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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 7, 2023

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yeah i do not believe he truly renounced the old views. once he started to get academic cred, he had to pivot. the stuff he writes now about crime hits harder and is still even more 'extreme' than stuff i have read on actual white nationistst websites. the guy is a normie in some respects, like immigration, yet so 'extreme' in others, like about euthanasia, death penalty, toughness on crime (including even the suspension of habeas corpus), etc. I call this 'normcore' . it combines normie politics and beliefs, but sometimes either taken to their extreme conclusions or mixed with extreme views. 'Immigration is good' is a normie view, but the extreme version is, "...and people who are displaced or lose their jobs deserve to or this is good for the economy, and this should be encouraged," or "people who do not get the Covid vaccine should be denied treatment" (the Taleb view). Kevin Williamson writing for NRO pioneered this format in 2016 by being a never-Trumper and rejecting economic nationalism , but then taking that to an extreme, which made him off of as sorta an asshole to everyone but did solidly his popularity and position in a tiny by powerful group.