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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 15, 2024

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I think it's still true everywhere but in cities even in the WEIRD west.

Once you enter the halls of power family ties are, pfft. So much smoke and mirrors. This is not a modern or simply European phenomenon either. History is replete with brothers killing brothers over power. Just to rattle some off from a cursory google search, there was Edward and George Plantagenet, Garcia and Ferdinand Sánchez, the amusingly named War of the Three Sanchos, Atahualpa and Huascar Capac, Harold and Tostig Godwinson, the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Gao Yan and Gao Yin, Gao Zhan and Gao Bainian, really just the whole history of Chinese Imperial Families is just endless repetition of "and then he ordered the deaths of his brothers, nephews, cousins, and their entire families", Cambyses and Smerdis, Caracalla and Geta, hell Mehmed II actually legalized royal fratricide in the Ottoman Empire. Mehmed III killed nineteen of his brothers. Shah Jahan had his eldest brother Khusrau Mirza killed, Ashoka the Great killed all of his brothers, Shaka Zulu (yes that Shaka) was killed by two of his brothers, etc. etc.

Endorsing another candidate instead of simply murdering your brother is practically a warm and loving embrace.