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🇺🇸 Fiat justitia ruat caelum

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🇺🇸 Fiat justitia ruat caelum

				
				
				

				

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				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My SAHM mother did to the socializing legwork, which is why I recognize this as part of the job.  Everyone knows someone in their job who doesn't seem to do anything and skates by, homemaking is no different.  But judging a job by people who don't do it well isn't the best way to assess its usefulness.


Men's social fabric will fall apart when women's stop socializing.  Who do you think gets to meet up at these parties and picnics the women organized?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There is a point in teaching children to read before they go into a school that teaches them the wrong way.  After schools dropped phonics and switched to whole language approaches to reading, it became harder to correct a kid's bad habits.  If a kid learns the right way to read is to look at pictures and guess, then a couple years down the line a struggling reader will be a nightmare to teach.  Instead of sounding out words, which takes work and is hard, the kid will keep drifting to old bad habits.


I highly recommend teaching a kid to read phonetically at least up to The Cat in the Hat (so largely simple consonants, consonant blends, and consonant digraphs) before they go into kindergarten if you can.  Some kids really can't because they lack the phonemic awareness necessary, like my daughter, but I wish I had held her back a year in the end because it was an expensive and time consuming mistake to fix.


When kids are in school, a homemakers primary job is to socialize.  That's actually important!  Volunteer, talk with people, find out special programs that other parents are sending their children to so that your kids get the advantages as well.  Organize parties, picnics.  Create a community.  Organize a meal train when someone is sick.  The social fabric is falling apart and no one thinks it has anything to do with the decline of people who went out to coffee every Monday after dropping off the kids and made strong and weak social ties across the local area?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm going to display my ignorance for all to see but it serves a point.  If this is so difficult for someone with the intellectual curiosity of the average Motte-goer, imagine how much harder it is for the the average schmuck.


About a year ago my 2017 Chrysler Pacifica started overheating after about 15 minutes of driving .  We took an overheating problem pretty seriously so my husband brought it into the local mechanic.  He's good, the best in my small town as far as everyone is concerned.  He went over it, used a diagnostic thingy, did a couple tests, said it was one thing.  Ok, he replaced that one thing and my husband drove it home.  It worked ok for a while.


After about a week, it started overheating again.  We took it back, mechanic did another look around, said something else needed to be replaced.  That probably both things needed to be replaced to start, but the second thing didn't show up on the diagnostic tool until after the first one was replaced and the error cleared.  Ok, we let him replace the second thing, all we had to pay was parts, he did the labor for free since he didn't get it right the first time.  A week later, it started heating up again.  We took it into the official dealership and a couple days later received back a car that hasn't acted up since.


Maybe we were taken for suckers by the most trusted and competent mechanic in town.  That's a possibility.  But the thing that seems more likely given the close-knit nature of our community is that the problem was too opaque and difficult to diagnose for someone in the top 1% of car mechanics in my town.  And if that's the case, average schmucks have very little hope. Why should I bother trying to learning how to work on my car when someone who works on cars full time couldn't figure it out?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If you can get a scan tool it's not the same situation I'm describing. Lots of auto manufacturers now send data to their own servers instead of keep diagnostic information on the car.  Then if an auto-repair shop wants to access it, they can't just scan the car, they need the auto manufacturer to provide it.  EV manufacturers do not even have OBD ports.  Other manufacturers like Nissan have blockers that keep you from clearing codes or running bi-directional tests.   https://dobkinlaw.com/trapped-by-the-tech-why-congress-is-battling-automakers-over-your-right-to-self-repair/


I've also had a car where everything is poorly accessible, and that accessing certain parts of the engine require specialized tools or taking the whole thing apart.  Increased safety measures have made crumple zones bigger and bigger, which means the engine, transmission, turbochargers, and emissions equipment need to be packed into a tinier and tinier footprint. The smaller the footprint becomes, the more things you have to remove between you and the alternator you're trying to replace. Audi designed many of its vehicles so that the entire front clip of the car must be unbolted and slid forward into a special "service position" before anything could be replaced up there.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A lot of the language you used implied very strict control against a woman's wishes.


