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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025

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This "if" is precisely what my example points out is not true. The entire premise of the argument is simply false.

Well then, if the line between who should be allowed to marry isn't about who can produce children, then what is it about? What is the difference that justifies, in purely secular, non-religious terms, treating gay couples differently than straight ones?

What is the difference that justifies, in purely secular, non-religious terms, treating gay couples differently than straight ones?

This is easy. You can be secular Cultural Christian. You do not believe in God, do not pray and you do not go to church. But you adhere to Christian Ethics purely due to your preference in the same way let's say some secular people prefer libertarianism, other people prefer progressivism and yet other prefer communism or whatnot. So it is purely my preference that stems from my materialist mind in this materialist world, and this preference has equal validity as your preference.

Or if you dislike that argument, I can borrow tankie secular argument against gay relations: it is a result of decadence of bourgeoise and fascist society, it goes against reproduction of worker class and thus it is inherently counterrevolutionary and reactionary.

if the line between who should be allowed to marry

Again, the perspective change needs to be pretty deep. It is not about who is "allowed" to marry. It's about what the State is trying to encourage/discourage. Think about the example I gave; see if you can come up with an idea for what it is that they're trying to do.

It's about what the State is trying to encourage/discourage. Think about the example I gave; see if you can come up with an idea for what it is that they're trying to do.

Speak fucking plainly. No, I'm not going to guess "what it is that they were trying to do" (note the past tense). You tell me exactly what you think the early 21st Century American government (with no-fault divorce, and civil rights and anti-discrimination law for LGB) was "trying to encourage/discourage"; why it's legitimate for them to encourage/discourage; how not legalizing gay marriage both works toward the end goal of that encouragement/discouragement, and is a constitutionally and legally valid means (because in American constitutional law, the US government is limited in the means it may use to secure even good and valid ends, with a number of judicial "tests" and levels of restriction depending on the importance of the ends and the nature of the means) of doing so.

Your continued mix of obtuseness, vaguery, and missing-the-point in this thread have been so frustrating, they've got me defending a position and argument I don't even believe myself here. There's a reason the sorts of arguments you're vaguely-gesturing-toward-but-not-actually-making lost the fight.

Specifically concerning the example of some people only being able to marry if they show that they are infertile. I thought I was speaking plainly about this, but apparently, it didn't come across. What do you think they were trying to do?

I am not treating this as a fight, but it's clear that you are. You call it such and your demeanor is indicative that you may have something like cortisol levels going on which correspond to you perceiving it as a fight. I just want you to think about a brute fact in the world and give some impression as to what you think is going on. If I was being a jerk, I'd say that your immediate reaction to lash out at your interlocutor rather than have a respectable conversation about the topic is, yes, why the wokies won so many political fights. Bullying and anger won a lot of political victories, but left a lot of people privately unconvinced and resentful that such tactics managed to ram through major societal changes, rather than reasoned discourse.