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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 17, 2026

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I feel like it should be standard in schools, starting from as soon as any sort of essays or argumentation is taught, to always use examples of correct arguments for things almost everyone in the tribe considers extremely evil or odious (i.e. fascism, racism, murder, rape, genocide, slavery) to always use examples of incorrect arguments for things almost everyone in the tribe considers good (i.e. democracy, equal rights, feeding babies).

This would be a fascinating experiment. There would still be strong societal influences from outside of school that would shape the students, but in general I would expect that this would make some of the "extremely evil or odious" things much less taboo to them. For most people, the ability to even voice a "correct" argument in favor of something means that it is within the Overton Window. I say this as someone who used to be a much lower decoupler and can still somewhat model my past self.

if I were a teacher, I'd try to make sure that the most popular high status kids are assigned to make arguments in favor of the most apparently evil things and the least popular low status kids are assigned the ones in favor of the most universally beloved and apparently good things.

I'm imagining a Hitler Youth of Chads and Stacys running things by the time the experiment reaches high school...