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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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Trump shot during rally.

The biggest news. The biggest! It literally just happened. I don't know what to say. Commentary beggars one's belief. I apologize for the brevity of this post, but the implications of it are mind-boggling. Political violence has escalated (perhaps, degenerated) into new levels of unforeseen disaster. What do you Americans think?

Absolutely disgusting. The people peddling the more extremist rhetoric about Trump should be ashamed. On the bright side, perhaps those people will shut up for a while and we can regain some level of sanity for at least a little while.

As (nearly) always happens, I expect the actual outcome here to be the complete opposite of the shooter's goals and Trump just won the election by a landslide.

It really doesn't look like the usual suspects understand that shutting up would be prudent. I think their social media instincts are very poorly calibrated for such extreme events.

Some highly liked reactions:

https://x.com/davidhogg111/status/1812320926240764072

If you keep talking about the assassination attempt don’t you dare tell the kids who survive school shootings and their families to “just get over it”
What happened today is unacceptable and what happens every day to kids who aren’t the president and don’t survive isn’t either.

https://x.com/GeorgeTakei/status/1812290878167281860

Politicians on the left are calling for unity and no violence. Politicians on the right are stoking things further.
Voters in the center: Join with those wishing to turn the temperature down, not crank it up. For all our sakes.

https://x.com/keithedwards/status/1812284437092307015

Paul Pelosi survived an assassination attempt, Trump mocked it.
Biden called Trump to make sure he's ok. That's the difference.

Reddit is linked below, you can get a load of what's happening there.

I am no Trump fan as you perhaps remember. He is graceless. But gracelessness is the default today, and it's very easy to stoop lower than a man who has just survived an assassination attempt – with these cringeworthy, mother hen attempts at narrative control.

What happened today is unacceptable and what happens every day to kids who aren’t the president and don’t survive isn’t either.

Confusing. Does he think that kids are getting shot to death in schools every day?

I am guessing he means at home or in general

'don't survive' makes it hard to take that interpretation.