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🇺🇸 Fiat justitia ruat caelum

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🇺🇸 Fiat justitia ruat caelum

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 05 01:56:25 UTC
				


				
					

					
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's not exactly capricious, the Ninevites explicitly go overboard in their repentance.  Even the cows repent of their wickedness!


There are lots of layered takes to get out of the story, that's why it's so good!  Jonah was punished for his disobedience but forgiven in the end.  Also, God didn't just kill Jonah but brought him back - He could have just picked a new prophet but Jonah was given a second chance. Nineveh better at repenting than Israel/Judah.  Israel has prophet after prophet spitting reams of flowery poetry sent to convert it and no one changes.  Nineveh gets a half-assed "God's going to come down hard on you!" and they all immediately undergo a ridiculous level of fasting and repentance.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Jane Austen's novels primarily concern themselves with moral education.  Is it possible to ruin good breeding with poor moral education?  This was actually a somewhat scandalous take back then.


The primary application of Pride and Prejudice today is to present young women with caution about their selection of mates.  Which is a very worthy task, even if half the class is male and might not see the point (though the truly wise will understand what make's Austin's heroes the hero and not the villain, and maybe learn from that.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I actually have it in a collection of preschool books.  Small kids love hearing the three voices ("Papa Bear said in his great BIG voice...")  It teaches concepts of hot, cold, lukewarm.  Big, small, medium.  If there is a moral it might just be: looks can be deceiving.  A nice cottage may look inviting, but maybe a family of bears lives there!  Remember kids, don't take candy from strangers.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think there are a few reasons the juicy cases tend to drop towards the end:


    

  1. 

    They genuinely take more time to write.  More non-laywers will read them, so things have to be spelled out more.  Future generations will read them and pull them apart, so they have to make sure they write only what they intend to convey and nothing more.  There may be more concurrences/dissents to write.
    

    2. 

  2. 

    If they release something that is going to cause non-stop protesting outside the Supreme Court for weeks, it's best to do that last, to minimize disturbances.
    

    3. 



				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Democracy is a substitute for political violence.  The second amendment protects the right for people to take up political violence if democracy fails. It only works if a plurality of people take up arms, swapping guns for votes.  Small groups willing to take up arms against the government is not constitutionally protected - if they couldn't win an election with that number of people they don't have a right to a rebellion.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What I have seen from actual partisans:


    

  • Plea deals considered witness intimidation.
    • 

  • The officer actually shot himself while trying to shoot at Song. No really.
    • 

  • Dallas field office investigated antifa chapters in their area in 2018 and found they weren’t then planning anything that would harm national security.  This detail wasn't allowed into evidence. To partisans it means the government withheld key information that would have destroyed their case, which over the course of Internet Telephone became "The government withheld a key video that would have destroyed their case."
    • 



				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's the "somewhat obsessive way" part that makes it more of a disorder than just an interest in areas forbidden to their gender.


But, when this group grew up with therapy to both accept that they liked these stereotypical girly things but that didn't make them a girl, and to slowly expose them to more masculine pursuits, the vast majority just realized they were gay men by adulthood.  The 20% who still felt like the opposite sex I feel bad for, there might be something genuinely wrong with them.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think that's just one segment of the second group.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Speaking of ROGD, its rhetorical use by anti-trans people is a peculiar example of a self-contradictory motte-and-bailey: usually the bailey is a stronger version of the motte, and thus necessarily consistent with it, but here the bailey ("all trans people are delusional and none of them are their stated gender") contradicts the motte ("some trans people with a specific presentation – primarily adolescent girls – are not actually their stated gender") because the latter presupposes that some trans people are, in fact, their stated gender. If you believe all trans people are delusional, why do you care about the specific etiology of the transness of a specific subgroup of trans people? The treatment, whichever you prefer, should be the same.




I think trans people can be largely divided into two groups:


People who had an affinity for the other sex from the time they were toddlers onward.  A boy who prefers dolls and dresses to cars, etc. to the point of everyone around them knowing that this toddler is behaving like the opposite sex in a somewhat obsessive way.   These people I have a lot of sympathy for, even if I disagree that this means that they are the opposite sex.  Dr. Kenneth Zucker mostly treated this group, and in his clinical research about 80-90% went on to become normal gay men after puberty, with the remainder going through some sort of transition in adulthood. I honestly believe most have some kind of hormonal thing, maybe their mothers took estrogen during pregnancy, maybe some other endocrine disrupter got them early on.  I still think the best thing is to wait and see if the desire to transition subsides after going through natal-sex puberty, but if the only group that transitioned was this group, as adults, then I would have few qualms for transition as a medical practice.


Unfortunately, there is the second group.  Mostly consists of adolescents who for various reasons started thinking that transitioning will benefit them.  The RODG group.  The Autogynophelia group.  Autistic girls who always felt something was off but never could put it into words.  ETC.  There might be some hormonal issues, but most of the time it's a social contagion of some kind.  For this group, transitioning is probably the worst thing for them to do.  It's a harsh medical intervention for something that will typically go away after puberty and therapy.  Unfortunately, this group is the largest group getting medically transitioned and contains pretty much every transperson I know IRL.


I don't think any trans person is their desired gender, but that doesn't mean that they are delusional.  It really is their desired gender.  It's just that desiring a gender doesn't make them that gender.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Oh that makes more sense. If she was raised in certain parts of India I could see that being a real thing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Did she have an eating disorder and did she ever do sports?


