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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026

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The world where ICE is completely professional and competent would have near identical protests and complaints to what we're seeing now, although probably with fewer deaths.

Yes, and that would be a massive political win for Trump. If ICE were absolutely impeccable and locked in, the protestors would look like fanatical lunatics, moderates/swing voters/independents would all look at them, go, "I'm not voting for the party that panders to these retards" and help Trump not get whacked in the midterms.

Instead, they still look kind of like fanatical lunatics, but they also look somewhat like people standing up against big government, which is based (in general) and more importantly, a profoundly American tradition. Plus, the ICE violence and dead American citizens are scaring the hoes (swing voters).

That would be a massive political win for the right. Not sure about Trump specifically. I have no idea what his actual utility function looks like, but I suspect he did it this way on purpose in order to "own the libs" and bolster the flames of the culture war. I still voted for him, because he was the better of two bad options: at least he's doing something, but he is definitely not the ideal candidate to be getting things done in an effective manner.

The far left and the far right seem to have this sick sort of codependency where they need the other to exist and seem powerful as a boogeyman in order to create enough viral content to fuel their own flames. While Trump is not exactly far right, not on every issue, he copied this particular technique to great effect.

Yes, and that would be a massive political win for Trump. If ICE were absolutely impeccable and locked in, the protestors would look like fanatical lunatics, moderates/swing voters/independents would all look at them, go, "I'm not voting for the party that panders to these retards" and help Trump not get whacked in the midterms.

Is that how things were before Pretti? Before Good?

No, it wasn't.