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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 18, 2025

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This is not a very substantive comment, but you are most lawyer-brained non-lawyer I know. It's impressive (and I mean this as a compliment), I had a career counselor once suggest I take my wordcel self down that path, and I'd have probably gone insane.

I don't think that merely summarizing court opinions is an appropriate basis for being considered "lawyer-brained".

My brother in $deity, you do this every week, and also in the Fun Thread. I look forward to those posts, but I think it makes a powerful statement.

Calling a random civil engineer who reads court opinions for fun and summarizes them for karma "lawyer-brained" is an insult to the multiple actual lawyer denizens of this forum.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Lawyers typically do the following:

  • Advise and represent clients in criminal or civil proceedings and in other legal matters

  • Communicate with clients, colleagues, judges, and others involved in a case

  • Conduct research and analysis of legal issues

  • Interpret laws, rulings, and regulations for individuals and businesses

  • Present facts and findings relevant to a case on behalf of their clients

  • Prepare and file legal documents, such as lawsuits, contracts, and wills

Lawyers, also called attorneys, research the intent of laws and judicial decisions and determine whether they apply to the specific circumstances of their client’s case. They act as both advocates and advisors for one party in a criminal (offense against the state or the nation) or civil (matters between individuals or organizations) proceeding.

An actual lawyer-brained person would argue with other users about complicated issues, would complain to the moderators regarding poorly worded rules, and would present his learned legal interpretations of various cases. I do none of those things.

Calling a random civil engineer who reads court opinions for fun and summarizes them for karma "lawyer-brained" is an insult to the multiple actual lawyer denizens of this forum.

If anything, it's a compliment to the actual lawyer denizens here. Or at least compared to the many other insults I've heard.

Hi, one of the 'actual lawyer' denizens speaking, you're doing great, please keep that up.

Being able to summarize legalese in human-readable terms is probably the most immediately useful part of being a lawyer.

Arguing over the definition of "lawyer-brained" is about the most lawyer-brained thing there is. I legitimately can't tell if you're trying to satirize yourself here. Either way, I love it.