The only way I think in the US a woman might think that boys systematically get better nutrition than girls is if they have an eating disorder which they justify to themselves as "everyone does it."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for June 5, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
51%, which doesn't surprise me at all.  I regularly get confused during TV shows and movies about that random guy who I thought was the same character until I saw the two of them in a room together.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Cui bono?  I think it's more likely Pratt would be responsible if anything, to drum up attention to the wastelands he formerly called home.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You can filter google results from before a certain year. Add before:2019 or before:xxxx date to your search query and it will return results that have not been updated since that date.


This article seems relevant: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34641418


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There is something about the situation that is horrifying.


Imagine two outcomes:


Outcome 1: The police arrive, notice that Nowak is not doing well, make him comfortable while they call an ambulance.  He spends his final moments watching the second policeman have stern words with his murderer while the policewoman holds his hands as the world goes dark.  He dies knowing that justice will be done and that he's not alone.


Outcome 2: What actually happened. Dies in an uncomfortable position being accused of a crime he didn't commit, while his murderer appears to get away with it.  This seems to objectively be a worse fate, the suffering in Outcome 2 is much higher than in Outcome 1.


Now do we care about the suffering of the dying?  It's not like they'll be around to complain about it!  But I think that yes, most humans do care about the suffering of the dying.  And it does seem the police's actions increased his suffering.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Quality Contributions Report for May 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I feel weird getting nominated for a comment with less than 200 words, but thank you


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I approve of that too.  Washington never had natural-born children either but I wouldn't say he had no impact on the future.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You're going to need to be more concrete than that.


Let's say Social Security goes away before you are 65. Or even total anarchy.  Are you better off with one or zero kids, or if you have four+.  If you  have 4+, at least one is likely to still have a fondness for you and might let you stay with them in your twilight years.  If you have 0 kids you get to look forward to working until you cannot and rotting in a ditch after.


From where I stand, having kids is more upside than down.  Sure I could afford more things without them.  But I had the time of my life playing fetch with my 3 year old yesterday.  I


I don't know how to explain it to someone who doesn't have kids.  I have taught two little humans how to read. And for one of those humans it was a hard slog, I had to keep changing programs every year, trying to make an inch of progress at a time.  I researched, I made schedules and lesson plans and sat down every day with a book and my girl and I persisted.


There's the mental cocaine of having your toddler call you "mamma."  But there's more than chemicals.  There's the concerted effort to help someone every day become a good adult human, and whoever you are it takes all of you.  If you're good at research it takes research.  If you're good at meal prep it takes meal prep.  Whatever your thing is, you pour it on your kid and it's satisfying.  It's climbing Everest, it's running a marathon, it's what life is for, the challenge you are supposed to be doing.  The school of love you need to be a whole human being.


If the word society is tripping you up, just do it for yourself.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Agreed.  But I would say that people need to pursue these goals, not just expect them to happen.  I think most people get the "job" thing.  People go to secondary school, study long hours, go to residency, internships, put in a lot of time and effort into getting the right credentials and getting the right job.


The same amount of effort needs to go into getting the girl.  And not just dating, but actually discerning marriage with the girl.  It shouldn't take more than a year to learn enough about each other to see if you can actually be spouses, and if at any point you think you can't be spouses then break it off.


For some reason people take this part of their lives unseriously when in hindsight it's the cornerstone of all other joys in my life.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You're not caught in traffic, you are the traffic.  You don't have an obligation to "society" you are society and you have an obligation to yourself.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If we all are to die right now in a flaming meteor, then ok.  Society doesn't matter that much to you.


If you hope to grow old and die peacefully at the end of a lifespan as long as you can achieve, then you want to have stability as you grow older and weaker.  This means able-bodied people younger than you who have been inculcated in a community that values taking care of the weak and elderly.  This means having children and educating them.


So that's the selfish case.


The less-selfish case I guess is that human lives are one of the most precious resource in the world, consciousness is rare, sapience more so.  A universe without anyone to observe it would be tragic and absurd.


Stable societies produce happier outcomes, better lives for these sapient Earth observers. If you think life sucks, the better thing to do is make it less sucky instead of abandon it, creating more suffering in the interim as society collapses.


My real reason is just that I found someone I loved.  And because I loved him, I loved the world.  I loved the world that could make such a person, however fucked up his life had been.  In my husband I saw that the awfulness of the world cannot mar the beauty of a human soul.  And I liked him so much I wanted more of him - more people like him.  And he thought I was a good thing, too.  He thought it was good I exist and because of that I began to come around on the idea myself.  And if it was good that I existed, and it was good that he existed, then it would be great for there to be more people like him and like myself.


And so I embarked on this mission: to make more people who have the best qualities of us both, who are coached on their weak-points by the two people who can empathize the most with them.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think the problem is we assumed that the fertility rates would arrive asymptotically at whatever replacement was for the infant mortality of the future/present time, but fertility rates did not stop falling. They were only reversed for a short time by the baby boom before falling again at around the same rate.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If you are on TheMotte and had the attention span to read the above comment without using GPT to summarize, then please have children.  Have as many as you think you can manage and then one more on top of that.


Smart people should build things.  What are you building?  Code?  A 401k?  How about a human being?  Imagine building one of those.  Then stop imagining and get on it!  It should be at least as important to you to build a human as it is to build a portfolio.


If you don't like children, ok.  But you've never met your children.  The children who will be like you and the person you love the most.


It's going to involve sacrifice.  Ok, so does everything else worth doing in the whole world.


When smart people stop building things, society collapses.  And the best, most important thing a smart person can build is other smart people.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 24, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have an officially Level 2 Autistic kid who reminds me a lot of myself at her age... but I have not been diagnosed.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Our director is a very un-PC guy who takes people out to the bar, drops $300 of alcohol on them, and then yells at them.  It's definitely not "remember daughter's wedding anniversary" kind of relationship management.  He calls everything he doesn't like communism.