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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

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Yeah, that's my argument, that's why I never said "at the left's behest" but "for things offensive to the left". Because the right has a higher diversity of views they end up having in-group disagreements, and thus policing their extreme elements in a way that makes the movement less offensive to their opponents. No such mechanism exists on the left, therefore the conduct of the two movements is not equivalent.

Potato, potato. It's still a framing that reduces it to the left, in much the same way as "Republicans pounce." Praising Hitler is something the right also opposes, so if someone (particularly their boss) does not take the view that it was "locker room talk" then it was just the right firing the right for offending the right (and the left was there, too).

Doesn't that say something? If the "center left" exists, it should be mainstream, the places where they exist should be clear and obvious. If it's just a niche that no one knows where it congregates, the very concept of the "center left" becomes a bit dubious.

Not necessarily. The right makes up a half of the voting public, but I have no idea where the right congregates online relative to their numbers. And I think that the left is more online in a general sense. This old but not that old study suggests that progressives are the minority of even the Democrats, but things that are loud are the things that are noticed.

You can compare the reactions to the attack on Rand Paul with the reactions to the attack on Paul Pelosi, if you want. To compare either to the assasination of Charlie Kirk is a bit absurd.

They're both celebrations of violence, even if the level of violence differs.

Then consider me extremely confused. If calling them out is pointless, then why are you upset at all the "who cares" arguments, and demand that people not accept arguments that they'd find unacceptable if they came from the other side? What specifically do you want to see from MAGA? Is the thing that you want to see being provided by the center-left, and if not, why should MAGA be the first one to start?

Because you're conflating two different things. "Caring" and "policing" are similar but different. You can care about something but not be able to police it, because a notable aspect of police is they have the power to punish you. You can also police something without caring, for instance if you punish a subordinate for offending a crowd even though you had no problem with the behavior (which you seem to be implying about the Young Republicans). In the case of the Young Republicans, they are an organization with leadership, and the only "policing" that matters was what those bosses thought. When Obama tries to tell progressives to chill out a bit, he has no power to make them (because being an asshole is legal), so you dismiss that he made the gesture. When Trump does something crass, he polices the people who criticize him for it.

Kimmel is most comparable to the Young Republican situation, and you do have something of a point there, though I would argue it was complicated by A) the right suddenly being very pro-cancellation was culture war fodder and B) The Trump administration threatening ABC became politics fodder.

What I want to see, from all sides really, is self-reflection. The left demands the right apologize and think they have nothing to apologize for. The right demands the left apologize and think they have nothing to apologize for. You point out that the right has factions but so too does the left. I do think the latest election was the moderates being fed up with the far left, or at least the ineffectualness of Biden going after niche issues and ignoring bread and butter issues like the economy.