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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026

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I guess you could ask me directly, instead of asking @ArjinFerman, who's a bad-faith anklebiter trying to gotcha me with less skill than you. (For example, above he's quoting that one line to imply that essentially nothing realistic will convince me. Maybe it's not obvious to you, but I tend to be rather literal. When I say "literally Orwellian," I mean literally Orwellian.)

On this, you will have to clarify, since I am not sure what specifically "California Code Is Free Speech bans" refers to.

instead of asking @ArjinFerman, who's a bad-faith anklebiter trying to gotcha me with less skill than you. (For example, above he's quoting that one line to imply that essentially nothing realistic will convince me. Maybe it's not obvious to you, but I tend to be rather literal. When I say "literally Orwellian," I mean literally Orwellian.)

This you?

Poetic simile was strictly limited to statements like 'his mighty steed was as fleet as the wind on a fairly calm day, say about Force Three,' and any loose talk about a beloved having a face that launched a thousand ships would have to be backed by evidence that the object of desire did indeed look like a bottle of champagne.?

No, it's not. Poetic similes and literalness are both appropriate in their respective domains, and a bluesky-tier smarm-quote about someone who disingenuously conflates them does not mean every instance of one is a disingenuous conflation with the other. The problem with you and @gattsuru both is that you will ask me something like "Don't you agree that the left is creating Orwellian thought-police?" and I will say "No, I do not think the left is creating Orwellian thought-police," and then I will say "This leftist thing is pretty censorious" and then you will "AHA YOU HYPOCRITICAL LIAR!" me.

I'm open to debates about where on a sliding scale we are, whether I give too much credit here or too much blame there, and the degree of relativity (though this often tediously boils down to "who started it?"), but claiming "I think A is bad but not infinitely bad" means if I ever acknowledge A is bad I have contradicted myself when telling someone else that A is not infinitely bad is tiresome as hell.

Calm down, it was a joke.

I am calm. And no, there was no humor or goodwill there. It wasn't a joke.

Ok, I see this wasn't fun for you so:

  • I'm sorry
  • I'll stop.

But I assure you there was both, even if it didn't come through.