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PaperclipPerfector  14d ago (text post)   24650 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 27, 2025

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The problem with "cancel" as a strategy was always that it was an argument in favor of bringing back blacklisting communists. Which I thought we all agreed was a bad thing, but apparently not, so here we go...

The problem with "cancel" as a strategy was always that it was an argument in favor of bringing back blacklisting communists.

Only if you treat tactics as inherently good or bad. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." "Good guy with a gun" and "bad guy with a gun" are very different things, morally.

Which I thought we all agreed was a bad thing

No bad tactics, only bad targets. HUAC and the Hollywood blacklists were bad not because the tactic was inherently wrong, but because it was Evil Right Wingers wrongfully persecuting poor, innocent, well-intentioned Communists; the same tactic is good when used by Good Left Wingers to rightfully drive out the deplorable bigots.

It's simple: there are Good Guys, and there are Bad Guys. Anything the Good Guys do is good, anything the Bad Guys do is bad… even when those are the exact same actions, because the morality of deeds is determined by who is doing unto whom.

Only if you treat tactics as inherently good or bad.

I believe the traditional phrase is "once you pop, you can't stop." You can socially normalize a direction but not a concrete set of standards.

Nobody's ever in complete control of how trends develop. And only a fool would concern himself with the philosophy of a mob.

once you pop, you can't stop.

Yes the notorious Epstein quote.

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