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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 11, 2023

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The statement isn't about the staffer not understanding why he's getting criticized. This is a classic case of a person in the midst of a scandal putting up the bat signal for their in-group, screaming that the out-group is attacking them just for being a member of the in-group. (See: Zoe Quinn in GamerGate). People do it all the time because it works.

This is a classic case of a person in the midst of a scandal putting up the bat signal for their in-group, screaming that the out-group is attacking them just for being a member of the in-group.

Yeah. I mean, going by the clip (thanks for making me watch that) the person getting the doing turned his head to the side, and the news site showing it blanked out his face, but that does mean the person being so generous with their love is identifiable. So if it is genuinely this guy, he has no defense.

But in order to have any kind of shred of "it wasn't me", he has to scrabble around for something, and "it's because I'm gay" is the only scrap he's got. "Okay so maybe I did something dumb, but the only reason you are making a big deal out of it is BECAUSE I'M GAY THIS IS HOMOPHOBIA THIS IS RIGHT-WING PROPAGANDA". Even NBC News is going with the "right-wing outlets", as if it makes a straw's worth of difference where the clip is being shown other than to stoke up outrage over "those darn fascists trying to smear our guys with... stuff they really did..."

to stoke up outrage over "those darn fascists trying to smear our guys with... stuff they really did..."

There's a reason that the term "malinformation" has been increasingly added alongside "misinformation" and "disinformation."