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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 16, 2024

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I don't understand your first objection. There were a lot of "beliefs" hinted at in my post, not all of which I hold or think someone else holds.

Your second objection seems to entirely make my point. What counts as "beneficial" vs. "harmful" seems to significantly hinge on other politics. People select politics first, then determine "beneficial" or "harmful", and then decide whether something is 'corruption' or 'negotiation'... or whether it's 'righteous gatekeeping' or 'evil profit-seeking gatekeeping'. Your politics are baked in to your statements, which is why you think other politics can be just brushed aside and totally ignored. Moreover, because we've essentially nationalized policy (while retaining nominal private ownership), the entire arena is fundamentally a matter of confused national-scale politics, rather than distributed optimization to local and personal values.

Your third objection, and the responses it's already produced, absolutely seals my point. People are divided about the politics, which leads to all sorts of confusion in trying to 'design' a nationalized system with clear purpose and vision, instead leaving the matter ripe for all sorts of politicized framing effects.

I don't see the use in framing common disagreements between different groups as some sort of political contradiction. Wanting more government regulation of the border or guns, but also wanting fewer EPA requirements for food or DEI requirements isn't a contradiction or a gotcha, it's a valid expression of people's political desires. Similarly, wanting healthcare but not have addictive or unnecessary procedures or medicine pushed on you is totally acceptable. I reject the notion that it's just a matter of politics as a broad claim you've made. I concede there is a large amount of political finagling and ideology in many of these decisions (whether by doctors, congress, hospitals, the federal executive), but I also believe you could parse out 60-75% of policy as being harmful or helpful to individuals and have broad (over 75%) public agreement.

political contradiction ... contradiction or a gotcha ... valid expression of people's political desires

I have no idea what you're on about. I'm not claiming a contradiction or gotcha. I'm not claiming anything is invalid.