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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 23, 2026

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Hold on, are we considering WW3, a full nuclear exchange, global economic collapse and megadeaths on US home soil in relation to the mid-terms? Huh?

I know it's him that brought it up... but the midterms really don't matter. Elections do not matter at all in comparison, you could have a military coup and it would barely make the top 10 most important details about this situation.

I mean, I Noticed a long time ago that nuclear war means victory for the Red Tribe in the culture war (at least in the USA, and possibly in other Western nations hit). I happen to think that tearing the Blue Tribe from power isn't actually worth that, but I suspect there are some among the Trumpists sufficiently mindkilled to disagree - at the very least, my noting this factual point has been mistaken for such Posadism on three separate occasions.

(I will cop to being more of a China hawk than I might otherwise be due to the AI issue; not due to the culture war, though.)

I would predict that in this specific scenario the mid-terms would at least still probably happen, although you are correct that it's a footnote (the broader CW point less of one, but still relatively minor).

nuclear war means victory for the Red Tribe in the culture war

Do not be so sure.

After The End, what would "red and blue" mean anymore, what recognizable "red culture" would still exist in Fallout universe?

Big cars, big houses and giga consumption lifestyle would be out for the foreseable future, and so will be sport obssession and religion promising prosperity and worldly success.

The Fallout universe makes little sense. I expect, though, if it has an equivalent of Blue Tribe it's based in the NCR capital. The Mojave (outside the Strip proper) is obviously Red, as is the Capitol Wasteland.

After The End, what would "red and blue" mean anymore, what recognizable "red culture" would still exist in Fallout universe?

We'll always have Liberty Prime.

So would be humanitarianism, public welfare, gender-anything, social justice, climate and pretty much every last thing valued by leftists. The American blue tribe won't have much to do anymore.

In other words, the outcome of nuclear war is everyone loses.

Well, @Eetan was specifically referring to a "Fallout" scenario, in which civilization-as-we-know-it is thoroughly scrubbed.

Yea, once you start thinking what TEOTWAWKI would really mean, any triumphal hopes vanish rather fast.

I would not rule out the chance to preserve a nucleus of human specimens. It would be quite easy...at the bottom of...some of our deeper mineshafts. Radioactivity would never penetrate a mine some thousands of feet deep, and in a matter of weeks, sufficient improvements in drilling space could easily be provided.