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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 9, 2023

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If I can say to you, "A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing", and mean it, live by it, raise my children and build my community by it

All the "red tribers" who've done this for the past century have had their childrens' values turn much bluer, while also being economically and politically dominated by the blues. Just saying "god is really really good" doesn't actually do anything, and it certainly won't stop the 280lbs churchgoing christian from enjoying tiktok and pornhub.

If you don’t understand the differences in behavior between church attending and non-attending Christians, then you have no business pontificating on demographic or social trends in Christian communities.

All the "red tribers" who've done this for the past century have had their childrens' values turn much bluer, while also being economically and politically dominated by the blues.

No, in fact, the failure to do this, and some other things as well, is what caused so many Reds to lose so badly for so long. The losses we have sustained are grievous, but I do not think they are terminal, nor is the dominance the Blues enjoy eternal. The conditions and the tactics they've derived such storied success from have more or less run their course, and will not be effective a second time. Policy starvation and its knock-on effects will bring them down, and it does not seem likely to me that they will recover.

Just saying "god is really really good" doesn't actually do anything, and it certainly won't stop the 280lbs churchgoing christian from enjoying tiktok and pornhub.

Well in the first place, there's a good bit more involved than "just saying God is really, really good," hence the part about believing it, raising one's children by it, building one's life and community around it. In the second place, those things that you're evidently missing is in fact one of the only things that stop people of any weight from "enjoying tick-tock and pornhub", by helping them to understand why they benefit from removing such things from their lives.