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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026

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Revolutions are intoxicating, I can see how you'd be swept up into the love bombing for being on the right side of history. But it seems to me that the blue leaders in Minnesota/Minneapolis are trying to engineer a siege mentality in their base.

black and white thinking, social conformity, and lack of trust, but also a preparedness for the worst and a strong sense of social cohesion.

Some bits that caught my attention

ICE showed up to start their "Metro Surge" before I got here, and immediately started making like difficult wherever they went. They were atrociously rude drivers. They made belligerent sidewalk scenes during apprehensions. The active folks started following them around, using Signal chats and group texts, blowing whistles to gather crowds.

I'm sure in his (Jill's?) version of history the local activists only started impeding ICE activities after being exposed to their rude driving, since as Minnesotans they're just too nice to just let belligerence like that go.

It was awesome to be with so many people braving the cold

You can feel the energy, the belonging, like being bombed with love.

To me the yelling and taunting at police was misplaced aggression, and counter productive but it was their town, not mine.

we got up in the morning, put on our long underwear and gloves, yelled at the interlopers until we were cold/had to pee, then went out to lunch. I have done some great cc skiing, and he really begun to improve my form in the 'skate' technique.

were soon commandeered into helping a first-aid site for tear-gas etc in a Middle Eastern restaurant two blocks south [...] it was way past lunch and we should eat before she crashed. I could see an active buffet in the Middle Eastern, and we grabbed some plates and had a great meal. The host brought us tea.

If you didn't catch the cognitive dissonance in the main text above, no worries, his reply further down (quoted by @phailyoor) should make you do a double take

they are nearly invisible. The closest I have been is watching a Charger with tinted windows out my bedroom window in the morning [...] we were alerted that they were at the elementary school around the block [...] it as all over before she got there. not sure what ever happened. [...] I have occasionally heard the sound of dozens of whistles being blown in the distance, and seen the rising cloud of dispersal smoke

So it sounds like if you're a legal resident not looking for trouble you're perfectly safe?

I have also been present while crowds waited for them to leave apartment buildings. I split those scenes.

Yeah, it might ruin your appetite for the tapas dinner to hang around there.

https://old.reddit.com/r/minnesota/comments/1qn6dfp/ice_agents_and_what_looks_like_police_stand_at/ https://old.reddit.com/r/minnesota/comments/1qn81j3/protestors_have_taken_over_the_hotel_ice_is/

But out here, living in it, we just wonder "how many more?"

Living in what? Some light protesting before the apres-ski? If you truly believe this is authoritarianism, why not beg Jill to lend you your balls back so you can go spit some ICE officers in the face. Make sure to take some weaponry, you're fighting Nazis after all.

“ Revolutions are intoxicating, I can see how you'd be swept up into the love bombing for being on the right side of history.”

Isn’t the central American Revolutionary mythology basically false? No taxation without representation is basically bullshit? Everything I have seen indicates total attempted taxation was like 1-2% of colonial income which to modern me basically feels like zero. My gut says having the British Navy to protect trade lanes was probably worth that contribution. British subjects in Britain were paying something like 20%.

I think that would be something like being a US allied country today and equivalent to the 3% of gdp to the military within NATO.

I guess you can make an argument that it still needed to happen for the country to grow and achieve manifest destiny. I have forgotten a lot of history so perhaps there were pressing concerns but that’s a lot of blood to be spilled to not paying a small tax where you also got some military protection. It doesn’t feel like a war that could have passed any just war theory.

Isn’t the central American Revolutionary mythology basically false? No taxation without representation is basically bullshit? Everything I have seen indicates total attempted taxation was like 1-2% of colonial income which to modern me basically feels like zero.

Maybe, but I think taxes were in general lower back then. Income tax for example didn't exist, and neither did sales tax (some goods were excise taxed), leaving land, poll, and other assorted local taxes. One may grumble at their taxes going to the local corrupt politician, but you can shame them or vote them out.

So I think that it was mostly a matter of principle for them. The Americans didn't view themselves as a British colony/territory, but citizens. When they were scorned by the king they probably saw themselves as fighting for a say in their own future.

Incidentally, if the Puerto Ricans made a similar argument with similar fervor, it might behoove the United States to give them a senator or let them go.