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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 30, 2024

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It's true that the optimal amount of bridges collapsing is non-zero. But it's also true that if you're going to decide whether a particular collapsing bridge is worth it, "the optimal amount is non-zero" is the last reason you should try using to justify a collapsing bridge. Otherwise, it becomes a fully general argument for all collapsing bridges, since any collapsing bridge you might care about is a non-zero amount.

A collapsing bridge is strong evidence that something went wrong.

"What I can say is that the bridge has been constantly inspected and examined in accordance with the guidelines as required. We were all very surprised by this incident and are now devoting a great deal of attention to investigating the cause"

Come on. Do you really expect him to say "Oh, no, we didn't inspect the bridge. We didn't follow the guidelines. And nobody was surprised by this incident. Everyone in the government expected the bridge to fall down"? Of course not. Nobody's ever going to say that regardless of whether it's true. (And even if it's true, "we followed the guidelines" is just ass-covering. Nobody can put any blame on them if they followed the guidelines, right? It's entirely possible the guidelines are bad.)