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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024

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Speak plainly, please. Particularly for a top level comment, this is too low-effort. (What you should have done is spelled out the parallel you have in mind, and explained why you think it is so obvious.)

I was thinking about posting it in the small-scale questions thread for this very reason, but then realized that it's a culture war issue as a whole. I also thought that spelling it all out in detail would narrow the discussion down too much and derail it at the start. But I'll take more care next time.

Small-scale questions allows CW.

I agree that there needs to be a substance for a top-level comment with a more thorough explanation of the users thesis, but I don't see how this isn't speaking plainly.