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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

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but when Germany play Argentina in the World Cup you don't have to hold your nose and root for the lesser evil

It's never, ever, coming home, mate.

In the spirit of this bet, I wonder whether peace will come to the Middle East before England wins a World Cup. But sports fandom isn't supposed to be rational, and I don't bet on England games for that reason. A hundred years of hurt isn't going to stop me dreaming...

For whatever it's worth, I had basically lost all hope by 2022 and "we" then proceeded to win the world cup and then elect a libertarian.

Gotta keep dreaming.

"we" then proceeded to win the world cup and then elect a libertarian.

From your n=1 sample, how has that changed, for better or worse, your daily life?

In the very short term, my relative salary went down, since there was a "price rearrangement" (lots of inflation without currency devaluation) and I was working for a foreign company. Later on, said adjustment meant professional salaries became competitive enough to the point of being able to get a job here, which is convenient for a variety of reasons. Most of my peer group's (of those that hadn't already emigrated) income was significantly boosted. Also, wokeness stopped being institutionally mandated and electorally viable, which is nice.

Overall my purchasing power has diminished (eating out is more expensive, as is meat), but it's compensated with a variety of psychological benefits.

This is, of course, how it affected me personally, and I am fairly isolated from the negative effects of most governments, if you want my opinion of the overall impact: as with all Trumpian Bargains, it has been a mixed bag, but I think it was overall very positive, and I'm optimistic. That being said, it has been a very painful process for a lot of people, and I'm kind of proud (of the people) that the midterms were as good as they were despite this.

The world cup or the government change?

Government change, unless the world cup win was that dramatic.