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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   20305 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026

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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1j1ye6n30no

(Non pay wall link)

Tragic end.

I feel bad for the dude - honestly a hearty laugh is all I want when people violate social norms like this and show us how frankly evil our institutions can be.

Sure I can blame the dude for every lie told but it only permeates my life several levels deep … the association of someone like Arday and my life only really touches when the walks start crumbling down.

What gets me mad is the institutions.

It’s their fault! Every step of the way someone, anyone, could have stepped in and stopped folly.

But things snowball and here we are.

I don’t even know what I’m supposed to learn from this, and I don’t know how I can help make the world a better place than I left it. People used to change the world I feel like, and I’m only changing the people around me … which is something!

I’m 100% reading the biography about this.

I don't feel sad for him. Like, at all. Not even the performatively gracious liberal kind of sadness. I feel many things (satisfaction? schadenfreude? triumph?) but not that. He made his folly, and chose death over living as a fraud that he always was. It wasn't society's job to baby his delusions or enable his deceit. No doubt there are thousands of liars just like him amongst the progressive ranks, who have not been found out solely because of the lesser degree of their deceptions of which they profit and the institutions which prop them up. Arday died pathetically and publicly and in a way that is mockable for decades to come.

They could all perish tommorow, every last one of them, and I would not weep a single tear.

I'm usually the first commenter to say that the dead should be left in peace, but in this case it seems too early. His affair has not been concluded yet.

This is bad for your soul man. Don't be like this, not for them but for yourself.

On the contrary—rather than burying your head in the sand like an ostrich—it’s good for your soul and yourself to recognize that there are people out there whose careers are based on worsening the quality of life for you, your loved ones, and people like you. And any kind feeling extended to them and their supporters will not only be unreciprocated, but taken as blood in the water to further worsen your quality of life since you admit you deserve it.

You can say this, but then you don't get to complain if people on the other side demonstrate negative levels of compassion for, say, Charlie Kirk or that healthcare CEO either.

Maybe I've been exposed too much to people who have been the victims of their own decisions, but I find that if I had to be sad or care about people who fall victim to consequences that are entirely their fault, that would be worse for my soul than otherwise. There are plenty of people who have had completely undeserved things happen to them to weep for instead.

‘I am sorry,’ said Frodo. ‘But I am frightened; and I do not feel any pity for Gollum.’

‘You have not seen him,’ Gandalf broke in.

‘No, and I don’t want to,’ said Frodo. I can’t understand you. Do you mean to say that you, and the Elves, have let him live on after all those horrible deeds? Now at any rate he is as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy. He deserves death.’

‘Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not least. In any case we did not kill him: he is very old and very wretched. The Wood-elves have him in prison, but they treat him with such kindness as they can find in their wise hearts.’

This man, as deeply flawed and as wronged by institutions as he wronged them, has left behind children and wife. Do not blacken your heart by thinking this is a good outcome. Do not celebrate misery.

To the extent that "choice" means anything at all, Gollum didn't become evil by choice. They had a lot less pity for Sauron than for Gollum.

Well said. To celebrate someone's death is an act of genuine evil. Sometimes it might be the case that someone must die, but even when that is necessary we should never be happy that such a thing came to pass.

If you go around feeling bad each time you kill an enemy soldier, you will never win the war. Bryan Caplan's missing mood is just not realistic human psychology.

Along with a couple of men from my company who had hooked up with me, I proceeded down the path. To the right of it was a fortified line, from where we came under heavy fire. We retreated to the first of the dugouts, over which the bullets of both sides were soon flying back and forth. It looked as though it had been a base for messengers and bicyclists attached to the artillery. Outside it lay my British soldier, little more than a boy, who had been hit in the temple. He lay there, looking quite relaxed. I forced myself to look closely at him. It wasn't a case of 'you or me' any more. I often thought back on him; and more with the passing of the years. The state, which relieves us of our responsibility, cannot take away our remorse; and we must exercise it. Sorrow, regret, pursued me deep into my dreams.

So that's why Germany lost the War!

Bryan Caplan is an ideologue before anything else, and transparently so. I wouldn't trust anyone who quotes him in earnest.

That said, I'd much rather celebrate Arday's discovery as a liar and his deserved disgrace than his death, since the latter is orthogonal to his wrongdoings.

When did I say this was a good outcome?

Do not celebrate misery.

Save that for the dead man's living supporters.

You can find frauds, hucksters, shills, charlatans, and quack mountebanks in the "ranks" of progressives, to be sure, but let's not pretend they do not exist in likely great numbers among liberals, moderates, conservatives, or the reactionary right as well. The degree to which their quackery is unveiled will vary depending on the news cycle and/or the degree to which their lying is seen as egregious.

Eh, they created a system where certain people were beyond criticism... To the point where people got visits from police for daring to question something.

That environment created this

"They" are at least arguably not a completely unified discrete group, though I get the spirit of your response. I would suggest humans in general regardless of political stripe are capable of deceit and even fraud, as well as a conviction that their own side is morally superior and thus its rules should be foisted on the perceived opposition.

You're not the only one. I chuckled heartily at the news and felt elated.

I don't think it's a bad thing that he's dead, except that now his legacy will be more shielded from very justified scrutiny and criticism.

This is a piece of trash person who threw potentially career ruining accusations of 'racism' at people who tried to stop his fraud.

I don't feel sad for him, though I'd prefer he not be dead. I feel sad that Cambridge has fallen so low, but I knew that already.

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