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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.

Interesting. To me the current situation also feels like 2020, but because of coronavirus lockdowns. Again we are being expected to tolerate draconian government interference with our daily lives, because of some supposed threat. Watching people leap to the defense of the ICErs reminds me of how people cheered when Australian police were beating anti-lockdown protestors. Again it feels like the whole world has gone insane, and nobody is willing to do anything about it.

Here is a tweet with 5k upvotes saying that "ICE should start sl**ghtering liberals for no reason at all." I remember seeing opinions like this about anti-maskers, and thinking how weird it was for this "edgy", "transgressive" humor to be deployed in support of government power.

...coronavirus lockdowns. Again we are being expected to tolerate draconian government interference with our daily lives...

How disruptive are ICE's activities in Minnesota? I have a hard time imagining that they create 1/10 the interference of the COVID lockdowns (averaged over their respective worst month-ish, counting everyone in the city except those properly targeted for arrest, and not counting the actions of protestors).

How many businesses are shut down? (Probably some, because their employees got arrested) Are they required to get identification and documentation before they serve customers? Are the schools still open? Can you visit your friends?

I'm not on the ground there, so I don't know exactly what's happening (or what their COVID measures were, for that matter). I'd just be very surprised if it was even in the same order of magnitude as the lockdowns.