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professorgerm

clutching my imitation pearls

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joined 2022 September 12 12:41:49 UTC 

				
User ID: 1157


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
professorgerm


								
								
									
								
								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
clutching my imitation pearls

				
				
				

				

					3 followers  

					follows 1 user  

					joined 2022 September 12 12:41:49 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 1157


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


they were factually wrong




Lying. They were lying. Ralph Northam, everyone that defended him, et cetera and so forth, all lying.




These two positions are not internally contradictory.




Hypocrisy is not the only offense in the world, and it's unenforceable against people who do not share one's own moral precepts.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


There is no insinuation that anyone involved would be happy about a D&E.




Would you extend this much charity to a crowd you weren't already sympathetic to?


The insinuation is that they just don't care. They cheered at the signing of the bill. I do not feel the need to see them cheer at the actual D&E.




They also don’t really connect to suicide or organ donor laws on the left.




Is there a word for this "you are not allowed to draw revealed conclusions to the left" thing?


Reminds me a little of the "I'm not for open borders; I just vehemently oppose all enforcement and refuse to describe any enforcement I'd find tolerable" attitude.


EDIT:




They also don’t really connect to suicide or organ donor laws on the left.




"Life is meaningless at the beginning, it's meaningless at the end, and we won't help you figure out what it's supposed to mean in between" is a helluva philosophy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
well i didn't mean you did the gerrymandering, it's fun trivia! Sparked an interesting conversation and lots of thought.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


People look at this and think it's fine, actually.




I saw the other day about Muhammad being the "top boy name" in England and Wales for the third straight year, and I thought- I can't wrap my head around people that don't have a reaction to that. I don't expect everyone to have my reaction to it, but to react with a shrug like it's completely banal?




I'm just a bit burnt out seeing it all shrugged off by interlocutors having completely different values.




Amen. The refusal of people to acknowledge alien values exist and are increasingly common continues to be a major blind spot.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


And why the hell wouldn't we include those if we're speaking about medically assisted suicide?




Very different things that sometimes fall under one label, at the end of the day. But it is a bit of gerrymandering to create an interesting stat, I'd agree.




In all 3 countries the rate is rising quickly




Depends on perspective. The Netherlands took 30 years for it to reach 5ish% of deaths, Canada took less than 10.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Hosting a conference isn’t missionary work. They’re not shirking a duty to their flock or their fellow man by hosting it in Portland or wherever.




Extraordinary.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
we used to have a defense attorney, even! surely he wasn't the only lawyer.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
i'm sure there's some lawyers around that might see a big juicy steak if they could get slightly more solid evidence than that too


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Personality is an important component of attractiveness, especially in the case of someone that wears (or appears to wear) their personality so openly on their face.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


liberals don't have to preemptively condemn communists before they can air their views.




Cretins like Hasan Piker get glowing NYT profiles, even. They don't just not have to condemn them, it's apparently a benefit to be associated with evil leftists.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Florida




They tried but the bigger effort was enjoined as violating free speech. I guess New College is still trying but... ehh?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


things that LLMs are just plain terrible at (e.g. fiction, image generation)




Fiction is middling at best but LLMs (or adjacent technologies) are now pretty great at image generation. perhaps a bit narrow but the six-fingered hand is a thing of the past, and text is more or less solved on top models.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I recently purchased a huge number of rare, old, or first edition books at auction. I don't intend to physically read any of the copies, they have a totemic value to me.




Exciting, anything particularly fun?


I am going to take this opportunity to brag about the 1st (London) edition of Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia I found at an estate sale for the princely sum of $1. Buried under a stack of James Patterson and John Grisham, priced at the standard hardback rate. The cover was clumsily repaired using a baseball stitch as some point, but to me that adds to the charm if not the value. Possibly owned by a state representative back in the day. If it were the private press French edition I'd have to sell it, but this one I can enjoy having in my collection.




In a sense, a book like that, a dead novel that hasn't been read in decades, has been given new and eternal life, becoming a mote within the great consciousness. Couldn't a turn of phrase or a piece of advice from an 80s airport novel become, by whatever occult means within the system, revived and returned to the discourse?




Beautifully put.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yet- growth mindset!


I share @jkf 's annoyance with a couple of the recent bans. Fine, they weren't great posts and I get the motivation of the "no boo outgroup" rule, but i dislike the side effect of incentivizing main thread submissions to be A Manifesto.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


boo outgroup




So the rule isn't just "No boo outgroup," it's "no news posts that are plausibly boo outgroup"? Does every top-level post have to be some sort of manifesto?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Your misrepresentation




The left could, ya know, just not play this abhorrent word games to cover up for racism, too, and they wouldn't be "misrepresented" (that is, interpreted entirely correctly but in ways they don't like, so on go the word games).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 20, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
dude i am so excited to go see The Fifth Element on the big screen this weekend.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think caring about their state of mind requires a degree of moral relativism I no longer find tolerable, which is why I brought up the other factors.


