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MadMonzer

Temporarily embarassed liberal elite

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joined 2022 September 06 23:45:01 UTC 

				
User ID: 896


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
MadMonzer


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Temporarily embarassed liberal elite

				
				
				

				

					4 followers  

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					joined 2022 September 06 23:45:01 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 896


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The basic logic of a religious-right coalition built around Likud is going to survive Netanyahu as long as the religious Zionist parties are willing to work with the Haredim.


Although I agree with you that if Netanyahu was eaten by a landshark tomorrow, we would see the rapid formation of an all-Zionist "unity" coalition (i.e. no Arabs, left or Haredi) with his successor as Likud leader becoming PM (possibly with an agreement to rotate with Eisenkot), and most Jewish Israelis would breathe a sigh of relief. There are 80 MKs to work with and you need 61, so I suspect the incoming PM is looking to cut rather than recruit partners.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The problem with this argument is that we aren't seeing the now-scarce Zoomettes getting what they want.


The problem with the dating market in 2026 is that it does not clear, not that it is clearing at a price that young men don't like. Both sexes think it sucks, and there are people of both sexes who want to match with MMV peers and are unable to. Most people of both sexes still want marriage, but marriage rates are low and falling. This is a disaster, not a shift in power in the battle of the sexes.


The normie view on what is wrong seems fairly clear - that the main socially acceptable way of meeting strangers as potential dates (subscription-funded dating apps) does not work.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The same is true in banks - including the high-end back office roles like quant risk modellers or regulatory specialists. In-house legal and the good Finance roles are whiter - probably because they mostly recruit women who mummy-tracked out of BigLaw and Big 4 accountancy firms respectively.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Haredi parties got 13 seats out of 120, down from 18 four years ago. Israeli media suggests that this is about Shas (the Sephardic Haredi party, but also the only party specifically dedicated to protecting Sephardi and Mizrahi interests) losing non-Haredi Sephardim to Likud as the war in Gaza makes the Haredi draft-dodging issue more salient. Religious Zionist parties also got 13 (down 1, possibly because a joint list broke up) - the vast majority of religious Zionist in Israel are Modern Orthodox in their faith, and the vast majority of Modern Orthodox Jews are religious Zionist in their politics. In addition, a lot of religious Zionists voted for Likud, and some for Together - a right-liberal joint list combining Naftali Bennet's otherwise right-liberal religious Zionist party and Yair Lapid's secular right-liberal party.


In terms of long-term trends, MO Jews also have high birth rates (though not quite as high as Haredim) and are also benefitting from religious-Zionism motivated immigration of (mostly MO) diaspora Jews. The MO/RZ bloc is therefore growing about as fast as the Haredi bloc. The question is whether the MO/RZ bloc remains allied with the Haredim against secular Jews (which is what Netanyahu has built his career on), or whether they ally with the secular right to strengthen Israel by eliminating Haredi parasitism (which is what Bennet wants). If the Netanyahu coalition holds together, then I expect the most economically productive secular Ashkenazim to feel increasingly unwelcome until they start moving to America, while the Haredim eat Israel from the inside.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Musk may not be anti-semitic personally, but I wouldn't want to have to convince a sceptical Jew given the way he signal-boosts anti-semitic memes on X.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Nor are communists, but riling up the base by nutpicking the worst communists is a standard part of doing right-wing politics, and it works.


Multiple official US government social media accounts are under the control of Groyper staffers, and that situation will only get worse as long as MAGA remains in power and twenty-something MAGA supporters become more Groyperish by cohort replacement.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't think you need to posit anything about the author's views on transgenderism to understand how an author would be upset by fanfic writers gender-swapping a character they cared about. Most fanfic writers avoid fanfic of their own works because they don't like what fanfic writers do to their characters.


As a separate issue, given the grey legal status of fanfic, any US administration other than Trump II would not poast about fanfics from official government accounts, and the same is true of any large for-profit business. I remember the headslapping that went on when one of my colleagues tried to incorporate a meme based on a TV or movie screenshot into in-house training materials. It's copyright, you clown. You can't do that in the office.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Wizard-muggle pairs are almost always magical in their offspring.




