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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 8, 2025

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Who? I think you’ll find that the subjects in each of these sentences are actually different people with different incentives.

Every institution has different decision-makers in it, with various incentives, it's still completely normal to talk about the decision made by the institution as a whole.

For example, did you know that neither Scotland nor the UK are actually in the EU?

And? The EU is still importing Russian oil, pushing safetyism, and driving out investment. The only axis where they're not-quite-so-bad as the UK is freedom of speech, and it's probably just a question of waiting a few years. And the fine in question is actually being levied by the EU anyway.

That’s why it’s foolish to present UK policy in a screed against the EU.

I agree that institutions may be judged by their works. I don’t believe the OP is talking about a coherent institution. The consumers of Russian gas are probably not steretypical Brussels bureaucrats; the safetyists in government are not upset about fining Twitter; the people who are upset are largely separate from the Musk haters.

That’s why it’s foolish to present UK policy in a screed against the EU.

But the fine in question is EU policy? The bit about Scotland and Starmer was an aside at most?

The consumers of Russian gas are probably not steretypical Brussels bureaucrats

Did he say they're literally tanking their cars at Lukoil gas stations? The point is that they made the decisions that resulted in the EU buying lots of Russian gas/oil (part of why that chart you linked doesn't give the full story is that it's laundered through India, and other countries). This might be a necessity at the moment, but it's entirely a self-inflicted wound.

the safetyists in government are not upset about fining Twitter; the people who are upset are largely separate from the Musk haters.

Yes, the safetyists aren't upset at the fines, the safetyists want to fine Musk. That's the criticism.