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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022

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While their response was maybe dressed up in very annoying language, and I agree that there's no reason to be especially afraid of hate mass shootings compared to other more mundane risks, I think your response was a bit tone deaf.

hold on, attacks like this are less likely to get you than car accidents or [insert whatever mundane thing] - yes they're flashy and scary, but you really shouldn't update based on them - they're statistically insignificant AND if you want to view them as terrorism then you living in fear is letting them win - you shouldn't do that"

This comes off as slightly, dare I say, smug, even though I'm sure you weren't intending to come across that way. It's a fine point to make, but a more conciliatory tone would have gone along way. Something along the lines of, 'it's certainly discouraging that attacks like these are happening more often, but you should be reassured by the fact that the vast majority of the public is broadly tolerant...' would, I reckon, not have elicited the same response. Just a question of tone and manners really.

This comes off as slightly, dare I say, smug, even though I'm sure you weren't intending to come across that way.

Maybe, but back when Islamic terror attacks were a thing, this used to be a common left wing argument. Would you say we were acting smug back then?

I might well do, depending on the way you phrased your statements. But I should stress I don't have that much wrong with what he said; just a slight change in tone would have made it better received was all I was saying, and I'd say the same in the case of terrorism.