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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 24, 2026

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I'm arguing it's better than the implicit proposed alternative of "I want a movie where the tall good-looking kid kicks in the short whiny kid's teeth".

That's a fine argument to make, but that's a very different argument or statement than the one from that comment I originally responded to, which claimed that basically all movies universally were "tall goood-looking kid kicks in the short whiny kid's teeth" in the before-times, which the Jews saved us from (according to SS's narrative, anyway). If you're now claiming that the statement you made was false for the purpose of hyperbole, I think that's inaccurate, but justified.

I don't think I'd really enjoy seeing even one token overdog movie. I can just look at real life if I want a big-kid's-values-reinforced story.

I don't have much of an opinion on any given film without knowing the specifics, but I personally want a high diversity of types of movies to cater to a diverse group of people, including those who want to celebrate seeing the big dog crush the underdog because of the implicit message of the film that being big and strong is morally superior to being small and weak. I see a dearth of that right now, and I personally think it's because of just plain old profit-motive plus luck of history, rather than anything nefarious. But intent need not be malicious for bad things to happen, and I certainly think that a relative dearth of such diverse fiction to cater to such diverse people is a bad thing.

If you're now claiming that the statement you made was false for the purpose of hyperbole, I think that's inaccurate, but justified.

I was claiming, admittedly hyperbolically, that if no one invented underdog morality, all stories would be about the overdog winning.