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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026

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I think they are correct to fight it. Any sort of seemingly soft barrier can be turned into a hard barrier.

"You must look at an ultrasound of the baby before abortion" is how it starts. And then suddenly the state also makes it very difficult to get ultrasounds at abortion clinics. Or restricts and regulates who can give ultrasounds.

Similar things play out in other areas of regulation. "You need to make sure this building isn't harming the environment" becomes 'you need a specialist environmental inspector that we license and regulate into obscurity and the waiting list is years long to see one'. Or "You need to have firearms training before you are allowed to own one" ... and only police or police in training can actually visit the firing ranges where they do firearms training.

The power to tax and regulate is the power to destroy. When the goal of your political opponents is to fully ban a thing it is correct to be suspicious of them proposing a "small" barrier.

… The power to tax and regulate is the power to destroy...

You saw that happen with dispensaries in California after weed became legal. Once the state went in on the industry it started over regulating the hell out of the market such that some resellers were left scratching their heads and wondering if they should go back to the underground market for dealing since it was less burdensome and more profitable.

I think they are correct to fight it. Any sort of seemingly soft barrier can be turned into a hard barrier.

Fair enough.

I was gesturing towards how science (better ultrasound) contributes to a non-science value judgement, or rather, undercuts a theoretical judgement: I hear it's much harder to go through with an abortion once you see the heartbeat or fingers or face, than if you keep it a pleasantly theoretical "clump of cells."