Just adds an extra, unnecessary step. It’d be like if you had billions of grocery stores to choose from and went to the one crawling with ants.

Probably not.

I also don’t see why any spacefaring civilization would have any interest in colonizing inhabited planets. It would just be more hassle for the same resources you could get on lots and lots of planets. If they have the technology for interstellar flight, they can probably extract whatever they want from wherever they want. Regarding living space, you wouldn’t even need planets, there are far more efficient structures you could devise when you don’t have to limit yourself to only what nature has provided.

Maybe, but we also got Reaganomics and the beginning of that cultural shift towards greed being good. I suppose you could make a case that we also had HW Bush, the last repub afaik to actually raise taxes on the wealthy, helping Clinton balance the budget in the 90s.

Also had the Satanic Panic, though that seems to come back around every so often no matter what.

Then I’d just go with the examples the other guys gave, it’s good stuff, and they’re probably more current than I am. Banter is fun, you’re doing really well if you’re both laughing. I liked that shoulder squeeze litmus test thing one guy mentioned, that’s a good move. Anything you can back off from pretty easily like that without feeling like a dick is fine.

We’re all being vague intentionally, though, nobody can give a script for it. Any script is a bad script, it all just varies too much. Back to what I originally said, this isn’t really answerable in a forum discussion, not well anyway. Everything has to be either really vague, or risk being wrong for you. And I’m not some self help guru willing to take that risk of giving advice that very well might not work, just so I can sell a book or get youtube views or something.

I wouldn’t sweat it too much. It’s the sort of thing everyone needs to learn by practicing, that’s how everybody who is any good at it got there.

If it worries you, maybe start with innocuous compliments, things like that whatever looks cute, you have a pretty voice, stuff like that. Don’t have to press, you’re not trying to get anywhere or anything, just build up some starter confidence in expressing yourself. Like the other guys said, if someone doesn’t seem receptive, don’t sweat it, just back off. Nothing wrong with a compliment.

It’s a trial and error thing, though, and you’ll develop your own style over time.

The other people in the thread provided some solid advice that included some loose examples. It’s a tough thing to go into detail on without writing a book half full of caveats though. I don’t want to try recommending a method or anything, because there kinda is no method to it. That I can think of anyway, that will be any sort of consistent.

This isn’t really answerable in a forum discussion, as it all varies too much depending on circumstance.

I guess the basic idea is to make someone feel good and wanted without going overboard and coming across as any sort of creepy. This is a fairly fine line, though, and where it is fluctuates wildly depending on the person, situation and expectations of the moment. You’re also juggling body language and tone in addition to your words, so really anything can be made flirty, or go overboard, all depending on recipient/mood, delivery and circumstance/timing.

The first thing I’d probably start thinking about is how to identify the times and individuals where any flirting will be welcomed, which is also going to vary quite a lot. Dates are a pretty safe place to start, for obvious reasons.