Political ideologies don’t even meaningfully exist if they aren’t big ideas. The only candidate big idea coming out of the culture war is “beefing is good”, ie the warring itself as ideology. As a sort of cleansing and necessary lemon-cayenne enema to the body politic.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1134684007399010304 …
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I just used the phrase “a crowd rubbernecking at itself” If it’s also angry, that’s the culture war. Like hate-watching people...people hate-watching?https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1134924490197143552?s=20 …
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It also occurred to me that driving was the original social medium. A networked public space created by technology for impoverished interactions among reductive personas. Honk = like, communicate through cut-offs, merges, tailgating, giving the finger.
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The difference is, when you drive for fun, you pick pleasant, scenic, easy-driving routes. You don’t head for the snarly gridlock of honks and flip-offs for “fun”. You only do it if you have to get somewhere. The culture war is a bit like going for a “fun” drive in a traffic jam.
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Tldr of my GUT of the culture war: it’s an end-of-history Hobbesian conflict, 100% governed by the beef-only sheep-logic of “last men”, whose idea of fun is going for a drive in a traffic jam because car-makers and oil companies have convinced them history depends on it.
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The sheep-logic reference if you can’t parse that.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1134921580927115264?s=21 …
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The culture war strikes me as incredibly boring. It offers no legit surprises.
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That’s among the healthier responses you can have to it

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Disengaging from the worst offenders has helped. It feels a lot like trying to hide or ignore, but the active work of identifying the ideologized keeps me well informed about the state of the beef.
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(Apropos of nothing much, but your "culture war / beef" metaphor feels like it needs a theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMbXvn2RNI …)
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Meanwhile, i struggle to decode what "beefing" is.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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