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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

				
				
				

				

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					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 March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


smoke right in the ward until you can't see the opposite wall




In my experience spending time at hospitals working or visiting family, patients temporarily check out "against doctor's orders" to go have a smoke in the alley and then check right back in. Perhaps some jurisdictions are stricter about this.


The nurses would wag a finger if you snuck in food that actually had taste, but they only got serious about it if the patient was in the pre-surgery fasting period (for obvious reasons).




Why would I want to increase the likelihood of all my staff and patients catching covid on top of whatever illnesses they're already here for?




Fun thing is the COVID vaccine barely if at all decreases transmission, so they'll get it anyways! There's also some potential that the vaccine increases rejection risks.


So... transplant patients are screwed coming and going. Either they don't get the transplant because they refuse the vaccine, or their rejection risk increases because they did.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I am providing the level of evidence and care that OP deserves. No one is going to change anyone's mind on this topic anyway, we all settled into camps nigh-on six years ago.


Personally, performing for social media while at work (as distinct from consuming while on a break or waiting for a run to complete or whatever) is unprofessional regardless of immediate busyness, and that particular trend was just one of the many social psychoses going around as a side effect, but to each their own.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


They don't wear it properly, it's not fit to their face, they take it off cause they're sweaty, they forget, they remove it to eat (ah yes, just like Eat Out To Help Out, it's nice of viruses to not spread when you're hungry), etc. So in actuality, masks weren't actually that useful.




As a COVID Never Forget, Never Forgive type, I feel an obligation to eat crow when this subtopic comes up. I think it was Scott Alexander that said something about the Noble Mask Lie being mostly wrong but yes people would wear them incorrectly; I agreed that yeah N95s are tricky to get exactly right but surely people will were surgical masks fine, and that's better than nothing.


Boy howdy was I wrong. Watching people wear their mask below their nose squashed what little hope I had for a lot of people. Absolute theatre.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


you have to factor in the fact that no modern society is willing to turn the sick or injured away from hospitals




Completely false- modern society was quite happy to turn away people from organ transplants and other necessary surgeries if they didn't have the vaccine.


There was a whole Reddit community dedicated to mocking people that died of COVID. Pathetic cretin Jimmy Kimmel mocked them on national TV.


Modern society will absolutely turn people away, as long as they get to feel ideologically justified when they do so.




But in the end, our leaders were under pressure to act rapidly, and this was the best answer they could come up with at the time.




This is the most polite damning with faint praise I think I've ever heard.


Their best was completely and utterly retarded.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


What was the death rate or side effect rate from vaccines? It's not going to be even 6 figures




How are you defining side effect? Unless you're defining it narrowly, "side effect rate" is going to be like 90+% of people that take a vaccine- the vast majority of people have some degree of soreness and lethargy after a vaccine, and COVID vaccines seem worse for this than most.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I remember hospitals and the healthcare system being utterly overwhelmed in the early days of the pandemic.




I remember all the nurses so bored they made tiktoks all day.


New York was briefly overwhelmed, in part because they refused to work with field hospitals for braindead ideological reasons. Even that was briefly.




Quarantine has been an effective measure to mitigate infectious disease outbreaks for nearly a thousand years




Lockdown isn't quarantine, either.




Covid era lockdowns are nothing compared to historical ones, when you could be summarily executed for crossing the wrong boundary




Alas, we finally could've done something about New Yorkers moving south.




Most people accepted the fact that staying at home was a very small sacrifice compared to all the lives that could be saved, directly or indirectly.




Well. Until they got sufficiently bored and found an ideological-acceptable reason to throw parties.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I think that Trump should have take super harsh lockdown measures in like the first two weeks while it still hadn't reached the U.S., or very shortly afterwards, and was possible to contain. Once it reached more than 1 states it was too late.




This would've been possibly January? Maybe December? Very few people in the US were paying attention at that point. Well. Publicly paying attention.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


medical ethicists




I know AIs tailor responses to the individual, so maybe it was easy to predict my actual position, but I'm still amused that the first time I said something positive about bioethicists and bioethics as a field, Claude basically called them idiots. It's the only time I've encountered Claude say something negative about that kind of favored group without prompting.


I don't think Claude was wrong, mind you. Incredibly ideologically poisoned field. But still.




They spent most of late January to early Feb 2020 procuring masks from U.S. retail and hospital supply chains and shipping them back to China.




Fascinating!


Thank you for sharing. Sounds like it was, in the grand scheme, fairly tolerable to go through in a competent country.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


most of the policies implemented were policies that they wish they would have implemented in the early days of GRID.




Interesting psychology/cultural power dynamic there: you can restrict everyone, but you can't restrict only certain groups.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


isn't it safe to assume that the guy who made "because I got high" was probably in posession of narcotics?




He references that in "Will You Help Me Repair My Door":




The warrant said "Narcotics and kidnapping"/
The warrant said "Narcotics and kidnapping"/
Are you kidding? I make my money, rapping/
Why does the warrant say "Narcotics?" (Well, I know narcotics)/
But why kidnapping?




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Girls like that in Slipknot t-shirts and cargo pants were a dime a dozen back then




the good ole days


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I think it's more that left-of-center people are significantly more likely to care if a prominent member of their organization turns out to be a sexual predator.




Eventually. Maybe. Decades later. And only if they're heterosexual.




there's really no reason to go digging up these kinds of skeletons unless this is something you actually care about.




