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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026

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Did you know that 10 people were killed by a (potentially transgender) school shooter in Canada yesterday?

There is hardly anything about this in the American media today. It’s the third-billed story at best, behind Nancy Guthrie kidnapping updates and the FAA closing airspace over El Paso. Right-wing influencers have mentioned it, but it almost seems as if they are going through the motions. It’s not even trending on Twitter. I don’t feel the raw anger and hatred from when the Catholic school in Minnesota was hit.

The only explanation I can think of is that the shooting happened in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, which is in the middle of nowhere. Nobody wants to send reporters to Yukon-lite in February, so we get no coverage.

No wonder Bezos laid these people off.

Republican president and Congress, foreign, Olympics taking up story time, not useful to Trump vs. Canada, and the shooter is not the favorite type. Could be a lots of these factors that influence coverage. I am most certain it has nothing to do with a newfound ethical backbone among journalists. Had the kid spray painted a swastika we'd hear about it. Another idea is there are no political interests positioned to feed a big gun control news cycle in the US, or a Canadian shooting may not be capable of setting that off. There's still time for stories of backlash and pouncing Republicans/Conservatives.

Seems like a fairly big story, anyway. CBC is willing to report this individual "started transitioning" four years ago in one of its last bullet points. I see /r/Canada issued an obligatory reminder to not spread hate or misinformation. It is important to be careful.

9 dead, 27 injured in a town of 2400. That's 1.5% of the population hit... incredibly grim.

I see /r/Canada issued an obligatory reminder to not spread hate or misinformation. It is important to be careful.

They were deleting any comments about the shooter's identity until it was 'confirmed by the authorities'.

Which sounds fine, until you realise that the authorities were explicitly and deliberately lying. The shooter was not a female in a dress, he was a male in a dress.