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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026

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As someone else mentioned, if shit hits the fan, they will not let him live the good life while their fake country collapses.

I saw a tweet which read something to the effect of the best hedge for a billionaire against instability is finding a clannish small community somewhere in Appalachia and adopting it. Pour money into roads/schools/businesses, sponsor local events, and otherwise do literally everything you can to engender as much good-feeling in the community as you possibly can. Practice the kind of noblesse oblige Chaucer would have approved of. Live in an estate not a mansion. Total out of pocket cost could probably be kept to the low millions. Of course these people aren't stupid, if you're just phoning it in they'll know and they'll take your money and smile and fantasize about putting your head on a stake, so if you're as an individual completely incapable of caring about anyone other than yourself this may not work very well.

Historically, you have to marry into the local elite and have children recognized as part of the in-group for this to be effective. It doesn't always work but it's the mostly reliable path for outsiders to integrate. YMMV and it may take multiple generations. Doesn't work if you're publically gay, though.

Almost surely won't work in Appalachia if you're out and gay.

"Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure ... Benefits are only acceptable as long as they seem capable of being repaid; beyond that point, gratitude is replaced by resentment." - Tacitus, Annals

Perhaps Appalachia is more resistant to this psychological disease than elsewhere? But it's a disease stretching across millennia, and if some subculture really has stumbled into a way to avoid it en masse then figuring out exactly how is probably the best anti-SHTF action imaginable.