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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 22, 2023

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She scans (checks out) a bike one of the kids is sitting on, and tries to take it.

Wait, what? In the video don't we see the nurse sitting on the bike? How the fuck did that happen? This chain of events as given makes no sense with the video of the nurse sitting on the bike.

Unless my eyes were lying to me, I call complete bullshit.

I can think of an explanation that fits the "teens trying to take her bike" narrative, and one that fits the "she tried to take the bike" narrative. You probably can too.

  • -17

No, I literally cannot imagine a scenario where a pregnant woman successfully forces a teenaged male off a bike he doesn't want to be removed from, and takes his place. Especially not without everyone falling over in a tangled mess and getting scrapes and cuts all over their hands, elbows and knees. Probably some decent bruising as well. I especially cannot imagine such a thing happening with not just 1 teenage male present, but 5. Its not just a physical impossibility, it boggles the mind the consider the psychology of the person who thinks thats a thing they could pull off.

No, I literally cannot imagine a scenario where a pregnant woman successfully forces a teenaged male off a bike he doesn't want to be removed from

That's not the scenario I am imagining.

The scenario I am imagining is she says "Get off that bike!" and swipes her card, and the kid, not wanting to get into a shoving match with a pregnant lady or have her scream that he's sitting on a bike that she just paid for, gets off and loudly protests, as she pulls the bike out and the other kids start filming. They're all shouting at her, she freaks out, and we get the story we have now.

  • -13

You have consistently been the voice of reason. Until now. This, of all dumb culture war topics, is what got you.

Oh well, we all have our failings. Mine greater than yours on internet forums. But this one is bad.

You have consistently been the voice of reason. Until now.

Nah, he apparently went through peak trans recently, but otherwise this is perfectly in character.

Being reasonable and even-handed and waiting to see the evidence is in character for me? Why thank you.

You've consistently been inaccurate in your judgments about me. (I was never on board with TWAW, for example. You see me criticizing trans ideology and think I made a heelface turn. I would gently suggest this should be reason for you to question your priors.)

You haven't posted any evidence when you said the nurse was also wrong, you posted the testimony of one of the sides of the conflict, and explicitly haven't waited for any of the evidence.

I also never said you were specifically in favor of TWAW, so I don't see what I should update.

So why do you think I "hit peak trans recently"? In what way do you think my views shifted?

I already explained my take on their encounter. As several other people have pointed out to you, both parties can be acting kind of like jerks, that doesn't mean one party (in this case, the kids) wasn't acting like bigger jerks. You don't have to agree with me that the nurse was not 100% innocent and in completely in the right, but at least recognize this is more like a melodrama where people are getting heated up over what's ultimately a nothingburger, and not a court case where one side is Right and the other side is Wrong. There are situations where even if you are legally and morally in the right, you can be an ass about it and deal with the other party in a less than ideal fashion. That you seem unwilling to even engage with any premise other than one that colors strictly within black and white borders is, well, if I were going to be as snarky and uncharitable as you, I would say "in character." Instead, I don't think you actually think that way, I think you are just seeing this encounter entirely through a tribal lens.

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