Advice Columns — C/D, S/D?

Relationship car crashes in slow or fast motion, free psychoanalysis, letters where the OP unwittingly reveals themself to be the villain, making ourselves feel better by having a good roll in the stink of people whose lives are worse off than our own, longtime comment squads who helpfully tone-police the chatter after every single letter — what's not to love?

Currently following Ask a Manager, Carolyn Hax and Ask Amy, but I occasionally return to Captain Awkward and Miss Manners. I used to read Savage Love regularly but got bored. What are some of the best and worst? Are there good ones for niche audiences that you know about but none of us do? What the hell is it about asking a stranger for advice, anyway?

the archives of cary tennis' advice column are still around on slate. i think he had a pretty unique (and occasionally outright weird) take on the genre.

What the hell is it about asking a stranger for advice, anyway?

More than half the time they're really asking for validation instead of advice. The rest of the time, it's more of a desperate flailing for good choices in situations that have no good choices.

As a kid I nearly always read Dear Abby, mainly because it was a glimpse into the complicated world of adults and how they coped with problems.

Ugh, speaking of the OP unwittingly revealing themself to be the villain, that's exactly what I've done with the "roll in the stink" crack. Uncompassionate and obnoxious, my apologies.

I don't read any regularly but I always enjoy any submissions about weddings, food, roommates or domestic responsibilities.

This year, I started reading the popular amitheasshole subreddit which kind of falls into this. I just like being amazed by people.

I really enjoy Ask A Manager but thr comment section can be tough work

Captain Awkward is great and I read all the Human Interest columns on Slate, even the ones about school and parenting despite having very little interaction with kids regularly

Ask A Fuckup, on The Outline, is really good.

https://i.imgur.com/amsKT2T.png

Do horoscopes serve pretty much the same service with a similar amount of accuracy. I mean except for the very very specific situation, like.

I do not think you could get better advice than the hints heloise has to offer

I don’t wholeheartedly endorse Savage Love but this one is pretty incredible: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/04/22/sl-letter-of-the-day-the-wedding-party

i'm kind of addicted to advice columns. the slate ones are consistently entertaining even tho the advice given is often pretty bad. miss manners was (is?) a pretty great writer.

Ask a Manager has a wild one today.
https://www.askamanager.org/2020/02/my-boss-tapes-peoples-mouths-shut-during-meetings.html

Holy shit.