"additional authority... that a lot of women ALSO don't want to grant"  "I will make final decisions...I will dictate I will get a final say in how she dresses and maintains herself"


So yes, control over her physical appearance, which would require control over her food and exercise.


"The whole house is indeed my castle," good luck with that when you get small kids.  It's clear that you think of yourself as a benevolent dictator, but your still describing a dictatorship.


"fair and equitable for any woman willing to help raise my kids." Language imply that this control persists after she's had kids, and that the kids are yours (singular) not yours (plural).


I'm glad to hear that your expectations are not quite that severe but the language you used did encourage a more severe interpretation.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Here's the deal.  Your wife will put on weight when she's pregnant.  This weight may take time to come off, especially if she gets pregnant again within a couple years.  She might spend most of her child bearing years overweight.  If you try to control this or punish her, you put her health and the health of your children at risk.  This comes across as really severe.


If all you mean is "Don't get tatoos or medical procedures without telling me first" then that's fine.  But there's a  spectrum between that and "I will track what you eat, how much you exercise, and select your wardrobe" which is how it kind of came across the first comment.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


But my father was pretty tight with money and what he considered a “necessity.” Not really when it came to his own personal habits the way I saw it, but definitely where it concerned my sibling and I. Car needs to be fixed? Did it himself. Including changing the head gasket by himself. Home cooked meals every night. No eating out. I went to public school (hated it). We can get by without a fancy private school. Networking to move us into a place leased by a family friend. Rent was lower than the market rate. Across the board. How many people would you say on average operate with that kind of mentality today?




Lots about that life is now illegal or made impossible.  Car needs to be fixed?  Modern cars now transmit real-time diagnostic data wirelessly directly to the manufacturer.  If you have an issue that needs to be fixed, you need to take it to an official shop because the manufacturer will not tell you what the diagnostic data says. Also, car electronics and machinery have been intentionally made difficult to repair without highly specialized knowledge.


How many fights broke out at your public school a week?  My high school had about 3-5 fights a week in in the hallways and cafeteria.  From my understanding, that number only goes up depending on where you live.  And that was actually a pretty good school, where I was able to attend mostly AP classes and learn real things (though the graduating senior class was 2/3 the size of the freshman class due to dropouts.)  A decent public school where your kids actually learn to read beyond a third grade level without being in physical danger is expensive.  It costs a house that might be 2x the median home.  Private school or homeschool is often cheaper these days.


It is hard to overstate the effects of enshittification on everything over the past 20 years.  Would people have put up with a car that couldn't be repaired at home when you were a kid?  But somehow today there are few options for cars without these electronic contraptions intentionally designed to make it hard to repair.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The thing is, when a preschool organizes activities to enrich children, give them opportunities to play with nature, etc. it's a worthy job, economically beneficial, adds to GDP.  When their own mothers do this it's unproductive.


I posit that even with modern appliances, there is enough work to be done in the hearth that would make up a full productive life for a stay at home mother.  And in fact, we are seeing a lot of ills caused by a dearth of stay at home mothers.  Maintaining the house, creating and implementing a safe environment for young children that still encourages them to stretch their capabilities, teaching children to read before 1st grade and tutoring them in their school work, reading to children good books that grow their soul, chauffeuring children to activities, planning and executing parties and social events, grocery inventory management and procurement, preparing healthy food, these are things that can fill in a calendar.


How much of the demise of socialization can be attributed to losing the free project management that unpaid homemakers provided to their communities?


Sure, their lives would be less busy than women's lives a century ago.  A lot of the work has gotten less labor intensive.  But this is also true of the jobs outside the home.  Men used to work 12 hour days with physical labor, now they work 8 hours with largely mental labor.


It is also more possible for homemakers to check out, do the bare minimum, and watch soap operas.  But I posit that this is also possible for lots of people with 40 hour normal jobs.  Else why do Motte posts become more frequent during normal American business hours?


