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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026

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Oh, such a zinger. How many times have I talked about having to censor myself on social media? I have had similar experiences to those of @dr_analog. You know why I don't talk about my personal life here much? Because a good chunk of right-wingers are also crazy and evil, and I have received literal death threats. I don't feel particularly threatened by a few mentally ill cheeto-inhalers, but I am mindful that if the crazies are saying it directly, other people are thinking it, so I should not widen the attack surface. Sure, leftists who cancel family members for having the wrong opinions about trans people and BLM are "evil," I guess, but I would submit that so are the people who eagerly express what they want to do to their political enemies in the coming civil war they can't wait to break out.

If it’s comforting, thé historical pattern in hegemony holding democracies is very clear- real or imagined security threats drive deviations from normal business, which drives polarization that turns inwards(we are here), butchers a good chunk of the political class on both sides, and results in a decidedly not democratic center right government that does a lot of corruption but doesn’t really hold grudges and keeps the economy going. In the long run, we’ll be OK.

Because a good chunk of right-wingers are also crazy and evil, and I have received literal death threats. I don't feel particularly threatened by a few mentally ill cheeto-inhalers, but I am mindful that if the crazies are saying it directly, other people are thinking it, so I should not widen the attack surface.

Echoing this, I recently posted a deadpan joke right before the election and it was signal boosted by a right-wing influencer, essentially calling me a vile democrat and many people took it seriouisly. People found my phone number and I started getting phone calls threatening me to delete the tweet if I know what's good for me (and I'm sure a bunch of people who share my name also started getting them, not knowing what the fuck was going on).

I was being followed around the internet for a bit. All of my content was starting to collect dozens of deranged, threatening comments.

I posted a pic of myself shooting an AR-15 and it seemed to chill out markedly and I was soon forgotten. But I was definitely looking outside of my front window every few minutes the first two days there.

So, I'm sorry to say, I agree with you that it's not only the left that's fond of this kind of cancel-violence.