This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Josh Shapiro seeks to downplay his time as IDF volunteer
Considered by many to be a front-runner, it turns out that Governor Shapiro volunteered for the IDF. Will this sink his chances in being selected by the Harris campaign? Or will his selection be yet another demonstration of Zionist influence in American politics? To have a volunteer for a foreign army as the Vice President, a heartbeat from the presidency as they say, seems unconscionable to me, particularly a volunteer for an army that is at the center of violence which is currently bringing the region to the brink. Enter your predictions.
I predict Shapiro will be selected and these articles about his op-ed now being dropped, on a Friday before Kamala's selection, are an indication that Shapiro has been selected by the Harris campaign and this is meant to "clear the air" before the announcement.
The fundemental problem facing pretty much any Democratic candidate today is that "woke people" are overwhelmingly pro-Iran/Hamas and anti-Isreal while US interests both economic and diplomatic skew the other way.
This puts the Democrats in a bit of a pickle. They need to be seen providing material support to Hamas lest they alienate thier base, hence the Gaza pier. But they also need to credibly signal that they don't really mean it if the want to appear competent hence the failure of said pier and the nomination of Shapiro as VP.
America's alliance with Israel has been catastrophically costly economically, diplomatically, militarily, reputationally... tapping an IDF volunteer as VP of the United States is not a display of competence. It's a display of being captured by foreign influence.
"Catastrophic" compared to what?
American neutrality in the decision of Jews to create their ethnostate in the middle of the Arab world. They chose it, they can defend it themselves- not at the economic, military, and diplomatic expense of the United States. It's not too late for America to course-correct, but our "Democracy" will never provide a ticket that is skeptical of the alliance. You either get to vote for the ticket which is already agitating for war with Iran, or the ticket poised to tap an IDF Volunteer as VP. "Democracy", right?
It might at some point in the future. The reason why it doesn't now is, roughly speaking, because more voters either support the alliance, or don't care much about it one way or another and are willing to just continue with the status quo, than oppose it.
This is true even on the Democratic side. Biden, who supports the alliance, won more primary votes than any anti-alliance contender in the primaries. Which does not necessarily mean that the Democratic voter base is for the alliance, it is more that even for most anti-alliance Democratic voters, it is not among the top issues that they care about so they are willing to throw their anti-alliance feelings to the curb and vote for the Democrats anyway.
Granted, a major part of why Biden won is that he seemed more electable than his primary opponents, and in our winner-takes-all electoral system that is a major concern for many people. However, if enough Americans were against the alliance, there would be enough electable anti-alliance politicians that this would not be an issue like it was with Biden.
The fraction of Americans for whom the alliance is truly a top political issue is simply not that big. So I would not necessarily agree with you putting "democracy" in quotes, because to me the US' attitude to the alliance seems to not necessarily be the outcome of undemocratic forces. Certainly undemocratic forces, like pro-Israel lobbying, contribute to it, but at the same time, if the majority of Americans truly wanted to leave the alliance, and it was one of their top political goals, I have a hunch that the US would leave the alliance.
This might actually happen at some point in the future, if anti-alliance sentiment in the US continues to grow.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link