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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026

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MeToo was probably a mix of cohort effects and the effects of technology. It used laws which existed in the 90s, but was bolstered by the internet's power to bring together women to make accusations against men all at once. It also relied on an ample supply of feminists, which the MeToo generation supplied more sufficiently than previous generations. Debauchery at Woodstock 2 would have been way harder to prosecute than today because nobody had smart phones. Most people probably didn't even have cell phones. There are few to no recordings of what went on, nobody got "their rapist's" snapchat and exchanged instant messages, police might struggle to prove an accused man even attended, without the easy investigative tool of phone location records.

As a side note, the evidence produced by mobile phones is fascinating to me. Some time in the last 10-20 years, it became nearly impossible to get away with murder or any other serious crime. The main exception being situations involving some gang-banger in the ghetto and law enforcement doesn't particularly care.

I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice, but I am rather sure that people who kill others in busy streets are doing it wrong (tm). Basically, if your murder plan involves 'and then members of the public will start to point their phones in my direction and film my actions', your murder plan is not very good.

I think the main difference is that you used to get away with behavior which was not so much worse than everything else what was going on. In the middle of a riot, it is unlikely that everyone will stop doing what they are doing and watch you in horror as you torch a car. Today, chances are you will still be caught on camera and identified after the act (depending on how aligned you were with the tribe currently in power, of course).

Of course, we must bear in mind that most murderers are impulsive dummies.

Yes, (solved) murders are overwhelmingly low IQ phenomenon.

Is it because smart people are more moral, or because the perk of being smart is ability to find out easier solution to your problems than murder?

The drive by’s and burglaries gone wrong murders which go unsolved were also not committed by Einstein. Statistically Dr Moriarty’s murders were all committed against cheating spouses or something where you don’t need Sherlock to figure it out. Dumb, impulsive people kill more randomly, because they are dumb and impulsive.

Excellent comment. Now I desperately want to read @quiet_NaN’s “You’re Doing It Wrong: How to Kill Correctly And With Style”.

De Quincey may have gotten there first.

How to Kill Correctly And With Style

Well, it depends where you are.

For example, if you live in drug infested town or neighborhood where deaths by overdose are common, just invite the prospective victim to shoot drugs with you, and inject him with lethal dose of fent.

Just another overdose, just another number in the grim tally. How many of these numbers are really unfortunate accidents, and how many are suicides or murders? No one knows, no one will ever care.

Actually happened to a friend of a friend 30 years ago. A cartel tried to bump him off, figuring a tourist overdosing on the other side of town would be a good distraction ahead of a drugs sweep. They just hadn't realised that he was already a heroin addict with heroic tolerance for the stuff - he woke up two days later none the worse for wear.

As a side note, the evidence produced by mobile phones is fascinating to me. Some time in the last 10-20 years, it became nearly impossible to get away with murder or any other serious crime.

Not really, at least in the US.

The main exception being situations involving some gang-banger in the ghetto and law enforcement doesn't particularly care.

In the hood, you do not get away with anything for long. Friends of the deceased usually know well who did it, and prefer to deal with the perpetrator (and his friends) themselves. This is how old American self sufficient spirit looks like.

"Perfect murders" in classic detective stories style would be:

1/Victim dead, death recorded as due to natural cause, accident or suicide, no murder case opened.

2/Victim went missing, no missing case opened because, well, no one missed the victim.

How many of such cases are here is impossible to estimate.

Not really, at least in the US.

I'm open to evidence against my claim, but the cite you provide doesn't say WHICH homicides are remaining unsolved.

In the hood, you do not get away with anything for long.

So your claim is that the 58% figure quoted in your article consists mainly of homicides outside the "hood"?

The figure consists of homicides solved by formal white man's law, as opposed to ghetto street law.

How many people really get away with murder in such sense that they face no adverse consequences in their lifetime (excluding guilty conscience, if applicable) is unknown and unknowable.

The figure consists of homicides solved by formal white man's law, as opposed to ghetto street law.

So it sounds like you agree that, outside of the "ghetto," for the most part homicides get solved. Is that right?

How many people really get away with murder in such sense that they face no adverse consequences in their lifetime (excluding guilty conscience, if applicable) is unknown and unknowable.

But we can set an upper bound on it, agreed?