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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 22, 2024

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I am very conservative, probably even by this community's standards (though I like The Jews...I just wished they stopped voting against their interests). Some of my friend groups are very conservative. I have two friends in two separate friend groups who had immediate family members in the Capitol on Jan 6. And yet, I don't know anyone who even knows anyone who believes QAnon or RRN. If it is genuinely popular/believed, it is in niche conservative groups that my bubbles don't happen to overlap with. I lean towards genuine belief being quite rare, with a fair bit of QAnon talking points being repeated for the LOLs.

I do think that any belief or interest in these highly bizarre theories does reflect a broader rejection or negation of the mainstream narrative, which in turn evidences the domination of the mainstream narrative. We don't have true epistemological competition. We have the consensus. It is the water we swim in. It is the universal milieu. I tend to roll my eyes at mainstream hand-wringing over "misinformation" or "alternative facts" as if the disseminators or believers in these alternative narratives are so ensconced in these bubbles that they have no access to the enlightened narrative. This is just not true. Simply by existing I am aware of my expected place in ensuring the smooth path for progress along the arc of history. DEI is good, certain neo-reactionaries such as Musk notwithstanding. The future is female. Bring your whole self to work (but only if you are gay or black...not if you are a Christian).

Everything is liberal, and it cannot be escaped. In short, we have one narrative. Everything else is an anti-narrative. Anti-narratives can be true (I happen to think some weak forms of the anti-narrative are closer to the truth than the narrative), but they are all going to be compelling to those who reject the narrative. To some extent, the more extreme the anti-narrative, the bigger the "up yours" to the narrative.

Uber-conservative housewives were really into Qanon in 2020 but after the military didn't intervene to force Trump's inauguration on January 20, 2021 they dropped it.

In your opinion, how are The Jews voting against their interests? Other people seem to think The Jews are voting according to their interests way too much.

I heard versions of the "Trump didn't stop being president" "The military retained power" "wars with FEMA over data centers" thing a few times from different people in 2020, but it all more or less went away by 2021.