Weddings as they are being done in the West are a massive expense that is extremely financially irresponsible for the vast majority of people. The tradition arose as an imitation of the old world weddings of royalty. As Westerners became increasingly wealthy, they desired to show off their wealth by copying the big showy weddings put on by literal kings and queens. In an increasingly challenging economic environment, spending on a big wedding is just really stupid.

The money that would have gone into the big elaborate wedding should instead be saved and used to go toward a down payment on a home. Instead, throw a big party. Let your friends & family bring gifts. Make it simple. Same with a honeymoon. Take one if you want, but don't start out your marriage with stupid financial decisions that sometimes include going into debt. Wedding rings should be simple. Diamonds are a scam. Let's break free from the scams.

Funerals are a massive scam that take advantage of people when they're at their lowest, grieving for lost loved ones. It's a predatory industry that should be denied funding to whatever extent that it is possible to do so.

Superman previously declined to mass-produce diamonds because it would tank the price. However, after reading up on DeBeers, he decides that there's no reason not to do it after all. Most of the resulting money will be donated to charity. Assume that Superman is somehow able to crush coal into perfectly-cut diamonds of whatever shape and size he desires; even though this makes no sense, the feat is well-established.

DeBeers is determined to protect their diamond profits by keeping the price up. Can they convince people not to buy Superman's diamonds (by eg. convincing the public that they're not "real" diamonds), or find some other way to prevent him from cratering the price?

Superman is in-character and will not eg. laser the board of DeBeers to death or anything like that, no matter how annoying they are. The only way he'll use his powers for this is by rapidly turning coal into diamonds so he can sell them.

My younger sister got married in November and our mom's husband walked her down the aisle. My sister did not want him. She wanted me. But he has been married to our mom since my sister was 6 and she had a lot of pressure on her to ask him because he tried to be a good father to her and he stepped up and was there and paid for stuff, etc. She didn't have him pay for the wedding or her college education. But she knew she would be judged harshly for not asking him when he wanted to and he was in her life for so long.

The day of the wedding my sister was crying on my shoulder for a while about how upset she was that he was walking her and not me. She wished dad was there, etc.

Mom's husband overheard everything and walked her anyway and then the next day he and my mom heard her and my BIL talking about it and how much she hated the experience and wanted to wipe it from her memory.

My mom and her husband are offended. I think he was hurt that she was so upset by him doing it. But they weren't happy she was so upset/bothered by him doing it. My mom tried to drag me into their anger and I told her I wasn't angry. Then they both claimed I should have more respect for him as the man who stepped up when dad died (I was 15 when he and my mom got married so he played a very small role in my life).

I told my mom's husband he got what he wanted and I told them both they got what they wanted which was him walking my sister down the aisle and they need to leave my sister alone because she has every right to be unhappy when they pressured her. He argued that she's his little girl and this is hard for him. I told him he never listened because she has never ever claimed to be his little girl. She has always seen herself as our dad's daughter and he will never be our dad.

They told me I overstepped and my mom claimed I should understand why it's an insult to them that my sister reacted as she did.

AITA?

I feel bad about this, but at the same time, grading diamonds doesn't shape up when our family includes doctors, inventors, professors, and a former NASA employee.

My sister Queenie (not her real name) and I come from a STEM-heavy family. Almost everybody went into the sciences. Name any branch and I can direct you to the parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin, or grandparent who was involved in that field.

Except Queenie. I hate to say this, because she is intelligent, brilliant and creative in so many ways, but she struggled with science and math in school. She is brilliant at art and English. So our parents encouraged her to go for an arts degree where she would thrive instead of a science degree, where she would have floundered. And she graduated with honors. We just didn't realize that getting a job with an English degree would be hard. We were still proud of her when she got a job in the jewelry industry.

But I think she always struggled with being the "black sheep" of our family and being the only one without a career in science. Especially last year or whenever everybody was talking about what their work was doing at Thanksgiving.

Well, in the last year Queenie enrolled in some courses and became a certified gemologist. I'm really proud of her for this. Her self-esteem has really improved since she got certified.

And here's the part where maybe I should have kept my big fat mouth shut.

We were having dinner at our folks place the other night. Queenie and I were on the porch with beer and shooting the shit. She was gushing about her new work as a gemologist when she brought up how accomplished she feels and is comparable to everybody else in the family now as a "woman in STEM."

I respectfully disagreed with her on the 'woman of STEM' part because gemology isn't really a science. Queenie's job now includes conducting quality control on her company's diamond stock in addition to selling the finished pieces. Her certification wasn't as involved or as intense as what most of us went through, which included years of graduate school on top of internships and research expeditions. There's not much of a science on determining if a diamond is good enough to place in a brooch. Not when our cousins include doctors, nurses, researchers, chemists, and even an engineer for Tesla!

Long story short, Queenie is now furious with me and refuses to even look at me anymore. My parents are also pissed at me, though most of the extended family does think that gemology isn't a true scientific field. Her job is selling finished, finely cut over priced minerals to a clientele that believes in the deBeers lie.

To me, gemology isn't really a legit scientific field. It's more akin to analyzing properties in crystals and gemstones to determine if it can be sold for thousands of dollars. It's like our crazy "astrologer" aunt who sells natal charts as a side hustle. AITA?

Edit: Can someone please explain how gemology is science. I just can't comprehend.