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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 24, 2026

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This appears to be an appeal to formal rule-based systems.

"So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!"

"Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?"

"Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!"

"Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!"

This is why one of the things people were saying in January 2025 is "the laws are flat". The formal systems had ALREADY been knocked down in order to cancel (and in some cases imprison) right-wing people. So the thing to do is make like the Devil and turn 'round on them.

A moving performance and a powerful clip. But if the laws instead lie flat as a crop-circle for one's enemies but tall and thick to protect one's friends you just have anarchotyranny.

Why depend on the law for your own safety's sake? Why not cut down every law in England to get after the Devil, and then if he turns round on you, just prop them back up again to hide behind? What, specifically, keeps them down?

This is a serious question, and it deserves a serious answer.

[EDIT] Let me make the point more explicitly. You are making the argument to me that if one disregards the laws, then the laws will not be there to help one when they are needed. My argument is that my opponents have disregarded the laws, and so should not be able to appeal to them. If I am right that they have disregarded the laws, but you insist I should still give them benefit of them, then I ought likewise to be able to disregard the law and still receive the benefit of them, so disregarding their appeal to the laws is the correct position to take. If your argument is that once disregarded, the laws cannot be appealed to, then my opponents' previous disregard means I should reject their appeals now, and disregarding their appeal to the laws is likewise the correct position to take.

If your argument is that they should be able to disregard the law an unlimited amount of times and yet still appeal to the law, and if I reject such appeals I will be denied the benefit of the law in my hour of need, I will point out that this is a needlessly convoluted way of declaring oneself an enemy.