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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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People from a country that has had 200+ years of reasonably stable government that, even when it's corrupt, tends to be corrupt in fairly banal and predictable ways.

How'd that age in 10 years? I'm not sure if it's gotten worse, or I've gotten more aware of it, but the level of corruption in the US government appears to me to have reached an extinction level event. They've sold off our proverbial seed corn to our strategic enemies, and are oblivious the suffering they've unleashed on the people they purport to represent from their mansions and yachts.

It's remarkable how even now, when people are starting to realize how truly fucked we are with Russia and China doing breath play with our economy, our elites are still mostly selling out to them. Last I heard all our tariff's on Russian oil have just allowed middle men to buy it at a higher price from Russia, enriching Russia, jack up the price even more enriching themselves, and selling it to Europe and America impoverishing us.

Apparently we've enormously depleted our stocks of many vital munitions sending them willy nilly to Ukraine, with zero accountable or tracking what so ever. Stocks that will take years to even begin un-mothballing the assembly lines for, because apparently we believed we never needed to make stinger missiles ever again?

It's hard for me to even count all the ways our government has fucked us, personally, tactically, strategically. It's like they are trying to end the nation, and our lives as we know it. And that they might be doing it to enrich themselves is literally the best case. The worst case is they are beholden to a cult of fucking Malthusians.

The world to me now is unrecognizable from before 9/11. Before 9/11, political correctness was more or less defeated. Now it dominates my life more than ever. Before 9/11 I actually had some sense of freedom and liberty, even in the most simple of acts of loitering almost wherever I pleased, and nobody had to know my business. Even before COVID, security theatre around shopping and entertainment, to say nothing of travel, was overbearing. The fever pitch of masks and vaccines being mandatory to do nearly anything has passed, but I don't trust it. I feel like after midterms, the D's will bust it right back out again because fuck you, that's why.

political correctness was more or less defeated

Perhaps I was overly sensitive, or my youth in Washington State was different, but from my view political correctness has has a pretty near linear rise from the 70s to 20s. I'm curious what convinced you it was dying around the turn of the century after it had recently claimed a senator's career and been the central focus of a president's impeachment?

You're right, but it's also true that there were periods when PC appeared to be dormant even to people politically savvier than average. Generally speaking, I think the Culture War is waged in relatively short waves, and then remains dormant/hibernated for years. I also think this generally benefits the Left, because it provides an ideal environment for slowly but surely capturing institutions. The usual mistake of Conservative normies is that they become complacent and clueless, because they mistakenly think that their enemies are ludicrous loons. They were prone to think that they are winning, especially after 9/11, and that PC is just a laughingstock to be ignored.