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Supah_Schmendrick


				

				

				

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Supah_Schmendrick


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				

				
				
				

				

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				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I don't think it was done to the Nazis qua being a Nazi, it was done because they materially lied about it during naturalization.




These are not materially different things.  GK Chesterton actually remarked on this:




When I went to the American consulate to regularise my passports . . . [t]he officials I interviewed were very American, especially in being very polite; for whatever may have been the mood or meaning of Martin Chuzzlewit, I have always found Americans by far the politest people in the world.  They put in my hands a form to be filled up, to all appearance like other forms I had filled up in other passport offices.  But in reality, it was very different from any form I had ever filled up in my life.  At least it was a little like a freer form of the game called "Confessions" which my friends and I invented in our youth; an examination paper containing questions like, "if you saw a rhinoceros in the front garden, what would you do?" . . .






One of the questions on the paper was, "Are you an anarchist?" To which a detached philosopher would naturally feel inclined to answer, "What the devil has that to do with you? Are you an atheist?" along with some playful efforts to cross-examine the official about what constitutes an αρχη.  Then there was the quesiton, "Are you in favor of subverting the government of the United States by force?"  Agaisnt this I should write, "I prefer to answer that question at the end of my tour, not the beginning."  The inquisitor, in his more than morbid curiosity, had then written down, "Are you a polygamist?"  The answer to this is "No such luck" or "Not such a fool," according to our experience of the other sex.  But perhaps a better answer would be that given to W.T. Stead when he circulated the rhetorical question "Shall I slay my brother Boer?" - the answer that ran, "Never interfere in family matters."  But among many things that amused me almost to the point of treating the form thus disrespectfully, the most amusing was the thought of the ruthless outlaw who should feel compelled to treat it respectfully.  I like to think of the foreign desperado, seeking to slip into America with official papers under official protection, and sitting down to write with beautiful gravity, "I am an anarchist. I hate you all and wish to destroy you." Or, "I intend to subvert by force the government of the United States as soon as possible, sticking the long sheath-knife in my left trouser-pocket into Mr. Harding at the earliest opportunity."  Or again, "Yes I am a polygamist all right and my forty-seven wives are accompanying me on the voyage disguised as secretaries."  There seems to be a certain simplicity of mind about these answers; and it is reassuring to know that anarchists and polygamists are so pure and good that the police have only to ask them questions and they are certain to tell no lies.






...






Superficially this is rather a queer business. It would be easy enough to suggest that in this America has introduced a quite abnormal spirit of inquisition; an interference with liberty unknown among all the ancient despotisms and aristocracies.  About that there will be something to be said later; but superficially it is true that this degree of officialism is comparatively unique.  In a journey which I took only the year before I had occasion to have my papers passed by governments which many worthy people in the West would vaguely identify with corsairs and assassins; I have stood on the other side of Jordan, in the land ruled by a rude Arab chief, where the police looked so like brigands that one wondered what the brigands looked like.  But they did not ask whether I had come to subvert the power of the Shereef; and they did not exhibit the faintest curiosity about my personal views on the ethical basis of civil authority.  These ministers of ancient Moslem despotism did not care about whether I was an anarchist; and naturally would not have minded if I had been a polygamist.  The Arab chief was probably a polygamist himself.  These slaves of Asiatic autocracy were content, in the old liberal fashion, to judge me by my actions; they did not inquire into my thoughts.  They held their power as limited to the limitation of practice; they did not forbid me to hold a theory.  It would be easy to argue here that Western democracy persecutes where even Eastern despotism tolerates or emancipates.  It would be easy to develop the fancy that, as compared to the sultans of Turkey or Egypt, the American Constitution is a thing like the Spanish Inquisition.






...






It may have seemed something less than a compliment to compare the American Constitution to the Spanish Inquisition.  But oddly enough, it does involve a truth; and still more oddly perhaps, it does involve a compliment.  The American Constitution does resemble the Spanish Inquisition in this: that it is founded on a creed.  America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence; perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature.  It enunciates that all men are equal in their claim to justice, that governments exist to give them that justice, and that their authority is for that reason just.  It certainly does condemn anarchism, and it does also by inference condemn atheism, since it clearly names the Creator as the ultimate authority from whom these equal rights are derived.  Nobody expects a modern political system to proceed logically in the application of such dogmas, and in the manner of God and Government it is naturally God whose claim is taken more lightly.  The point is that there is a creed, if not about divine, at least about human things.






