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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026

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It's easy to answer why Type A things exist: because of the laws of physics acting on the prior state of the universe.

It is not easy and definitely not an explanation. You just assert: "Laws of physics exist". It is a presupposition. What are these laws, why do they exist and how do they exist? Moreover how do you know that they exist? Are they uniform or do they break sometimes? Are they omnipresent and unchanging and eternal? On its own this is an outrageous statement on par of saying that "God exists".

They aren't. I verify my username by repeated observation and evidence. This is the same process I use to verify 2+2=4.

You said that you are empiricist. You know, that no amount of evidence can prove a thing. That is the core observation of Quines Undeterminism of scientific theory. There are number of alternative theories that can explain things. This is rooted in age old sceptical tradition from Hume and Descartes. Maybe you are suffering from schizoid mental illness, or there is Carthesian Demon feeding you false information and you falsely think that you are stoatherd. Moreover you filter which evidence to examine and accept into your web of beliefs as any other schizoid person who sees everything as a proof for his own personal conspiracy theory.

Observation and testing. They are better because they work. I'm fine with that not being considered "justification"; I'll just enjoy my beliefs working.

Okay so I can say that God and unicorns work for me and thus they exist. Or you may object and have some outside criterion on what is "useful" and what "works" means. Then I would challenge you to either state that dogmatic yardstick, or ground it in pragmatism itself.

You just assert: "Laws of physics exist"

No, I didn't.

On its own this is an outrageous statement on par of saying that "God exists".

Good thing I didn't make that statement, then.

how do they exist

As I keep saying, you need to explain what this question means.

You said that you are empiricist

No, I didn't. You inferred that.

You know, that no amount of evidence can prove a thing

Sure, in the sense that literal 100% proof of anything is impossible.

Okay so I can say that God and unicorns work for me and thus they exist

Ok, then show me the unicorn.