I would like for every household to own productive property, such that the household can be a productive unit again.  Lots of people go in that direction with the Internet, 3D printers, drop shipping, etc.  But it seems to me that there is enough for the average mother to do now at home that their lives aren't completely boring and pointless.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Between 18-20 a large portion of my meals came from a dining plan that was a mandatory part of my mandatory dorm housing.


Between 20-23 I ate "out" but it wasn't expensive stuff.  I'd pick up a slice of pizza for 2 dollars or a pastry from a coffee shop for around the same.  Costco hot dogs were great.


I don't know how much college and graduate studies is impacting this.


Also, dating.  When people go on dates it means they eat out usually, especially at first.  After you're married and settled down maybe you make a nice dinner at home.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You can filter google results from before a certain year. Add before:2019 or before:xxxx date to your search query and it will return results that have not been updated since that date.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I lucked out by meeting my husband at work.  I also am more naturally prone to end up in male-dominiated spaces, so I basically was the only women in a department of 20+ men. I had multiple options and picked the best of the bunch.  Not sure how I'd have done it if I was more attractive than autistic.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
True!  I went in for Mechanical Engineering, ended up in Information Science because I couldn't handle fluid dynamics.  Even Information Science had a bit of woo in it, but I mostly avoided the real mind-killing stuff.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The number is set largely because I married 9 years ago, had a kid close to every other year, and now we're getting older.  If we had more time, maybe we could wait a couple more years until the oldest two can go without car seats, then have room in a minivan/suv for a 5th-6th.  Don't really want to go full-minibus but there are a few families at my parish who have them.


The point is, 4 is over replacement, and I did 4 even with education, starting late (by historical comparisons), and modernity.  If 3/4 of my kids marry and reproduce 2-5 kids each (with other children of large families), over time my great-grand children will inherit the Earth.


My Maternal Grandma had 12, but that was a modern miracle of formula and sudden access to antibiotics and vaccines.  My Paternal Grandma had 5. My mom had 3 (but 2 miscarriages).  My aunts and uncles save a couple all have 2-6  kids.  (and the couple who don't seem to have health issues)


My husband is one of five.  His siblings have all had 2-4 kids.  While dating, one thing that drew us to each other was the idealization of having grown up in a family with "the right amount" of kids.  Which to us was at least 3 or more.


If there is a "have kids despite modernity" gene, I have a high likelihood of it and have a good chance of passing it along. If this gene also encourages such people to be drawn to each other, all the better.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's not a hard and fast rule though.  I have a BS, MBA, and have four kids.  There are others like me.  Do we have a gene or cultural meme that helps us choose to reproduce when given other options?  If so, and it's inheritable, the world will eventually be filled with highly educated, fecund women.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This reminds me of a Catholic blogger who wrote a four part article on why Catholics can and should fly the LGBT rainbow flag because it really symbolizes equal rights in employment and housing, and all gay sex stuff is incidental.


Not sure if this argues for or against your position, but it seems like someone should take the same sides of both flags to be consistent.


(I am skeptical of both flags )


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That hasn't been a hard and fast rule ever.


In the fourth century, Roman Emperor Valentinian II was a catechumen who expressed desire to be baptized by St. Ambrose of Milan, but he was assassinated before the bishop could reach him. Ambrose consoled the mourning family by stating:  "Did he not have the grace which he desired? Did he not have what he eagerly sought? Certainly, because he sought it, he received it."


Before then, St Justin Martyr developed the concept of the Logos Spermatikos ("seeds of the Word"). He argued that because Christ is the Divine Reason (Logos) that illuminates every human mind, anyone who lived righteously according to the truth they had was already participating invisibly in Christ:




"We have been taught that Christ is the first-born of God, and we have declared above that He is the Word of whom every race of men were partakers; and those who lived reasonably are Christians, even though they have been thought atheists." — First Apology, Chapter 46




St. Irenaeus defended the idea that God’s saving grace was not restricted to only those alive during or after Christ’s death. He argued that God has always been present to humanity, judging people based on the capacity and information they possessed in their own time.




