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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026

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I have a really hard time with considering shooting a man being restrained, kneeling, in the back regardless of evidence of having a gun or not, to be a good, defensive shoot.

Is your difficulty in considering potential factors supposed to invalidate the relevance of factors you did not consider but which may apply to the validity of the shoot?

I expect competence from Agents of the State, and this is not it.

Are you competent enough in the particulars of Agents of the State to judge competence?

I think much like a felony murder, an agent of the state acting in such a way that is negligent, and leads to the death of someone should be charged with manslaughter.

Are you any more competent in judging manslaughter than you are in judging competence?

Is your difficulty in considering potential factors supposed to invalidate the relevance of factors you did not consider but which may apply to the validity of the shoot?

Are you non-tribal, non-partisan enough to judge the actions of your in-group as they affect the out-group> Do you consistently fall to one side of each scissor event?

Are you competent enough in the particulars of Agents of the State to judge competence?

Are you competent enough to speak on any of this, let alone judge my competence?

Are you any more competent in judging manslaughter than you are in judging competence?

Are you anymore competent in engaging in discussion around ideas than you are in waging the cultural war?

Are you non-tribal, non-partisan enough to judge the actions of your in-group as they affect the out-group?

Sure.

Do you consistently fall to one side of each scissor event?

Nope.

Are you competent enough to speak on any of this, let alone judge my competence?

Aye.

Are you anymore competent in engaging in discussion around ideas than you are in waging the cultural war?

Indeed.

Now, that's four answers for you, and so I do believe you still owe four answers in turn. However, I'll settle for the first one you avoided. If you need more time, I'll refrain from any more responses so you don't feel a need to hurry and deflect. Take your time.

Do you disagree with the principle that if evidence doesn't actually support or deny a conclusion, it should not be used to support or deny a conclusion?

Isn't this where Bayes comes in?

However, I'll settle for the first one you avoided.

I'm not avoiding, you launched in to a low effort attack on me rather than a discussion of my ideas. I can answer yours with the same level of effort you put into answering mine.

Is your difficulty in considering potential factors supposed to invalidate the relevance of factors you did not consider but which may apply to the validity of the shoot?

They were considered.

Are you competent enough in the particulars of Agents of the State to judge competence?

Aye.

Are you any more competent in judging manslaughter than you are in judging competence?

Sure.

Do you disagree with the principle that if evidence doesn't actually support or deny a conclusion, it should not be used to support or deny a conclusion?

I believe speaking plainly is a rule on this site, stop trying to lead me into the alley, I'm just not interested.

Oh, hey, you seem to have tried to dodge the original question. Again. What a surprise- who could have seen that coming? You even took more time to avoid answer it than it would have taken to answer. I do appreciate the commitment to the 'I'm not avoiding' evasion, though that sort of Marvel-esque irony is a bit dated.

Thankfully though, you did take the bait for brevity and answered the others. Let others make of them what they will, while we can move on to the question you may still try to evade.

Do you disagree with the principle that if evidence doesn't actually support or deny a conclusion, it should not be used to support or deny a conclusion?

So definitely a bad faith troll, trying to elicit an emotional reaction. I do always fall for it.

You do seem pretty insistent on avoiding a rather foundational question that should do the opposite of stir an emotional response. Speaking clearly, this is likely because you recognize that answer it directly will either make your first attempt to ignore it in favor of passing judgement come off as bad faith, less than competent, or both.

But since I will keep asking the question until you answer, or until you get tired of trying to avoid it while also trying for last word / parting jab...

Do you disagree with the principle that if evidence doesn't actually support or deny a conclusion, it should not be used to support or deny a conclusion?

You do seem pretty insistent on avoiding a rather foundational question that should do the opposite of stir an emotional response. Speaking clearly, this is likely because you recognize that answer it directly will either make your first attempt to ignore it in favor of passing judgement come off as bad faith, less than competent, or both.

But thats not actually what you did, rather than discussing my idea you started discussing me. That is the definition of ad-hominem. Claiming you aren't in an attempt to score points with an external audience is precisely what I mean when it comes to "waging the culture war" you aren't here to discuss ideas, you are apparently here to look good. I'm not going to answer your leading question, just because you stand past a pit of spikes and taunt me. If you have an actual argument you'd like to make I am all ears, but this "¡Andale, toro!" like I'm some bull that you get to use for entertainment with the crowd is tiresome. It is the definition of troll behavior.

Do you disagree with the principle that if evidence doesn't actually support or deny a conclusion, it should not be used to support or deny a conclusion?

This requires you to know ahead of time whether evidence doesn't actually support or deny a conclusion, are you able to predict the future? If not then removing evidence is just you being biased towards one outcome. All data is evidence.

You continue to evade a foundational question, this time by trying to smuggle a change to the premise of the question in order to answer the question with a question, and leave with the final jab. So you were predicted on two of the three, so you shall be. Toro indeed.

That said, you have made a mistake in your attempted retort. A question that makes you look bad if you give a particular answer it is not necessarily a leading question. Some answers just reveal flaws the respondent would rather obfuscate. However, there is nothing wrong with disagreeing with first principles.

Do you disagree with the principle that if evidence doesn't actually support or deny a conclusion, it should not be used to support or deny a conclusion?