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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 14, 2025

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God, while I'm not happy about being paid about half what my US peers make, I suppose I should count my blessings in that none of this nonsense comes up in my actual job. And that's despite the UK being, in some ways, more Woke than even 2023-America.

(You can't pay me enough to work in the ER)

I can only hope that nobody takes away the message that this is a representative sampling of what actual ER doctors go through, or how they act, even if some of the specific incidents strike me as things that could have happened. Not an expert on the day to day realities of medical work in the States, so hopefully @Throwaway05 has something to add.

Though, to be fair:

We get jokes about drug addicts with nicknames, jokes about frat boys in car wrecks, jokes about whether a medical student killed someone or just got unlucky.

Are all things that do actually happen. The writers of the show have done at least some homework.

I totally believe the gallows humor aspect. What struck me was which topics didn’t get joked about. Being “unhoused” is Very Serious but not being a crack addict whose name sounds like crack.

Replied elsewhere but in sum, the politics is spot on.

The actual events is umm more condensed (a single day isn't usually that interesting, but a whole month?). Obviously later season events are a bit different.

The competence level is higher than average, especially for the students but it is not out of the realm of possibility for a good group at a high end institution. Independence is a bit much though.

Some inaccuracies but kinda not a lot (and importantly on Meddit you'd see some arguing on "inaccuracies").

The most important part is the vibe and the personalities which....phew. Oh my god it is spot on.

At times really rewarding and people feel seen, at other times...tough.

We'd play a game where we try and see which doctor we most represent and most people have a strong connection to one of the archetypes.