Do we actually see any? Pureblood-muggleborn pairs are always magical in their offspring on screen. (Do they have a higher risk of squib children? Unclear given how rare squibs are generally.) But both parents are wizards in those cases. But wizarding and muggle society are sufficiently separate that I don't see how a wizard-muggle pair would work. We definitely don't see non-squib muggles living as associates of wizards in wizard places like Hogwarts or Hogsmeade, and a wizard living with a muggle partner in the muggle world would have a hard time complying with the secrecy laws.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Isn't it just "Boy from non-aristocratic background gets to marry a princess after slaying the dragon"? That is one of the oldest ones in the book.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Printers are retards.




Benjamin Franklin disagrees with you.


That said, pre-automation a printshop employed a lot of people whose only job was setting type and for which the IQ floor was "able to read" - although the acceptable error rate was low enough that the IQ-plus-conscientiousness floor was quite high.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The Darwin Awards were set up to collect darkly amusing stories about people who inadvertently improve the genetic fitness of the population by selecting themselves out of the gene pool through acts of catastrophic stupidity.




The vast majority of Darwin Awards are caused by testosterone poisoning plus self-estimated IQ exceeding actual IQ, not by objectively low actual IQ. If the D&D abilitystat model described the world, then Darwin Award winners would be improving collective WIS, not INT.




By contrast, evil geniuses are man-bites-dog stories:




I don't think smart sociopaths and sadists are particularly rare. The supply of smart people wanting to enter careers where sociopathy is an advantage (politicians, lawyers, financiers etc.) exceeds the demand.  I do think smart sociopaths and sadists engaging in blatant sociopathy and sadism in the style of e.g. Bond villains is rare because it is a strategy that doesn't pay given that we have non-zero amounts of rule of law.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes - sociopaths and sadists are different in important ways. It isn't immediately obvious which is worse morally, although I am reasonably confident that sociopaths do more damage in total because the system is better at detecting and rejecting sadists.


One of the Hard Problems of running a civilised society is how to work around the problem that careers which allow you to impose justified punishment (including but not limited to cops) will preferentially attract sadists.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Unfortunately for the mainstream, the fruits of Mormonism are vastly superior to any sect of Trintarian Christianity. My interest in Mormonism arose when I felt the angel Moroni speaking to me through my butt as I crossed the Utah state line on I-15 and was confirmed by the pleasant, hard-working and just basically functional people I met across the state.


[I, personally, can't be a Mormon or a Trinitarian Christian because I have a spergy need to believe true things. Calvin would no doubt say that the Lord created me fit for the Fire]


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Given the labour laws, it would be very surprising if finding entry-level jobs quickly was easier in Europe than the US. I suspect that the big difference is that the quality of life as a market-rate tenant in a cheap neighborhood of a European city is a lot higher than the US equivalent because there is less violent crime and you don't have to deal with the problems of running a beater car.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


My theory: some portion of people are born with a tendency towards suicide, and this will first express itself through engaging in activities likely to get oneself killed while ignoring safety precautions before manifesting as a formal suicide if the accident doesn't occur. Suicidal ideation and unsafe driving habits are highly correlated among teenagers.




I have been to multiple funerals of this type. There was


    

  • The shy nerdy boy who went over a cliff while jogging in good weather
    • 

  • The boy who had just come out to unsympathetic parents who "fell" onto the tube tracks while drunk
    • 

  • The hotshot electrical engineer with clinical depression who electrocuted himself
    • 



				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Fair enough, but it is the case that red America now has ubiquitious handgun ownership, and back in the day the gun at home was more likely to be a hunting rifle.


Suicide by long gun is a Russian political joke, not a practical problem.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The decision to aggressively enforce the laws against child neglect, including in marginal cases, was not partisan. In the UK, it was driven by demands for "never again" following sensationalist media courage of a small number of serious cases ending with a dead child. I suspect the US was the same.


