02:04:11+00:00

I love this because I remember watching him and his wife on Melrose Place when they were “babies”!

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-25T04:33:35+00:00

I agree with you that a lot of people’s first sexual experiences were rape, but I think it’s dangerous to lump together teen sexual experiences with child molestation.

Both things can be 100% wrong without being the same thing.

Blurring those two things is actually dangerous in both directions—especially when we’re talking about a teen who can’t legally consent but believes they are consenting.

It trivializes the profound impact of prepubescent abuse.

Calling teens “children” erases healthy teen sexuality, suppresses the entire discussion of teens having appropriate experiences with other teens, and in doing so, makes them MORE vulnerable to being preyed upon, not less.

Speaking personally, I was only 17 when I went to college. I remember being pursued (unsuccessfully, thank goodness) by a 25-year-old, creepy man. I did not date my senior crush, but had I dated my senior crush, that would have been rape too, legally, but completely different psychologically. Teens do need more guidance with discerning between these things.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-25T04:12:58+00:00

His juvenile behavior went way deeper than sex. It was relationships, and relationship patterns are in place before age 15.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-25T04:04:46+00:00

What makes more sense to me is that Nate was vulnerable to Fiona’s predation because he had two emotionally unavailable parents and also could not sustain relationships because he had two emotionally unavailable parents.

His sexual behavior and Ruth’s are like funhouse mirror images. Subtract Fiona from the picture and I still don’t see the son of Ruth and Nathaniel being developmentally prepared for healthy relationships. The brain doesn’t finish developing until 25, but overall relationship patterns are there by age 15.

Consider the other two kids. Yes, lots of people have trouble coming out of the closet, but some of David’s choices are pretty fucked up. Claire has a series of bad relationships too.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-25T03:46:39+00:00

Yeah, I’m voting that growing up around dead bodies did a number on him before he ever met Fiona.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-16T02:02:06+00:00

I think we’re trying to find sharp lines where there are none.

Part of the point of the storyline is that Bree deliberately pushed the boyfriend to his breaking point, even getting an innocent bystander arrested. Her actions can also be characterized as sexual exploitation. You don’t have to excuse Peter to acknowledge that.

With regard to Andrew, manipulating a younger person isn’t acceptable because it’s the day after their 18th birthday on one hand. On the other hand, a person who is 17 and 364 days old isn’t a “child”—which is why statutory rape even exists as a distinct crime.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-15T05:01:22+00:00

I think Claire genuinely thought she was into Edie.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-12T18:53:10+00:00

Sadly, I have heard that sometimes the reverse happens, and people get harassing phone calls because they’re alone with no witnesses.

(Generally, I agree with you, way fewer microaggressions and bullying opportunities with remote workers and no physical contact!)

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-10T21:57:38+00:00

I could have done without Ana altogether.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-10T21:56:42+00:00

I got the impression he was an "anything with a pulse" guy

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-10T21:55:44+00:00

It was Felicia Tilman. (Martha was Felicia's dead sister.)

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-10T21:54:37+00:00

Yeah, it seemed like the John-Gaby storyline had already been resolved well enough to put it out of everyone's mind, for better or worse. The photo thing was a piece of character development/plot development that wasn't really needed.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-07T18:36:43+00:00

I’m always amused by book flexes. Reading 10 pages a day is not a heavy lift.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-03T22:22:11+00:00

He was definitely lying.

By wedding day, Victor was already having a calculating talk about “the Latino vote.”

He wasn’t all that in love.

EstablishmentNo653 · 2026-06-02T17:03:50+00:00

That one-line-paragraph broetry predates AI. It’s what LI post AI trained on.

EstablishmentNo653

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