I think that the first time you have sex is likely to be an awkward fumbling affair no matter how old you are.

Good gifts are ultimately personal, so it's hard to give general advice. For guys who wear dress shirts to work, a set of metal collar stays can be a great inexpensive gift if they don't have some already. Household items like Dryer Balls can be nice. Things that aren't necessities but add convenience can be good gifts--something like a Chromecast or an Echo Dot. Ultimately, though, it really depends on what the person is into.

In fairness, you could say the same thing about state funding for the Smithsonian or the Metropolitan Opera. While obviously there is competition between funding agencies, it's rare that a museum would be directly competing for funding with soup kitchens or hospitals.

If there's one thing that we can confidently say Brexit has led to, it is a new outlet for (largely unsubstantiated) speculation-based journalism.

Ideology is in the obvious, which can make it simultaneously powerful and blinding. Personally, I've always enjoyed finding out about how others think, so I'd probably take the 'peek into each door without entering any' option, but I think all of the choices are equally valid.

HOWEVER a whole bunch of people who firmly believe they have better shit to do are now going to have to burn a shit ton of blood and treasure on treaties and trade agreements and boring shit like that while the rest of the world aren't.

I highly doubt that Brexit will set the EU back ten years compared to the rest of the world. The EU has always been intensely bureaucratic, and negotiations about trade and immigration are pretty routine. Even if the vote had gone the other way, I expect that the UK would have wanted to renegotiate some of its agreements with the EU. While EU bureaucracy is likely to be focused on signing new agreements with the UK for the next little while, I doubt that the EU will actually become significantly more bureaucratic as a result. It may even become less bureaucratic in the long run if members see Brexit as a sign that the EU needs to be more agile.

I can't really see piracy as being a morally defensible act. If you want to disrupt the distribution of content, stop buying it, but don't start pirating it. Instead, write to content creators explaining why you don't want to buy their content despite thinking that they are talented etc. Buy content from people willing to take risks with newer distribution models. Go to shows, readings, etc. No one benefits from you pirating content except for you.