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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 5, 2026

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You're being overly charitable. They are certainly not limited to what the evidence will permit.

In a sense, they are. I agree that they will spin and twist and lie very aggressively, but there are still limits. So for example, suppose this Good woman turned out to have posted on social media that she really would like to run over an ICE agent in her SUV. Leftists might claim that this was faked somehow. And if a video came out of her saying the same thing, they might claim it was AI-generated. And so on, but eventually they would change tack. Perhaps they would argue that this evidence is irrelevant because the ICE agent was unaware of it.

And of course sometimes evidence comes out which is so overwhelming that the Left does stop doubling down and instead gives up -- not by conceding that they were wrong but instead by just quietly dropping the subject and pretending the whole incident never happened.

Based on literally this thread, I think they would instead just decline to acknowledge that any such social media post existed. If confronted with it, they would ignore the claim, or vanish and reappear elsewhere to continue making the exact same claims without updating on the new evidence to any degree.

And of course sometimes evidence comes out which is so overwhelming that the Left does stop doubling down and instead gives up -- not by conceding that they were wrong but instead by just quietly dropping the subject and pretending the whole incident never happened.

This is at least honest, and I don't hold it against anyone for bowing out of discussion of a Happening where their preferred side looks bad.

This is at least honest, and I don't hold it against anyone for bowing out of discussion of a Happening where their preferred side looks bad.

I tend to disagree with this, at least in some situations. For example, when the Duke Lacrosse rape hoax took place, a lot of Duke professors and students publicly condemned the men who had been falsely accused. A few national newspapers jumped on the bandwagon. In my view a public apology and some soul-searching was in order.

I tend to disagree with this, at least in some situations. For example, when the Duke Lacrosse rape hoax took place, a lot of Duke professors and students publicly condemned the men who had been falsely accused. A few national newspapers jumped on the bandwagon. In my view a public apology and some soul-searching was in order.

Absolutely. I meant more any faculty who saw the situation, intuited where it truly ended up, and chose to remain silent. If you've already taken a strong stance, then yeah, you need to openly conform to reality if you want to retain any respect.

But if someone chooses not to engage with a situation in the first place, I'm not going to hold it against them. Every position that everyone holds has at least some evidence against it, or example that makes them look bad. You don't have to go to the mats, die with the lie, go all in for every single one. You can just look at your cards and fold the hand. There's a whole lot of poker left.