"For Christ came not only for those who believed on Him in the time of Tiberius Caesar, nor did the Father provide only for those who are now living, but for all men altogether, who from the beginning... feared and loved God, and behaved justly and piously towards their neighbors, and longed to see Christ." — Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter 22




The Church has held for as long as we have records that people who want to be baptized are baptized, people who would have wanted to be baptized had they known of baptism are baptized, and it's all a mystery but if you know of and want to get baptized you should.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


then it’s an essentially meaningless statement.




It's a principle, which can be interpreted by different people in different ways.  But that's not the part being interpreted.  No one has a problem with setting up a temporary refugee camp for Canadians who are fleeing from the great Canada-Russo war of 2035 assuming the US still has enough oatmeal and blankets to keep them alive.


The part that people are interpreting differently is if the US already has all the people it can safely assimilate without massive social upheaval.  The Catholic US Bishops are pretty clueless to the actual costs of mass immigration, the Catholic groypers have perhaps an oversized idea of the costs of mass immigration.   The truth is that you can take a consistent set of principles and adjust what the recommendations are based on different facts available.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Can you name one dogma you think internet trad caths believe which the Catholic hierarchy does not teach?


Immigration is an area of prudential judgement and the Catholic Church has a nuanced view of it, more nuanced than you find here.  The doctrines are to respect the host country's laws and customs, and for the host country to take in the needy as much as possible (acknowledging that there are goods such as social cohesion that can limit the host country's ability to take in the needy.)  Trad Caths agree on these points, just disagree with the prudential judgement of whether or not the US has helped as much as it can and it's time to cool off on immigration.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This would be more convincing if the decision was close and there was a group of conservative justices who wrote in their dissents: "Children of illegal immigrants are not covered under the 14th amendment."  However, 8/9 of the justices in their various opinions did not make that case at all.  The dissenters mostly dissented over babies born on travel visas, where there is no intent to make the US a long term home.  There just really isn't a strong case based on the 14th amendment to remove birthright citizenship from people here unlawfully.  I'd rather good law than bad, regardless of the consequences.  If we don't like it, we need to have a constitutional convention.  We are more than overdue for one.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
He genuinely hates the US and the West and would like to see it collapse.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think we struggle right now with the opposite question: are there some people whose poor breeding cannot be improved with a good moral education?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's not exactly capricious, the Ninevites explicitly go overboard in their repentance.  Even the cows repent of their wickedness!


There are lots of layered takes to get out of the story, that's why it's so good!  Jonah was punished for his disobedience but forgiven in the end.  Also, God didn't just kill Jonah but brought him back - He could have just picked a new prophet but Jonah was given a second chance. Nineveh better at repenting than Israel/Judah.  Israel has prophet after prophet spitting reams of flowery poetry sent to convert it and no one changes.  Nineveh gets a half-assed "God's going to come down hard on you!" and they all immediately undergo a ridiculous level of fasting and repentance.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Jane Austen's novels primarily concern themselves with moral education.  Is it possible to ruin good breeding with poor moral education?  This was actually a somewhat scandalous take back then.


The primary application of Pride and Prejudice today is to present young women with caution about their selection of mates.  Which is a very worthy task, even if half the class is male and might not see the point (though the truly wise will understand what make's Austin's heroes the hero and not the villain, and maybe learn from that.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I actually have it in a collection of preschool books.  Small kids love hearing the three voices ("Papa Bear said in his great BIG voice...")  It teaches concepts of hot, cold, lukewarm.  Big, small, medium.  If there is a moral it might just be: looks can be deceiving.  A nice cottage may look inviting, but maybe a family of bears lives there!  Remember kids, don't take candy from strangers.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think there are a few reasons the juicy cases tend to drop towards the end:


    

  1. 

    They genuinely take more time to write.  More non-laywers will read them, so things have to be spelled out more.  Future generations will read them and pull them apart, so they have to make sure they write only what they intend to convey and nothing more.  There may be more concurrences/dissents to write.
    

    2. 

  2. 

    If they release something that is going to cause non-stop protesting outside the Supreme Court for weeks, it's best to do that last, to minimize disturbances.
    

    3.