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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 23, 2023

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From important metrics we are already degenerated in physical health, mental health, and cultural taste. The cultural promotion of twerking women and naked homosexual men dancing is, for all intents and purposes, the clearest sign of degeneration. The only thing I can imagine worse than that would be if large record companies were signing artists who extolled the value of doing opiates and fentanyl, but luckily Lil Peep is already dead.

metal health

This is, itself, a modern measure. Psychologists would judge ancient men to be extremely mentally unhealthy, suppressing their emotions, prone to outbursts of rage, not tolerant of others, etc.

The broader point is that the naked homosexual men dancing aren't stopping TSMC from making 3nm chips or amazon from delivering you shit.

Exactly. The pundits were right. When they were worried about "degeneracy" 100 years ago, the current state of affairs is exactly what they worried about: the breakdown of the family, dependence on drugs, violence, atheism, celebration of homosexuality. It all happened.

Likewise, the people who worry about future degeneracy will also be correct. Except that, in the future, the degenerates will not see it that way. They will see it as the true and natural way of being.

Artists extolling the value of using marijuana(which is probably bad for heavy users, at least), however, is common as dirt.

And songs about drinking. I heard a song by Metallica recently called Whiskey in the Jar and I thought how such a celebration of alcohol consumption/violence would never be found in earlier, more civilized periods of Western culture.

Songs about drinking go way, way back. Classic country is mostly about alcoholism, although often not positively, for example.

Martin Luther wrote a hymn thanking God for wine. So this isn't new.

Clearly, the age of degeneracy of Western civilization goes back much further than we thought.

I also just learned that Plato's Symposium features a drunken party and homosexuals, so it goes further back than Plato too.