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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023

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I’m loosely with @Tarnstellung: this response is disproportionate. That’s becayse it’s not about the actual offense. It’s about ethics in games journalism the ingroup successfully flexing in the culture war. You said it best yourself—the “usual suspects” had to fan the flames, or it never would have gotten off Insta.

Do people forget that mere days before the Mulvaney stuff dropped, the Culture War issue du jour was a Trans shooter killing kids at a Christian School?

Tempers were already burning extremely high on the Trans issue when Bud Light waltzed in. The response was not merely driven by Mulvaney, but by the rage felt over the incident in which the entire Cathedral functionally sided with the shooter.

the entire Cathedral functionally sided with the shooter.

Is this one of those "two screens" things? I don't recall seeing coverage siding with the shooter. Even in the more trans-centric spaces I visit, the most positive thing anyone had to say was nothing.

I predicted that it would be non-toxoplasma specifically because it was obviously awful and no one wants to back up a loser.

Is this one of those "two screens" things? I don't recall seeing coverage siding with the shooter.

"The right exploits Nashville shooting to escalate anti-trans rhetoric"

(Try to imagine a headline that said "The Left exploits Nashville shooting to escalate anti-gun rhetoric" and whether that would make sense as a story lead.)

"Trans people already fighting for rights in Tennessee have a new fear in the wake of a tragedy"

Does it make sense, after a Trans shooter targets a Christian school, to emphasize that trans people should be more afraid?

Advocates fear an escalation of hate toward trans community after Nashville shooting

"Trans people face rhetoric, disinformation after shooting"

THAT one's a real interesting one for using the passive voice in such a creative manner.

"A Trans Day Of Vengeance Protest Was Canceled After Organizers Received A Threat Of Gun Violence Fueled By Right-Wing Anti-Trans Rhetoric"

I picked a cross-section of completely mainstream sources, I didn't even dig into the twitter content that was flying around at the time.


This was the media environment in the days after the shooting. You tell me, what screen were you watching?

Tell me, if you were only exposed to the aforementioned headlines, NONE of which tell you any information about the shooter's identity...

What group would you guess was victimized in the actual event?

Would it surprise you that the deaths of bunch of Christian children would result in an outpouring of support for the Trans community?

And here's the view from the other side:

"CBS News reportedly barring staff from using term 'transgender' to reference Nashville shooter"

"Transgender pastor compares treatment of 'marginalized' Nashville shooter to Jesus being crucified".

Thanks. I stand corrected. These headlines look like the ones from the Pulse shooting.


(Try to imagine a headline that said "The Left exploits Nashville shooting to escalate anti-gun rhetoric" and whether that would make sense as a story lead.)

I will note that the Fox article has a link to exactly that:

Nashville School Shooting Blamed on Republicans, Gun Culture by Media