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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 29, 2025

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First they came for the crazy people

It may not be part of the quote, but it sure was part of the process.

In 19th century America, being a slave who did not want to be enslaved was considered to be a mental disorder called drapetomania. In modern society, this would mean that a desire to be a human and not property would cost you your right to bear arms.

Fast forward to the Soviet era, where disagreement with communist politics would lead to being diagnosed with sluggish schizophrenia, because no sane person would object to the Glorious Dialectic. In modern society, having misgivings about liquidating the kulaks would cost you your right to bear arms.

As late as the 1960s, police arrested Clennon King for having the audacity to try and attend college while black and confined him to a mental institution. In modern society, this would have cost him his right to bear arms.

Where do you think the line is? Do you find any of those acceptable? If not, how do you prevent those abuses under the framework that you espouse above?

None of these people had the right to bear arms anyways. Mental illness being used as a tool against those society has already decided to repress doesn’t affect the rest of us much; there’d just be some other weapon used.