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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.

Man, affirmative action for professional liars is a real bitch isn't it? Normally professional liars have to build up resilience. They have to grow thicker skin, develop substance abuse problems to cope with the shame, get better at gaslighting, or do some good old fashioned mean girl networking. And when all else fails, shit, this wasn't their first time around the block. They lay low for a few years, and come back a better liar than ever. Maybe throw a good ol' heel turn in there for the other tribe, pull in some people who aren't familiar with their bullshit yet. I mean Candace Owens is clearly a retarded liar, and she manages well enough.

It's gotta be tough on a retarded liar who actually thought all his lies were working his entire life. Who never had to actually get good at lying, or received the sort of feedback other liars get about how to get better at lying, or what to do when your lies fail.

Truly a tragedy.

Candace Owens is insane, but her fans are genuinely eager to hear the most braindead and ridiculous conspiracy theories imaginable and her husband has the money to subsidize her(and is apparently willing to). By all accounts- and I have lots of secondhand accounts- she's actually nuts and really believes the crazy things she says on the air.

The line between retarded and crazy is thin. But the point I'm trying to make is still that Candace Owens had to actually hone her craft as a professional liar in the open marketplace of ideas lies. She had to develop soft skills, coping mechanisms, how to navigate the ecosystem and network. How many times has Owens been caught peddling bullshit? How many times has she lost her patron and had to find a new audience? I think she might be the singular personality from the Gamergate era that is still keeping up a grift. It's honestly astounding, and speaks to a reserve of grit and work ethic that is rather impressive, being a crazy/retarded liar aside.

Compared to Ardey who never failed in his life, no matter how outlandish his lies were, because he was being kept as a pet by his betters. Then suddenly he encountered the real world despite their best efforts, and the shock was too much for him. It was cruel to gas up a retard that much.

There is a difference between being fearless and brave: one is a deficiency of fear, the other is persevering despite fear. There is similarly a difference between being retarded and being stubborn.