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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 23, 2024

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To ascertain your exact position, here's an example situation.

X and Y are total strangers who are walking along the same road (largely-untrafficked gravel road with no footpath; they're walking on the road itself) in opposite directions. X has a dog off leash, Y has another human walking with him. When X and Y reach, oh, fifteen metres apart, the dog breaks off and charges Y. Y waits for the dog to get close, then hooks a foot under the dog's belly, lifts it into the air, and throws it away from him (all with the same foot i.e. it was scooped up on the front of the ankle and inertia held it there throughout the movement). Dog lands with no damage and returns to X. X yells at Y for "kicking my dog". Is X justified?

No, because dogs should be leashed (or so predictably well behaved that this wouldn't happen). Controlling your dog is part of the basic social requirements of owning a dog. I will probably tend to think Y overreacted unless there is actually an apparent threat, but the entire situation is created by X not fulfilling the basic requirements of owning a dog.