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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 31, 2026

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What do you mean by "hallucinate"? Not trying to pick at you, that just sounds like a very surreal experience and I'm curious as to what it was like.

The reality was an eyeroll and a snicker, and they managed to convince themselves it was a threat of violence over a 30 second period of histrionic catastrophizing. Repeatedly describing the experience, but in more and more extreme terms until the version they were describing bore no relation to the experience as seen by anyone else. It was alarming, not just that it happened, but how quickly it spiraled.

That game of solo telephone was a bit of a recurring issue with that person. "Surreal" is a good adjective.

Interesting, thanks for filling me in. Not sure if I'm in a bubble, lucky, or just have good instincts, but I rarely encounter that sort of thing.

In fairness, that was a longtime friend who went trans (and far left) for what I'm pretty sure was 99.9% projection/ego defense reasons. This gets to be a thorny issue because I think people go trans for a large number of different reasons, and that particular individual did so for perhaps the worst one (e.g. "It's not my fault that I'm an alcoholic domestic abuser because I was being repressed by society but now I'm a heckin' valid woman with a clean slate and a moral blank check!")

The only other trans person I have regular contact with IRL is a lot more sane and chill.