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professorgerm

clutching my imitation pearls

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joined 2022 September 12 12:41:49 UTC 

				
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professorgerm


								
								
									
								
								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
clutching my imitation pearls

				
				
				

				

					3 followers  

					follows 1 user  

					joined 2022 September 12 12:41:49 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 1157


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
LOL fair, I should've remembered the famous lettuce


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
"Looks like an idiot" conveniently does not require a ranking; one idiot can be worse without being alone in the class.


I still think in 20 years hindsight Merkel will be worse than Trump by decent (not the same as popular) historians, but that does depend heavily on how the next three years go, and to some degree that's her playing a role as synecdoche-scapegoat.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


many Europeans looked up to America and dreamed of traveling or living there. Trump specifically looks like an idiot from a European perspective




Starmer looks like an idiot. Merkel screwed the whole European pooch.


And yet, I still want to visit (parts of) the UK and Germany!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Germany isn't all of Europe, which frequently seems to be forgotten in discussions like this




Germany's one of the biggest gorillas of Europe and willingly cut off its own arm (to extend the metaphor gruesomely), so it's not totally unfair to focus on that. Major self-inflicted damage to the biggest European economy!


Very cool for Sweden and Poland though!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
tbf he could both be crazy and sometimes playing 4d chess. That's part of 5D chess, not letting people know which is which!


(I'm kidding. Mostly.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah, nerd-sniping at its finest. Given an incredibly important policy question versus a neat but largely meaningless logic puzzle, where do so many curious minds focus?


That said, we tried banning GOF and "they" just moved to funding it overseas. We'd need a much more functional government, and cooperative foreign governments, to get a real ban.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'd bet on Jim over Rothfuss or Martin, but yeah, still frustrating. Mind-reading a bit on the most recent book I think he'll wrap the series up a book or two faster than originally intended, but could still be another 6-10 years. And even that's assuming he doesn't have another Dresden Slump.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


casual Friday




At my previous job I and a couple other guys did Fancy Friday instead since it was so casual, though we only went as far as wearing ties or bowties, not full suits.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I can imagine the kind of bright-eyed naïveté that takes blank slateism and "of course they'll assimilate" as a baseline assumption. For a time.


I can't imagine how they let it drag on for decades, how they're so terrified that they'll erode their own culture, they'll let girls get gang-raped with no consequences.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I would be quite surprised if Kitty didn't consider all of these things good, especially given the things left off


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Outside of like the hardest of Muslim countries, women wearing pants and showing skin is basically the default now.




Interesting/sad/etc to watch self-inflicted backsliding in parts of UK, Belgium, Germany, France, and Sweden.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Casual clothing is now commonplace in many work environments, with people even wearing branded tshirts and the like.




Not entirely a good thing.




Jazz/rock/hip-hop/metal/etc are just considered normal forms of music instead of the work of Satan corrupting our kids.




Not entirely a good thing, either.




Jews/Italians/Irish/etc are now considered an ordinary form of white instead of as foreign criminals and scum.




Well. Not all of those are actually wins among progressives! Making Jews white was probably worse for them, in some ways, this decade. And surely crushing the mob played a role in that shift for the Italians?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I think I’ve heard Yglesias and Noah Smith types are best described as the ones who say wrongthink right before it’s acceptable for people on the left to think something.




Indeed! Saw someone call them "Overton Window-washers" and I find that to be a fit-enough name for that role.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


And yet campus Leftists don't seem to bother with "Lebanese Apartheid Week.




Kind of interesting since Lebanese-Americans almost code as white in modern progressive terms, because so many were Christians that immigrated fairly early and integrated quickly- Jamie Farr and Casey Kasem come to mind.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


they do not tolerate anti-Semitism either, especially not within their own ranks.




In what ways do they not? Up until being forced by the new administration, elite colleges were quite happy to tolerate anti-Semitism. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan come to mind.


The exception being that any critique of George Soros (or I guess now his son) does get coded as unacceptable anti-Semitic, which is... telling, I think.




It’s similar to the case of the ‘Democrats are the real racists’ narrative, which does not work on Democrats one bit.




Indeed. The truth of the statement doesn't matter. Whether they're anti-Semitic or anti-civilization, neither accusation has an effect; it just slides off the closed ideological defense system.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Whether the motive here is technically anti-semitism is debatable,




It's "anti-successful population," of which anti-semitism is a named subcategory.


Or "anti-Western," for a somewhat broad category of West that might include Korea and Japan. "Anti-civilization" would be more accurate but almost none of them actually conceive of themselves that way.




particularly because there is a small but real number of Jews in this group




Likewise, self-hating Jew is a common enough subcategory of oikophobia that it has its own wiki page.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


the Palestinians achieve military supremacy?




They'd have to have more schools than weapons depots, and maybe not rip out water mains installed by bleeding hearts to convert into weapons.


Flying pigs will convert to Judaism first.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


nonconsensual




Fascinating how "consent" came to be a universal moral solvent, and by extension, a lack of consent can extend much further than any sane person might think.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


"Americans" are not a race or ethnicity. They just aren't. On no serious theory are black Americans not Americans.




I'd be happy to go with "no hyphenated Americans" but that died a miserable death long ago. Alas!


Feel free to disagree with them, but denying American as a race or ethnicity is exactly what generates people like that, who refuse to disbelieve their lying eyes about what groups get certain privileges.




without trying to gerrymander what the bare word "American" means into uselessness.




Done been gerrymandered into meaninglessness anyways.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I really hope people with heart attacks, cancer appointments, etc still went




Probably varied heavily by region and severity, and we'll never really know the stats.


At one point early on I had some sort of gallbladder attack, with symptoms fairly similar to appendicitis. I bet on it not being that, and it turned out okay. But maybe somebody else ignored the same symptoms for the same reason and it didn't. So goes life.




I just dislike bad reasoning




As we should!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thoroughly seconded.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It also stopped people having heart attacks from going to the hospital, stopped people with cancer from having appointments, et cetera and so forth.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


all the evidence I've seen (including a fair bit from the rationalist space) indicates it's pretty unlikely it was a lab leak.




I'm no expert despite my username, but my opinion on the rationalist evidence is that it's centered on a couple people that are really good at constructing arguments (regardless of reality), and a lot of motivated reasoning around common sense being wrong.


I agree with Nybbler that no one outside of China has sufficiently granular and unfiltered data  to even begin considering a clear distinction between the two.


edit:spelling


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Huge public consequence, but highly distributed, and did not hit anyone responsible as hard as it hit everyone else.


No goat got cooked, no crazy racist "ethicists" lost their jobs, et cetera and so forth.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


that was mostly other stuff and general distaste for him personally.




entirely for other stuff, at least on paper. His COVID Emmy got taken away for the other stuff.


Weird times.