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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026

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Despite time periods that had heavy shame towards gay men, we have found no way to prevent them having pretty large amounts of sex with each other. Even in places where being gay can get you executed, it still happens, just more hidden. That's why you raise costs on smoking but make condoms free for example.

While I see what you're getting at, this seems to introduce the same perverse incentives as two-tier policing in the UK.

It's essentially saying: if you're meek and sensitive to your burden on society and respond rationally to incentives, the state should bring the hammer down every time you are inconvenient. If you're blindly stubborn, aggressive, and refuse to change what you're doing however much suffering it causes, then society should smile and figure out how to tolerate you and put loads of resources behind supporting you.

I think the framing is incorrect here. People in general are not rational, so Group 1 is almost certainly not responding to rational incentives, it is responding to the socialization and social pressures that can approximate rational behaviour and have evolved over time based upon certain situations and conditions.

But yes from a public health perspective what matters is what people do, not some world where you wish people would be more rational. Most people should eat fewer empty cheap calories. We seem entirely incapable of doing that. So public health messaging and resources should be allocated accordingly. The people you have not the people you wish you had.

As for Group 2 in your example, well arguably their socialized set of behaviours is indeed working. Group 2 is just as much a part of society as Group 1. They are under no obligation to bow to Group 1's preferences if they are not forced to do so. That's what a culture war is for. To determine whose cultural mores and preferences are dominant.

But in the meantime those at the cutting edge must work with the resources they have.