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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026

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The former has a certain charm, a certain patina, because it doesn’t just cast hot people. It could, there are enough beautiful underemployed actors even in England. But it gains something by not doing so, for in American television the impossible hotness of everybody in a small town grocery store or police department or family on TV contrasts with the reality of those who know it to be laughably impossible, laughably unrealistic to the point that one’s sense of disbelief is tested.

FWIW I would definitely accept a "realism" deal when it comes to media (video games, television, movies, etc.). I find it really annoying when, for example,

(1) black people are inserted into a medieval European fantasy setting, or even an actual historical setting;

(2) with almost every husband and wife, the woman is always smart and wise while the man is a bumbling idiot;

(3) small villages in fantasy settings are presented as having the racial diversity of modern-day Los Angeles;

(4) street thugs are almost always portrayed as white men;

(5) women are portrayed as men's equals (or betters) when it comes to hand to hand combat;

I could go on, but I think you get the point. If I could get rid of all this woke nonsense at the price of losing hot women, I'd be pretty happy about it.

But I doubt the woke would go for it. Because I'm pretty sure that for them "realism" is an excuse not an actual motivation.

Yeah I agree with most of your criticisms, but my point was I don’t think the complaint about women’s attractiveness really falls into the same category as 14th century Hungary having the racial diversity of Chicago.

Yeah I agree with most of your criticisms, but my point was I don’t think the complaint about women’s attractiveness really falls into the same category as 14th century Hungary having the racial diversity of Chicago.

I respectfully disagree with your point very strongly. Because in my view, with flag-planting, it's the underlying message that matters. And that message is the same either way regardless of how subtle or blatant the flag is.