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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026

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Well, its not just about status. People do feel humiliated and embarrassed, especially if it is someone in the same social circles. "Everyone else knew but me, they must think I'm a terrible fool or worse, that I knew and was complacent about it!" The idea that others knew and were laughing at you is excruciating.

But it's the sense of betrayal and breaking of trust, as well. Someone close to you has consistently lied and deceived you, and you didn't know (until they did something to arouse suspicion/someone told you/they confessed). They pretended to still love and care about you and went on with the usual domestic life, but they were sneaking around behind your back with someone else, being sexually and emotionally involved with a new person, and diverting their love to that new person. It's very hurtful. Some people can forgive, some can't. I don't know how Mackenzie Bezos wasn't more vengeful in their divorce; maybe there were problems in the marriage before the split, but to find out your husband has been knocking boots with the floozy next door? I'd go nuclear if that were me, but she was a lot more gracious about it (and it's not "because he promised to pay her off", since if she really wanted to be vengeful she could have dragged this through the courts and given his reputation even worse of a hit, revealed a lot of inside scandal about Amazon - and every big company of that kind has some skeletons in the closet).