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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 22, 2025

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He's also just really scuzzy, even by the low standards of Ohio politicians. Musk can make these sort of arguments stick by pointing at one of several giant factories. Vivek can point to... failed biomedical stuff in an even-more-scammy-than-normal field, a politically-focused investment fund, and partial ownership of BuzzFeed.

None of it's clearly fraud, or illegal, or even likely to get the New York AG going after him, but I wouldn't be surprised if he loses more Red Tribe support than Jay Jones lost Blue Tribe support.

I just don’t see who in the Republican Party that Vivek appeals to. He seems to believe in blankslatism which is very unpopular in the high IQ parts of the GOP. He made fun of football and cheerleaders so I don’t think he’s cool with the blue collar guys. He’s not Christian. I will be completely honest that I don’t think someone can be American without conversion.

Who’s his voter base? Boomer neoliberals? I thought they all became Democrats already.

I think you’re hitting the core here.

If Vivek moved here, converted to Catholicism, named his kids Sean and Brad, starter personally going by Jim and became an obsessive football fan, maybe I’d buy it.

Because that’s basically what my ancestors did. They changed their names, punished their kids if they tried to speak the old language, named their kids almost comically American names, and just thanked god they were allowed to be here. They wanted to be American not lecture Americans on how to be better.

Four generations from now if some Vivek descendant wants to “rediscover their roots”, then fine. But America does have a culture, actually, and if you want to be an American the good news is they you can! You just have to actually do it.

If Vivek moved here, converted to Catholicism

Shouldn't he be converting to, like, Episcopalianism or Presbyterianism or something? Catholicism is the religion of low-skill immigrants trying to replace the founding stock of America.

I think the internet has just been devastating for Protestantism. I don’t really think there are any “serious” Protestants left.

If Vivek “converted” to some pointless Evangelical mega church, it would just feel hollow and unserious.

Catholics (and I include the orthodox in this) have basically just won. Protestantism isn’t taken seriously anymore, and so a “conversion” to Protestantism would similarly not be taken seriously.

I think the internet has just been devastating for Protestantism. I don’t really think there are any “serious” Protestants left.

The Mennonites don't count? I mean, Anabaptists are very much Protestant (a product of the "Radical Reformation"), and they seem rather "serious" about it to me.

Doesn't this prove my point pretty cleanly? The Mennonites are not using the internet.

It's evidence for the "the internet has just been devastating for Protestantism" part, perhaps, but it's also evidence against the "there aren't any “serious” Protestants left" part.

Okay. It Vivek converts to Mennonism, stops using the internet, moves to a farm, and gets rid of his car, I think people would take the conversion seriously.