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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 31, 2026

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One of the things that changed my view on this is that I learned that a known (and incredibly dangerous) presentation of PPP in the literature is the waxing and waning presentation that would have explained LC's action.

To some extent it makes sense given our suspicion of the mechanism (and in contrast with normal schizophrenia etc).

Waxing and waiting is one thing. But she was capable of appearing perfectly fine in most situations and especially when waxing presentation would embarrass her, interfere in her plans, or cost her professional career. That seems a bigger ask. If she has a very obvious episode in the pick up line at kindergarten, then is fine an hour later, maybe. If she says something crazy in public or acts out in public at night and is okay the next morning, maybe. But AFAICT, she doesn’t have public episodes, outbursts, or odd behaviors. She is fine in public. She is fine on social media. She isn’t texting her contacts about the demon in the basement or something. She doesn’t even have episodes in the doctors offices. A person might be able to hold themselves together for a time, but it would be impossible to be consistent in hiding the illness that well from all of her social connections. Like she doesn’t even act out in the grocery store that im aware of. She’s either not ill, or she has the best control of her mental state of anyone out there.

I hear you that it looks weird, this is why initially I was team "she did it for some other reason" but when people I know and trust who have more expertise than me stake their reputations professionally (Resnick) and didactically (the podcast I linked) then you gotta have a think.

Can you point to an example in the last decade or two of someone's professional reputation actually being damaged by being wrong in a call like this one?

What does "stake his reputation professionally" mean in this context. What future event could possibly compromise his reputation, in your view?

But how can she be both rational and irrational at the same time? You talk about waxing and waning which seems like one can get into fits and then get out of fits; how can one be in both at the same time?