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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 29, 2025

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At all times? Have you ever been near a child?

I'd agree if it were an active shooter drill but you're saying the random childcare workers are immediately going on DEFCON7 every time somebody pulls up in the driveway?

At bare minimum a functional childcare would have some sort of outdoor play area as is literally state-mandated, generally I'd expect to see stroller parking and the building being noisy and active.

And the red tribe/blue tribe split shows itself again.

When I lived among the blues... honestly some childcare institutions were this paranoid, deranged as it seems. Loudoun County Schools called the police on a father who showed up to collect his raped daughter because he was a little too upset that his daughter was raped. I believe they didn't even allow him in the building, locked down classrooms, and sent out an email that a parent had caused a disturbance.

I don't live among the blues anymore. That level of neuroticism and inverted priorities is just too cruel for me to live under. But though you may scoff and think he's exaggerating, depressingly he may be describing how childcare institutions actually behave around him.

They really are completely different from us.

I live in a low population red-tribe town surrounded by farms and our elementary school and preschool are locked and no unauthorized adults are allowed in. If one tried to force their way in it would be treated seriously.

Let me clarify.

The allegation is that, when this amateur reporter comes to the door of a supposedly not at all fake daycare, the children are placed on lockdown such that they cannot be heard or seen at all. As if he were an active shooter. Right out the gate, just as soon as he shows up, because they don't know him.

I'm not saying red tribe daycares/schools let any random person have free reign of the place. If they aren't an obvious threat though, at least into the lobby to have a discussion about why they are here. You'll be able to hear kids around at least. Maybe see one bring a note up on some errand from a teacher.

When I lived among the blues... honestly some childcare institutions were this paranoid, deranged as it seems. Loudoun County Schools called the police on a father who showed up to collect his raped daughter because he was a little too upset that his daughter was raped. I believe they didn't even allow him in the building, locked down classrooms, and sent out an email that a parent had caused a disturbance.

I'm not saying people can't lockdown a childcare center, my point is more that an active childcare center tends to be quite obvious on account of the accoutrements and noise of children. Unless the presupposition is that they immediately shuffled everybody into the bunker as soon as these guys got out of the car.

I have never seen a school, preschool or day care in which it was not painfully obvious if there were kids around.

Relatedly, I know for a fact that one of the ones my kids went to had a ton of fraud going on. Employees paid partially under the table to maximize government benefits. There was a system where some of the parents got this card from the state where they were supposed to swipe in to prove they dropped the kid off, but most of them just left it with the employees to bill the government for extra days. Owners were a pair of rich Indian women who bought the place as a net-loss vanity project - and still ran it as a scammy money laundering front.