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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 8, 2025

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The biggest shock to me was that this happened in Utah of all places. That's like a fat, blue haired activist giving a lecture on transphobia getting shot in the middle of Seattle.

Relatively low security university, easy escape into low surveillance territory. Possibly suggests it's someone a little more thinking than the average schizo but who knows.

This misunderstands the nature of blue vs red states. Even the reddest states contain blue tribe towns, even in the bluest cities the cops and construction workers are red tribe. At a glance, only in West Virginia did either Kamala or Trump get below 30% of the vote, with Kamala coming in at 29%.

No I get it. Just as outside the urban centers most of California is red. I always tell people whenever they ask, that I was born in "Red State California." It's just not the typical place people would place their bets on.

That shows you the remaining divide between "Blue Tribe" and "Democrat". West Virginia isn't dominantly Republican but it is certainly dominantly "Red Tribe".

Red tribe democrats still exist, but They Are Old and a shrinking minority.

I'm not sure what you're saying. West Virginia is dominantly Republican, the most republican state by vote share in 2024!

But even if you peel off half or more of that Democratic vote share as red tribe democrats and ignore the possibility of blue tribe Republicans, that still leaves 10-15% of the voters as blue tribe. Which is more than enough people to produce a single lone gunman, QED.

There's nowhere in the continental united states where you're more than a few hours on the highway from members of your outgroup.

I guess they are dominantly Republican now. But they elected Manchin and Byrd for many years on end, not so long ago.

Oh ok sorry I get what you're saying now. I agree West Virginia is certainly more Red Tribe or MAGA than it is doctrinaire partisan Republican; what I'm getting at is more that even in a Red Tribe state there are Blue Tribe individuals and communities within driving distance. Ergo it's not that surprising for there to be a (presumably) leftist assassin in Utah, or in turn a Proud Boys march/riot in the PNW.