Several years ago and a few towns over, a young boy was shot in the head because his basketball rolled onto his neighbor's lawn. I don't care about the neighbor's state of mind. I don't think it's relevant, in any way. Likewise here. I don't care about their state of mind! I think caring about their state of mind is offensive to the soul. There are Moral Truths, and subsuming them is Bad.


Does it make me worse at understanding them? Possibly! So be it. They do not need to be understood, and I am quite confident they wouldn't give the slightest shit about trying to understand anyone that doesn't agree with them, either.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I am no longer sufficiently liberal to think that all opinions are valid in their own ways and must be judged on their own terms. What they wanted was the nonexistence of a human being and beyond that it's just commentary and word games.


"By their definition it's not murder" okay well then can I just define away their humanity and it's not murder? No? Hardly seems fair, does it?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


No, they don’t. They wish she didn’t exist, which sometimes but not always implies murder.




ಠ_ಠ


I strongly disagree with your stress, this is a distinction without a difference. And those worthless wastes of constituent parts are almost certainly unable to elucidate why that distinction matters.




In your model, fulfilling that wish would have required murdering the fetus. In their model, it did not. I can’t stress this distinction enough.




I am sure the victims of the Aztecs were overjoyed to know that per the beliefs of the priests, it was a moral necessity to cut out their hearts.


If I'm ever attacked, I'll be sure to ask the person if they believe murder is wrong, and if they don't then I'll just have to lay down and take it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Well an argument over whether turkey burgers could be as good as regular burgers notwithstanding.




What kind of unforgiveable heathen thinks turkey burgers can even come close?


Ostrich makes for an interesting burger, but like bison (and turkey) it's too lean to be properly juicy.




Their family shirt was even an American flag with a bald eagle superimposed over it and 50 out of 250 emblazoned on the back (It was their 50th family reunion and the 250th anniversary of America).




That's awesome.


In my experience black Americans are way more 'normal' about most stuff than white progressives, my experience of whom comes from academia and nerd spaces.




When I lived in a small Red town




Yeah, that matters. I live in Raleigh, NC, and the city does not, in my opinion, have much of a personality of its own to withstand certain issues. In the white progressive milieu of mostly-newcomers, there's a distinct sense of embarrassment, that they live here but they're a bit ashamed of that, and feel a need to overcompensate for being in "the South."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Ok fine if I want to spend my life to try and change people that hate me, it matters that they are separate people that might be able to be changed.


As a griller, I don't want to do that, I want to live my life and have my family and not be bothered too much, so the coalition, whether or not the component parts change, matters more to me. "Progressive Democrats are bad for schools and my family" stays the same even if they're bad last year because of braindead "anti-racist" racism, and next year because of braindead knockoff communism.


Also, generally speaking, I'm the exact opposite in every dimension of the kinds of person those people will listen to. I'm not some arrogant piece of shit high on my own supply that's been coddled in the rich parts of big cities and attended Harvard; I'm a lower-middle straight-passing cis white guy that attended a mid-tier state school. I have not structured my life or been blessed with the privileges that will cause progressives or liberals to listen to me; if I tried to convince them of anything, most likely they don't listen at all and at worst I've negatively polarized them into being even stupider than they were before.




If you want to try and persuade people that maybe shooting Youtubers is wrong




I can't say I care much about Youtubers as an open season class, but I would be pretty bothered if people started taking shots at Alec Watson or Norm Nakamura.




Coalitions are not unassailable cosmic entities that exist beyond space and time.




Egregores are not unassailable, fair enough. Cosmic is questionable.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yep exactly. It's got a clever little ribbon cable that inserts between the board and the disc drive, so it retains disc drive functionality unlike some of the past mod chips. It can run burned games, various cheats can be loaded in, and in theory you can boot up the gameboy player attachment without the startup disc (haven't tried that yet).


A softmodded WiiU should be able to run most of the same games, as I understand it.


I happened to pick up a gamecube for cheap at a thrift shop and wanted to do something with it. I've got a Japanese WiiU in my project closet and plan to softmod it eventually, but with the language stuff I think it'll take a fair bit longer.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Just put a picoboot in a gamecube; i've been playing crazy taxi and star fox adventures. good nostalgic times.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


BLM was a largely serious reaction




lol it was a scam artist buffet and a free for all for violent morons.


they definitely took themselves too seriously, though.