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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026

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These details don't matter. ICE wearing a blue uniform isn't going to diminish the screeching and whistling by so much as tenth of a decibel.

The point isn't to change the way the outrage machine responds. The main point is to change the way normies encountering ICE/CBP in the street respond. The secondary point (which I agree probably won't work) is to change the way normies who watch the viral videos respond.

At the margin, does the Trump administration want Minneapolis wine moms to feel like an unpopular law is being enforced in their city, or does he want them to feel like a defeated people resisting a successful belligerent occupation? I don't know, but I think the question is important.

The main point is to change the way normies encountering ICE/CBP in the street respond.

To first order there are no normies encountering ICE/CBP in the street.

The real problem is the masks. Very easy for the outrage publicity machine to churn out innumerable variations on "if they're legit, why are they masked? what are they hiding?" etc. online content.

But on the other hand, with my own two eyes I have read a post online about "here's a list of ICE agents that were doxxed, wouldn't it be just awful if people showed up at their home address to give these fascists what-for on account of their nazi actions, simply terrible, just sayin'!"

So I too would not like to have my face be easily identifiable off a photo snapped by a "concerned citizen observer" and shared around the mob of church invaders. Hence, masks.

Obviously, the masks are there to protect the officers against the deadly COVID-19.

Yeah, the "protestors" have convinced me that the masks are indeed a good idea, even with the bad PR.

I would take that bet if I could find any way to formalize it.

I'd prefer a traditional approach.

/images/17696155778930314.webp

Come on, it should at least be one of the Reagan westerns.