Now a creed is at once the broadest and the narrowest thing in the world.  In its nature it is as broad as its scheme for a brotherhood of all men.  In its nature it is limited by its definition of the nature of all men.  This was true of the Christian Church, which was truly said to exclude neither Jew nor Greek, but which did definitely substitute something else for Jewish religion or Greek Philosophy.  It was truly said to be a net drawing in of all kinds; but a net of a certain pattern, the pattern of Peter the Fisherman.  And this is true even of the most disastrous distortions or degradations of that creed; and true among other of the Spanish Inquisition.  It may have been narrow touching theology, it could not confess to being narrow about nationality or ethnology.  The Spanish Inquisition may have been admittedly Inquisitorial; but the Spanish Inquisition could not be merely Spanish.  Such a Spaniard, even when he was narrower than his own creed, had to be broader than his own empire.  He might burn a philosopher because he was heterodox; but he must accept a barbarian because he was orthodox.  And we see, even in modern times, that the same Church which is blamed for making sages heretics is also blamed for making savages priests.  Now, in a much vaguer and more evolutionary fashion, there is something of the same idea at the back of the great American experiment; the expierment of a democracy of diverse races which has been compared to a melting-pot.  But even that metaphor implies that the pot itself is of a certain shape and a certain substance; a pretty solid substance.  The melting-pot must not melt.  The original shape was trace on the lines of Jeffersonian democracy; and it will remain in that shape until it becomes shapeless.  America invites all men to become citizens; but it implies the dogma that there is such a thing as citizenship.  Only, so far as its primary ideal is concerned, its exclusiveness is religious because it is not racial.  The missionary can condemn a cannibal, precisely because he cannot condemn a Sandwich Islander.  And in something of the same spirit the American may exclude a polygamist, precisely because he cannot exclude a Turk.




"What I saw in America" 1912, pgs. 3-9


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Welp, that's outed me as an online far-right autist, I suppose.  (tongue very much in cheek)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


A majority of historical wars were genocidal in intent; wanting to exterminate your enemies is in fact an extremely common motivation for warfare




Citation very much needed.  Wanting to kill the enemy country's elites and replace them is common, wanting to loot the enemy country's stuff is common, wanting to reduce the enemy people to servitude or slavery is common, even wanting to displace and take territory from the enemy group is common.  But even in "barbaric" ancient wars outright eliminating the enemy people root and branch is usually too much work for an unclear reward.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


see how anthropologists feel about Guns, Germs, and Steel




My understanding was that GGS was deprecated because it got objective facts wrong about the subjects it purports to address, not because it was ambitious in scope.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


What, does the recent repeal of Roe v. Wade not count? The “Blue Tribe” had pinned a huge policy platform of abortion on it, and it was totally undone




So in this giant Red win meant...that Blues no longer got to unilaterally dominate national policy.  This is not comparable to Obergefell (or Roe in the original instance).  Blue wins mean they get to override Red preferences everywhere.  Red wins mean they get plausible cover to try and eake out a separate existence in some places.  These are not the same.




It sounds like what you actually want is not the freedom to do as you wish, but the power to coerce others, and particularly to deny the other what they want.




Yes, this is what Blue tribe gets when they "win."




But wanting specifically to exert your power over another is something different. Its envy, or at least, is rooted in the same. Envy is seeing what someone else has, hating them for it, and wanting to destroy it. It’s bringing someone low because you can’t stand seeing them up.




