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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 14, 2026

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Wage the culture war, die by the culture war.

These consequences aren't being delivered because he "waged culture war", celebrities wage culture war all the time. Every single day. The problem is he took a stance against Israel in a Jewish-dominated industry. Robert Kraft taking the credit for "coordinating" the boycott doesn't change what is actually going on here. The consequences are Culture War even more so than the initial statement because they will have a cooling effect on all celebrities everywhere.

Not that I care about Macklemore's opinion on anything, but I do care that these culture-producing industries are themselves waging culture war to enforce a pro-Israel consensus. These artists rely on tours to make money, if they want to make money they can't criticize Israel. That's the message, not that they can't wage Culture War. That's a bigger deal than Macklemore's statement.

I don't often agree with secure signals. But the entertainment industry is one of the few places where 'it's the jews' is a reasonable first order hypothesis much of the time.

Ah, it's not because he waged the culture war. It's because he waged the culture war against an enemy that had resources.

Or to put it more pithily, it's not because he waged the culture war, it's because he lost.