As you gesture at, it's resolving the tension between the principle and the endless thirst for power- once everyone's dead and the consequences have happened, you can look back and say "well wasn't that unfortunate? Too bad we were all fucking cowards at the time and decided The Cause was worth a bit of rape!"


Pretty small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It says something about the psychology of this particular ideology that so many prominent lefty leaders turn out to be rapists and/or pedophiles.




The "don't report the rape because it'll damage The Cause" psychology of a certain kind of victim/attendant/etc is surely part of the equation too.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It’s not dead - but it COULD have been the capital of the free world.




Do you hate humanity so much that NYC should've had more influence?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


whether it would literally take gene therapy to fix it.




Specifically targeting the MAOA 2-repeat allele.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


They seem completely uncorrelated to me. I'd even hazard a guess that plenty of these so-called "dinergoths" are not meaningfully "woke" in an ideological sense.




As someone pointed out elsewhere "dinergoth" is not a term they coined themselves so is a bit of an awkward fit (though again: Freddie's point). The self-chosen term is probably usually queer in a generic sense rather than Truly Activist sense, which sometimes overlaps with woke but isn't interchangeable.


In my extremely limited experience of people that might fit the archetype to the extent it even is an archetype, it's more like 2020's version of emo or scene, it's an aesthetic with a few shared hobbies and fairly minimal ideological components.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


But you can!




It's one of those things that if you're in a position of power to actually do it, you can, but talking about it activates a whole helluva lot of people that will oppose you at every turn.


As someone not in a position of power, I notice that anyone talking about vote reform gets dogpiled in the public discourse, more than I notice whatever backroom machinations go on.




Every state does voter roll maintenance.




Well, supposedly. Virginia introduced that law about not doing it but I assume it'll take a little while to get through.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I think that is a bit uncharitable. Do Republicans mean no one should vote, ever?




It's not a perfect parallel of absurdism. You can't remove voters from rolls. You can't require ID. You can't oppose ballot harvesting. You can't be skeptical of hundreds of homeless people voting from an NGO office. Et cetera and so forth.


I'm originally from a state with a notoriously corrupt election history, so maybe I'm a little more primed than average to take concern here.


I am comfortable being a bit uncharitable when believing my lying eyes. Likewise, I'll acknowledge that the DHS twitter account is proof enough that for at least some in the administration, the cruelty is the point. Less than maximal charity does not require throwing the baby out with the bathwater.




Their current planks are such radical statements as “expand the VRA”




Do we really think elections would be improved by making the Catch-22 navigating between the CRA and VRA even worse?


Maybe we should just disenfranchise white people altogether. Taps head Can't gerrymander the minority when there's no majority! For some reason I doubt the Dems would be satisfied then, either. I wonder how all these laws blow up in 2060 or if history just keeps the charade going.




most Democrat voters




Not a relevant category. What voters want and what politicians do is poorly correlated, and prior to the Iran brouhaha I would've said it was especially poorly correlated on the left.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


professional white women who think their phone is a scifi universal gadget




Electronic licenses are getting more common! My state DMV was supposed to offer them last summer but it's been crickets since.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
At least 25%.


But really, it's more of a fundamental belief about the value of voting and what citizenship even means.


I don't think it's too uncharitable to say Dems are the Party of Vote Maximization- that anyone in the country should be able to vote with no verification whatsoever. 500 hobos voting from one building in Philly or whatever it was is apparently the pinnacle of democracy. Cynically, this has historically benefited Dems, and they drank their koolaid long enough to believe it.


I, on the other hand, think "competent enough to obtain a birth certificate or similar documentation at least once in their lifetime at or after age 18 and have an address that isn't an NGO office" is not so much friction as to be concerning for the foundations of democracy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I was more for voter ID until I've seen the complete fiasco that the NC DMV has been under for over a year.




I lost mine recently and I'm considering opting for a non-RealID and just carrying my passport those rare times I fly.


That, or drive to Nags Head I guess. LOL.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I didn't say they were consistent!


I don't recall the exact episode so take my memory with as much salt as you like, but I was thinking of an episode of This Week in Virology where the virologists in question were discussing basically this proposal- that BSL4 and/or GOF labs should be, at best, in the middle of the desert with movement protocols- and they laughed it off because you wouldn't get anyone competent willing to work in the middle of nowhere.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I can guarantee that most people doing this kind of work believe they're making the world a better place




An important caveat, that the people doing the work are probably not the same ones popularizing the work, signing open letters, hosting podcasts, et cetera, and as such outsiders will have a rather different view of the field available.




Try some mistake theory and charity for a change.




Occasionally when you try that, the New York Times publishes an article where your enemy declares they're exactly as evil and stupid as you originally thought before trying mistake theory. At that point you're allowed to stop the charade and accept reality.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Maybe those people should really be send to Antarctica, or onto a decommissioned oil rig only serviced by a very slow ship.




Correct. The problem is that prominent researchers care more about socialization than safety, and laugh at the idea.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


people who followed the rules as they were at the time are categorically not "illegal immigrants"




That's not quite what I said, either.


That they followed the rules of the time does not mean the rules of the time made any sense, or that the rules of the time must never be undone.




The moderate swing voting Americans are not partisan brained enough to turn off their critical thinking like that.




LOL you were alive in 2020, they absolutely are willing to turn off their critical thinking, or at least stay quiet and in hiding so the outcome is the same.