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VoxelVexillologist

Multidimensional Radical Centrist

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joined 2022 September 04 18:24:54 UTC 

				
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VoxelVexillologist


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Multidimensional Radical Centrist

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 18:24:54 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 64


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Because the NBA is in the USA so he lives here for work and would never get a gold solo-carrying Cameroon.




For individual sports, this sometimes goes the other way: many sports cap athletes per country, so you sometimes see athletes that would miss a big national team fly the flag of an alternate citizenship despite training elsewhere just to make it to the competition.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My intuition is that the Internet (The Algorithm, The Feed) killed monoculture dead, and partisanship is, if anything, somewhere between a scavenger feeding on its corpse and the attempts of the cleaved pieces to cling to some minimal signs of life independently.


I see slight signs of effort to re-form the scattered pieces, but I'm not holding my breath.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
IIRC Bad Bunny made some comments about not touring in the US for political reasons (ICE) right before the halftime show selection was announced.  I'm still not quite sure what to make of that, but the actual show didn't exactly lean strongly into the direction of those comments either.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
International sporting events are generally weird: the UK competes as a single "Team GB" (and I assume implicitly Northern Ireland and overseas territories) in the Olympics, but as separate "countries" (England, Scotland, Wales) in the World Cup.


American Samoa has a far weirder political status than Puerto Rico.  The US Virgin Islands also have their own Olympic team (and drive on the left).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Kid Rock has played at a Super Bowl before: he was part of the infamous 2004 halftime show, although not as famously as Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The performance was trashy with some sort of sugar plantation theme (which were never in America




There was (and remains) a decent amount of sugar cane production in Louisiana, as well as a smaller amount in other southern states (Florida, Texas, Georgia).  Hawaii also had a sugar crop from early Polynesians until this century, but that seems culturally distinct from Latin America.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This would IMO be a great premise for a Star Trek episode.  Or maybe a sci-fi novel.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Three Felonies a Day came out back in 2011.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If you're not careful here, you're going to end up with nonsensical results like "ATF can't arrest you for unlawfully possessing (or using) a machine gun, as long as you do so within 100 yards of an elementary school."  Or the DEA for drugs.  I guess there aren't any machine gun sanctuary states, so the local cops could still go after you, but those theoretically could exist in the current framework.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Either the Republicans capitulate, or the Democrats shut down DHS, which they're fine with.




IIRC TSA (which is part of DHS) causing domestic air travel woes was one of the things that brought both sides to the table a couple months ago.  This part of the year isn't quite as busy, but I still would expect it to force eventual cooperation.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think that might be part of it, but the first year of real decline was the last of Biden's term.  I don't know that 2025 full numbers are out yet.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I mean just look at the world as it is today, Christian doctrine exists in a wholly different reality to what's actually happening in the world. The amount of [sin]...




I feel like you're sneaking in an assumption that Christianity exists as a system to reduce the absolute amount of "sin" in the world.  But it isn't: it freely acknowledged that we mortal humans are in a state of bondage to sinfulness, and only through God's grace exercises of free will in faith and good works can be found worthy.  If you really wanted to eliminate sin, you probably shouldn't keep popping out more sinners (although there are traditional Christian anti-natalists like the Shakers).  Instead it's a moral framework for self-improvement and


The vision of "Based Catholic Authoritarian State" that enforces morality with an arm of the state is tempting to quite a few folks, but I don't think is generally considered the victory condition you seem to think it is.  At best, it seems like those rules existed to encourage true faith (you don't have to go to church Sunday morning, but everything else is closed), not enforce it, although beliefs do differ somewhat.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


there is an opioid epidemic,




It surprisingly hasn't gotten much press coverage, but opioid overdose deaths in the US are actually down substantially over the last two years.  I'll treat it as good news, personally, but I have seen "we ran out of prone-to-addiction folks" mentioned as a possible cause.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Doesn't work in the US.




It's a startup, so I'm not exactly holding my breath, but The American Housing Corporation was recently making the news planning to build manufactured rowhouses.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think the only viable option here, which maybe is the needle Trump is trying to thread, is to stagnate housing prices while everything else inflates around them.  A sudden drop in asset price is bad (underwater mortgages), but a slow loss in relative value --- in your example, house still $1M, but so is starting salary --- could at least be palatable to existing homeowners and approve relative affordability.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


One would expect the real value of the average house to go down with time.




As a specific example, my understanding is that the Japanese housing market does work this way, largely because there is a strong cultural demand for new houses, to the extent of replacing usable existing structures being common.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The crew is diverse.




"We're sending the first woman, first person of color, and, uh, first Canadian around the moon."


Although I think a decent chunk of the Artemis program success has been a lack of prominent news coverage.  The last few decades of space exploration have largely been dictated by political decisions regularly yanking the chain of the current project in whatever shiny direction appeals to the elected officials "Moon! No, Mars! No, Moon! Shuttle-derived Constellation! No, SLS!".  It seemed we'd change things up every time the party in office changed over.  If anything. It seems we're here because Artemis might be the only Trump first-term agenda item that Biden didn't summarily cancel (uncertain if due to agreement on direction, or just lack of concern about NASA budget).  They "let them cook", as the kids would say.


Which isn't to say that concerns about cost effectiveness are wrong, per se.  SLS is hilariously expensive (and I'm sure Orion is too), but the SpaceX fanboys originally advertised Starship HLS on the Moon in 2024, and we haven't even seen the base variant make orbit yet, much less hit the advertised payload numbers (and there aren't public numbers on Starship dev costs).  Dino space is at least mostly competent at building things that don't go boom unexpectedly too often: SLS worked on its first launch, as did Vulcan and even New Glenn.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The need for an agreed-upon null hypothesis is one of the common criticism of frequentist statistics by Bayesians...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Samsung has made automated turrets for the Korean DMZ for a long time, and armed uncrewed ground vehicles have started popping up in Ukraine.  I think you're right about Western moral qualms about such things, but they have started popping up.  In applications where they're more clearly defensive and not typically anti-personnel (autonomous CIWS, for example), they have been accepted for decades at this point.


Smart munitions are going to win at longer ranges where gun accuracy starts falling off, though.  That isn't always the case, but I think it's another factor in the decisionmaking there.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
AFAIK there are relatively few "journalism"-specific 1A protections, in part because journalism is a bit nebulous around the edges.  There is a bit of a tradition of police leaving journalists alone, but a "press" vest doesn't actually impart specific legal protections against, say, lawful disperse orders. If there were, we'd have to decide who qualified: "yes officer, I'm just here because I might blog about it in the next month."


Religion is also a bit nebulously defined, but a church is a pretty central example and there is a long tradition of special protections there.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't remember this happening, but it's quite possible I just missed it at the time.  Do you have any worthwhile links to share?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A good fraction of the '60s civil rights infrastructure was oriented at states refusing to protect certain classes of citizens.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It might make sense to make disorderly conduct in sufficient scale and coordination to be a federal felony.




I'm certain that at least some of the Internet packets used to coordinate the event (or live stream it) crossed state lines.  IIRC that's been a federal jurisdiction hook before.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Somehow I assumed this was a Death Wish reference, and I was rather confused.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


"assault me motherfucker!"




Humorously, this has me wondering if there is any jurisprudence in this regard: "The suspect asked to be assaulted.  Like literally, we have it on the badge cameras."


I assume standards of professionalism disallow use of force in this circumstance (absent other details)?