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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

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So, uncharitable it is. Dan Carlin sources his stories very well. They often have a slight, particular slant to them because of his political leanings, but I would not call him a "liar" who posts trivially debunked (there's that word again) stories that contradict "basic factual knowledge" (cf. "basic logic," "basic human decency"). Dan Carlin emphasizese a specific set of facts to spin a particular narrative. Some people say this means all history is bunk, but IMHO that's a uselessly sweeping and reductive judgement. There is no narrative-free history.

try and whitewash Nazi aggression and Nazi crimes while shifting the blame for these things to their enemies

This complaint is always levelled in bad faith at people who try to understand the internal state of the "bad guys." If you try to explain, even with disavowels, why e.g. how Communists came to power in Russia by tapping into legitimate grievances that certain groups had, you will invariably be called a Communist sympathizer by those on the right too idiotic to understand hypotheticals or too Machiavellian to feel shame. I see little to indicate that you're an idiot.

Given that he's on record praising reactionary authoritarianism

Am I supposed to shrink back in fear at this? So what? Your words have no power here. I've been jaded by the pearl-clutching about "our democracy" by libs for the last decade.

Cooper is deliberately misrepresenting WW2 in a way that minimizes the crimes of Nazism, it raises the question of why?

He isn't, and you don't get to smuggle your tendentious accusation into the question, sorry. As for why he is telling this story, he is doing it for the same reason he told the stories of the Zionist Jews, the Palestinians, the (leftist!) People's Temple, the (leftist!) early labor movement in the U.S. -- because he thinks it's important to tell stories from within the frame and perspective of the people who lived that story, rather than as a "neutral" or baised outsider. An impossible goal, but a worthwhile aspiration (and given how preoccupied leftists are with lived experience, you'd think they would approve, but instead it's just another case of "no not like that!!"). Do you think Cooper is a People's Temple booster? A Zionist Jew sympathizer (Check his Twitter to find out about that one)?

Are these people full on fascists?

There's that word again. There's nothing I can really say in response to this that won't get me in trouble, so let me just recommend that you find a more effective line of attack, because scolding and panicking about "fascism" is so 2017, it doesn't work on anyone anymore save the most dyed in the wool leftists. And it undermines any concern you are trying to create in me about "reactionary authoritarianism."