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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 5, 2026

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If you remove the foreigners who support foreign interests then they wouldn’t be campaigning for things some silly natives fall for.

Lefty(Bryan Caplan): We should have open borders and let in infinite migrants.

me: many of them support interests against American interests or loyalty to their home country. They will cause problems in domestic US politics

Lefty: our magic dirt will solve this problem. We can give them full political rights.

Bryan Caplan is not a lefty. He is for open borders. He would be happy to get rid of the welfare state as well.

Immigration and population replacement is what defines leftism in 2026. He is a blank slatist who believes in magic soil. So it makes him a leftist.

The fact that other leftists would happily line him up against the wall for his heretical beliefs? Well, that's leftism for you.

I do agree that unlike Bernie Sanders, who pivoted hard on immigration to stay relevant, Caplan is a principled leftist. Put him in the useful idiot category.

The fact that other leftists would happily line him up against the wall for his heretical beliefs? Well, that's leftism for you.

That's conservatism too, there is always some heretic that needs to be burnt. Some ideological bent, political position, or spiritual disease, that threatens the christian souls of our community!

It must be nice to see everything in a binary black and white partisan position, the one drop rule of political alignment. The 1D political axis truly is the malaise of the soul, the ultimate mindkiller. The devil ever sits on the shoulders of the self righteous.

That's conservatism too, there is always some heretic that needs to be burnt

Clearly, rightist moments have had that failure pattern, the Nazis being the most obvious example.

In the current epoch, the right, being the weaker party, calls for tolerance while the left bays for blood. And so it will go until the shoe is on the other foot. When that time comes, I'll probably become a leftist.

The devil ever sits on the shoulders of the self righteous.

Physician, heal thyself.

Bryan Caplan is not a blank slatist. "Let's Ban Discrimination: A Socratic Dialogue" makes it clear that he at least believes HBD is "a distinct possibility." More like he believes in indestructible institutions.

The West is great, even shitty people become much more productive when they come here, let's bring as many of them here as possible and let them earn their keep by finding their comparative advantage. Worried they will go on welfare or vote for communism? Let them come without eligibility for welfare or the right to vote.

It's completely delusional (how long did blacks remain slaves, again?), but it's not leftism.

Overton window moved. That makes him a lefty today. Maybe that makes him more of a homeless person now. The number 1 position he advocates for is a lefty position today.

No, that's not enough to make him a lefty. It makes him just a liberal, though right-liberal, and the right is moving away from liberalism, albeit still split. The left are mostly not liberals - in fact have not been liberals for longer - and don't want him.

There is no 'liberal' or 'classical liberal' position in history that includes open borders. As he justifies it, it's more of an extreme libertarian belief, and hardline libertarians have always been politically homeless from the moment they diverged from right-liberalism (which included freedom of the individual, but also the common good of the nation and the maintenance of tradition through non-governmental means). I believe Caplan would also describe himself as a libertarian.

Fine call him homeless. We don’t want him either.

Though would be noted his primary position “open borders” has strong support in the most activist left circles.

"I totally support this thing that has happened before, is likely happening now, and some people want to increase to a horrendous degree. I also support this thing that has never happened before and the last time someone tried it got struck down by a judge despite being passed with nearly 60% of the votes."

You'll excuse me if I no longer give people like Caplan the benefit of the doubt.

Speaking as someone who called himself a libertarian for 20 years, the logic was always:

  1. Open Borders
  2. Welfare State
  3. Functional Economy.

Pick two. Option number 2 is essentially non-negotiable at this point, and absolutely no one has even the faintest glimmer of a fantasy of a plan to actually address it, which means adding option 1 necessarily closes off option 3. Any libertarian failing to grasp this, at this point, is just a retard or engaged in enemy action.

Infinite migrants support lefty causes irregardless of relation to their home country