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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   21692 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026

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This won’t be particularly substantive but hopefully it’s enough to avoid a mod-slap. Apparently a group of women customers accosted staff at a Minneapolis yoga chain and berated them for not having some sort of ICE signage up (presumably a “No ICE allowed” sign, as if ICE agents will be stopping in to do yoga).

Here is an article.

Here is a direct link to the viral TikTok in question

The video’s author is Heather Anderson, 51, essentially the archetype of the wine mom, the core demographic of the latest frenzy. She appears to be an elementary school teacher and host of a podcast Belonging in the Classroom which presents itself with this description:

Belonging in Classrooms: Stories of Anti-Racism in Minneapolis Public Schools How do we practice belonging in one of the most segregated spaces in America? Who are the people challenging the systems? What do they do differently? What do they wish you knew about their experience? Join us on a journey to tell the stories of educators, students, and community members working to dismantle racism in Minneapolis Public Schools.

Of course this dovetails nicely with our discussion of another winemom-cum-podcaster, Jennifer Welch and her open calls for Republican blood. In all seriousness, psychologically speaking, what on Earth is going on with 50 year-old women right now? Have Democrats effectively weaponized Karenism?

The incident reminds me almost exactly of scenes that we saw in 2020, like this similar incident you surely remember of diners being surrounded and screamed at for not raising their fists in solidarity with BLM..

There is much endless discussion of peak woke, but to me it feels almost exactly like we are back in 2020, if not for the historic cold weather of the last few weeks and general time of year, I imagine it would be nearly identical.

Yeah, the people of Minneapolis seem to have been spiraling for years now, and despite having lived nearby, I don't really have a feeling for it. I have a middle aged female relative, in a different part of the upper midwest, who's been broadcasting some of this energy over the past half decade. She's since blocked me on social media, but appears to be influencing my mother in law, who is cowed into just not saying anything about her at all. Back when we were talking, my impression was that she is, in general, kind of boring, and living a fairly boring, constrained life, lacking traditional middle aged woman outlets like running a church ministry, generating cultural output, and mentoring/getting help from younger women. She had a baby in her mid-thirties, and has been trying to "gentle parent" it, which sounded like it was going rather badly. I think she had the father of one of her children leave her for a man. I think there's a lot of sublimated anger going on, but the culturally approved expressions are only political. Rene Girard would probably have something useful to say about it.

Edit: Another woman I knew in Minnesota, who seemed generally like a nice person, had her husband and the father of her very young children decide he was a woman. She took her baby and toddler to pride demonstrations with her spouse, and posted about it online. That seems very stressful, but she probably can't really complain about it, he has the right to become a woman if he wants to, and seems to be still helping to care for the children. It's probably the Right's fault that the situation is uncomfortable.

I think she had the father of one of her children leave her for a man. I think there's a lot of sublimated anger going on, but the culturally approved expressions are only political. Rene Girard would probably have something useful to say about it.

Edit: Another woman I knew in Minnesota, who seemed generally like a nice person, had her husband and the father of her very young children decide he was a woman.

What the hey is happening in the Midwest? Is there something in the water (turning the frogs gay)? I'm not laughing at your relative or friend, this is a hell of a shock when your spouse/partner suddenly turns everything upside-down but if you don't treat them like the hero(ine) of the story then you are a bad wicked phobic bigot who needs to be cut out of everyone's life with your toxicity.

I think this is bubble effects for an affluent, socially liberal stratum. Trailer trash is also dysfunctional(as you presumably know well, you post about the Irish equivalent often enough), we just expect it because they're dysfunctional poor people. I have female relatives who would claim to have similar socially liberal beliefs but they won't walk the walk- when you've lost the internalized socially conservative views you'll fall for totally stupid stuff that usually affects the dysfunctional underclass.

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