>so why should you blame gay people for why straight men can't hug each other?

It's literally not blaming gay people.

It's not because they're not afraid of being seen as gay though, it's because being gay is so taboo there that most people wouldn't assume that a guy is openly expressing being gay.

>Your entire argument hinges upon the need to force same-sex attracted people back into the closet, that's insane and you're insane for arguing that we should do that

They're not arguing that. They're saying that the increasing visibility of and conceptualization of homosexuality meant that men felt the need to signal that they were not homosexual. That isn't saying that we should go back, it's just saying what likely happened. Even today you can see greater male physical affection in places where homosexuality is extremely taboo like in Saudi Arabia, where it's not rare for male friends to hold hands.

The solution to this is not that gay people should go back in the closet, it's that there should be a reduction in the stigma associated with being gay (though even without a stigma, most people don't want to be perceived as a sexuality they're not, so this might not work). Identifying why things likely shook out in a certain way is not an attack on the gay community.

It's not homophobic, it's presenting a reasonable theory of why things shook out the way that they did. It's not saying "and that's why gay people should go back in the closet." It's just saying that as the concept of homosexuality developed in public consciousness as possible thing that a person might be, that men made a point of signalling that they're not part of that group. There's no value judgment there.

How much can you save? With various assistance programs you can probably get a downpayment in for about 10% -- maybe youd' need the full 20% but let's say it's 10% for funsies. Even if you're insisting on living in Seattle, you should really be able to get 125k together in 5 years, twice that if you're frugal, and you'll be able to find something for a million and a quarter. Prices may very well keep rising, but you're making enough money that unless you refuse to make cutbacks this is a fixable problem.

Obviously house prices are very high here, but with 150k a year you really ought to be able to save up for a down payment and afford a place in Seattle in a couple years unless you've got crazy expenses.

If your goal is just to transfer to UW or something then just go to whichever is convenient to you. There are a handful with cool short programs that are specific to them, like Walla Walla CC has a winemaking program, but if you're just looking for a pretty standard experience then they're all fine.

Yeah, whenever people talk about these numbers being impossible, it's very strange to me. My number is certainly not that high, but that's because I got into a committed relationship at 22. If I just kept dating and screwing around at the same rate I was from 18-22 (particularly 21-22) it would have been easy to hit those numbers by 25.

A couple thousand people is probably good enough for getting the average of the country, but a little over a hundred is probably insufficient for getting the average in this part of the country. Sample size is really all that matters, not sample size as a ratio of a whole.

>The heat doesn't really bother me so much. With AC these days you either just stay inside or you stay in your car while you're driving somewhere

This feels weird to me, because I'd so much rather have a grey day where I can go out and live my life than be stuck inside because of the temperature. I'm not trying to convince you you're wrong, just explaining why I wouldn't want to live elsewhere.

And I also won't try to convince you that it's not too expensive to comfortably live here as a regular person -- it is! When I was waiting tables most people I knew had multiple jobs. That said, I've also lived the small town lifestyle in eastern washington and it's incredibly isolating. Way cheaper, but there's nothing worthwhile to spend your money on either. Also, cool places are expensive. There are places I'd consider living other than Seattle, but they're almost universally more expensive, or have a job market that's bad enough that they're functionally more expensive.

How much time have you spent in other places? Seattle is certainly more grey than other places, but we also rarely get extreme weather -- go east and it'll get more sunny but it'll regularly go north of 100 degrees in summer and can go below 0 in winter. Obviously further south along the coast the weather is often pretty idyllic, but it's even more expensive down there and often has worse options career wise. Then you've gotta factor in how much of the country is just small towns where there's nothing to do and driving anywhere interesting is going to take you two or three hours, compared to the Seattle/Bellevue area which has a lot of state parks within half an hour if you get lucky with traffic.

I know people who've become way more happy after moving away from here, for sure, but I've also known a lot of people who moved here for a reason.

At Barnes & Noble $25 wouldn't have gotten you two books 20 years ago unless they were very small paperbacks. Used bookstores are usually very affordable, but B&N hasn't changed, it's always been pricey.

I'm super perplexed by your interest in "Washington" generically, it's pretty well known for being a state that varies a ton. Seattle is quite different from Tacoma is different from Bellingham and wildly different from Spokane or Yakima, and the cities are all very different from the small towns which in turn vary drastically by region (coastal? In the mountains? Farm country?)

What is it that interests you about Washington? What are your goals? Do you want to live in a cool city with a big tech community while you're young and have a little money? Then I'd say go to Seattle. Do you want to try to get a job that's pretty stable and buy a house in a suburban environment? You could probably find work in the tri-cities.

That's probably way less financially rewarding, but it could help!

That too!

I mean, UW is a fantastic school for computer engineering, so it's certainly not a terrible idea. That said, state schools with out of state tuition can be very pricey. With an undergrad in computer engineering you have a solid shot at finding a good job here even without a masters, so if I were you I'd try to do that, put money in savings, and then if you still want to get your masters try to do it at UW in a couple years after you've got some savings to live on and you qualify for in-state tuition.

I'm a little perplexed by the idea that you'd really want to go to Evergreen and you're concerned about those problems in academia. Like, you're talking about the most hippy dippy school in the state.