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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   27954 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

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  1. The question is wrong -- I don't think these texts indicate any of those things. For example: "support of slavery." What is going on here is the left treats race and slavery as sacred topics, which means no joking. Rejecting this taboo does not mean someone supports slavery. It could just mean they think HR ladies are cringe. Also it could mean they are a young boy.
  2. Personally, I like Vance's response. I think these texts are a nothingburger. I would prefer if all our powerful politicians made racist jokes behind closed doors, which indicates loyalty to my tribe (Reminder to those who cannot read: the tribe in question does not support slavery). Although I didn't answer yes to (1), I'll talk about concerned Republicans: certain portions of the Republican party may still be concerned. Upon contact with young male voters, these politicians might consider switching the letter next to their name. These things happen from time to time.
  3. No. The "hiding ones power level" phenomenon is not related to extremism. As I explained earlier, telling racist jokes is a shibboleth and tribal signal. Another example of ingroup-jargon is "trans women are women." Whether that slogan is "extremism" probably depends on if it's post-2020, or closer to 2015. Hiding ones power level is just code-switching so you don't scare the hoes normies. Since what is normal changes over time, you find that some signals and slogans will enter the mainstream and it is no longer necessary to code-switch. What we are witnessing is Vance's attempt to shift the Overton window (or perhaps evidence that it has already shifted). Violence has nothing to do with this, at all.
  4. The answers to this could vary because everyone is a little different. But i would say it's safe to assume it goes like this: the Democratic party is hostile to white men and the GOP is not. A particular white man who is not married to the Democratic party (on account of: economic resentment, sexual deviancy, class anxiety etc.) inevitably can only feel at home in the GOP. A self-identified Nazi could believe he has support just because of typical-minding.

telling racist jokes is a shibboleth and tribal signal.

So naturally, you would also support lefty people joking about Kirk getting shot, which is likewise a very powerful shibboleth and tribal signal. Or Palestinians wearing para-glider badges after Oct-7.

(Personally, I feel an intense dislike for anyone who makes jokes which trivialize or celebrate either the holocaust, the Kirk assassination, or the Hamas attacks, but that is probably because I am a liberal snowflake.)

Tim Walz style "black pepper is too spicy" is a racist joke, shibboleth, and tribal signal.

"That fascist deserved to get shot in front of his kids, let's do it again" may be a tribal signal, but it's not a joke. Wearing a symbol of terrorism is a tribal signal, but also not a joke.

I, for one, am not such a free speech advocate that I would be opposed to banning all of it. The only stumbling block is that, as we already see, enforcement would be wildly biased in favor of the left's shitbirds having no consequences.

Kirk is not a saint and it's fine to joke about his death. I'm not sure I've seen many jokes though. I've seen a lot of "he had it coming" and a lot of glee. Those are not jokes because they are being serious.

That posters in this thread are comparing to Jay Jones is ironic and illustrative: he outright said he was being serious! I suppose his irony has more layers than even 4channers, eh? The only joke Jones told was the "2 bullets" joke, but everything else he said was serious.

Wearing an SS-armband would be a celebration of the Holocaust, which is not a joke.

Claim (1), that these are all just jokes, seems doubtful. Many 'ironic' posters pretty clearly are using their irony for plausible deniability, and do basically believe the things they think they're being ironic about, so I guess to the assertion that these are all just jokes, I'd say 'I don't really believe you. Some of them are, some of them aren't.'

  • -17

The kind of guy who mentions the Holocaust every day, in a "joking" manner is not joking. He celebrates the Holocaust. I suspect this groupchat does not have a Holocaust reference every day. I wrote this sentence before I read the Politico article in full.

The writer says 2900 pages of chats, and Giunta says 28,000 chats. The article says 251 epithets. These guys were not slinging epithets left and right. It is highly unlikely they are making Holocaust jokes every day, or else the Journalists would have said how many holocaust jokes.

Damned right I am minimizing this. They are joking. Nobody is trying to Holocaust the Jews. I bet these guys don't even support Hamas lol.

Do they need to be cagey and ironic around others of their ilk?

So these people believe that sex is gay? They ACTUALLY have a goal of creating the greatest physiological torture methods known to man? They think the Kansas Young Republicans support slavery?

No, this whole "You made a joke but that means you really believe it" stuff is nonsense. Maybe you really believe it, but sometimes a joke is just a joke.

A joke is very rarely "just a joke". See my reply here.

  • -16

It's very rarely "just a joke" in the sense that it has other meanings and functions. It is very often just a joke in the sense that the accusations tossed at the people making the joke are false, and the accuser usually knows that in advance.

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