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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025

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I'd argue there are degrees to which that's normal and appropriate, and this goes too far. It's one thing to base a story or fictional character on a real person. Usually if it's not a public figure they'll change some details so it's not recognizable though, and try not to drag someone through the mud. In this case, she left all the trivial details identical so that all of their real-life acquaintances easily recognized them, but then also changed his character to be unrecognizable. She's basically giving everyone who knows this guy in real life that he's a rapist, or something damn close (creepy, awkward, and bad at sex), when he was nothing like that in real life. There's simply no reason to use a real person for that character- why not invent an actual fictional person if you're going to make up the story anyway? At this point it's pretty much libel.

he's a rapist, or something damn close (creepy, awkward, and bad at sex)

Since when do those things make one “damn close” to a rapist?

In the mind of just about every self-identified feminist woman I've interacted with in the past decade and a half.

In the mind of the contributors to the Shitty Media Men list.