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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 29, 2024

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2014-Era Neckbeard Shaming is BACK

"These Guys are Just Weird" is the new ad from pro-Kamala super PAC Won't Pac Down. You really do have to watch it to viscerally understand the impact. I am not gifted enough with words to give it justice. It's not clear if this ad will ever air on tv (seems a bit racy for that), but the internet is where modern elections are won or lost.

As grossly offensive as I find the ad, I cannot deny being impressed. Just a few days ago I pointed out that Democrats need better messaging if they want to persuade voters. This kind of appeal to base instinct is exactly what wins elections. The ethos of "when they go low, we go high," sure sounds good at dinner parties, but it likely cost Dems the 2016 election. In some sense, I truly think they were afraid of the sheer effectiveness of Willie Horton. It took Trump to scare them enough to pull out the stops.

I got a much more effective message in my texts just yesterday.

This arrived. It is obviously illegal, as it has no attribution or "paid for" sign off. Among my family: my wife and I immediately said false flag. "Holiness of pregnancy and childbirth" is a little over the top for public messaging, and people who think a woman shouldn't run for president don't need to be told not to vote for the woman for president. But it's restrained enough in its parody that my parents, boomer Republicans, both thought it was real. My dad said this would cost her votes, because there really are men who think like that. And my lib friends wanted to argue it was real, though their heart wasn't in it. My tradcon friends agreed it was fake, but also, couldn't help themselves from saying something about how there's nothing wrong with the holiness of pregnancy and childbirth, couldn't hold it back.

It's a good effort. They were brave enough to put the Willie Brown picture in there, they didn't just use the Montel Williams photos, they put something genuinely damaging in their fake. But then they push it just a liiiiiiiiitle too far.

If this is connected with the Kamala campaign, then I have to update my assumptions about their ability level. They could win this thing if they manage to sockpuppet these attacks against their candidate until Republicans are being asked about it. Top tier shithousery.

I hate to be the guy, but… are we looking at foreign interference? Particularly since as you say it would be illegal for a US PAC.

No, US PACs just coordinate with campaigns illegally; the Podesta docs talked about that sort of coordination a lot, though no one really cared.