If you believe that someone is to blame every time a kid is hurt, then the person to blame in this case is indeed the "neglectful" mother. I was a small boy and am the father of two of them, so I am perfectly aware that the optimal rate of self-inflicted injuries among small boys is greater than zero.


I still think this was Republicans' fault, but only because Florida is red enough that any misgovernment in Florida is presumptively Republicans' fault.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


That the children are sent to a suspected abuser is at worst government incompetence.




That this type of "suspected abuser" should be denied access to kids (even when it solves a problem for the authorities) is a feminist motte-and-bailey. He was accused of slapping his (ex? - the press coverage is confusing)-wife, not of harming a child.


If we didn't live in a society which believed that a man who slaps his wife once should lose contact with their kids for life, then there wouldn't have been an issue in the first place because there was a functioning parent in town who could look after the kids, at least when he wasn't at work.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
To the extent that the thing making the youth grumpy is a crisis of meaning (I think it mostly is, in the US at least), it is probably harder to generate meaning in a suburb.


Plenty of people have made rural living, small-town living, or urban living a big part of their identity. I have never met someone who made suburban living a part of their identity in that way - the people who are best able to articulate why they love US-style suburbia are LARPing rural lifestyles while living within (single-occupant pickup or SUV) commuting distance of a major-metro job market


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


"White" has only recently been understood to refer to skin color rather than certain ancestral clusters and the psychological traits associated with them.




"White" as a political category in the United States has always been understood to refer to all people of 100% European ancestry - the edge cases were and are Middle Eastern/North African. Nobody suggested that guineas, polacks or micks were anything other than white when applying the Founding-era laws restricting citizenship to free whites, or Jim Crow laws segregating "Whites" and "Blacks". What changed was that the ethnic group American nativists considered ingroup changed from "WASPs" to "Whites" (and now to "Heritage-Americans", which is at least supposed to include ADOS blacks and American Indians). The 2nd Klan and the popular nativist movement it was the pointy end of used anti-Catholicism and not racism as their prejudice of choice, and the 1924 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act was explicitly targetted at reducing immigration of undesirable white subgroups.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Nail salons employ a lot of low-skilled women who literally put nail varnish on the customers' nails - it is not a business you would see as a gender-conforming man. In the UK it is one step below hairdressing on the respectability ladder. In terms of ethnic origin, the workforce is 80%+ third-world Asian, with Vietnamese being the largest national group (both in the US and the UK). The internet can't agree on the mix of ethnic-Vietnamese citizens, immigrants, and trafficked slave labour.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think someone is making themselves sound dumber than they are by lumping together different ethnicities under the "Asian" banner. There are Asian-American ethnicities where nail salon worker is an acceptable job, but Chinese-Americans (who are the vast majority of the expensively schooled Asian-Americans writing literary fiction about being victims of self-inflicted racism) are not one of them.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I hope the answer isn't "after a war as destructive as the 30 years' war, not just as destructive as WW1".


(Relative to the population of Europe at the time, the 30 years' war was about as bloody as all the 20th century European wars and atrocities put together)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Why do people engage in culture war though?




The 21st century escalation of the culture war is largely driven by social media. So a large part of the answer is "People engage in culture war because a small number of for-profit businesses show them that all the cool kids are engaging in culture war." Note show, not tell - social media algorithms curate your feed in a way which is optimised for engagement and ad revenue, and as part of that they are going to give you a potentially misleading impression of the kind of content your peers are posting.


Mark Zuckerberg burned the democratic commons in order to get people to click on more adverts. I actually believe this.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
British schoolyard slang has no shortage of terms for people who can't tell the difference between a mong and a Hmong.


For non-Brits, the joke is that initial letter h is normally pronounced in Received Pronunciation (not heir, hour or honour) but is dropped in most (but not all) working-class regional dialects, and is therefore a class signifier. An RP speaker seeing the unfamiliar word Hmong would default to pronouncing it H@mong with a schwa inserted to separate the h and m sounds. I have no idea what the standard American English pronunciation is, let lone the local language pronunciation.