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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 5, 2024

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It’s: submit to us our your opponents will mutilate and sexually abuse your children.

For parents, this is an extremely compelling argument.

Then why aren't parents switching to voting Republican in droves? As far as I can tell from a quick search, the correlation is very small (and probably easily explained by other factors like occupation, sexual orientation etc.). The degree to which the premise is believed puts an upper bound on how compelling this argument can be, and the Red Tribe has not been doing a good job of raising belief in the premise. (In fact they have probably been doing the opposite: exaggeration and dramaturgy feel good to the choir but only raise the burden of proof to the unconverted when they don't come from the top of the status hierarchy)

I think you answered your own question.

The republicans don’t do a good job of communicating this.

Look at people like Elon Musk, though. You can see about the time he started believing this (about when his son was victimized by it), and the effect it had on him. I choose him because he is very public, but I think every parent has friends who have gone through the same transition.

It’s the conservative version of getting “woke” (the original meaning before it became an insult - basically becoming aware of something which radically shifted your perception in one direction)

I think it's more just that it's not a conceivable possibility—surely my kid won't be the one thinking they're the other gender? Right? They're reasonable enough?