What a coincidentally perfect distillation of major leftist legal doctrine.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I'd urge to at least try "assimilate or GTFO" (don't know if there are any success stories as stark as El Salvador, though)




The best example in America are Germans.  Germans went from being a fairly-unassimilated minority, with high non-english persistence and significant ethnic lobbying...to completely dissolved in the American "white" mainstream over the course of two generations.  Of course, we all-but criminalized the teaching of German in schools and fought two wars against their coethnics with pretty stringent propaganda against the inherent evils of "Germanness," but it worked.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Socialism at the federal level mostly means endlessly bloating the elder care apparatus




To be fair it also means doling out increasingly huge wodges of cash to professional activist organizations and favored political client groups.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That really depends on what you mean by "left wing."  But yeah, that's a structural problem for left wingers in a functionally one-party progressive political milieu.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It's New York so of course the populist candidate is going to be a socialist, but is this really any different than the rise of right wing populists in Europe in effect?




Yes; the RWP rally around a policy - immigration restriction and recognition of islamicate/SE Asian cultural incompatibility with western norms - which cuts both against official ideology as well as the fundamental moral order of the post-WWII first world ideal.


NYC electing Mamdani is literally a 50-Stalins criticism of the existing order.  "We haven't socialismed hard enough/real socialism has not been tried!"


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The problem with socialisms are two - people are selfish and tragedy of the commons. For the first the only socialist solution that works so far is to beat them into submission.




Hardly; this just optimizes for the selfish people getting control of the clubs.  Marxism has never truly grokked that people's ideological statements and interpersonal solidarity can be faked or hacked.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 23, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


A TrumpSon run would almost certainly capture significant quantities of credibility on the third leg




Unlikely; I've seen no evidence that any of Trump's kids possess his humor or stage presence - major reasons he did so well.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 16, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


My gut says that living in dense cities is somehow injurious to the human spirit and generates a lot of sicknesses downstream.




I think this is likely because you have not been exposed to smaller, prettier, and orderly, but still dense town environments.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 16, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'll quote @gattsuru here:




... the Obama administration issued thousands of work permits under DAPA after the Fifth Circuit [entered an] injunction [blocking the practice], and then said oops. A further hundred thousand reprieves were granted after the Obama administration swore before the court and in written submissions that they would not act on the memo while the court was ruling on the preliminary injunction to start with. During appeals the Obama administration held that it could offer whatever individualized discretion it wanted, so long as no one made those decisions because of the DAPA rule. Nor was this problem specific to DAPA. The Obama admin repeatedly refused to follow both statutory requirements and court orders mandating notice to a state for settling refugees, up to and including directing state charities to not tell state authorities.




To say nothing of how the Biden administration twisted and turned to do anything possible to refrain from enforcing the actual law on the border.


The left has a track record of breaking the law and ignoring court decisions in order to keep the border open, then trying to hide the ball under obfuscatory administratrivia.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 16, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


They have all three branches of government




The majority in the House is less than 10, and there are a lot of clowns in the GOP caucus who can and gleefully will screw everything up on their pet issue du jour.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 16, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


If we assume 12 million illegal immigrants (range I saw was 11-13), that's a cool 30 years at the current rate with a cost of $200.6 billion (not including 30 years of inflation).




Yes, but overt deportations are not the only thing happening.  During the same period, there is evidence that sizeable self-deportation, most likely in the hundreds of thousands of individuals, has occurred.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 16, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The reason right-leaning news is growing is that it at least tries to get the facts right




Ehhhhhh....some yes, many others no.  The pressure to cater to the consumer's pre-existing beliefs is very strong, and right wingers are just as susceptible to confirmation bias and all the other old, familiar rationalist hobbyhorses as lefties.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 16, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Blackbagging by ICE seems to be an extrajudicial process by design




You need to clarify what you are talking about.  Are you talking about arrests of individuals who already have a final order of removal or order revoking a lawful visa against them?  Are you talking about arrests of individuals based on probable cause that they are in the country illegally?  A secret third thing?  Immigration law is very complex and, yes, mostly delegated by act of Congress to the administrative branch through administrative adjudication, and discussing it based on vague generalities actively obscures more than it enlightens.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 9, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Meanwhile college students do hours of boring, grinding work and studying in the hope that in 4 years they can get a solid entry level job




Do they, though?  What with AI and grade inflation, they increasingly can't really read or do basic math.  I don't think this stereotype is as universally applicable as it was before.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 9, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's almost never about the personal impact of the transgression on the transgressor themselves; it's about modeling and justifying the behavior to people for whom it would very much be harmful (i.e. the mass of the hoi polloi).