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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026

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I much prefer Iran doesn't get nukes, but to be contrarian, why should Europe care? Iran isn't threatening to nuke Berlin or Rome.

North Korea having nukes hasn't impacted European security

I much prefer Iran doesn't get nukes, but to be contrarian, why should Europe care? Iran isn't threatening to nuke Berlin or Rome.

This is a luxury belief for people who think that global security is a default condition. Europe doesn't have to care about the free flow of goods because the U.S. does it for them. It baffles me that the same people currently panicking about the traversability of the Strait of Hormuz would be indifferent to chaos or autocracy in the middle east. Is the supposition that, if the U.S. were to likewise walk away with "why should we care", peace and prosperity would flow unbounded?

There are only 1-3 non-autocracies in the middle east, depending on how you categorize Turkey and Lebanon, so that's not the problem.

They would probably start tolling/restricting ships like they are now, and then it would very directly be Europe's problem, except that nukes would make direct action a lot more complicated. They might also start to support militant Islamic groups in Europe, because that's just what they do. North Korea is a lot more isolationist.